New Insights On Life with Bill Burridge
New Insights on Life, hosted by personal development and life coach training expert, Bill Burridge, is the audio version of the blog by the same name, New Insights On Life.
The theme is personal development and self improvement with insights and learnings derived from life coaching experience and practice. Topics discussed are wide ranging and will be of interest to life coaches, aspirant life coaches, and members of the general public who place a high value on personal growth and development.
The mission of Bill's organisation, New Insights, is to bring greater personal Freedom, self-Confidence and Growth to people from all walks of life. As a specialist life coach training institute, it does so both directly, by training people to become life coaches, and indirectly through the coaching services offered by the independent certified life coaches that it has trained.
The New Insights Life Coach Training and Certification Programme is presented in a hybrid online/home study format to offer trainee coaches the best of both worlds when it comes to the learning and practical experience.
New Insights operates internationally through sister companies, New Insights Life Coaching UK Ltd (based in Bristol, England) and New Insights Africa (based in Cape Town, South Africa).
New Insights On Life with Bill Burridge
How Virtual Living is Killing Self-Awareness
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With modern-day living, we are witnessing a diminishing focus on the real world around us and—driven by commercial interests—a rapidly increasing focus on the virtual world we access via our TVs, computers and handheld devices.
In this po’dcast, Bill argues that ‘virtual living’ with its cultivated scenes and sound bites, promotes inauthenticity, and individual ego stroking, at the expense of growth in self-awareness and a purpose-driven life characterised by the desire to give back.
HOW VIRTUAL LIVING IS KILLING SELF-AWARENESS
New Insights specialises in training people to become highly effective life coaches.
One of the unique aspects of our training programme involves access to our proprietary life coaching system. Trainee Life Coaches are encouraged to use this to facilitate their practice coaching experience.
This system involves a structured programme of coaching that is truly transformational in nature. When employed by a skilled coach, it promotes personal change that is amazingly positive… and long-lived.
At its heart, the system incorporates a systematic approach to developing, growing and optimising client self-awareness.
Self-awareness in short supply
Genuine self-awareness is in worryingly short supply nowadays.
If that sounds like a strange—even condescending—pronouncement, I assure you that this is not the way I intended it.
Rather, it is intended as a reflection of how the demands of modern-day living have conspired to distract us from acquiring a deeper understanding of who we are, how we ‘tick’, what truly matters to us, which of our beliefs serve to empower and disempower us, and what our true purpose in life is.
Let’s explore this trend.
An increasingly virtual world
We are living in a world that is becoming ever more virtual in nature. By that, I mean that our focus is increasingly drawn away from contemplating the wonder of the real world around us, the unique value we have to offer, and how best we can contribute.
With virtual living, we are encouraged to ignore the multisensory experience of the real world around us and become absorbed in an artificial world of two-dimensional, curated sound bites, movie clips and pictures.
In the virtual world, what counts is not how we feel and what we can contribute, but how we are perceived by others and what level of attention we can attract.
Real living promotes a happier life through knowing, understanding and appreciating ourselves.
Virtual living promotes our image and standing through knowing, understanding and leveraging online platforms to enhance our digital profiles.
Put succinctly, whereas real living encourages introspection, personal wellbeing and focusing on how we can give back, virtual living encourages extrospection, polishing our profile and focusing on what we can get out.
So what?
But does this really matter?
Most of us spend more time gazing into our computer screens, transfixed by our handheld devices and obsessing with how social media portrays our lives, than we do interacting authentically with the real world around us.
But, so what?
After all, life is changing, and we need to learn to adapt to the changes, surely?
We are in control
A certain quote, commonly attributed to Gandhi, comes to mind here:
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
My point with this is that the changes we are experiencing are not being foisted upon us by some irresistible external force. They are of our own making.
We have a choice.
Virtual living is not a given, not something we simply need to succumb to. We can choose to switch it on and switch it off when it suits us or when we deem it appropriate.
The importance of self-awareness
But doing so requires the maturity that comes with high levels of self-awareness.
And self-awareness develops from careful personal introspection; getting to know oneself, understanding what drives us, using our free will to make choices and then taking full responsibility for the outcomes of those choices.
Self-awareness is the key to accessing our inner power, becoming purpose-driven and living with positivity and passion.
Self-awareness builds self-esteem and self-confidence. Self-confidence allows for self-validation. It removes the need to seek external validation by showcasing our lives on social media.
Self-awareness is the foundation for a life of inner peace, contentment and true happiness.
