MEAPA's Exercises

MEAPA's exercises allow people of all backgrounds, levels of education and employment positions an opportunity to think more effectively, take action and achieve the personal and professional growth required to succeed today.  

 

Individuals should click here and complete the Personal Assessment of Traits and Habits (PATH) to Success prior to starting any of the following exercises.  Completing PATH allows people an opportunity to increase their self-awareness as they look to answer questions, address issues or achieve their personal, professional or organizational goals.

 

 

 

Judging Others - When working with people do you concentrate on their physical appearance more than the value they bring to the organization? Do you judge them by who they are instead of their value? Are you even aware of how you perceive others? Have you made listening to those you work with on a daily basis a priority lately? And when you do, demonstrate by example how important others are and listen without the computer, cell phone or any other device around. Simply listen. It’s a challenge for both employers and employees but one so vital to the continued success of any organization.

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Professional Development - The most important topic in human resource development today is that employees of all levels and industries need to understand that professional development is directly linked to personal growth. No organization can achieve and sustain growth today until it realizes that its future depends upon the continual personal development of its people. What personal development action have you engaged in recently to intentionally improve your professionalism? How much time do you spend on a daily basis intentionally working on your development? back to top

 

Self-Appraisals - Routine self-appraisals allow people a valuable opportunity to increase their self-awareness that identifies a specific personal trait they can practice in order to develop as a professional. When is the last time you engaged in a self-appraisal?

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Reaction - Before you react to a personal or work related situation today ask your self if you are even aware of how you would like to react? If so you can intentionally react in the manner in which you envisioned. If not, you will let others dictate your response. Which way would you like to respond: intentionally or reactionary?

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Leaders Need to Communicate - Study after study illustrates that employers are looking to hire employees with excellent communication skills. If this is such a priority then maybe the leaders of organizations should demonstrate by example and further develop their own communication skills. If you are a leader when is the last time you improved your communication skills? If you report into someone but do not have anyone to manage directly, when is the last time your manager engaged in a serious and intentional conversation with you to help increase communication?

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Why People Leave Companies - People do not leave companies they leave other people. If you are a leader or employer responsible for others make it a priority to ask your employees how you can help them succeed. Figure out a way to develop the skills of people and show them you value their contribution. Otherwise they will either be miserable in their position or leave, either way fails to maximize your organizations efforts. Have you left an organization? If so why? If you manage people have you asked them lately how you can help them succeed?

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Organizational Training - Organizations have reacted to the recession by scaling back employee training programs. Organizations that will achieve and sustain growth in today’s hyper-competitive global marketplace need to make a commitment to train their employees on a wide variety of professional and personal development topics on a frequent basis. Since an organization will only grow as much as its people grow, a lack of training will result in stagnant growth in ideas, new products or enhanced service. When is the last training workshop in which your organization participated? How often does your organization train its employees?

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Everyone Is A Professional - Individuals working on any level and across all industries are considered professional. This is critically important for people working at entry level positions to understand. Maintain the highest level of professionalism at all times. To move up within an organization understand that your personal growth is directly linked to your professional development. Challenge yourself to think more effectively, take action and grow as a person. Does everyone in your organization view themselves as a professional? How do you know?

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New Ideas - In today’s hyper-connected and highly competitive global environment, traditional ways of thinking will often produce less than desired results. Businesses, non-profits, governments, schools and all other organizations need to examine how they think, the frequency by which they invite new ideas and their ability to implement them despite internal opposition. What is the mechanism by which new ideas are invited and accepted into your organization?

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Time to Judgment - The next time you propose a new idea to your boss, a colleague or a friend, examine how fast they judge your thought. A more enlightened person will ask three qualifying questions before providing feedback. Unfortunately, such a response is the exception rather than the rule. When is the last time you had the self-awareness to recognize how fast you were judging new ideas? Do you recognize when others judge or dismiss your ideas so quickly?

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The Need to Think Differently - To adjust to the disruptive technologies altering the way people work and live around the world organizations need to think differently. The usual way of doing things stopped working years ago. Unfortunately most organizations still operate as if the usual way is the only way. Every position of an organization should be invited to introduce new ideas on a daily basis. Have you contributed to a new idea recently? Has your organization invited you to suggest a new idea? If so, was it instantly judged or has it been given a chance to demonstrate its value?

