Being self-aware comes in a few forms. One of them is to know your strengths and weaknesses - what lies within your circle of competence, and what lies outside of it. Whether you want to always stay within your strengths and circle of competence, or always seek to expand the circle and work on your weaknesses and areas of development - there is no right answer to this.

Another form of self awareness is to be aware of your thoughts. Are you aware of what you are thinking at every waking moment in your life? A lack of self awareness is how anger, attachment, competitiveness, and other negative sentiments come into your mind and stay rent-free. As human beings, we have the unique ability to “zoom out” and think about our thoughts - our brains can investigate itself.

Always keep an eye on your current thoughts. Are there hints of anger, attachment, and competitiveness within them? Do they disturb your psyche, or lead you to negative, useless, or even harmful thoughts? Are these thoughts useless, because they lead to nothing but a waste of time and energy, or harmful, because they lead to harm, to both others and yourself?

Learn to be self-aware, and think about your thoughts. Think about anger, attachment, and competitiveness, and whether they creep into your everyday thoughts - and from there, into your everyday words and your everyday actions.

Don’t always trust our thoughts, or be defensive about them. A simple quote by comedian Emo Philips sums it up: “I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.”

Once we learn to always think about our thoughts, we may find then that it will be easier to be happy.