Discover Your True North

4Self-Awareness

Know Thyself.

—Inscribed at the temple wall at Delphi in Greece during the sixth century BC

Self-awareness is the foundation of authenticity, and thus it is at the center of your compass. You develop it by exploring your life story and then understanding the meaning of your crucibles. As you do this, you need to understand who you are at a deeper level. This is hard work but an essential step in your development as a leader. A foundation of self-awareness leads to self-acceptance and ultimately self-actualization so that you can fulfill your greatest potential.

Arianna Huffington: Redefining Success

In 2007, Arianna Huffington's career was on a rapid upward trajectory. Several years after starting the Huffington Post, her celebrity was rising, and she was featured on magazine covers. Time chose her as one of the world's 100 Most Influential People.

Then she had a wake-up call. One day she found herself lying on the floor of her home office in a pool of blood, having collapsed from exhaustion. She explained:

On my fall, my head hit the corner of my desk, cutting my eye and breaking my cheekbone. I went from doctor to doctor, from brain MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to CAT (computed axial tomography) scan to ECG (electrocardiogram), to find out if there was any underlying medical problem beyond exhaustion. There wasn't, but doctors' waiting rooms proved to be good places to ask myself deeper questions about the kind of life I was living.

The gravity of ...