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Acting v. Thinking - Just believing in something will not make it happen. You cannot will yourself to be smarter, faster, richer, nicer, whatever it is you are working towards. There is no pill, no magic bullet, no secret - just good old fashion work so turn off the TV, power down every single device you do not need and work towards your goal. Have you found yourself unproductive lately? Do you watch more than one hour of television a day or do you spend over an hour surfing on the Internet with no real purpose?

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There Is No App For Success - Although we live in a time when the push of an icon, the slide of a window or the click of a link provides us with what we are looking for, no one tool is the secret to our success. The only tool we all have to rely on is ourselves and our ability to think more effectively, have a bias towards action and work towards the personal and professional growth required to succeed. When is the last time you realized that there was no secret to success? Are you still searching for a short cut or trick? Why is this so?

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Meetings v. Getting Things Done - Organizations such as project teams, boards, special commissions or committees often mistake talking for action. For these people talking is doing. Unfortunately the talking is doing approach to life or work is like throwing money at a flat tire. It simply fails to produce the required result. Addressing an issue at work is like fixing a flat tire. It is often dirty, requires teamwork and a fair degree of muscle or action. Talking is secondary to action. Are you afraid of getting your hands and knees dirty to fix a flat tire? Are you even aware that you are afraid of getting dirty?

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Working In Same Position Over Time - Longevity in a position often provides a false sense of accomplishment and value. All too often older employees will rely on their age or time in a position as a crutch when dealing with others. This approach frequently squashes new ideas, creates divisions and prohibits an organization from maximizing its potential. How often do you tell others the length of time you have been in your position? Do you even notice the frequency by which you do this? Have you even paused and asked why you do it at all? How often do you actively seek new ideas from others? If you are younger how do you handle older employees who constantly tell you how long they have been with a company or worked in a position? How does it make you feel when they speak like that to you?

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Distractions - With so much information distributed faster than ever before it is easier to get distracted now than ever before. Increasing your self-awareness will help you realize when you are distracting yourself from what it is you are trying to accomplish. Likewise, if you are not focused on accomplishing anything, an increase in self-awareness will help you realize that distractions are merely filling a void. Would you rather work towards a goal or fill a void? Successful people work towards goals. What do you wish to do?

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How You Think - Most of our day is preoccupied with the production or generation of ideas. How much of our day, however, involves examining how we think? It’s easy to think about the what, but it is challenging to think about the how involved with our thinking. The next time an issue demands your thinking, stop for a moment and before you provide an answer try the following exercise. On a sheet of paper write down your answer on the left side and then on the right diagram how you arrived at your answer. Doing so can help you identify the people, events and words that have influenced how you think about the issue.

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Can You ‘Be’ or Must You Defeat Others As The Best - We are inundated with “best.” We have the best practices, the best schools, the best restaurants, the best wines, the best movies and so on. Why is this? What is interpreted as best for one person, organization or situation is most likely not appropriate, possible or even attractive to someone else. Why is there such a need to declare victory over others in almost every field? And how exactly is one school, or anything for that matter, better than anything else? Does that mean all the other entities are inferior and that only a select few are superior? Such an approach creates unnecessary hostility, resentment and hubris. Instead of declaring you go to the best school, eat at the best restaurant or whatever best it is that you do, remove the ‘st’ from best and just ‘be.’

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Preoccupation With Others - The admiration of people, teams or organizations is a common occurrence in society. What that admiration becomes obsessive it consumes time, energy and focus. How can one then create and work towards life goals if their time, energy and focus is preoccupied on some other person or object? Conversely, if one is using the obsession with others as a life goal is that the best approach to create one’s self? Celebrate the existence of others but reserve your time, energy and focus for your self. Doing so just might allow others to admire your individuality.

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Have An Intention - Living with intention requires us to focus on the creation and development of our self. Doing so is a challenge amidst daily noise, demands and distractions. Do you have an intention for today? If not can you set aside some distraction-free time to create one? Unlike a goal, which can be measured by a specific outcome, an intention is a commitment to your self. At the end of the day you can then reflect upon that intention and ask yourself “did I intentionally commit to my self today?”

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Working As A Team - Collaboration is one of the professional skills individuals of all levels need to practice. Its etymology stems from the Latin collaborates which means to “work with.” How do you define the word though? More importantly, how do you practice it? Have you spent any time reflecting on how you define or practice collaboration? Is your commitment merely lip service where you ask others their opinions to convince yourself you are collaborating but then ignore them and do as you wish? Or do you present a task to others and directly include their input so they can directly see their contribution and feel valuable? As in all decisions, it’s up to you.

