When you're self-aware and watch yourself like a hawk, you perform with vision and skill. You can focus accurately, using your emotional intelligence to perceive your emotions and understand your tendencies across different situations.
With Focus and a Vision You Can Utilize Your Emotional Intelligence to Change Your Life
Emotion is Powerful!
It guides all we say and do. I wrote my second book on this critical topic, The Power of Emotion, to provide others with a practical guide to maximizing their emotional intelligence.
Watch Yourself Like a Hawk!
When we say, "Watch yourself like a hawk," what does that mean?
Most of us are aware that Hawks have excellent vision, sure. But did you know the normal vision for a hawk is 20/2 while the normal vision for a human is 20/20? When a human has a 20/20 vision, it means they can see things 20 feet away. Hawks can see something 20 feet away as if they were only 2 feet apart. Amazing, right?
You've probably heard the term "eagle eye" before too. Under ideal circumstances, eagles have 20/5 or 20/4 vision. Can you imagine what it would be like to have that kind of vision? It would change how we manage our behaviour without question.
Do you want to dive deeper into the scientific side of hawk vision and how they process visual information? I recommend giving this article a quick read.
Knowing the value of this skill, how can we apply this concept to how we watch ourselves?
How Can We Become More Self-Aware?
Even though we don't have a hawk's keen vision, we can focus and work on observing our emotions to be more self-aware. But not all of us do this.
In my experience, many of us struggle with this due to what I've termed the "drive-by life" phenomenon. (You can learn more about what it means to live a drive-by life in this post. I also discuss the concept in my book Giving Back and how the challenges of living a drive-by life rob us of living in the moment.)
To sum it up, we tend to go through the motions of our everyday lives without focusing on our emotions and viewing our surroundings because we are not self-aware.
And when we don't focus on and manage our emotions with self-awareness, the consequences can be extreme. Click here to read more about reading the messages our emotions are sending us.
The Ability to See the Calm Before the Storm.
When you live in the moment and practise mindfulness–the opposite of a drive-by life–you can focus and watch yourself like a hawk. And when you view yourself, you become more self-aware.
Can you imagine having the vision of a hawk? A razor-sharp view of situations to assist with proactively managing your emotions so they don't control you. You'd be able to see the calm before the storm and act accordingly. You could prevent your feelings from getting the best of you.
Now that sounds great, but can you actually make it happen?
Simple Steps to Becoming More Self-Aware.
Becoming more self-aware and developing an objective understanding of your emotions is possible.
Here are some simple tips to accomplish this:
- Pay close attention to your emotions, thoughts, and behaviours as circumstances unfold. AKA: watch yourself!
- As this happens, take a deep breath, slow down, and focus on what is in front of you.
- Allow time to observe; it takes time for your brain to focus and process all the information as it presents itself.
- Be sure to access all information, including feeling your emotions, before you take action.
When you watch yourself like a hawk, you become more self-aware, a superpower that allows you to manage your emotions proactively so they don't control you. Imagine how your life would improve if you had the vision and focus to overpower your emotions. All of these strategies increase your emotional intelligence. If you want to learn more, check out my book, The Power of Emotion.
This article was originally published on June 30, 2018, and has been updated (June 2023).
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