“He or she who learns to master his or herself will become fit to lead and master a Nation.”

Self-awareness precedes personal development. There is nothing that we can develop, even improve on, successfully without first getting to fully understand our strengths and weaknesses. Knowing our strengths gives us a framework of the goals that we can go on to pursue and achieve, and knowing our weaknesses gives us an opportunity to work on and improve those areas that can easily be neglected. In general, it is in our best interest to know our worth and what we stand for. If we are not clear on who we are, this affects our self- esteem, which leads to low levels of confidence and opens us up for the world to abuse, undermine, and assign us (negative) labels. Being self-aware also enables us to identify areas in our lives that we can develop in terms of our attitude, habits, and character.

When we grow in self-awareness, we learn to self-manage and regulate ourselves well. This is seen in how we present ourselves, the decisions we take in life, and our reactions in general. As the saying goes: “We have no control over external factors in life like how people treat us and what they say about us, but we have the capacity and the ability to choose our response.”

Regulating our thoughts can be of great benefit. We can train our minds to think positively and to keep our worries and anxieties in check. Having certain thoughts and feelings doesn’t mean that they are factual or that we must act upon them. As someone said: “Happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; It depends solely on what you think.”

We are entirely responsible for how we feel at any given time. Let us practice having the right thoughts that build our mental health. The lack of self-management and self-regulation can result in impulsive and irrational reactions. Instead, we can try to apply our minds, exercise discernment and restraint, and reflect on the matters at hand before acting.

Once we have mastered how to manage and regulate ourselves, we are now able to understand other people, which is a sign of maturity. When we are mature and grounded in ourselves, we trust ourselves more, which makes it easier for us to trust others, to see where they are in life, observe, learn, and relate to them and empathise. We develop the ability to see the reasons for other people’s behaviour, emotions, and dysfunctions through a compassionate perspective without being judgemental and dismissive, which is social awareness. The more socially aware we are, the more social influence we have. This is the ability to facilitate social or cultural change in response to one’s own self-awareness and management.

We all have the potential to be better, to improve not just to love ourselves but to also become more self and socially aware.