INVESTIGATING YOUR OWN REALITY IS WISE

Plato said "Know Thyself " centuries ago.
Another thinker Confucius said, "If you want to manage others manage yourself first”.
The famous psychologist Jung said, " Outward Looks Dreams, Looks Inside Awakens"
In the Upanishads, one of the important Hindu inscriptions, "Investigating One’s Own Reality is Wise"

"Knowing Yourself" is perhaps a subject that has been discussed since the very beginning of humanity. In fact, many people think they know themselves well. In research conducted, 95% of those surveyed answered that they know themselves “very well” or “well”. However, studies show that the rate of self-aware individuals who truly know themselves is unfortunately not even around 15%.

Self-Awareness, at its core, is the ability to see ourselves clearly and purely; understanding who we are, how others see us, and how we fit in this world.

Scientific studies have shown that individuals with a high degree of Self-Awareness.

• Are happier.
• Make smarter decisions.
• Build better relationships.
• Raise happier and more mature children.
• Are more creative, confident, and better communicators.
• Become less aggressive.
• And perform better at work and making them easier to promote.

> The nice thing is that self-awareness is a skill, and it can be developed like any other skill.

The leaders with high self-awareness all had two basic things in common; their inner belief that self-awareness is important and their emphasis on constantly working to improve their self-awareness. It is important to note that the development of Self-Awareness is an ongoing process of introspection, questioning and revealing.

The starting point for Self-Awareness development is based on the 7 Basic Sources of Foresight; values, passions, sources of inspiration, ideal environment, life cycles, reaction-effect, and how we are seen by others. We need to establish a lifelong review and evaluation process on these sources of foresight.

There are obstacles to accessing these resources of prediction, and we are often not aware of them. We commonly call this the Self-Delusion, which is a fantasy world where we only see what we want to see. The biggest reason for this dream world is the overconfidence that most of us have. Unfortunately, this situation can produce more critical results, especially in senior managers. A manager with low self-awareness is 6 times more likely to make mistakes than others. The underlying reason for this is that Self-Awareness is the base ability of abilities such as Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, Team Building, which are essential for many managers. So, it seems unlikely in these times that a manager, which has low self-awareness, will reach the high level of emotional intelligence and empathy as required. For this reason, self-awareness training and coaching activities are essential especially for managers.

The most important work that increases Inner Self-Awareness is mindfulness and meditation, monitoring thoughts and feelings without any reaction or judgment. Although yoga, which feeds them and embodies both, seems to be a physical practice, its essence is the bringing together of the body, mind, and soul. With yoga practice, the individual turns inward and notices their inner transformation. Physical movements in yoga are a means of silencing the noisy mind, controlling the mind through bodily movements, and making it easier to focus on feelings. We need to continue these studies with the work of Changing the Perspective, Catching the Cycles and Focusing on the Solution.

Human Design, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, is another tool that can help us understand our potential. Unfortunately, due to the conditioning we received in childhood, we try to live a very different life than we are, and we usually embark on adventures that end in frustration. Human Design is a tool that makes it easier for you to be self-aware, and we can learn how to carry this awareness to our work with BG5 (Business Group 5), which is an extension especially on the corporate side.

The most important work that can increase our self-awareness is to get feedback from others. Each new perspective we gain about our behavior contributes to seeing ourselves as richer and more dimensional. Each of these different perspectives comes from the people around us. Especially negative feedback is valuable because it gives us important information about how we are perceived by others. If there is a significant difference between our perception of ourselves and the honest feedback we receive, there is a serious problem.

To summarize, self-awareness is a skill that can be developed by using the 7 Foresight sources well, observing oneself and one's mistakes, asking others for feedback, and following others as objects. If a person feels emotional irregularities in themselves, they should be alert and continue to observe. These irregularities mean that some mistakes in their personality come to the surface. It's also important to be open to learning about ourselves and have the courage to ask others for feedback.

As we mentioned before, self-awareness is one of the most important main building blocks that should be in the dough of the new generation leaders. Therefore, the first topic of our "Next Generation Leadership" program is self-awareness. You can find the content of the program, which includes presentations as well as group and individual activities, from the link below. We hope that this half-day program will make significant contributions to all Next Generation Leaders.