In our lexicon self-consciousness has a weakness connotation.

We have been conditioned to think of 'self-conscious' people as timid people, people who cower under negative self-images.

Let's give this another think.

Better still, let's replace it all with constructive thought.

Self-consciousness is a good thing:

• It means the person is giving some thought to self...it’s an acknowledgement that thinking about self is an important thing to do.
• It means the person is aware of self...it’s a foundation upon which self-control can grow.
• It means the person is growing knowledge of self…it’s the vital step toward self-improvement.

Like all other skills self-awareness, self-control, self-knowledge and self-improvement require guidance and relentless practise. And practise leads to mastery of skills when its guidance-system is housed in an educated, open and self-conscious mind. So, self-consciousness leads to strength in thought and action. Conversely, strength cannot exist when self-consciousness is absent.

Never should we assume self-conscious thought and awareness is only directed toward the negatives. For each of us, self is the essential ingredient. We ought to be conscious of that. And, we ought to wrap that consciousness in constructive mindsets, allowing as little room as possible for negativity.

We face an awesome choice – we can choose to accept self-conscious thought as the recipe for finding our most-positive things…like our talent, our courage, our confidence, our conviction, & our curiosity.

Above and beyond everything else, Courage is the mind state that promotes positive mental attitude.

Like every other mind state, with focused and persistent effort, Courage can be developed.

Courage is about facing fears and acting against them. So, Courage is a mind state laced with emotion. It is a mind state where fear is tamed and transformed into something more positive and constructive.

Often, Courage is developed accidentally - for example when someone acts impulsively in reaction to a dangerous or fearful situation.

Deeply rooted Courage can also be developed intentionally with forethought and planned action steps.

People know what causes them to feel fear. People can anticipate most of the situations that cause them fear. As one example, people can anticipate other people’s actions that cause them to experience fear. More specifically, in business, people can anticipate the specific actions their bosses do that trigger feelings of fear.

Most of the situations that cause us to be fearful can be anticipated. 

Because we have this ability to anticipate fearful situations we also have the ability to plan ways to counteract those fearful situations before they visit us. In summary, we can role-play fearful situations in our minds long before those fearful situations happen in reality. While we role-play those fearful situations in our mind we can role-play various reactions to those fearful situations and, in effect, we can train ourselves in advance on the best ways to react to fearful situations. Then, later, when fearful situations arise in real life we can face them and take pre-planned actions. And, because we know what we are doing and why we are doing it we can be more objective. We can 'self-analyse' to assess, rate, adjust, and improve our performance in fear-situations. Following this approach we can improve our handling of fear-situations and build Courage until we reach the level of Courage we desire.

The more fearful situations we can anticipate and plan for the more opportunities we will have to test different fear-countering actions… the goal being ‘fear management’...i.e., Courage.

The process described here helps us master our fears, build Courage, and build self-confidence. This is the optimum process for development of Courage because we control the pace and we get first-hand feedback as we succeed in small steps. It is also an excellent way to build self-confidence, that state of mind where we know we have the ability to address and handle situations when we face them.

Courage and self-confidence are the states of mind most conducive to building positive mental attitudes toward other people and situations and, of more importance, toward ourselves.

When it comes to personal values, there are a handful of common Hot Buttons where differing views about personal values cause problems. Examples include: money, failure to deliver on commitments, personal organization and timeliness, attitude, manners, and communication styles.

When we look at businesses that are succeeding and those that are not, we see these different values 'in action', sometimes meshing together and other times grinding against one another. When businesses are succeeding we see alignment, consistency, and harmony in people's personal values and the rules that guide conduct. When businesses are struggling and failing, we see misaligned values, misunderstood values, disharmony, and disconnected approaches to the rules that guide conduct.

When individual's personal values do not align, business challenges always follow. It is only a matter of time. Sometimes, while people are struggling to start up a business or get over a difficult period in business differences in personal values are set aside…as in – setting aside differences in order to focus on a shared goal. On the other hand, when the dust of the problems clears the differences in personal values start to dominate the mindsets and influence the interactions for the worse. This explains why many businesses fall apart or plummet right after achieving plateaus of new success.

Here is another personal-values Hot Button: Sense of Urgency!

Sense of Urgency & the setting of priorities, particularly in entrepreneurial environments...these are things that often set strong reactions into play. Some people, for example Stephen R Covey, strongly embrace the concept of making time for the Important things. Other people embrace a fleet-of-foot-action approach that always favors Urgency over Important…continuously pressing for prompt action.

When we mix these two ways…

When we see the merits of executing work with a sense of Urgency and we take the time to create strategies and plan our most Important work…

...we maximize success, both with people and with profit.