It is easy to think you are alone on your transformational journey. You are not. There are others on their own transformational journey who can provide you with support and encouragement on your journey.
The community you will want to build on your journey is a community of travelers who support each other in the process of mutual growth and development. The process of growth and development is the goal or
ultimate outcome of any transformation. Without it there can be no transformation.
Thus, the first step in building your community of support is to make a commitment to your own personal growth. Once you have made this commitment and begun to fulfill it, you will attract into your life other like-minded individuals to join you in your journey of transformation.
Self Knowledge & The Johari Window
Self-growth involves the discovery and application of knowledge about yourself with the intention that your thoughts, decisions, behavior and actions are in alignment with who you are and who you want to become. In order to grow you must begin with what you know about yourself and expand upon that knowledge.
The Johari Window is a tool created by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955 while researching group dynamics at the University of California in Los Angeles. The Johari Window can be used to help you understand and assess your level of self-knowledge as well as the degree to which you are willing to self-disclose or reveal who you are to others and accept feedback from others.
The insights you gain from the Johari window can also serve as a motivation to become more willing to share who you are with others and to become more open to feedback from others.
As shown in Illustration 1, The Johari Window is broken down into four areas or quadrants:
Illustration 1
1. Open Area: Information we know about ourselves and that others know as well.
2. Blind Area: Information we do not know about ourselves but that others know about us.
3. Hidden Area: Information we know about ourselves but do not share with others.
4. Unknown Area: Information we do not know about ourselves and no one else knows either.
For many of us, these quadrants are not perfectly balanced. For example, as Illustration 2 shows, individuals who live with little knowledge about themselves will have smaller open areas and larger hidden, blind and unknown areas.
Illustration 2
Individuals with small quadrants of self-knowledge live out their lives making decisions and taking action potentially out of alignment with who they are and what they value.
Through transformational growth, the Open Area of the Johari Window expands.
As Illustration 3 shows, as you learn more about yourself through self-reflection, you increase your self-knowledge and your blind area decreases.
Illustration 3
At the same time, as you begin to live with a more open and expanded sense of self, you are more comfortable sharing more about yourself with others. They in turn, are more willing to share with you. Over time and through appropriate self disclosure, trust is built and the friendships you have with others allows you to grow through your interactions with them. Ultimately it is in this way that you find and build your community of fellow travelers--a community of like minded individuals who can assist and support each other as they work to transform themselves.
The degree to which you limit your ability to interact and share with others, is the degree to which you limit your growth and development.