Self-knowledge: the key to understanding others

Carl Jung said, ?Whatever we don?t understand about ourselves, we will not understand in another person.? Conversely, what we do understand about ourselves will help us to understand others and accept their actions as logical behavior. For example, if I understand myself to be impatient, impatience in others is likely to be more acceptable to me than it would be without the self-awareness. The key is to gain understanding of the energies for which I have the greatest preference.

How do we gain the understanding of self that helps us validate our energies and to become more accepting of the energies of others. One way is to analyze our experiences and the consequences that have occurred. For example, if we have tended to being hyper-critical of other people and our critical behavior has resulted in the loss of jobs, friends or related opportunities, we should learn from the results and their implications on our lives. Another way is to seek feedback from friends and associates, who can give us their perceptions, if they know we seek honest responses.

Finally, we can utilize a psychometric instrument that is statistically validated to consistently indicate what it purports to measure in order to understand our attitudes and behavioral characteristics that we prefer to use under normal conditions and also under stress. In twenty-two years of working with people experiencing career-driven change, the most accurate and powerful tool that I have found is the Insightsâ Discovery Personal Profile that produces information about how we make decisions, communicate, our value to the team and an array of actionable material including suggestions for our personal development.

Next time: Removing you blocks

Good day and good work,

Norman