Steps to Personal Greatness

At the core of personal mastery is self-understanding. Transformation is about dealing with fundamental motives and causes rather than simply dabbling at symptomatic issues.

Related: How to Turn Your Weaknesses Into Strengths

Nurturing these five selfs will fuel your quest for personal mastery:

Self-Awareness

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is not as easy as it sounds. To understand our personal surpluses and deficits is not an option on our journey to personal greatness. If we want to drive our performance, then we must be able to manage our emotions in ways that energize and direct that drive.

The research is plentiful that IQ accounts for about 20 percent of a person’s success. Moods account for much more. If we are not aware of our moods, then they can end up controlling our behavior in counterproductive ways. Self-awareness means we are growing in our ability to read our emotions accurately. This gives us the ability to self-regulate and self-manage destructive moods and attitudes. Mood mastery is necessary for personal mastery.

Be self-aware instead of self-conscious.

Self-Affirmation

We know it’s not healthy to speak against or gossip about others. It becomes even more destructive when we use words to speak against ourselves. Self-affirmation is a matter of choosing what we focus on. If others talked to us the way we sometimes talk to ourselves, we would avoid them. It can become easy to degrade ourselves, sometimes subliminally. Instead of letting other people and circumstances decide what you will focus on, make it your choice.

Attitudes that asphyxiate include: You’re no good… lousy… incompetent… unable… ordinary… worthless. Attitudes that affirm? I am lovable… forgivable… capable… have strengths… am multi-talented… have purpose. The world can be a negative place. You must counteract toxic noise.

Be self-affirming instead of self-degrading.

Self-Motivation

If you are waiting to be motivated by someone else, personal mastery will elude you. Always giving your best is an inside job. Some days are better than others, but give your best every day. Anything less than that leads to a thin life and ultimately, regret.

Motivation is the underlying reason why a person does or doesn’t do something. The stick and carrot incentive is not nearly as powerful as a person’s innate interests. This raises the level of personal productivity and individual engagement. It’s about knowing how you are hardwired and drawing on your natural sense of intrigue.

Be self-motivated instead of self-absorbed.