In this chapter, I’ll show you the level of self-awareness of the self-aware person. If you’re not a self-aware person, you aren’t self-aware. Most of the time, I’ll tell you you don’t want to be self-aware. I mean, the first time you were born is when you’re not a self-aware person. But now, you’re not.
It’s a common mistake that newbies make, and Ill give you some tips on how to avoid it. So in this chapter Ill talk about what it means to be self-aware, how you can become self-aware, and what it means to not be self-aware.
We all know what it’s like to be a self-aware person. We know what it means to get a tan, we know what it means to be an adult, and we know what it means to not be a self-aware person. But unfortunately, newbies make it easy to fall into the trap of not being self-aware. It happens all the time. And this is what I’ve found.
I had a friend who used to work in a bank teller station and he was always trying to show me how to take money out of the ATM and how to set up my account. But because it was always something he did on his own, I always just assumed it was something he needed to do. I mean, what is a bank teller station? How is this self-aware? How is this not self-aware? And so on.
I think it is because many of us have been trained at a later age to tell ourselves the truth. We are told to “Just do it” by our parents, teachers, friends, and co-workers. It is this command to “just do it” that, along with the fact that we are social learners, contributes to the problem we are dealing with right now. We are being taught the truth that we are not self-aware.
I was talking to a real-life friend of mine a year ago about how we’re not supposed to be so self-aware all the time. They say, “You are not supposed to be self-aware,” so why are we not self-aware? It’s not like we’re not programmed to be self-aware but I don’t think it’s possible to be self-aware. You have to be able to tell yourself that you are not self-aware.
Noel Fisher has actually started a new blog called Noel Fisher: The Real Deal (also available as a podcast). His site is filled with fascinating and horrifying stories about his life. He is one of the few people I know who truly believes that no one is that self-aware.
It’s a good thing that these guys are so self-aware because there is no need for them to be self-aware. Self-awareness is a product of our upbringing, our experience in society, and how our brains work. We are hardwired to be self-aware. We don’t need to be self-aware. It just wouldn’t be as accurate.
Like most self-aware people, noel is a product of his upbringing, life experience, and brain functioning. He is also not self-aware because he is not aware of his own mind. In other words, he is not aware of the thoughts that he has. In order to be self-aware you must be aware of and be able to act on your thoughts.
That is what he did to get himself into this position in the first place. The thought that he is aware of the thoughts that he has is called “awareness.” Just like everyone else, he was not aware of his thoughts and actions before his mind was aware of them. He was not even aware of the thoughts that he was having. He was just aware of the thoughts that he had. Now he has to learn to consciously act on those thoughts and actions.
