ARE MILLENNIALS SELF AWARE?

Heard of an engineer running a food joint, an MBA pursuing geology or a doctor turned baker.

Wondered why?

Why do a majority of us follow a conventional academic path, create a socially influenced vision, spend our precious lifetime achieving it and wake up one fine day realizing the vision was never ours.

We all live with our efficacy beliefs strongly guarded by our self-esteem that never gets the reality check until we hit an inflexion point.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman, proposed a more popular definition of self-awareness in his best-selling book “Emotional Intelligence", as “knowing one’s internal states, preference, resources and intuitions”. It is to do with having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions.

The more you know about yourself, the better you are at creating a path that you always desire. It allows you to see where your thoughts and emotions are taking you. A number of researches have shown self-awareness as a crucial trait of successful business leaders. In a study undertaken by Green Peak Partners and Cornell University examining 72 executives at public and private companies with revenues from $50 million to $5 billion, it was found that “a high self-awareness score was the strongest predictor of overall success”.

The irony however, is that it’s very hard to admit to our weaknesses, most of us prefer to be in a state of denial that we have any. As we keep climbing up the corporate ladder, it becomes even harder to get genuine, constructive feedbacks; Hence, creating virtual irrational unrealistic goals, unrealistic ideas of accomplishment, blind ambition & finally a burnout!!

The famous saying” Stay true to yourself’ hold true here.

This scenario emphasises the strong need for holistic learning at a younger age (especially during higher education) which could emphasise on skillful practices and meta cognition. The youth need to be made aware of their inner potential so that they can master their own life.

Youth are our future. They define what we are today. It is imperative for us to help them discover and nurture their true self to be a capable individual, employees, entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow.