On Self-Awareness

What is your “Thing”? Not the thing that you are especially good at or the thing that you're known for among your friends. What is the “thing” that presents itself as an insurmountable task every time you think about it? “Thing” may be too general of a term; in more specific language we will refer to this “thing” as your molehill (think making mountains out of molehills). The molehill is something that you want, want done, want to do, or want to experience, that you have an inexplicably hard time pursuing or achieving without much objective reason for why it is so difficult for you.

As an example, I shared a dorm room in college with one particular roommate. He worked part time in one of the on-campus restaurants as a server, and was generally happy with his job. He was extremely social and outgoing, so the opportunity to interact with people fit his personality well. One night however, he got back to the dorm after his shift and was quite upset - the kind of upset that causes one to pace back and forth across our tiny dorm room for the better part of a half hour cursing to himself. Upon inquiring the reason behind this display, he informed me that the restaurant had been short handed and he had been made to WASH DISHES at work that evening rather than serve tables. He described in great detail how disgusting of a job dishwashing was and how he could not STAND it. He was beside himself with anger, swearing to quit on the spot if that situation were to ever arise again.

Now, to many people, washing dishes is not a particularly desirable task, but not necessarily one worthy of such a display. Obviously, for my roommate washing dishes was a huge molehill. It was something that, for whatever reason, was massively taxing despite it being relatively inconsequential to most people.

Many people that I have met have had some sort of molehill in their life, whether they recognize it or not. Often, these molehills are conjoined with a degree of shame or embarrassment. It can be difficult to admit to others (or yourself) when you struggle with something that seems trivial to those around you. Because of this, it’s often easy to attempt to avoid your molehills. This tactic only has negative consequences in the long run. Avoiding your molehills invariably leads to areas of liability that could arise at inopportune times. An important point of maturity is being able to recognize and address these molehills appropriately prior to the situation in which you find your skills needed but lacking.

Awareness of the existence of molehills in your own life and in the lives of others allows you to anticipate and overcome the increased challenge of these particularly taxing tasks. One important point must be made here:

Molehills must be overcome, not avoided

Acknowledgement of the existence of these molehills is NOT an excuse to avoid dealing with them. If, for whatever reason, you find it incredibly mentally and emotionally taxing to do a particular task, it is your personal responsibility to find ways to overcome that challenge.

Overcoming molehills may require more time, more equipment, more training, or more planning. In addition to these things, having a friend to work alongside you makes many molehills much smaller. Identify what you need to do to overcome your molehills, and incorporate those solutions into your life. As with everything in life, progress is a process, and success comes gradually. Celebrate your small successes and work towards your goals incrementally. Eventually, you will have the self-awareness and experience required to know the personal struggles that you will face and you will have equipped yourself to overcome them.

Be skilled, be equipped, be READY™

~ Eric