What is Self-Management and Why Is It Important?

How you manage yourself (i.e self-management) impacts on your personal effectiveness. According to CASEL, self management is “…the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviours effectively in different situations.” This includes –

• managing stress,
• controlling impulses,
• organisational skills,
• self-discipline,
• motivating oneself and being responsible, and
• being personally accountable and setting and working toward achieving personal and professional goals.

Why is Self-Management Important? 

If you look at the above definition of self-management, do you think self-management is important? If so, why? 

For me, the following reasons are why self-management is important to me – 

• increasing self-awareness by transforming my triggers and stress, 
• limiting surprises financially by being organised with money, 
• being present with family, friends, clients and colleagues, 
• developing greater calm and love, 
• being accountable and responsible for my life, 
• fully taking ownership of my life (even when I make mistakes), 
• moving towards my goals, so I can live a fulfilling and meaningful life. 

How Can We Increase Self-Management?

In order to increase or develop self-management, we need to take time out to reflect to see where we currently are. Once we know this, we can then take action and monitor our behaviours to see if we are getting the results we would like. 

Some ideas on how you can increase self-management include –

• identifying what you really want, giving yourself permission to follow your dreams and look at any distorted thinking around your wants/dreams,
• identifying your values and reflecting if you are currently living in alignment with them,
• developing systems and processes within your life (i.e. when expenses are due, important birthdays, events etc.) and career,
• identifying where your time is going and seeing if that is linking in with your values,
• identifying your priorities in life and putting first things first, and
• asking for feedback from people who you trust and feel comfortable with (i.e. a coach or mentor) as we don’t know what we don’t know.

Over to You…

I hope this post has given you some insight in to what self-management is and why it is important. If you have any comments or questions, please write them below.

If you are ready to take yourself on the adventure of getting to know yourself (your true self), why not join the Toolkit? A place where I share tools, inspiration and ideas to live a courageous and openhearted life.