Let awareness put you on.

Congratulations, you’re aware. Now what?

We often celebrate awareness as if it’s the end goal or as if simply knowing is enough. But what is the use of awareness if it doesn’t lead to change?

Awareness is simply the ability to recognize and understand what is happening around you and within yourself. But without action it is only the beginning. Awareness without action is like recognizing you’re hungry and then refusing to eat. It’s a starting point, not the destination.

The message I want to send across is that being aware of your habits, your desires, or even your traumas is just the beginning of a much longer journey. The real question is, what are you going to do with that awareness? Will you let it sit there, or will you take responsibility to act on it? Responsibility is exactly what awareness comes with.

Most of us are comfortable with being aware of issues within ourselves, but we are not as welcoming to the responsibility to take action. For example, some people are aware that their childhood caused trauma in them that causes certain unhealthy behaviours in them today yet they do not take the steps to address or heal that trauma for personal development.

I’m not diminishing the value of awareness; it’s an important skill and a critical step. However, we mustn’t stop there. The reason why people normally stop at awareness is because of the comfort of the known. Awareness feels comfortable because it’s reflective, and not challenging in that it doesn’t require immediate change.

Anything that does not require one to step out of the comfort zone definitely hinders growth. However I have noticed within myself, and people around me sometimes that awareness can create an illusion of growth, making people feel like they’ve achieved something significant without actually doing the hard work.

For instance, I have long identified my desire to update this blog, driven by my love for writing and building a portfolio, all factors I am aware of. Simply being aware of these did not help me to share an article, only through action has the blog been updated.

Personally I do not know which are the areas of your life in which you have identified problems or desires but now after that recognition, the real work begins. It is time to turn your awareness into actions. Set goals. seek help, make changes, and hold yourself accountable. With awareness, you have only just scratched the surface of personal growth.

Can you identify any one area of your life where you’ve stopped at awareness and how you can take responsibility and move forward?