I think in the past I have treated knowing myself and understanding how I am as an intellectual exercise, rather than a tool for learning and growing.
Although I consider myself to be pretty self-aware, I can be quite resistant to trying new things and adapting my behaviour.
In order for me to continue practicing compassion and open-mindedness towards others, I need to learn to become less self-critical and afford myself more grace and patience in my learning.
If you consciously take time to understand the perspectives and experiences of others, you will have more success in collaborating with and learning from them.
Knowing who you are and what is important to you informs how you interact with everything. You can become more able to communicate your ideas, as well as stay motivated, if you genuinely care about the goal you are working towards.
I was surprised by how much time we ended up spending on it. I think I also expected the core learning to be more generalised and less personal.
Writing the blogs for sure. Trying out the experimental exercises and even asking myself these reflective questions was already out of my comfort zone. Then the act of trying to summarise and share these reflections with strangers made me very uncomfortable at first.
It makes sense that companies want to hire people who have strong communication and interpersonal skills, who are self-aware, open-minded and ready to learn. But I also think these skills are beneficial even when we are working alone. Being less self-critical and fixed in our idea of ourselves makes us more likely to push outside our comfort zone, learn new things, and be less afraid to try or to fail.
This is a little hard for me to answer. I think I have spent at least half of my working hours in foundations doing Core Learning. And for me this is the part of foundations I found largely more challenging and less enjoyable. I would have been excited to spend more time programming.
But I can see why this journey into self-awareness and EQ learning is valuable in getting us prepared to work in a collaborative environment which will include long hours and stressful situations. Having compassion, resilience, and good communication will make a big difference.