On the 25th of September 2014 I received an email with the subject line: “You’ve received a gift from Tai Lopez!” It was the audiobook of Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker.
Back then, you could sign up for his program for a $5 flat fee and got the book on top. Boy was that a good decision. I listened to the audiobook the next day on my drive home (it’s just 45 minutes long).
I have never learned more about myself than in those 45 minutes.
Drucker walks you through the questions all knowledge workers (and today we’re all knowledge workers) have to ask to succeed:
- Who am I?
- What are my strengths?
- How do I work?
- Where do I belong?
- What is my contribution?
To find out your strengths, he suggests to use feedback analysis. Here’s how he describes this method:
Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Nine or 12 months later, compare the actual results with your expectations. I have been practicing this method for 15 to 20 years now, and every time I do it, I am surprised.
[…]
Practiced consistently, this simple method will show you within a fairly short period of time, maybe two or three years, where your strengths lie-and this is the most important thing to know.
Several implications for action follow from feedback analysis.
First and foremost, concentrate on your strengths. Put yourself where your strengths can produce results.
Second, work on improving your strengths. Analysis will rapidly show where you need to improve skills or acquire new ones.
Third, discover where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance and overcome it.
Other questions Drucker addresses in the book to help you cultivate self-awareness are:
- Am I a reader or a listener?
- How do I learn?
- Do I work well with people, or am I a loner?
- In what relationship do I work well with people?
- Do I produce results as a decision maker or an adviser?
- What are my values?
- What kind of person do I want to see when I look in the mirror in the morning?
- What should I contribute?
- Where and how can I have results that make a difference?
This book helped me set myself on the trajectory I’ve been on for the past 2.5 years. But it was just the first step on a long staircase. I try to take the next step every day.
Some other tests, quizzes and resources that have helped me become more self-aware since then are:
- The OLD test (Obsessive Learning Disorder)
- Strengthsfinder 2.0
- The Four Tendency Quiz
- The Jung Typology Test
- The Learning Style Quiz
- Your Bad Habit Breaking Style
Self-awareness is the fuel of success. Without it, you’ll be swinging the bat on the wrong side of the field. Or worse, on the wrong field altogether.
I hope you’ll find it faster than me. But to do that, one day you’ll have to start looking.
Make today that day.
