Remember when you were sitting in a college course thinking, “This major isn’t for me?” What about when you knew a relationship or job was no longer serving you, and you knew you needed to move on?
In those moments, you were self-aware.
Self-awareness is the art of knowing yourself, your personality, and your aspirations. Sometimes, life will teach you what you do and don’t want, like when you realized you no longer enjoyed your major or a job. But other times, it takes intentional work to understand yourself better.
That’s where self-awareness activities come in. Through these exercises, you can take a deeper look at what you want in life, how you feel about certain activities and topics, and what your personality traits are. And through that journey, you can become your most authentic self.
What are self-awareness activities?
Self-awareness activities are exercises you perform to further understand who you are and aspire to be. These activities prompt you to consider your personal values, feelings, and desires, pinpointing things you love about yourself and areas for self-improvement.
While your reactions to setbacks, achievements, and other positive and negative life events can teach you about your personality, self-awareness exercises push this understanding further.
You may think you love your current job, but when you journal about it, you find that you’d like to improve some aspects of your career. You might believe you find conversations with your partner about financial wellness stressful, but discover upon further introspection that it’s not the subject itself but how you communicate about it.
Self-awareness activities prompt you to think deeply about your feelings and become more aware of your thoughts, reactions, and experiences. Then, with that knowledge in hand, you can acknowledge your positive traits or adjust your behavior.
You could take steps toward a more enjoyable career once you’ve determined what’s not currently working in your role. And after discovering flaws in how you communicate with your partner, you can learn to change your communication style.
The importance of self-awareness
Being aware of your personality and needs helps you make decisions that align with your personal goals and true self. You can identify your values, seek meaningful activities and relationships, and define your strengths and areas of opportunity, all of which can contribute to personal and professional growth.
Self-knowledge helps you understand the types of experiences and interactions you want in life, but it also promotes better interactions with others. If you know what stresses or hurts you, you can set clear boundaries with those around you, prompting stronger communication and honest relationships.
Here are a few self-awareness examples that show the benefits of knowing yourself:
- You’re tired all the time, but aren’t sure why. After speaking to a career coach about it, you discover that you’re working too much. With that knowledge, you say “No” to an extra assignment and start getting the rest you need.
- After a fight with a friend, journaling about the situation helps you understand that their condescending tone hurts you. You reopen the discussion to tell them how it makes you feel, showing vulnerability and deepening your relationship.
- You feel lost in life. After making a vision board, you realize that travel is high on your list of priorities. You decide to switch careers and pursue a job that requires travel.
Can you measure self-awareness?
Researchers have developed tools like personality tests, emotional intelligence questionnaires, and self-awareness assessments to help you measure self-knowledge. Some mental health professionals use these alongside other methods to help patients understand themselves better.
British psychologist Anna Sutton analyzed the development of the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire (SAOQ), an evaluation aiming to measure the impact of self-awareness on people’s lives.
She found that the SAOQ could adequately measure work-based outcomes based on performance, but more research is needed to outline the impacts of self-awareness on different cultures and lifestyles.
It’s possible to quantify the impacts of self-awareness in some cases, but there’s no concrete scale on which every person can measure themselves.
Rather than comparing yourself to a singular standard or to other peoples’ progress, the goal is to use quizzes, exercises, and activities to know yourself better. You can measure the impacts by applying revelations to your life, like switching jobs when you learn your current position doesn’t serve you or reaching out to a friend after realizing you were in the wrong.
8 general self-awareness activities for adults
Understanding yourself better can show you what you want (and don’t) in all aspects of your life and how these needs intersect. To get a clearer view of who you are in a broad sense, use the following self-awareness worksheets, activities, and ideas:
1. Journaling
Journaling is the act of writing down your thoughts. You can write about your day, process anxiety, or use a self-discovery prompt to get the ink flowing. Be as honest and unbounded as possible as you write, pouring out a stream of consciousness. Make observations later and reflect on what you wrote. Tracking trends and themes over time can make you more aware of your triggers, insecurities, and abilities.
2. Mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness means centering yourself in the present moment. And doing so on a regular basis can improve your self-awareness and help you manage stress.
Scan your body for feelings, tension, and relaxation. Attune to your surroundings, activating your senses —- listening to your environment or how the breeze feels on your skin. You’ll discover where you hold stress in the body and how you return to a more relaxed, aware state when stress recedes.
3. Self-awareness questions
Use self-discovery questions to explore yourself, whether you prefer to write them down or ponder them in quiet moments. Try “What motivates me?” or “How would I describe myself to others?” The answers to these questions likely already live inside of you, and you can quickly gain some self-awareness by extracting them.
4. Grounding techniques
Grounding yourself brings you into the present moment during moments of stress or anxiety. Try using a grounding sheet to write down the things you feel when you need to escape ruminating thoughts. You could also visualize your thoughts floating away, directing your attention to a feeling, or focusing on an object. This practice can make you more aware of your feelings and help you manage stress.
5. Therapy or coaching
Working with a mental health professional or coach is an excellent way to learn more about yourself. In therapy, a trained psychologist will help you unpack past experiences and understand your behaviors. Some will provide tools for regulating emotions and shifting reactions.
