Who am I By
Leigh-Anne Rome
Who am I By
Before you can make changes in yourself , you have to know what there is to work with right ?? Becoming self-aware is the process of understanding yourself ...... Ok , so easier said than done . What about the certain situations in your life , whether it be personal or professional that keep recurring , challenges that you consistently get faced with , surely there is a “ lesson ” to learn !?
One of the challenges I consistently seem to get faced with is dealing with negative people , the type of people that seem to thrive on turmoil and belittling others , I ’ m sure there is a lot of you that know exactly what I am talking about ..... Sometimes we are lucky and deal with them for a short period . It ’ s a one-time scenario , however , other times we are not that lucky . Whether it is at work or among friends and family . I ’ m sure we all have at least one negative person we try and avoid . In my experience with negative people , they were always right and I was always wrong , their opinions were the only ones that mattered . They found ways to underestimate and undermine me and my accomplishments . They managed to ridicule everything I said and did . Treated me as if I was nothing of importance - even when I was defending a serious cause or sticking up for someone else , whom of which had been hit with the “ blame stick ” and had to bare the curse of carrying other people ’ s monkeys . I allowed their negative energy to consume me because they made me believe what they were saying to be true - as the saying goes “ The bad is always easier to believe ” ( whoever “ they ” are !)
Why ?? why did I allow them to treat me in that way ??
What was the part of me that accepted it , as if it was allowed ?? WHY was the big question and WHAT was I going to do to stop it .....
Until one day - just one day out of nowhere , I had just about enough ... ok , ok I had MORE than enough . I had enough of the nasty and patronising comments and decided to distance myself . I decided I wasn ’ t going to be the subject of their cruelty any longer .
Leigh-Anne Rome
Once I decided , I wasn ’ t going to put myself in a situation that made my life a living hell . I had daily handed them the bat to beat me with ( so to speak ) that ’ s when I realised these particular people suffered from low self-esteem and lack of motivation . Furthermore , I learnt negative comments are not constructive comments . Negative people choose to focus on others instead of improving who they are . Negative comments are meant to belittle your aspirations , your opinions and your successes . Do not give them the power !! We all have very different situations and very different “ challenges ” get to know “ YOU ”.
Self-awareness is the foundation of personal growth and success . Daniel Goleman calls it “ keystone ” of emotional intelligence .
Know Yourself Emotional awareness means being able to recognise the emotions that you experience , understand the feelings associated with these emotions and understand what you think and do as a result . When you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses ( limits ), you will be more confident about what you can and can ’ t do . Self-confident people tend to be more assertive as to what they believe to be right . Being assertive doesn ’ t mean you will always get things your way , but rather that you convey your thoughts confidently and justify why you believe your particular decision to be the right one .
Self-awareness is essentially the building blocks for emotional intelligence . Becoming self-aware is a journey , we can spend a lifetime learning about ourselves through the different phases of our life journey . As we improve our self-awareness , we ultimately improve our experiences of life , therefore creating better opportunities for life and work balance . Become aware of your emotions and improve your ability to respond to change .