Self-Awareness 101. A Series Designed To Inspire, Educate and Empower.

Hello. My name is Willard Barth, and I want to welcome you to a series of articles I will be referring to as “Self-Awareness 101”.

After having spent the past 30 years focusing on my own journey of self-awareness, speaking to audiences big and small, consulting with businesses around the world, working with individuals to help them make tremendous transformations in their lives and now teaching others how to do the same, I’ve decided to “pay it forward”. If you are not familiar with the term, it comes from a movie by the same name. In the movie Pay It Forward, a teacher asks his students to “Think of an idea to change our world – and put it into action.” In the movie a young boy puts into action an idea called “Pay It Forward”. The idea is about doing something to help others without asking for something in return for yourself. What he did ask, was that the person receiving the help then “pay it forward” by helping 3 others and asking them to do the same. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it.

This series of articles is a part of my attempt to Pay It Forward. Over the next several months, I’m going to be releasing short article designed to help you on your personal development journey, and on your journey to self-awareness. Now, some of these are going to be ideas and lessons that have been shared by some of the greatest teachers in the areas of psychology, spirituality, finance, relationships, personal transformation and health. Others are going to be skills and strategies that I have personally used to help me overcome challenges or create specific outcomes in my own life and that my clients have used to do the same in theirs. Ultimately, the intention of this series is to open your mind to new possibilities, to give you ideas, skills and resources that you can apply in your own journey, and to give you a forum where if you choose, you can also pay it forward by sharing your experiences with others looking for direction.

Albert Einstein once said, “A problem cannot be solved with the same mind that created it.” When you open your mind to new possibilities, anything becomes possible.

Right now people are asking all sorts of questions. From issues they are facing within their homes to issues that affect people at a global level. People are trying to figure out what to do… about the economy, about the environment, within their relationships with one another and relationships with people around the world.

As people look for answers, one of the challenges that they will face is that they don’t realize that all change begins within. So many are looking elsewhere for the answers. One of my mentors, Wayne Dyer, released a book called,Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life. When you look at the title you may think, “That is such a simple statement”, but as you allow yourself to explore it at a deeper level you will also find it is a fundamental truth.

Here is a personal example of how that concept worked for me. I lost my left leg to cancer when I was 8 years old. And all I could think about, the driving focus for a good 14 years was, “Why me?” Everything that I focused on was about me being a victim and losing my leg. I believed that I was being punished. I thought that I did something wrong. I had a belief that God was against me. And those thoughts, those beliefs drove every action and created my reality.

Then there came a point where I changed that focus from “Why me?” to “How can I use this experience, how can I use all of the things that losing my leg led me to experience and learn, to serve others? How can I use these things to teach, to help other people avoid the outcomes and the mistakes that I made?”

Think about this for a minute: One idea can change your life. Let me say this again. One idea can change your life. Sometimes that change will be dramatic and instant, and other times it will be a small shift, that over time expands until you find yourself in a whole new place.

I want to be very clear. I am not sitting here saying that I’m going to be the person who’s giving you the idea that will dramatically change your life. The reason I created Self-Awareness 101 is to offer you inspiration, education and empowerment. I intend to give you the spark, the idea that will get the ball rolling. You will then be able to communicate, via comments, sharing what specifically that skill, that strategy, that idea means to you, and how you’ve either applied it in the past in your life, or how you can see applying that skill now can make dramatic changes for you.

I know that some people who come to these articles will be new to their journey of personal development and self-awareness. And that others will have invested years in studying different approaches that have given them tremendous benefits along the way. It is my intention to create a place where the new person can ask questions, and those who desire to, can share their experiences to help others along the way. Remember, “One idea can change your life.”

So I thank you for allowing me to play my part as I pay it forward. I welcome you, and I invite you to become a part of our journey here with Self-Awareness 101.