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Help Someone to Walk - When a baby attempting to walk is surrounded by adults each person provides support through encouraging gestures or words and works to protect him from hurting himself. Where does that support go when the child learns how to walk and becomes an adult? During the course of today you will meet fellow adults that, while they may be physically walking, might have trouble walking through their life at that moment. Do you provide any genuine, encouraging or motivational support for them? Or do you knock them down to feel better about yourself? Consider helping someone walk today.

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Talking to Strangers - One of the great ironies in life is that parents teach children not to speak to strangers yet communicating with those unfamiliar to us is one of the traits commonly found among successful people. Since children are taught to shy away from those unknown what chance do we give them to develop one of life’s most important skills? When is the last time you attempted to engage in a conversation with a stranger while out shopping, traveling or eating? When is the last time a stranger attempted to engage you in a conversation? How did you react? By engaging those unfamiliar to us we recognize their existence and in so doing might just provide the spark they need at that very moment. Note: Obviously only do so in safe and public environments and never place yourself or anyone else in an uncomfortable or unsafe situation.

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How Busy You Are - "Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." H. Jackson Brown Jr. (author)  Yes you are very busy.  Whether you are a working mother, college student, full-time employee, manager or anything else in life you are busy.  Congratulations on being so busy.  Here are some questions to reflect upon in order to increase your self-awareness and grow both personally and professionally.  Are you productive though?  Are you able to finish anything or do you find yourself just going in circles? And exactly why are you telling people how busy you are?  Do you assume they have the time to listen to you talk about how busy you are?  Does it make you feel superior to others when you tell them how busy you are?  Remember that everyone else is just as busy as you.  This might be hard for you to understand but it is true.  Stop saying how busy you are and just get to work on whatever task requires your time and energy at the moment. Complete that task and then move on to the next one without the need to be noticed.

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Communication Poor Amidst Technology - With two billion people having Internet access and five billion connecting via a mobile phone, we are easily the most connected civilization ever. In today’s hyper-connected global environment where more information is generated and exchanged faster each day why is communication still so poor? In organizations large and small people today fail to communicate on a daily basis. Why is this? How can your organization improve its ability to communicate? Are people so stuck in their ‘business as usual’ approach that a new idea of communication threatens them? Does your organization have a phobia about communicating more effectively? And what role can you play in helping to leverage today’s technology in order to increase your own level of communication and that of your organizations?

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Your Title - People often identify themselves with their job title. Since companies have only been around for a few hundred years and man has been around much longer, the use of titles is relatively new. Prior to jobs people described themselves by the function or value they provided to society. For example: one was a blacksmith, not a Vice President of Blacksmithing. Titles tell others what you are not what you do. How do you describe yourself professionally? Do you rely on a title? If so why is that? Is having a certain title important to you? If so why? Do you feel competitive or even combative in the work environment so much that you need to remind people on a daily basis of your title? Using the example here, could you be happy with telling someone you are a blacksmith or is your happiness, and related drive for power, tied in to telling someone you are the Vice President of Blacksmith?

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Mental Health - We spend a great deal of time obsessing over our physical appearance and health which includes eating, clothing exercising and basic hygiene. Such an approach is beneficial to one’s physical appearance but also helps prevent against a variety of health issues and generally makes us feel good about ourselves. How much time, however, do you spend on your mental health? If one of the common traits and habits of successful people is taking action despite fear why are people so paralyzed by it? Failing to manage fear is perhaps one of the unhealthiest things a person can do. How aware are you of your fears? Are you working on managing them each day so that you can take action despite them? Or do you prevent yourself from living because of fear? Setting aside some time for mental health each day, in order to learn how to live amidst the fear, is perhaps one of the healthiest things you can do.

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Your Perspective - Perspective provides a spark for creative thinking, problem solving and taking action. Viewing events, issues and people from multiple perspectives provides clarity, promotes understanding and ignites collaboration. Unfortunately the daily routine may prohibit the development of multiple perspectives. Are you conscious of your perspective on any one specific issue? What have you done lately to enhance your perspective? When others provide their perspective how do you respond?

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Increase Communication - Communication is a critical skill that requires daily intentional practice. Organizations large and small often fail to create clear and compelling communication channels. Since communication involves people the most compelling way to increase the exchange of ideas occurs in a conversation. When conversing with someone and they challenge your idea or a long standing company policy how do you react? Do you automatically reject their idea? Do you chastise the person for even producing a new thought? Or do you seek to learn more first by asking qualifying questions and then set aside time to think before responding? Do you demonstrate an overall sense of appreciation for their ideas? Why do you react the way you do? Increase your self awareness and improve your communication skills in order to help your organization succeed.

