Discover your true self and align your life journey around your core beliefs, values and perspective.
Designed as both a companion piece to the author's previous book, The Power of Understanding People, and a stand-alone work, The Power of Understanding Yourself provides readers with a blueprint for examining their true purpose and approach to life and a map for achieving greater personal happiness, professional success and self-awareness.
It explores personal attributes related to interactive style, diving deeper into the concepts from the author's previous book, provides exercises for exploring how to connect your current life status to a desired future state and encourages readers to engage in a deep exploration of their core values, beliefs, mission and vision to become their best self.
- Find the key to self-discovery and personal development
- Uncover your true purpose
- Use helpful exercises to reveal the best you
- Develop strategies to maximize your potential
The Power of Understanding Yourself is an empowering tool to help you find your best possible self and flourish.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Part One: The Grape
Chapter 1: Metacognition: The Process of Evaluating “The Juice” 3
Metacognition versus Self-Awareness 4
Thinking About Our Thoughts 5
Choosing to Extract Me 8
Your Cognitive Schemas Make You Unique 9
Chapter 2: Locus of Control: You Are the Winemaker 13
Delusions, Control, and Disappointment 14
Finding Your Locus of Control 16
Chapter 3: Alignment: From Vine to Bottle 23
Inputs and Outputs 24
Horizontal Alignment 26
Chapter 4: Core Ideology: The Crush of Juice,Stems, Skins, and Seeds 31
Examining Inputs 34
Assessing Your Desired Outputs 36
Identifying Your Core Ideology 42
Vertical Alignment 47
Part Two: The Style
Chapter 5: What’s My Style? Shades of Me 51
Understanding Interactive Style 55
Chapter 6: Experts: It’s About the Process for Me 63
Meeting the Expert 64
The Behavioral Cues (or lack thereof) of Experts 65
An Expert Is a Wine’s Acidity 67
Chapter 7: Romantics: It’s About the People for Me 71
Meeting the Romantic 72
Putting Others’ Happiness before Your Own 73
Reframing Childhood Trials 74
A Romantic Is a Wine’s Sweetness 76
Chapter 8: Masterminds: It’s About the Possibilities for Me 79
Meeting the Mastermind 80
Breaking the Rule in Order to Follow the Rule 82
A Mastermind Is a Wine’s Fruit 86
Chapter 9: Warriors: It’s About the Pace and the Point for Me 89
Meeting the Warrior 90
No Room for Interesting Details 92
A Warrior Is a Wine’s Tannin 94
Part Three: The Balance
Chapter 10: Punching Down the Cap: The Pursuit of Balance 99
Finding the Right Balance 100
The Good and Bad of Stress 103
Chapter 11: Punching Down the Expert Style Influence on Me 107
Complementary Versus Contrasting Balance 110
An Expert with a Secondary Romantic (lowest score A column, next-lowest score B column) 111
An Expert with a Secondary Mastermind (lowest score A column, next-lowest score C column) 115
An Expert with a Secondary Warrior (lowest score A column, next-lowest score D column) 119
Extracting Me Worksheet 121
Chapter 12: Punching Down the Romantic Style Influence on Me 123
A Romantic with a Secondary Expert (lowest score B column, second-lowest score A column) 126
A Romantic with a Secondary Mastermind (lowest score B column, second-lowest score C column) 128
A Romantic with a Secondary Warrior (lowest score B column, second-lowest score D column) 131
Extracting Me Worksheet 134
Chapter 13: Punching Down the Mastermind Style Influence on Me 135
A Mastermind with a Secondary Expert (lowest score C column, next-lowest score A column) 138
A Mastermind with a Secondary Romantic (lowest score C column, next-lowest score B column) 142
A Mastermind with a Secondary Warrior (lowest score C column, next-lowest score D column) 143
Extracting Me Worksheet 147
Chapter 14: Punching Down the Warrior Style Influence on Me 149
A Warrior with a Secondary Expert (lowest score D column, next-lowest score A column) 152
A Warrior with a Secondary Romantic (lowest score D column, next-lowest score B column) 154
A Warrior with a Secondary Mastermind (lowest score D column, next-lowest score C column) 157
Extracting Me Worksheet 159
Chapter 15: An Example of Punching Down Your Own Style 161
Analyzing My Assessment 163
Part Four: The Vintage
Chapter 16: Veraison: The Evolution of Me 171
A Shift in Perspective 174
Holy &#!* 176
Identifying Your Veraison 180
Chapter 17: Age-Worthy: Maintaining the Best Me 183
Becoming Better with Age 184
An Endless Appetite for Learning 185
Civil Conversations for Understanding Different Perspectives 189
Aging Well Physically 193
A Plan for Greater Achievement 195
Epilogue: Uncorking Me 197
Extracting Me Worksheet 199
About the Author 209
Index 211