In coaching, you’ll tap into your inner motivations and receive pointed support in creating a plan to make changes. You’ll set goals for self-awareness and outline a clear path toward self-improvement, focusing on the future rather than the past.
6. Vision boards
Vision boards are virtual or physical spaces that you fill with inspiring images or phrases. These tools can help you visualize an ideal future in every aspect — from professional pursuits to places you hope to travel. Making a vision board puts you in touch with your desires and can help you decide what your goals are.
7. “The 3 whys”
“The 3 whys” is an activity that encourages you to push deeper into what you already know or feel. When you encounter a situation you’re unsure how you feel about, ask “why” three times or until you reach the root cause of your feelings.
If you have an interaction that felt off with your boss and are unsure how to interpret your reaction, ask yourself why you think you felt that way. Suppose your response is that your boss’ feedback felt too harsh. Ask yourself why you felt it was. Perhaps it highlighted an insecurity you already have. With that self-knowledge, you can approach future conversations with more clarity.
8. “Who am I?” worksheets
A “Who am I?” exercise is a tool therapists use to help their clients self-evaluate, and you can download a worksheet version to explore on your own. In this activity, you’ll first determine the critical parts of your identity, like being a software developer, a compassionate person, or an amateur painter. You’ll then write what each of these aspects of your personality means to you, learning to value who you already are.
4 self-awareness activities at work
It’s normal to feel like your work life needs a boost. You might want to improve your professional relationships, get a raise or promotion, or even shift careers. Practicing self-awareness at uncertain times can help you understand your dissatisfactions and desires. Here are four work-specific exercises:
9. Workplace personality tests
Workplace personality tests like CliftonStrengths or the Whole Person Assessment help you understand how you prefer to work and what assignments you thrive in. If you’re considering making a move in your career, whether up the ladder or to a different role, becoming more aware of your abilities can help you choose a route you’ll succeed in.
10. Goal-setting
Professional goal-setting allows you to identify changes you hope to make and routes to achieve them, making this activity an incredibly effective tool for someone feeling burnt out or lost. You can set daily, monthly, or even yearly goals to tackle development opportunities and get to know yourself better.
11. Performance reviews
Performance reviews are constructive feedback sessions that can help you understand strengths and areas for self-improvement. Take your next performance review conversation as an opportunity to gain awareness about yourself with help from an outside perspective. You could also use the Johari window model to help others identify your character traits.
3 self-awareness activities for students
If you’re getting a master’s degree or considering furthering your education, self-awareness exercises can help you pick a major or school. These self-discovery activities can help you explore future pathways and recognize your strengths in an educational setting:
12. “Sparks”
This activity refers to your interests, skills, and talents — in other words, your “spark.” If you’re feeling lost and need a reminder of what your personal strengths are, you can download a guide to try this exercise. Questions include, “What would you do for the rest of your life if you could only do one thing?” or “When do you feel happiest?”
13. Self-compliments
When you’re starting self-discovery, you might feel self-conscious or experience a lack of self-esteem. Just like how the “sparks” activity can help you acknowledge your talents, giving yourself compliments can remind you what you love about yourself. Examples of self-awareness affirmations you might write include “I’m great at math,” “I’m kind to my friends,” or “I like my sense of style.”
14. Thoughts-actions-feelings circles
A thoughts-actions-feelings circle encourages you to consider how what you think leads to behaviors, which lead to emotional reactions and, finally, more thoughts. When thoughts are negative, the resulting actions and feelings are, too.
Outlining your behavioral patterns in this circle teaches you to be more aware of the impacts of your thoughts. With practice, it can help you intentionally think positively.
3 other resources to increase self-awareness skills
You don’t always have to look inward to perform self-discovery. Others’ stories and insights can also help you learn about yourself. When you empathize and identify with others’ narratives, you locate the similarities in yours, learning more about yourself in the process. Here are three outward-looking tools for fostering personal development:
15. TED Talks
TED Talks, which are engaging short-form lectures from experts on everything from leadership to creativity, inspire conversation, ideas, and change. You can find talks on nearly every topic, so you can choose to watch a few on something you want to learn about yourself.
If you’re an entrepreneur struggling to launch a business, listen to an inspiring TED talk from an innovator. It could remind you to take lessons from an unexpected aspect of your life, like parenting, or lean into your vulnerability.
16. Podcasts
There’s a podcast on virtually every topic, making them an excellent resource if you wish to explore new interests and learn more about yourself. Listen to a mental-health-focused show to better understand the inner workings of your negative thoughts, or find one about self-confidence and how to love your future self. Insights from self-aware people can give you the problem-solving skills you need to curb biases and check in with yourself.
17. BetterUp articles
BetterUp’s blog contains a wealth of articles on well-being and the workplace. These articles can address questions like how to establish a better work-life balance, improve your inner dialogue, or develop an intentional self-care routine. They’re your guide as you explore yourself.
Make self-awareness a habit
When you reach roadblocks in your life, self-awareness activities can help you explore the problem and learn how to use your strengths to overcome it. But you can, and should, make self-reflection a regular practice, even when things are going well.
Ask yourself what’s working and acknowledge the value of the positive aspects of your life. You’ll improve emotional intelligence and decision-making skills — fostering a lifestyle and interactions that align with your desires and needs.
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