360 Awareness – How big is your playground?

Human nature is first survival, then sustenance and finally growth.  How have you grown this year?   The need to grow, to advance yourself in personal and professional growth and development has never before been as important as it is in our world today.   

“If you are not growing, you’re dying”   ~ Wm. Burroughs

“When you stop growing, you start dying”  ~ Lou Holtz

When we stop growing and learning, life seizes to provide the excitement, joy, adventure, and satisfaction it once contained.   Boredom, repetition, and stories of our limiting and lackluster life begin to form.  Science validates the importance of neural development, as new findings show the adult brain continues to grow and develop throughout our entire life.  Studies also indicate that this development, this growth is mainly through outside stimuli.   Many successful individuals lay claim to their success to massive amounts of reading, learning, and striving to be a better version of themselves daily.   Which brings us to today’s topic of 360 Awareness. 

One of the most important skills to develop today is 360 Awareness.   If you are going to grow and develop it stands to reason that one would want to attain currently needed and desired skills in the workforce today.   Many have no idea how beneficial 360 Awareness is.   It not only advances one in their workplace environment, but the benefits encompass all of life’s key areas of desires and happiness.   It has the potential to affect self-actualization, relationships, community, time management,  and finances. 

You might be asking what is 360 Awareness?   360 Awareness is one’s ability to be fully present without an attachment or expectation in the current task or situation while expanding awareness to see other perceptions, opportunities, and outcomes.  It is expanding awareness to anticipate problems, conflicts, and solutions.

360 Awareness is necessary, in fact, required if AI and automation are to be developed and integrated successfully.  It will aid individuals in gaining a better understanding of self and others.  It literally has a plethora of advantages.   So let’s begin with the value and benefits 360 Awareness brings.      

 Let’s touch on each of these benefits to provide clarity and understanding.

The First one – seeing a bigger picture.   Imagine climbing up a ladder 10 rungs, the landscape looks a whole lot different below and you now have a larger picture of what you see.  You are given a larger landscape with which to observe.   The potential and possibilities available to you have just expanded.  

Second, higher levels of understanding” are available when one commits to the practices of 360 Awareness.   From my experience, this one is best experienced and really not understood on an intellectual, analytical, or cognitive level until it has been experienced.    As 360 Awareness is integrated into daily activities and practices, levels of understanding begin to shift and expand to reach higher levels of consciousness, empathy, and emotional intelligence.  

Third, emotional stability and control.   When 360 Awareness is developed and practiced one will attain the ability to have emotions, but not be controlled or have their state be altered by their emotions.   They  also gain the ability to notice another’s emotions and respond in ways that soften or diffuse the emotion by speaking with empathy instead of judgment or resistance.  

Fourth, is the ability to anticipate opportunity and outcome.   Stop for a moment and just imagine having the ability to notice more opportunities.  It is said that opportunities are all around us, we just have blinders on and cannot see beyond our narrow vision.   What if you could maintain your focus on the desired outcome and see ahead with the precision and accuracy of knowing when to shift your approach, thoughts, or delivery.  All of this and more is what 360 Awareness brings. 

Fifth, you gain confidence and clarity in your decision making.   It’s easy to begin to see how confidence and clarity are a natural consequence of 360 Awareness.   Bigger picture, greater awareness seem to offer one a competitive edge.   360 Awareness allows you to look objectively and consider all possibilities without judgment or attachment to skew your opinion.   

Sixth, to perceive challenges in advance.  What if you had the insight to head-off future challenges before they became obstacles or problems?   360 Awareness allows us the ability to look at all perceived outcomes and obstacles before they happen.   When we approach a situation with knowledge and insight to tackle a problem before it arises we are allowed to move forward in quantum leaps, ahead of the competition. 

And last in this list of benefits, is the ability to empower one with empathy.   Empathy empowers connection.  It provides the ability to take the perspective of another.   Empathy allows you to remain judgment-free, caring and concerned.  Empathy is feeling with another.   Empathic responses create and establish connection, respect, and happiness.  

Well, you now know a few of benefits of 360 Awareness, so how does one work to develop it?   One of the fastest and easiest ways is through a coaching and development program like the ones offered by Complete Solutions.   360 Awareness is touched on in Mastering M.E. and greatly focused on in Leadership MASTERY.    Empower your staff when you bring this topic in as training.   It begins with practicing awareness and then asking empowering questions.    The ability to ask empowering questions will develop in you as you strengthen your awareness and grow in consciousness.  Until then, a coach or mentor can serve to deliver the bigger, empowering questions.    

While asking empowering questions will keep you expanding in your 360 Awareness it is important to begin to apply some soft skills to begin to lay the foundation from which to building and expand your personal awareness.  This is where a coaching program or an on-going system of support, training, and accountability will really pay off.   The key is to keep expanding your awareness and reaching your personal best.    

I will leave you with a list of ways and means to 360 awareness.   But know that each of these bullet points below could be an entire article or workshop in itself.    

Here are some ways to begin increasing awareness: 

• notice your inner world
• tune in to your emotions
• be in your body, notice sensations, tensions
• listen to hear others
• become aware of your limiting blocks
• be clear on your vision
• focus
• push your comfort zone
• notice opportunity 
• strengthen your intuition
• be proactive
• cherish quiet time
• self-reflect
• pay attention to sights, sounds, and elements
• think about consequences 
• detach emotionally from situation to see another perspective
• analyze “what if’s”

This has been a summary and introduction into expanding your awareness to 360 Awareness.   Note that by nature we are all growing, learning, and changing every day.    I know I learn something new every day and I’m sure you do too.   Paying attention to these things, appreciating the new learning and growth will set the foundation for future growth to come with ease.   By practicing and applying these ideas and asking empowering questions you will be well on your way to greater awareness and higher consciousness.    If you enjoyed this and found it useful, please like and share.

If you have other tools or practices of expanding awareness, Please share them in an email to me @ donalee@complete-solutionsllc.com as I am always interested in other ways to grow in this area.    

I hope you enjoyed the topic of 360 Awareness.