Quotes About Self-awareness

If I don't remain open to how I might be mistaken in this deeper way, I might live out my life convinced I was on the right side of a given conflict, but I won't have found lasting solutions

While it's true that she's doing everything she can think of, the problem is precisely that she can't see how she's the problem. Having the problem she has, nothing she can think of will be a solution.

when someone's in the box, the same pattern of mutual provocation and justification always emerges.

When leaders begin to take seriously the project of not taking themselves too seriously and begin collapsing the distinctions between themselves and others, they are positioned to begin scaling mindset change.

self-betrayal—times when I had a sense of something I should do for others but didn't do it.

Think about it: if I'm sure I'm right, there is little hope of seeing where I am failing. So I keep trying the same old things—the same lectures, for example, and the same punishments. And I keep getting the same outcomes: others with problems. On the one hand, I hate it, but on the other hand, I get my justification, which is what I most want when I'm in the box. My need for justification blinds me to all kinds of possibilities. Even to the obvious ones.

the differences between what we have to do to get something to happen and what everyone else in our organization has to do. Which of these are necessary or unavoidable, and which of them do we retain because we think we are better than others, more vital, and deserve special treatment?

Remember, the principle to apply is, as far as I am concerned, the problem is me. I am the place to start. Others' responses will depend mostly on what they see in me. The most important move is for me to make the most important move.

we construct our boxes through a lifetime of choices. Every time we choose to pull away from and blame another, we necessarily feel justified in doing so, and we start to plaster together a box of self-justification, the walls getting thicker and thicker over time.

pondered the question. "I doubt it. It's kind of tough to agree with people when they're criticizing you. You probably would have felt defensive if someone had accused you like that.

If I betray myself," Bud said as he backed away from the board, "my thoughts and feelings will begin to tell me that I'm justified in whatever I'm doing or failing to do." He

The most effective leaders lead in this single way: by holding themselves more accountable than all. Personal

The biggest help in finding my way forward and out of the box was finding an out-of-the-box place, or vantage point, within me.

a vantage point from where I could ponder my life in a new way free from the blame and self-justification of the box.

I can be on the lookout for signs of the various common boxes, for example—ways I'm feeling better-than, or entitled, or worse-than, or anxious to be seen-as. "Then when I feel stuck in the box and desire to get out, I can find an out-of-the-box place—some place within me that is unencumbered by these boxes.

you might try to identify the people toward whom you are generally and currently out of the box. Names will come to mind, and simply thinking about your experiences with those people can take you to a vantage point from where the world seems different than it did the moment before.

RECOVERING INNER CLARITY AND PEACE(FOUR PARTS) Getting out of the box 1. Look for the signs of the box (blame, justification, horribilization, common box styles, etc.). 2. Find an out-of-the-box place (out-of-the-box relationships, memories, activities, places, etc.). 3. Ponder the situation anew (i.e., from this out-of-the-box perspective).

RECOVERING INNER CLARITY AND PEACE(FOUR PARTS) Getting out of the box 1. Look for the signs of the box (blame, justification, horribilization, common box styles, etc.). 2. Find an out-of-the-box place (out-of-the-box relationships, memories, activities, places, etc.).

True thoughts are those alone which do not understand themselves.

The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass available.

Mary, it is sometimes permissible to lie to others, but it is never wise to lie to oneself.

How many people does each of us know who claim to seek happiness but freely choose paths inevitably leading to misery?

Yet because of the ignorance and stupidity of so many of those about him, he was able to consider himself at least fairly learned.

Remember always that the goal of awakening, of self-awareness, of living in higher consciousness is always about the very same thing that Christ brought into the world which is unconditional, agape love. (p. 92)