2020-10-22 Learn to be self-awar

You know how Jason Bourne constantly scans his environment for dangers, exits, and potential means to win a fight? That’s called situational awareness.

What you want is behavioral awareness. A self-directed, in-the-moment awareness of your own behavior.

We tend to think of self-awareness as a character trait, but that only holds up on a long time frame. In the short term, it’s mostly a cognitive state. It lives on a spectrum. You dip in and out of it throughout your day.

The more of your time you can spend in self-awareness, the better. This can get absolutely maddening, but it’s necessary because it allows you to constantly evaluate what you’re doing.

“I’m biting my nails. That’s a bad habit. I’ll try to address it some time.”

“This article feels like it’ll be a hit. Let me monitor if it actually does well.”

Being in self-awareness mode is the heart rate monitor of how well your behavior maps to your true goals.

Don’t turn it off for too long.