Avoiding the ‘new year, new you’ trap and being the best you

Written by: Julia Rogers

How well do you know yourself? Are you fully aware of how you think, behave and communicate? Do you understand how your moods, reactions and emotions affect your state of mind? 

Knowing who you really are helps you to check whether your ideas and your work contribute to what you are trying to do in the world.

Self-awareness is key to improving your communication skills, managing your emotions and improving your relationships with others. It can also help you to become a better leader and reach higher levels of job satisfaction. 

Self-awareness is also positively correlated with higher levels of overall happiness.

So, instead of falling into the trap of making ‘new year, new me’ resolutions, what about instead focusing on how to gain a better insight to yourself and cultivate your self-awareness? In doing so, you can put yourself on the path to being the ‘best’ you. 

What is self-awareness?

In social psychology, the study of self-awareness can be traced back to the work of Shelley Duval and Robert Wicklund (1972), who proposed that people can focus attention on the self or on the external environment. 

They went on to say that focusing on the self enables self-evaluation and when people are self-focused, they compare the self with ‘standards of correctness’ that specify how the self ought to think, feel and behave. 

The process of comparing the self with those standards allows people to understand themselves, understand others and to alter their behaviours. 

Fortunately, self-awareness is not a fixed trait; it’s something that can be cultivated.

Develop your self-awareness and achieve your true potential 

 Most of us use only a fraction of our capabilities in our everyday lives. Just imagine what could be possible if we were to all reach our full potential. But how do we uncover what we’re naturally good at and apply that to our work? 

Making permanent changes that will lead to significant improvements in all areas of your life starts with Insight. 

Insight helps people feel valued, have inner clarity, focused and aware of their mission to society and work and contribute to a life worth living. 

It also leads to open conversations about how to manage your daily lives in a more co-operative, productive way. 

Develop a deeper understanding of yourself and your team members

What’s essential in a harmonious team is individual self-awareness and for everyone to have a deeper understanding of, and respect for, the values others bring. Gaining these greater insights is where profiling tools come into play.

Otherwise known as personality and behaviour assessments, profiling tools have been around for decades, and are commonly used in the corporate world to define and measure individual strengths and weaknesses. Two well-known tools are Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and DISC assessment. 

Despite the differences between profiling tools, they share commonalities because they all originate from the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung. 

One of the world’s most popular profiling tools is Talent Dynamics, a rich and multi-dimensional profiling system that represents an individual’s mix of energy, thinking and action styles.

It assesses personality, strengths, productivity, values and behavior, linking these to activities that either energise or deplete energy. Talent Dynamics allows you to discover and optimise your true talents for greater success.

Some people have had bad experiences with profiling, particularly when the tools are used to identify and focus on improving weaknesses. This can be counterproductive for individuals and whole teams.  

Instead, Talent Dynamics encourages everyone in a team to play to their strengths, which brings out the best in each person and improves overall team performance. 

The principle behind it is that individuals, teams and entire organisations perform at their best when they are in a state of ‘flow’. Or, in other words, when everyone is using their natural talents to follow their path of least resistance.

Contributing your greatest value

When you know your own Talent Dynamics profile, you understand where your strengths and challenges lie, enabling you to focus on doing what you are best at (and enjoy the most), which is also where you will contribute your greatest value. 

When you do this, you create greater trust. People know they can depend on you to deliver what is expected, and trust is attractive, so people will want to do more with you. 

At the same time, you enjoy what you are doing more, you feel more fulfilled, and your effectiveness greatly increases. 

In a career context, this means you are likely to attract better job offers and promotions. 

In yachting in particular, it means a harmonious crew operating a successful yacht. Better yet, it often means the owner is happy to invest more time and money because they’re satisfied with what they see onboard.  

Becoming the ‘best’ you

There really is no greater knowledge to have than knowledge of who you are.

And there is never a better time for self-improvement and personal development than now. 

Our Insight and Talent Dynamics courses are the perfect way to start learning about your strengths, challenges and motivations, and to get to know yourself on a much deeper level.