Self Awareness

Why self-awareness?

This really started, with my becoming an Innermetrix Consultant – which immediately led to a fascination in axiology (or formal axiology, or axiological science.. whatever..)

As an Innermetrix Consultant, the Genius Study kind of shook my world. Basically showing that the more self-awareness we had, the more authentic we could be, and the more successful we were (the more value we had) in our work, and lives. And so to be true to ourselves, first requires that we know ourselves. And the Innermetrix Advanced Insights, was, and probably still is – the most powerful (but not the only) tool for building reliable self-awareness.

In terms of axiology, the Hartman Value Profile, was one part of the three part Innermetrix Advanced Insights. And by far the most valuable part for me.

“The most fundamental presuppositions of axiological science are that human personalities and behaviors are structured around human values, that values are the keys to our personalities, and that by measuring values we can gain powerful insights into who people are and what they are likely to do.” ^[1]Preface to the Hartman Value Profile Manual of Interpretation 2nd edition 2006, Leon Pomeroy, Ph.D.

This may well start with something as simple as knowing what is good and bad for us. Situations, people, things, contexts, environments. What’s important, is to understand that the goodness and badness doesn’t exist within the thing itself – what is good or bad for us, depends on the combination of us and the thing. Some things are good for some people, and bad for others. Value – is different to goodness and badness. A bad thing, can have certain value in certain contexts. A good thing can not have value in certain contexts.

The things themselves – remain static. They don’t change. And so it  is ‘us’ that needs to be understood – as it is ‘us’ that makes a thing good or bad – for us. We are not good or bad, we are are ‘good for’ and ‘bad for’ – i.e. our value is contextual in terms of the world. BUT – our value is inherent in terms of our basic human-ness.

We all have the right to respect, appreciation, love, acceptance. As a human being.

BUT – our behaviours are contextual, and are subject to approval or disapproval – depending on what the context (other people, or our health/pleasure) requires. So  we (our behaviours) can be ‘good for’ some people, and ‘bad for’ others. We (our behaviours) can be ‘good in’ some contexts, and ‘bad in’ others.

Axiology, as mentioned above – presupposes that our behaviours are driven by our values. Behaviours, are a product of thinking and decision making. For the purposes of this subject – feelings – are seen as a part of thinking – the part the brain uses to attribute importance. The more emotion or feeling there is attached to a thought or idea, the more important it is.

So our brain gathers information, through our senses – processes that information (applies historical data to the current situation, to assess likely outcomes in advance) – and makes decisions on the best action to take.

How it thinks and makes decisions – is value based, not purely information based. The more value an ‘idea’ has, the more likely it is to be chosen as the best idea.