Chapter 5 of emotional intelligence 2.0 talks about self awareness strategies. What is hard wired in us has to be understood and we need to be able to control that better. Understanding our hard wired behaviors that results from our emotions is a very hard thing to do and it’s a continuous journey.

Understanding the third order effect or the ripple effect from my emotions is critical. When I’m angry for example, I don’t eat, I tend to be less productive, I tend to ignore others, I tend to drown, and so on. There is lot of observations to be done here. I think letting myself feel sometimes can help me observe, but sometimes I may get blind because my head may be filled with so much information.

I should know what fundamental values that makes me who I am. I should visit it quite frequently. I should then look around and observe myself to understand what I’m missing. From my movie taste to books…. It may show a side of me that I don’t know…. I need to understand why I may like certain things and why I don’t like certain things….

The most important thing here is to understanding myself under any emotions. Journaling may be critical… I do a journal everyday for my love, but I may need to do one for myself…. Maybe using emotion tracking app may help as well to better understand and enhance this learning….