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Self-Reliance - Employees should seldom rely on their employers or managers for happiness or support. Employers and managers have their own agenda and rarely practice the art of leadership. Are you relying on your boss for happiness for career advancement? Why is that? If so, how long will you tolerate being unhappy or unfulfilled at work? What can you do today to make yourself happy and advance your career? Trust in your ability to make even the smallest of steps forward in your personal and professional life. Rely on yourself and rejoice in living with intention instead of waiting at the bus stop of life for someone else to drive up and help you.

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Relevance - Maintaining relevance in today’s ever changing world is one of the most difficult tasks to achieve. Doing so requires a complete organizational commitment to creating and implementing a clear, concise and compelling marketing message. Additionally, deliberate examinations of the relevance of this message, in addition to the product or service, are also needed if the organization is to achieve and sustain long-term growth. All too often, however, certain people in the organization maintain contempt for marketing and intentionally derail any initiatives designed to maintain relevance. These people would rather see their organization file for bankruptcy, close its doors or lay off employees before giving any credence to marketing. These are also the same people that go around asking “what could we have done?” Well for starters you could have stepped aside and let go of your ego, open your mind and collaborate with marketing. Are you anti-marketing in your organization? What has your organization done this week to maintain its relevance? What will it do next week? And what role will you play in helping marketing maintain the organization’s relevance?

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Experimentation - When dealing with issues, looking for solutions to problems or creating an answer to a question experimentation provides a valuable, yet often overlooked, resource and strategy. Individuals tend to predict the outcome prior to the start of even the smallest of attempts, ideas or experiments. Why is that? Driven by a fear of failure, a lack of confidence or the risks of embarrassment people seldom embrace the value and function of experimentation. How frequently do you practice experimentation in your personal or professional life? How aware are you of the role experimentation can play in resolving issues? Does your company allow for open experimentation when looking for solutions? Does your manager encourage experimentation? If you are a leader how much do you invite those you manage to experiment?

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Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy creates bitterness, jealously and distrust. When pointed out by others people often react with contempt and self-righteousness. Relationships are damaged, feelings are hurt and opportunities are squandered. How self-aware are you of your own hypocrisy? Do you find yourself pointing our the hypocrisy of others but overlook you own? Why is that? How have you reacted when someone suggested you are or were a hypocrite?

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Applied Learning - The application of learning in one area to another is a valuable but under utilized tool. Formal education on any level rarely involves this type of training. Schools are arranged and degrees awarded by subject. Individuals attach their value to a subject. To unleash one's potential, however, a person needs to intentionally apply knowledge and experiences from one area of life to another. How frequently have you practiced this habit during the last week? What examples do you have as references? Does anyone at work help the organization understand the value of applied learning across departments? What lesson can you apply in one area of your life to another today in order to help you live with intention and work with purpose?

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Balancing The Now and The Future - Organizations that achieve and also sustain growth effectively balance the now with the future. Attention and resources are provided to address issues of immediate concern and are distributed to focus on future areas as well. This balance between the now and the future is relevant to every type of organization across all industries. Individuals should also practice this habit. How frequently do you practice balancing the now with the future? Are you just solely focused on the now you are blind to the future? Or are you consumed by the past or future that you ignore the present moment?

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Using The Word Passion - The power of words often goes overlooked in our visual society. Throughout the course of a day, for example, people use words without reflecting upon their origins, implications or impact. One such word that people rely on is ‘passion.’ Its contemporary usage is often associated with strong emotion, desire or drive such as “Find your passion and you will find your happiness. The etymology of the word passion stems from the Latin passio which means “suffering.” If you have passion for something do you want to suffer because of it? Now let’s replace the word passion with suffering in the example: “Find your suffering and you will find your happiness.” Does that revised example make sense? No? Then maybe it is time to rethink our usage and stop using the word passion. How does the origin of the word passion impact your use of it? How frequently do you rely on this word and why do you think that is? Or are you a martyr and have you convinced yourself that you must suffer to get through each day? Is being a martyr really the most effective path to success?

