- Self awareness is the first dimension of emotional intelligence.
- Want to discover who you are and what you are about? Need to find your calling and do great work?
- Read how I discovered the purpose of my life and put it to work, and learn how you can do the same.
By Francois Basili, President, HumaNext LLC
We usually smile in a mix of recognition and dismissiveness when we hear the famous question: What is the meaning of life? It's a question many philosophers have struggled with for centuries. Most religions and spiritual movements have attempted to provide answers. Yet few people have settled for a definite, totally satisfying answer to that question.
I have been struggling with this question myself for years. Even though I'm the founder and operator of a thriving training business (HumaNext) that now serves the training and development needs of people and organizations around the world, I'm also, and perhaps fundamentally, a poet (I had a book of poetry published in 1998). After years of going nowhere with that question, I've recently arrived at what resembles a revelation which I'm excited to share with you.
It dawned upon me that the reason for not finding a satisfying answer is that all along I have been asking the wrong question. The question of "what is the meaning of life?" is too abstract. The more relevant question I should be asking is "What is the meaning of my life?" and because the word "meaning" is also a bit abstract and too philosophical, the more practical question to ask is "What is the purpose of my life?"
My further readings and research in this area, together with more work on personal profiling, assessment, and understanding have lead me closer and closer to the answer. Finally, my work in the area of emotional intelligence while developing our training program, "Applying Emotional Intelligence at Work" has provided me with the exciting opportunity of looking deeper into "Self Awareness" as one of the key dimensions of emotional intelligence.
In developing the "Applying Emotional Intelligence at Work" training workshop, I offer two practical activities or processes for self awareness and discovery. The first is an activity called "The Life Picture Exercise" where you draw a panoramic picture of your life, with all of its milestone events, influential persons, and major accomplishments. Then you do some analysis and understanding of your life picture and discuss them with others.
In looking at my life's picture, I saw that in my early years I was interested in city planning, where I got my Masters degree from New York University. I wanted to learn how to design better cities for people to live in. But then my interest quickly shifted away, and I became interested in human communication, then in business and entrepreneurship, then in technology and the internet, then in learning and training. In each stage, I thought I was interested in that particular subject and I thought it would be my life's calling. I kept learning and reading books in all these topics with great appetite and thirst for knowledge in that field.
It finally dawned on me that what I was interested in, what gave me the utmost pleasure was not learning the particular subject, but the learning process itself. I was interested in all learning. I wanted to understand everything as a way of understanding how life worked. And once I understood something, I wanted to explain it to others by writing about it, or training people in the topic, or starting a training business that offers a large number of training programs and learning tools, as well as workshops I personally develop and deliver.
The second activity that helped my self-discovery was what we call "Discovering Your Genius" exercise, where you come up with specific words that best describe your essence, or your life's calling. But what is this thing we call "your genius"?
Your Genius is the exceptional power and energy that come most naturally to you. It's your unique gift, the essence of your personality, and the reason for your being. In your work and career: Your genius has been the source of satisfaction and success in work you have done in the past and will do in the future. Spiritually: Your genius can be thought of as the energy of your soul and the answer to the question of why you exist on earth and what you bring to the world and the human community. In its day to day manifestation, your genius is the major reason why some situations feel just right while others feel just awful.
Discovering your genius has many benefits: It gives you a stronger sense of identity, grants you a clearer sense of direction, increases your self confidence and provides you with the language to communicate your contributions to the world and the way you benefit others.
After doing the two activities and several months of contemplation and refinements, the purpose of my life became crystal clear: To fully apply myself and work my genius so as to advance human development and life's progress. So the process of answering the question is two folds; first to discover your genius, and then to apply your genius in a particular way (career, business, profession, position, work, or mission).