#94 Self-Awareness as a Cornerstone for Wellbeing with Susana Serrano-Davey CFO Mentor at GrowCFO

Self-awareness is key for well-being. When you know yourself well, you can make better decisions and thrive in all areas of your life – including your career. As a finance leader, it’s important to be self-aware so that you can set realistic goals and healthily manage stress. In this episode, Susana Serrano-Davey, our very own Executive Coach & Mentor at GrowCFO joins Kevin Appleby once again to discuss the importance of self-awareness as a cornerstone for wellbeing. We discuss the importance of self-awareness and how it can help you achieve success both professionally and personally. Susana gives some great advice on some practical things you can do to be more self-aware

Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and understand your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It’s an important part of well-being because it allows you to make healthy choices, set realistic goals, and healthily manage stress. When you’re self-aware, you’re more likely to achieve your goals and be successful in all areas of your life.

There are many benefits of self-awareness, but here are a few key ones:

• When you’re self-aware, you can make better decisions. You know your strengths and weaknesses, so you can make choices that are in line with your values and goals.
• When you’re self-aware, you’re more resilient. You know your triggers and how to manage them, so you’re less likely to be derailed by setbacks.
• When you’re self-aware, you have a better understanding of other people. You can see things from their perspective and build relationships that are based on trust and mutual respect.

Self-awareness is an important part of well-being, and it’s something that you can work on every day. Susana gives us some practical strategies:

• Get feedback, how do people perceive you?
• Understand your feelings, and why you feel a certain way
• Learn more about your personality
• Make sure you meet your own needs before others

Listen to the full episode to find out more.

Links

• Mentoring at GrowCFO with Susana Serrano-Davey
• Susana Serrano-Davey on LinkedIn
• Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn
• Episode 93 with Leanne Spencer on Well-being
• Episode 74 Personality types with Merrick Rosenberg
• Episode 71 Strengthsfinder with Jim Brophy
• 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Timestamps

00:41 The previous episode with Leanne Spencer about well-being and beating burnout

01:15 No point in achieving your goals and being unhappy

03:37 You really need to know more about yourself

05:22 How others perceive us

10:03 Getting feedback from others

13:45 Becoming aware of your personality type

16:47 Using personality profiling tests (we referenced DISC and Strengthsfinder tests covered in previous episodes with Merrick Rosenberg and Jim Brophy)

19:16 Connect with your feelings

21:43 The link between a crisis and becoming depressed

23:04 Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

24:34 Understand your needs

28:04 Dealing with recurring issues and problems

30:33 Making time and space for yourself

34:01 Susana’s book

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