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Jumping on the Bandwagon-The phrase "jump on the bandwagon" first appeared in 1848 when a popular circus clown, Dan Rice, used his bandwagon and its music to gain attention for his political campaign. As his campaign became more successful, other politicians wanted to be associated with it and strove for a seat on the bandwagon. By the early 1900s bandwagons had become standard in campaigns and "jump on the bandwagon" was used as a derogatory reference to people who were associating themselves with its success without having any direct role whatsoever. What bandwagons have you jumped on lately? More importantly, why do you feel the need to join one? What is holding you back from creating your own bandwagon? Are you so preoccupied with the past, a perceived lack of resources or an unresolved situation that you have the need to jump on someone else’s bandwagon? If someone refuses to join the bandwagon you have latched onto how do you treat them? Do you respect their wish not to join the bandwagon? What can you do today to move one step closer to having your own bandwagon?

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Preparing for Your Day-If you spend a certain amount of time each day taking care of your physical appearance are you spending an equal amount of time on your cerebral performance? You will probably shower, brush your teeth, fix your hair, apply whatever makeup, cream or lotion you find useful, select clothing and make sure you look proper before heading out the door. Perhaps that preparation of your physical appearance takes 45 minutes. Did you spend 45 minutes preparing your cerebral performance? You want your body to look good but do you also want to live with intention and have your mind perform at its peak during the day? If so what are you intentionally doing to prepare it accordingly? Throughout the day you will periodically look into a mirror to make sure your physical appearance is maintaining its intention from earlier in the day. Will you also provide an opportunity for yourself to periodically check in with your mindset during the day so that you can live with intention and work with purpose? Or are you so consumed with your physical appearance, and that of others, that you ignore your cerebral performance? You may present an effective physical appearance but are you an effective thinker?

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Learning v. Thinking-There is a critical difference between learning and thinking that is frequently misunderstood. Learning means to gain knowledge while thinking involves a mindful process. Learning includes access to information, memorizing it and then repeating it when required. Thinking, however, involves the application of what one has learned which includes but is not limited to: applying information from one area to another, generating new ideas contrary to what one has learned and examining how one processes information or knowledge. One of the great ironies is that formally educated people who are excellent at learning lack the ability to think. Formal education excels at teaching people how to learn and often fails at teaching people how to generate, process and revise how and what they are thinking. Do you consider yourself a better learner or thinker? Why is that? Are you so concerned about learning that you have overlooked the value and application of thinking? Is getting another degree more important to you than increasing your ability to think? What are you doing to improve your ability to think these days?

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Remaining Relevant-Longevity as a company or an employee should never be confused with future effectiveness, competence or value. History provides plenty of examples of organizations that have collapsed after a long period of time because its leadership lacked the vision and energy to stay relevant. Individuals hold positions of employment for extended periods of time and wonder how they too end up irrelevant. What are you doing today to help you and/or your organization to remain relevant in today's dynamic, hyper-competitive and ever changing environment?

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Be A Starter-The word entrepreneur comes from the Old French meaning “to take action.” Instead of calling people entrepreneurs let’s call them starters. They start something, usually to answer a question, address an issue or solve a problem. The usual way of thinking about starters is that most fail and require too much money to launch a new venture. But how does one define failure? And who decides when a starter fails? Since it takes an average of 3-5 years to become profitable, and that’s if you are working every day, does one give up after three years of not making any money? Many people argue that one should just get a job at a company like a law firm. What’s interesting here is that U.S. government statistics report that 215,417 jobs for attorneys will open between 2008 and 2018 while during the same decade over 430,000 students will graduate from law school. In other words, only half will get to practice in their chosen field. If you need money immediately, and most people do, work for someone else. When you are not working for someone else be a starter, live with intention and work with purpose. Honor your talent, respect your knowledge and trust your ability. American artist Jasper Johns once said “Do something. Then do something to that. Then do something to that. Pretty soon you have something.” And if that ‘pretty soon’ takes ten years does that really matter?

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Self-Awareness-Self-awareness is the single greatest unmet need today. People unintentionally and intentionally engage in behavior and thinking that distracts them from examining their self. As individuals we have convinced ourselves that the daily routine of life, the relationships that shape our lives and the expectations placed on us take precedence over our ability to engage in routine self-appraisals. Any placement of self over or before others is often viewed as narrow self-interest practiced by selfish or arrogant people. Such thinking is ineffective and prohibits individuals from living with intention and working with purpose. Developing a vision for one’s life, then translating that vision into reality demands a high level of self-awareness. What could be more important than intentionally engaging in routine appraisals to better understand your traits and habits as you work towards a higher level of self-awareness? Visit http://meapa.com/path to complete MEAPA’s self-appraisal known as PATH (Personal Assessment of Traits and Habits) to Success.

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