Big, stark truth: most people are not self-aware.

Now, what does self-aware mean? For me, it’s a very simple definition: your reported self matches your consistent behavioral patterns. That is—you are what you say you are, and what you think you are.

Now, who you are isn’t actually something you can measure very accurately—but other people could. Essentially, if the story you have about who you are matches what you do all the time, then you would be self-aware.

If there’s a dissonance between what you think you are and what you actually do, then you’re not self-aware.

Most people are either delusional—that’s the most common, I think. They’re convinced by their own mind about who they are, and they don’t see that there’s a dissonance with their behavior.

Or—they are aware of the dissonance, and they lie about it.

For example, somebody may say, “I’m an honest person,” even though they know they tell lies.
Or they say, “I’m an honest person,” and they don’t realize they tell lies—because they lie to themselves about the lies. They don’t even see it happening.

So most people are not self-aware.

In fact—the person who knows they’re lying is more self-aware than the person who doesn’t.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here: