Self-Awareness II
Prior to the MSLD Program, I was typically involved with 'on the surface' self-awareness that involved how I felt, emotionally and physically, my reactions to those around me (family and co-workers), how others are perceiving me based on how I look, how I carry myself, the tone in my voice, voice fluctuations, facial expressions, behavioral reactions, and general attitude. I also tend to judge myself quite harshly, now that I think of it. I feel I do so in order to keep up a level of attitude that I feel serves me at times.
Case and point: I have not Military Free Falled in many years, and not doing so changed my attitude and desire surrounding it. However, as a military requirement, it must be undertaken for purposes of currency. When realizing I needed to start jumping again, I felt a fear about it; a feeling that once was one of exhilaration, but now upset me. How could I have let this happen? It doesn't serve me. Identifying this non-supportive attitude, I decided to remember all the things about jumping that was fun and easy. This, for the most part, helped relax me. This Emotional Intelligence (Whetten, 2016) provided me with a sense of renewed self-confidence that I had once lost. In fact, even as I write this, it is helping me reassure the sense of confidence that I will benefit from the next time I jump. I've learned if I can mentally stay involved with things I have less time to get physically involved in, my attitude would be much better when getting reacquainted with it.
Nowadays, I try to incorporate a sense of self-realization; meaning, I question my judgements, so that I can evaluate how I came to that conclusion. If I recognize an old pattern, I apply the Elements of Reasoning, and to a lesser degree, the Standards of Critical Thinking (Nosich, 2012). In this process, I reassess my values and determine what they ought to be now based on a new self-realization about how I think and feel about having owned those values.
Similarly, my marriage has been the perfect playground to test new ideas, and theories that require change. However, my attitude towards this change (Whetten, 2016, p. 61) was reluctance. It's that whole, "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" (Gray, 1992) understanding. The problem was I did not speak Venetian, and therefore, my logical Martian perspective would have to prevail as a truth for any one particular discussion. Thankfully, instead of learning Venetian, at this time, I opted to not argue my Martian perspective, but simply state it, and let it lie. In turn, my beautiful Venetian does not feel threatened, and can express her feelings without any rebuttal. I felt this was a strong adaptation in an area I felt I should take some responsibility. It works, because I had learned that it takes my spouse some time to process all the information that gets presented within a discussion.
I suppose my Learning Style and Core Self-Evaluation are tied relatively close together in the sense that my understanding and that awareness of having high self-esteem, strong emotional stability with an internal locus of control lends proportionately to how I approach, identify, process, test and evaluate through cognitive learning, of which I would attribute 40% knowing, 50% planning and 10% creating to my learning style (Whetten, 2016, p. 59). These percentages are merely a general figure that captures a self-assessment with respect to work, friends and family. With that said, I am trying to be more open to creativity.
Reflecting back, it excites me to know there are changes occurring with respect to what have been learning since beginning the MSLD Program. I look forward to seeing what other aspects of learning I will apply to the different aspects of my life.
References:
Gray, J. (1992). Men are from mars, women are from venus: The definitive guide to relationships. Hammersmith, London: Element.
Case and point: I have not Military Free Falled in many years, and not doing so changed my attitude and desire surrounding it. However, as a military requirement, it must be undertaken for purposes of currency. When realizing I needed to start jumping again, I felt a fear about it; a feeling that once was one of exhilaration, but now upset me. How could I have let this happen? It doesn't serve me. Identifying this non-supportive attitude, I decided to remember all the things about jumping that was fun and easy. This, for the most part, helped relax me. This Emotional Intelligence (Whetten, 2016) provided me with a sense of renewed self-confidence that I had once lost. In fact, even as I write this, it is helping me reassure the sense of confidence that I will benefit from the next time I jump. I've learned if I can mentally stay involved with things I have less time to get physically involved in, my attitude would be much better when getting reacquainted with it.
Nowadays, I try to incorporate a sense of self-realization; meaning, I question my judgements, so that I can evaluate how I came to that conclusion. If I recognize an old pattern, I apply the Elements of Reasoning, and to a lesser degree, the Standards of Critical Thinking (Nosich, 2012). In this process, I reassess my values and determine what they ought to be now based on a new self-realization about how I think and feel about having owned those values.
Similarly, my marriage has been the perfect playground to test new ideas, and theories that require change. However, my attitude towards this change (Whetten, 2016, p. 61) was reluctance. It's that whole, "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" (Gray, 1992) understanding. The problem was I did not speak Venetian, and therefore, my logical Martian perspective would have to prevail as a truth for any one particular discussion. Thankfully, instead of learning Venetian, at this time, I opted to not argue my Martian perspective, but simply state it, and let it lie. In turn, my beautiful Venetian does not feel threatened, and can express her feelings without any rebuttal. I felt this was a strong adaptation in an area I felt I should take some responsibility. It works, because I had learned that it takes my spouse some time to process all the information that gets presented within a discussion.
I suppose my Learning Style and Core Self-Evaluation are tied relatively close together in the sense that my understanding and that awareness of having high self-esteem, strong emotional stability with an internal locus of control lends proportionately to how I approach, identify, process, test and evaluate through cognitive learning, of which I would attribute 40% knowing, 50% planning and 10% creating to my learning style (Whetten, 2016, p. 59). These percentages are merely a general figure that captures a self-assessment with respect to work, friends and family. With that said, I am trying to be more open to creativity.
Reflecting back, it excites me to know there are changes occurring with respect to what have been learning since beginning the MSLD Program. I look forward to seeing what other aspects of learning I will apply to the different aspects of my life.
References:
Gray, J. (1992). Men are from mars, women are from venus: The definitive guide to relationships. Hammersmith, London: Element.
Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think things through: A guide to critical thinking across the curriculum. Boston, MA.: Pearson.
Whetton, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills. (9th Ed.). Boston, MA.: Pearson.
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