A life lesson which made me aware of self-awareness

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to notice some things which I was never conscious about. Under the fresh layers of snow I started to feel the hard and icy track. From that point I knew that if I lose this feeling then I’m off-track. If I can stay on the track, I can’t get lost or fall down from a cliff or end up in the cave of something that will try to eat me. Now comes the next challenge. Hovering down was too slow. There was a high probability that the elevators will be shut down if the conditions worsen, so I needed to get down to the “base camp” as quick as possible, then get down to my car. I had to speed up. But how to go blindly?<figure id="b4ee"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*aMGljwvVhEggzGq8xugfzg.jpeg"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>I turned my attention back to the vibes of the board. If I can feel the track under my feet, I will surely feel the bumps as well. Generally in clear conditions the general solution is to go around the bumps or go through them by force. One thing is clearly not working, go through the bumps unprepared. So what I figured out is that if I feel the bump at the right or left edge of a bump, then I need to turn. If I get a hit from the front, then I need to squat and push so I can keep my stability. This way I could get down the slopes in a relatively good speed without falling an I could get home safely.The reason I’m sharing this experience because it made me wonder a lot how I perceive the world around me, not only in my private life but al

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so at work. We rely on what we see and hear too much, and we ignore most of the information coming from our environment. As a Business Analyst and as a Product Owner a significant amount of my work is to discover the pain points of the customers (and end-users) and to mitigate the tension between stakeholders by communicating, communicating and communicating, and I can’t afford to only rely on what I see and hear, but I could also say I can’t rely on looking, I need to see, I can’t rely on hearing, I need to learn to listen. And I can only learn to be aware of others when I practice self-awareness. So this is what I tried:<ul><li>I read books about body language, my favorite so far is “What every body is saying” from Joe Navarro.</li><li>I attended some mindfulness sessions. To be honest I did not like it and I think it can be pretty harmful if you use this technique to suppress stress and other issues, but it can teach you how can you be more aware of your bod.</li><li>I ended up doing martial arts. It’s a perfect mix train your body and your mind and a great way to practice focus, situational awareness and self-awareness. It’s really a miracle.</li></ul>There might be other ways as well, I encourage you to find an activity which suits you and helps you practice self-awareness, it will move you forward as a person and also as a professional.If you enjoyed reading this article, please support me with a few claps and please follow me. Thank you!</article></body>

A life lesson which made me aware of self-awareness

A few years ago when I was quite new in Switzerland I got hooked on snowboarding again. I got so obsessed with it that I started to go every weekend without any planning. I woke up, checked the forecast and I was good to go in half an hour to some tracks an hour away. After a few occasions I got so self-confident that I started to ignore the clear no-go signs of the weather forecast, telling myself that I can deal with it. This is how I ended up in a snowstorm.

It started as a heavy snowfall, with no wind at all. When the wind is not blowing, the snowflakes grow into big white balls like the ones you can see in cartoons. Two things are very spectacular about these kind of snowfalls, the silence and the infinite whiteness. The snowflakes in the air absorb every noise and voice, the fresh snow on the ground deadens every jump, step and slide. Visibility is reduced to one or two meters, if you have glasses on, then it becomes nearly impossible to see anything. The infinite whiteness embraced me like an invisible bed sheet, shutting down all senses I normally rely on. I had only one input, the steepness of the mountain, so at least I knew which way is supposed to be “down”, but how this will help me? Not having any choices (except turning back which was more unacceptable than risking myself), I decided to just slide down and figure out the rest on the move.

After a few meters of panic I started to notice some things which I was never conscious about. Under the fresh layers of snow I started to feel the hard and icy track. From that point I knew that if I lose this feeling then I’m off-track. If I can stay on the track, I can’t get lost or fall down from a cliff or end up in the cave of something that will try to eat me. Now comes the next challenge. Hovering down was too slow. There was a high probability that the elevators will be shut down if the conditions worsen, so I needed to get down to the “base camp” as quick as possible, then get down to my car. I had to speed up. But how to go blindly?

I turned my attention back to the vibes of the board. If I can feel the track under my feet, I will surely feel the bumps as well. Generally in clear conditions the general solution is to go around the bumps or go through them by force. One thing is clearly not working, go through the bumps unprepared. So what I figured out is that if I feel the bump at the right or left edge of a bump, then I need to turn. If I get a hit from the front, then I need to squat and push so I can keep my stability. This way I could get down the slopes in a relatively good speed without falling an I could get home safely.

The reason I’m sharing this experience because it made me wonder a lot how I perceive the world around me, not only in my private life but also at work. We rely on what we see and hear too much, and we ignore most of the information coming from our environment. As a Business Analyst and as a Product Owner a significant amount of my work is to discover the pain points of the customers (and end-users) and to mitigate the tension between stakeholders by communicating, communicating and communicating, and I can’t afford to only rely on what I see and hear, but I could also say I can’t rely on looking, I need to see, I can’t rely on hearing, I need to learn to listen. And I can only learn to be aware of others when I practice self-awareness. So this is what I tried:

I read books about body language, my favorite so far is “What every body is saying” from Joe Navarro.

I attended some mindfulness sessions. To be honest I did not like it and I think it can be pretty harmful if you use this technique to suppress stress and other issues, but it can teach you how can you be more aware of your bod.

I ended up doing martial arts. It’s a perfect mix train your body and your mind and a great way to practice focus, situational awareness and self-awareness. It’s really a miracle.

There might be other ways as well, I encourage you to find an activity which suits you and helps you practice self-awareness, it will move you forward as a person and also as a professional.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please support me with a few claps and please follow me. Thank you!