Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.

You don't know, what you don't know

Ignorance is bliss, or is it? What we don't know about ourselves can't hurt us right? But what if it is hurting you, and...you don't know.

We may not want to admit it, but most of us are blind to certain aspects of our personalities and how we are perceived by others. Uncovering our blind spots and becoming more self-aware can help us to evolve and improve our emotional intelligence, a key skill for effective leaders. Blind spots aren't all bad! They might also be hidden strengths that we aren't optimising.

What 5 words best describe you? Write them down then ask trusted friends, colleagues and family members to do the same.

Consider: if others were honest with me, what would they say?

Practice: asking questions to better understand who we are professionally and personally.

Decide to: strengthen your self-awareness.

The path to self-awareness

Dr. Tasha Eurich an organisational psychologist, calls self-awareness a ‘meta skill’ for the 21st Century that’s not just about being effective at work but living a meaningful and fulfilling life. Sounds good right? But while most people believe they are self-aware, research tells us only 15% actually are.

The good news? Self-awareness is a skill that can be developed - the first step is wanting to improve. The road to self-awareness can be bumpy and it takes work. Realising what you don't know about yourself requires to you to question yourself and those around you (in a positive way) to get a deeper understanding of your hidden weaknesses, and strengths.

It's not easy to figure out what your own blind spots are and acknowledging them can feel uncomfortable, but when we become more self-aware we can build better relationships, make better decisions and become a better leader.

So are you ready to dig deeper and become more self-aware? 

Love your Mondays.