Self-awareness is understanding your own character, motives & desires. One of the aspects of children is that they have no self-awareness; they do not understand their own motivations, nor the motivations of others. Adults know this so excuse a child's lack of courtesy, social awkwardness & inability to complete a complex task; but people are not so charitable to supposedly mature adults. Being self-aware improves everything: relationships, satisfaction & control; while also reducing anxiety, stress & depression. Unfortunately, self-awareness is something that most people lack: in a large study, only a tenth of people showed self-awareness though they all believed they were.

Self-awareness also includes recognition of how others interpret you. The most successful people understand that if they want adulation & respect, they must present an outward appearance that attracts it; which includes not doing things that would detract from that impression, because resentment, envy & spite underlay most longterm interactions. You must also be able to determine when other people can be trusted enough to be allies; and if untrustworthy, how to mollify them sufficiently so as not to become active enemies working against you. It’s probably a good thing most people aren’t self-aware because they would be really disappointed to know what other people really think of them.