The Importance of Self-Assment

So often we hear people talk about how they are caught up in "the same old rut." Their days, they say, are the same with little variation from one to the other. While I can certainly understand how people might feel this way - I know I certainly do from time to time - the fact is it is not true. No two days are the same no matter that we might eat lunch at the same time, interact with the same folks, watch the same television shows or walk the dog in the morning and at night. But while each of those activities may be similar, they are also quite different because of us. We are not the same every day. We just may feel we are because what we do - our routine activities - do not vary all that much.

We should not confuse who we are with what we do. For the record, I also believe we are not what we eat despite the popularity of that particular observation. Each day a new us appears. One morning, for example, we may be super groggy because we did not sleep all that well. Other mornings we may leap out of bed because our smoke alarm went off and we thought the house was on fire. These particular scenarios have an impact on us as we proceed with the rest of the day. They affect our moods, our perceptions, our interactions, and our choices. Granted, the impact may be slight, but the fact is it may also be significant. Either way and irregardless of what scenario occurs that does affect our psyche, it is enough to alter us on a constant basis; enough to make us ever-changing.

This reality is one reason why communication is so important to us as individuals. To begin, we need to be able to communicate honestly with ourselves as to what our emotional temperature is on any given day and at any given time. Secondly, we then need to determine our communication strategies with others based on what our self-assessment tells us. If our objective is to work well others and we know we are in a grumpy mood, for instance, then we need to devise particular communication strategies that do not let that grumpiness get in the way of our goal of getting along. Sure, this kind of day-to-day challenge can seem a bit overwhelming. But communicating well with ourselves pales in comparison to the challenge of making amends with others because we failed to properly assess where we are at any given moment.