Making wrong decisions is unavoidable.
We all make them, all the time.
So, it’s wonderful to acknowledge it.
Let no one reading this have any doubt.
A year ago, I was an idiot.
And every week, I think that—damn, I was such an idiot last week.
No one escapes that.
But there’s a difference: some recognise it, and others keep being idiots.
Which one are you?
This got me thinking of a great quote by Steven Bartlett:
‘There’s no self-development without self-awareness.
You can read as many books as you like, but if you can’t read yourself then you’ll never learn a thing.’
And maybe you’d be like, what the fuck is awareness? Let alone, self-awareness. Good grief, woman.
Yes, yes. We swear in this newsletter, and if you have a problem with this, do us a favour and get out of here.
Now. I felt I needed to clarify that.
Ok. Let’s move on.
What is awareness? What does it mean ‘to be aware’?
Awareness is to be conscious of something or someone. It is to know, to perceive, to acknowledge.
Self-awareness means you are conscious of yourself.
Meaning, you know yourself.
You know your negative emotions, your flaws, your mistakes, your embarrassing moments, your limitations, your dirty secrets, your wickedest lies, your weirdest thoughts. All.
You know your positive emotions, your strengths, your achievements, your successes, your favourite things, your cutie parts. All.
You know.
Therefore, you are aware of yourself.
And when you know, you can’t unknow.
You are not hiding from yourself. You are not lying to yourself, pretending that your reality is other than the one there really is at this very moment.
Without awareness, without knowing, there’s no change. There is no progress. There is no success. There’s no improvement.
You remain the same.
You remain an idiot.
And then you’d be like:
‘But I don’t want to be an idiot! And I want change, I want success, I want to achieve great things, I want to have a better life!’
Well.
Let me tell you.
In order for you to be self-aware, first and foremost, you have to be willing to see.
And, to truly see yourself as you are, could be one of the scariest things you could do in this lifetime.
But there are no magic tricks, no secret paths to avoid the unavoidable. No matter what coaches say.
For you to learn from your mistakes and evolve into a better version of yourself, first, you have to be willing to see.
To see yourself as you truly are. Like Beyoncé once sang, ‘flaws and all’.
The alternative to this is the deadly path of comfort.
Stagnation.
Mediocrity.
A life not worth living.
If you are really, really scared to see, well, you could even start lying to yourself so much until you get to a point where you no longer notice the difference between fantasy and reality.
A shame, right?
Because, even you, the reader, who I don’t know personally, but I know, for sure, you have a lot of potential. I can affirm it, and I don’t even know you. I know for sure, because everyone has.
But potential is just potential. It is the promise or the hope of something. Like when a baby is born. Full of magic and dreams. Full of potential for what will be. But it has not yet materialised. It is not real yet.
You have to do something about it.
You, not me.
You have to do something about it.
Even if it’s scary, the alternative is always worse.
Be willing to see.
Love,
Noemi
