Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and understand how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or do not align with your values and life goals. When we have a better understanding of ourselves, we are empowered to make changes and to build on our areas of strength as well as identify areas where we would like to make improvements. Self-awareness is often a first step to goal setting. Self-awareness is being conscious of what you are good at while acknowledging what you still have yet to learn.