Nagle Notes: Self-awareness

Hello people of the future,

I want to share an excerpt from an old email newsletter from Mark Manson all about self-awareness:

I think there’s a key distinction to be made between self-awareness and self-consciousness.

Self-awareness is the simple noticing and acknowledgement of whatever’s rattling around inside your brain. You notice that you’re feeling angry. You notice that you are having trouble focusing. You notice that you think your co-worker’s story about their weekend is dumb and think to yourself, “Nobody cares.”

Self-awareness is like sitting on the park bench of your own mind, watching the thoughts and feelings and impulses walk by. Sometimes, it’s a shitshow in our mental park. There’s trash everywhere, a bunch of screaming kids fighting with one another, maybe a crack addict rummaging through the garbage cans.

And this is where self-consciousness comes in…

Self-consciousness is the judgment of what is happening within our minds. Noticing that we’re irritable on a Monday morning is self-aware. Worrying that we are an asshole for being irritable is self-conscious. Thinking a co-worker’s story is dumb is self-aware. Believing that you are a horrible co-worker and a bad human being for thinking their story is dumb is self-conscious.

If self-awareness is simply sitting in our mental park and watching our inner hobo take a shit on the children’s slide, self-consciousness is running around the park screaming, “This is all wrong! Stop! Make it stop!”

Self-consciousness makes us more insecure and anxious because it attempts to hold our inner life to some arbitrary standard created by our outer life.

- Mark Manson

Self-awareness is a skill everyone can improve at. Instead of judging yourself, simply working on being aware can help you have a more enjoyable experience of life.

Onwards,
Nagle

PS: Interesting Links
I have started a Pokémon draft league with some friends and will be posting the videos on my YouTube. Here's the link for the first week: Pokémon Draft League Week 1

Are you smarter than a 5th Grader? now check out How 5th Graders Think

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