Self Awareness

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are almost 7 billion people living in the world today (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html).   Other than those who are either psychologically challenged or drug affected, I don’t think there is even one person who thinks he or she is perfect.   To this day, I have not come across anyone who doesn’t have at least a few character traits that they wouldn’t like to change.   So how does one begin the process of changing a particular behavior?   Well, simply stated, we can’t change what we do not have   knowledge of.   We have to first be aware of our personal behavior and how it affects others, before we can make a conscious decision to change it.   Self-awareness plays a crucial part in individual development and improvement.   By being more aware of ourselves we not only identify areas to improve, i.e., interpersonal skills, leadership, family relationships, and work performance, but we also identify strengths that we can exploit to be a more productive member of society.   As a Field Grade officer, the self-assessment module has provided insight and techniques that will assist me in my duties over the next 10 years of my career.
Identifying and addressing personal weaknesses is a difficult task for most; however, it is critical for individual development.   There are many areas of our lives that can be affected by increased self-awareness.   Probably one of the most important is interpersonal skills, or how we interact with each other.   Without awareness, we could never affect character traits that quite often lead to difficult personal and professional relationships and scenarios.   Everything we do in life to a certain extent involves personal interaction, the significance of improving those skills is clearly evident.   Even the most competent individuals have been rendered ineffective due to a lack of interpersonal skills; however, often the individual is not even aware of the problem.  
Another very important benefit...