October has a way of feeling like the calm before the storm.
The year isn’t over, but suddenly the calendar starts filling up. End of year deadlines get closer and holiday plans begin taking shape. Family commitments appear, and before you know it, November and December are here and you are moving from one thing to the next.
Most advice about this time of year focuses on how to manage the busyness once it arrives: organize your calendar, protect your time, set boundaries, simplify your commitments. Those things can certainly be helpful.
But what if you tried something different this year?
What if, before all the rush and before the season starts making decisions for you, you start paying attention to yourself right now?
That is where self-awareness comes in.
Becoming more self-aware starts with noticing what is happening within you before you automatically respond. It means paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, needs, reactions, assumptions, and habitual responses so you have more information available when it is time to choose what happens next.
Self-awareness can sound like an abstract idea, but your self-awareness plays a very practical role in everyday life.
Why? Because every intentional choice begins with knowing something about yourself.
At Move Strong Method®, we define awareness as the ability to know something. Self-awareness, then, is your ability to know what is happening within you.
Without self-awareness, you can still move through your day. In fact, your brain is designed to do exactly that. We all respond to circumstances without considering what we need, say yes to an invitation before checking our calendars, or follow the same end-of-year routine simply because it’s what we’ve always done.
And with the season constantly reminding you what you should be doing—cue the 900th pumpkin spice ad you’ve seen this week—it can be easy to respond to what is happening around you without paying much attention to what is happening within you.
So WHY do you want to pay attention to yourself this October?
Because knowing when you are responding automatically versus intentionally choosing is not only how to become more self aware, it’s also how your life becomes intentionally directed by YOU.
Self-Awareness Is More Than Knowing Yourself
When people hear self-awareness, they may think about knowing their personality, strengths, weaknesses, likes, or dislikes. These are all forms of knowing yourself.
And self-awareness is also about noticing ordinary moments and everyday choices.
For example, noticing that you automatically say yes before considering whether you have the time or bandwidth. Or realizing you are agreeing to a holiday tradition because “we always do it” rather than because you’ve considered whether you still want to do it.
Practicing self-awareness in ordinary moments like these gives you new knowledge and—as the saying goes—knowledge is power.
Something about you that may have been happening automatically is now something you know is happening.
The moment you know and can name something is the moment you open up the opportunity to choose whether that thing stays the same, or changes.
Practicing self-awareness does NOT mean you need to analyze every thought, feeling, or behavior. And awareness doesn’t tell you what the “right” choice is.
Most importantly, self-awareness doesn’t tell you what to do or make the decision for you. It helps you see when there is a decision available to make.
Self-awareness doesn’t make the choice for you. It makes the choice visible and shows you when the power of choice rests with you.
Why Self-Awareness Gives You More Choice
Your brain automates all kinds of things.
Think about how much of your day happens without deliberate thought. You don’t make a brand-new decision every morning about how to brush your teeth. You don’t carefully analyze every movement required to drive to school or work. Your brain uses what it already knows, and your body runs on habits.
This ability is incredibly useful, and our habits become our automatic defaults.
When someone asks you for help, your default may be to immediately say yes. When work gets busy, your default may be to keep adding things to your calendar. Neither response is automatically good or bad.
The point is whether you notice the default.
Because once you notice it, you know something about yourself that you can use to choose what happens next.
Maybe saying yes is exactly what you want to do. Great. You can choose yes. Or maybe noticing your automatic yes helps you realize you want or need something different. Bottom line—you see the moment of choice.
That is what makes self-awareness so useful for making better decisions. It helps you see when there is a decision available to make instead of automatically defaulting to an unconscious habit or response.
At Move Strong Method®, we often talk about awareness as the beginning of discovery.
When you notice something about yourself, you know more. Knowing more can spark curiosity that leads you to explore and discover something new. And what you learn about YOU can help you see choices you couldn’t see before.
In other words, self-awareness can create a simple progression: notice, know, explore, choose. You notice something that was previously automatic. You know more about yourself. You can explore what is influencing you. And that new knowledge may help you see choices that were not visible before.
The goal and the gift of self-awareness is to know yourself well enough to recognize when you want to default to the usual habit versus when you want to choose something else.
Self-Awareness Examples in Everyday Life
Self-awareness doesn’t have to happen during a major life decision. Often, it shows up in moments you might otherwise move through automatically.
It might look like:
- Noticing that you said yes to weekend plans before asking yourself whether you actually wanted to go.
- Realizing you are adding another meeting to an already full day because saying yes is your usual response.
- Catching yourself continuing to work after you said you would stop.
- Recognizing that you are participating in a holiday tradition because “we always do it,” rather than because you have considered whether it still matters to you.
- Noticing that what you are about to choose does not match what feels most important to you right now.
None of these moments automatically mean you need to make a different choice. They just give you information about yourself that you didn’t have (or weren’t paying attention to) a moment before.
Let Self-Awareness Help You Choose What Happens Next
The approaching end-of-year busyness is a reason to pay attention now. But busyness isn’t really the point. Self-awareness and choice are.
Your calendar can tell you where you need to be. Your inbox can tell you who needs an answer. Other people can tell you what they need, want, or expect.
Pausing to pay attention to yourself gives you information those things cannot: what is happening within you.
And that matters because knowing what is happening within you gives you powerful knowledge to use when deciding what happens next.
You notice. You know more about yourself. You may explore what you’re noticing and discover other possibilities. And then, with all of that valuable information, you can choose what’s next instead of defaulting your way forward.
Sometimes you may intentionally choose the same response you’ve always used. Sometimes you may choose something completely different.
The goal isn’t to make any particular choice. What’s most important is knowing that you have a choice.
So before your calendar starts making decisions for you and the season stacks up with end-of-year buzz, pause and pay attention to yourself.
Because the more you know about yourself, the more knowledge you have to intentionally choose what happens next in your life.
If you want support developing greater self-awareness and discovering more choices in the way you live, work, and respond to life, let us support you!
Move Strong Method® self-guided online DIY coaching, individual coaching, and group coaching give you space to explore what you’re noticing, learn from it, and decide how you want to move forward from here.