The search for self awareness
How do you understand your process?
Every day I want to be more aware. It’s not something aspirational. I really mean that. But… how does awareness happens to me?
I like to ask myself about things that went well during a day and things I need to become more aware tomorrow. That’s actually how I start.
Every morning I write a few lines about what’s inside my head. Not sure what will come around. Sometimes I write sort of a poem, sometimes a bunch of questions, sometimes I just want to take everything inside my head at the moment to paper.
I like the way Seth Godin thinks about idea awareness. We need to understand what’s around and how things evolve inside a context. Starts with nothing and can become the most important thing you do during a whole year.
I like also the way Tim Ferriss works with fear setting. I like to have little to no expectations about things. That’s different from dreaming or to have plans/goals. It’s about working close to reality and understand that what’s happening is what’s happening right now. What’s the worst thing that can happen? What can be better than that? And with this reflection we can start thinking about our options.
Which reminds me of stoicism. This philosophy bring me to a place where:
- What’s happening is only what’s happening
- I can’t control what will happen. I can control what happens after something happens.
This brings me to focus, to understand I need to be present. I need to be here and now. And I can’t live what’s not happening right now. I can just live now and understand my options and opportunities considering what I have at the moment.
I write a lot about my process. I write because it brings me to the present. I write because it’s a way to document my thinking process and I can continue later on. This post for instance, started back November 2016! I have become much more aware about my process and learned to understand about what’s essential to me.
Regarding stoicism, one important thing to me are the 4 virtues: temperance, wisdom, justice and courage. Temperance to me is the most relevant and I want to understand about it without missing the opportunity to work my vulnerability. That takes courage and wisdom.
There's this video from School of life that I like a lot, about stoicism.
If you want to talk more about this, send me a message!
— Daniel Wildt (support my work)
