Be aware of your thoughts and words.
Be aware of adversity and its purpose. 
Be aware of what is in your control and what is not. 
Be aware of your emotional response.
Be aware that our mind gravitates toward the negatives.
Be aware of the practice needed to achieve what you want.

This week, as I continue to delve into six awarenesses needed in our lives, I will examine being aware of adversity and its purpose. A few weeks ago, I shared the following about being aware of what is in your control and what is not:

Be aware of the practice needed to achieve what you want. Practice is how we turn the first five things described above into who we are. There is a learning zone, and there is a comfort zone. To add these ideals as a permanent part of our life, we have to put them into practice. We have to move out of our comfort zones and lean into the discomfort of learning. We must be aware that learning is rarely comfortable and take advantage of opportunities to grow when they occur.

We can spend so much time in our lives– with our eyes looking down, focused on our next step, that we fail to look up at what we want and how we can get there. To get better at anything, we must study, have focused repetitions, push ourselves to the edge of our ability, and fail. Mistakes create feedback and show us ways to get better. 

Once we have decided what we want to achieve, there is a period where we need to learn and study what it takes to get to that outcome. We must prepare for the journey in order to get there. That preparation does not come from staring at our feet; it comes from visualizing what we want and deciding the path needed to get there. Performance follows preparation, and preparation cannot be rooted in fantasy or sagnation. Preparation is rooted in observing facts and understanding the ins and outs of what is to be accomplished. We have to study first; then we can move. 

Once we begin moving, there must be focused repetitions at whatever we want to improve. We have to focus and practice. Training must push us to the edge of our ability. If we stay comfortable, we will never get better. We must move into discomfort; we must move to the edge of our current limits and then beyond.

Yes, this process will create struggle. This process will create failures, but mistakes create feedback for what needs to be done differently. If we always get it right, we are playing it safe and never learn how to do anything better. We must push. We must understand that we will fail, but this is necessary if we want to get better. 

I intentionally listed this awareness last because I feel it sums up the past couple of months of posts. Awareness is a vital part of our success; I believe these six specific awarenesses can create a disciplined path to that success. We are not naturally good at any of these awarenesses. Some are evolutionarily built into our brains; others just make us uncomfortable. To get better at them, we must use deliberate practice. There must be reps. There must be set-backs that provide feedback. But first, there must be awareness.