The Power of The Seven Selves In Self Improvement.
Introduction:
This article will look at the seven selves to strengthen our emotional intelligence.
The most appropriate place to start any research is the beginning, and going through the power of the seven selves, we must ask ourselves the question:
What is the Self?
Merriam-Webster defines the Self as, and I quote, “an individual’s typical character or behaviour” .
The Oxford learner dictionary says, “a person’s personality or character makes them different from others.”
Deriving from the two definitions above and many more, it is in order for this article to conclude that.: A self is a person, breathing, living, thinking human being.
The concept of Self is highly complex and challenging to understand. Every human being’s primary and most vital component is the Self which is what distinguishes and separates us from one another. The Self is considerably more than a physical body; it is firmly reliant on our minds.
What is the objective of our Self?
Your life purpose is made up of the most important motivating goals in your life: the reasons for your getting out of bed in the morning. The purpose may steer life decisions, affect behaviour, define objectives, provide direction, and generate meaning.
Some individuals associate purpose with vocation—meaningful, gratifying employment.
Here are the seven selves to strengthen your emotional intelligence:
Self-image:
Self-image is one of the seven selves of self-development, which refers to how an individual sees themselves, physically and mentally.
An individual’s self-image is developed over time and influenced by their experiences. This is what you think of your personality, abilities, and how you appear to others. It is the mental image of yourself that has been formed over time due to multiple self-impressions. It includes your physical qualities as well as your traits, characteristics, and abilities.
There are Four Types of Self-Image, namely:
– How you see yourself.
– How others see you.
– How you perceive others see you.
– How you perceive you see yourself.
Your ideas and feelings regarding your appearance, intellect, environment, personality, and even the things you say and do all contribute to your mental picture of your self-image. To improve your life, you must first improve your self-image.
Self-awareness:
Self awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your behaviours, thoughts, or emotions align or do not fit with your internal standards. It is attention in the present moment of everything that defines you, such as your typical actions or ambitions.
It does not start immediately with a single behaviour; instead, it develops gradually through a series of specific activities related to the Self.
There are two types of self-awareness.
Internal self-awareness refers to clearly understanding your beliefs, ambitions, and aspirations and how well those standards align with your surroundings and reactions (which include thoughts, feelings, behaviours, strengths, and weaknesses).
External self-awareness, on the other hand, refers to the ability to perceive how others perceive you. People who are aware of how others perceive them are more empathic. Leaders who can see how their employees perceive them are frequently more effective.
Importance of self-awareness –
It Improves your skills by analyzing what you do well and where you need to improve.
Understand how your people view your behaviour to become a better leader.
Manage your emotions to improve your job and personal relationships.
Increase your job drive by discovering your true passions.
Reduce stress by detecting emotions and reducing chores that you dislike.
Increase your pleasure by integrating your ideals with your activities.
Self-discipline:
Self-discipline is the ability to stay motivated and focused regardless of your physical or emotional state while you drive yourself forward. You demonstrate it when you choose to pursue something better for yourself despite obstacles such as diversions, hard effort, or unfavourable odds.
- Self-discipline is beneficial in many aspects of our lives, including it motivates you to accomplish high-quality work even when you don’t want to.
- It assists you in achieving challenging goals that you set for yourself and sticking to them.
- Self-discipline also allows you to persevere to tremendous accomplishment, regardless of what others may observe.
- It can also help with performance and learning.
Self-reflection:
is a method of evaluating yourself, your work, and your study methods. To put it simply, ‘reflection’ means pondering about something.
It is similar to looking in the mirror and reporting what you see. We look at ourselves with curiosity, interest, and expectations as we reflect, especially when we explore our thoughts, behaviours, and emotions. First, you become aware of what you are feeling in your body, how you feel emotionally, and what you are thinking in your mind. That is the most critical aspect of your experience. However, part of the value of self-reflection is that it helps us to delve deeper as we ask.
Self-reflection is a necessary skill for personal development. We move around oblivious and often reactive to people without it.
Self-management:
It is the ability to manage one’s time and work. It involves self-organization, self-direction, self-motivation, and self-monitoring abilities. Also known as “self-control” or “self-regulation,” it is the ability to effectively regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviours in various contexts and another very important member of the seven selves
A high level of self-management indicates that people can move beyond those easy duties and utilize self-management skills to handle more complex elements of their lives better. This level of self-management necessitates greater discipline and willpower to control all aspects of your life.
Self-disclosure:
Self-disclosure is the process of intentionally or unintentionally disclosing information about oneself to another person. This information might range from trivial talks about the style of eating, such as your favourite time of eating, to incredibly intimate relationships or hidden secrets.
Self-disclosure can be categorized into two types: verbal and nonverbal.
We verbally disclose ourselves when we inform people about our thoughts, feelings, preferences, objectives, hopes, and anxieties, for example.
We reveal ourselves nonverbally through our body language, clothing, tattoos, jewellery, and other hints about our personalities.
Self-disclosure is seen as an intimate and confidential matter. It can deepen your relationship and help you form deeper connections with others if used correctly. However, if misused, it will have long-term implications.
Self-development:
Self-Development is the conscious process of improving oneself in various aspects of one’s life. It is a vital member of the seven selves.
It is the process of learning new things and developing new skills that boost our chances of success, attaining our goals, and realizing our ambitions.
Self-development areas include:
- Mental development
Mental development is concerned with the development of your mind, such as how you think and learn.
- Social development
Communication abilities are an important part of social development that must be improved. While some professionals focus on improving other abilities, understanding how to communicate effectively can be beneficial, especially if you work independently.
- Spiritual development
Spiritual development is defined as connecting with yourself holistically, growing as a person, and achieving inner peace.
- Emotional development
Emotional development is concerned with the development and regulation of your feelings and how you react to certain situations.
- Physical development.
Physical development involves taking care of your body while putting it to good use. A healthy body supports good brain functioning, and your physical state influences personal growth and development.
Conclusion:
Each Self has its own set of challenges. One big issue with self-image, for example, is its accuracy. Most people have a self-image that differs from how others perceive them, which can lead to issues such as a lack of confidence in reaching out to teammates or being so selfish that no one can coach you.
Everyone is also quite particular about which aspects of their selves they are sure about and which are unstable. So you can’t always “repair” one Self the same way you can another. The technique you take to improve yourself must be unique rather than mimicking what others have done.