Understand me, Understand others, Be Understood

Steven Covey’s 5th Habit of Highly Effective People is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. He says further that seeking to be understood takes courage.
 
May I suggest that it is futile to expect others to understand you when you don’t understand yourself? I think it takes even more courage to understand who is staring back at you in the mirror so that you can, then, help other people to understand you. We are seeking first to understand ourselves, then to understand others.
 
The next part is where we gather our courage: in an authentic, respectful and firm manner explain ourselves and how we perceive a situation or person, seeking to be understood. Not submitting or giving up part of ourselves to another.
 
It takes maturity, self-confidence and a measure of assertiveness.
 
Personal development coaching is the perfect vehicle for getting to know and understand yourself better. It also creates self-awareness and the appreciation that it is ok to be you and that it is ok for other people to be them. The tools and techniques that we learn during coaching empower us for successful engagement with others. Contact me if you would like to find out more.