Good morning and welcome to the Increase Your Impact Podcast. I'm Justin Sua, episode 2110.

And today we're talking about knowing your nature. There's a book called How Life Imitates Chess,

and it's written by Gary Kasparov. And he gives some really good insight. He says this,

the better you know yourself, the better decisions you'll make. Not just when things are

calm, but especially when things are chaotic. He goes on to say that one of the greatest

chess players of all time said that during pressure-packed moments, it wasn't his knowledge of

openings or end games that gave him his edge.

It was his understanding of himself.

He knew what kinds of mistakes he was prone to make.

And he knew how to respond to that risk.

And he knew his emotional traps and the things that would derail him.

And it got me thinking about a lot of my conversations with athletes and coaches and how the best of the best are very similar to those chess players that he was discussing. They are very

self-aware. They know their strengths. They know their weaknesses. They plan for their,

they plan for how they're going to respond to adversity. They plan for

the shortcomings of their future self. And so my question to you is, are you aware of these things?

Do you know how you tend to respond under pressure? Do you know the situations that trigger your

worst habits? Do you know your blind spots, your defaults, your

strengths, your strengths, and the strengths that are, if they're overused, become your shadow,

the shadow side of your strengths? Self-awareness isn't just some fluffy leadership concept.

It's actually the foundation of adaptability.

It will help you be more consistent.

It will help you not try to be perfect.

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