Healthy relationships with others are indispensable in many ways when you are building a successful team, finding new partners, growing a business, or keeping up with family and friends. In reality, no one can accomplish anything of significance on their own, as we do not possess all the talents, strengths, and capabilities. However, in order to have great relationships with others, we need to have a healthy relationship with ourselves.
Let’s examine why is important to have a healthy relationship with ourselves and how you can work on your own image and get to know yourself better.
Developing the ability to better know yourself will offer you so many benefits. It will allow you to increase your awareness of who you are and it will support your daily agenda from making decisions to self-love.
The image and awareness you have of yourself can take you very far in the relationships you have with others or it can restrict you from developing healthy relationships. A negative image of yourself will not allow you to reach success in the long run and sooner than later any triumph that you had will reach the level of your own expectations.
In brief, the image you have of yourself molds the way you think and act and therefore the way you relate to others.
If our self-perception is distorted, then our attempts to influence others will be misguided and even manipulative. Thus,
The first person we must examine is ourselves:
- If I want self-awareness, the first person I must know is myself.
- If I want a healthy self-image, the first person I must get along with is myself.
- If I want self-honesty, I must admit that the first person to cause me problems is myself.
- If I want self-improvement, the first person I must change is myself.
At this point, you are probably thinking that many times there should be a certain amount of sincerity and responsibility among us. That is very true!
I confess I don’t have much of a future if I dedicate myself to singing professionally, although I did sing to my daughters when they were babies and when I am in the shower if I hear a song I like and know the lyrics I will start to sing, I have to be honest with myself and others, singing is not one of my strengths. It is not my purpose to pursue, I haven’t worked on developing it, I have never tried to make singing a lifestyle, and to be honest, I don’t believe it is something I would want to explore.
In the same way that we relate ourselves to others, we must be honest with ourselves. If there is something that you don’t like about others, or there is something hindering you from relating to others, then maybe the obstacle has something to do with your perception and expectations, and not the others.
As Sheldon Kopp well said, “All of the truly important battles are waged within the self”.
So, how can you work on your image and know yourself?
- You can start dedicating some time for reflection and make a list of your strong and weak points.
- Make a list of your triumphs and think about what strengths helped you to accomplish them.
- Examine your character and think about how it could be keeping you away from others.
- Be intentional about better understanding yourself and the people around you.
One of the most excellent ways to be intentional about understanding yourself is by learning about your personality. Your individual personality affects every aspect of your life. That’s why one of the best things you can do to get to know yourself and others is to understand your personality and what naturally drives you. When you recognize your strengths and weaknesses, you are able to give your best as you work with people around you.
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Question: Which elements of your character allow you to have successful relationships?