Have you ever wondered why some people are outgoing and sociable while others are emotional and sensitive to stress? It can be hard to know yourself. Even if you think you understand your likes, dislikes, habits and quirks, it’s hard to take a step back and see the bigger picture of your personality.

The good news is that there are ways to improve your self-awareness so that you can begin to get a clearer picture of who you are as a person in reflection to your environment.

Understanding your own Big Five personality traits can help you better manage your relationships at work, at home, and in other places.

For example, using the Big Five personality traits in your MindBank Ai will help you learn not only how you or those around you approach a particular activity, but also how they approach life in general.

This self-knowledge will in turn help you in finding ways to interact consciously with the people you meet in life.

Here is what you need to know about the Big Five and how they can improve your self-awareness…

What are the Big Five personality traits?

The Big Five are the most widely used basis for assessing different types of personality traits. They provide a detailed insight into your personality type and how it affects your daily life. The five traits can be summarized by the acronym OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism), while CANOE (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness and Extraversion) is another option.

Openness to experience means how open-minded you are to new ideas, new situations, and new ways of thinking and living.

Conscientiousness means how much you care about your future and how hard you try to achieve your goals and stay organized.

Extroversion means how much you enjoy the company of others and how you recharge your energy.

Agreeableness indicates how much you want to get along with others and avoid conflict.

Neuroticism indicates how sensitive you are to stress and change and how well you can handle it.

You can be high, low, or somewhere in the middle on each trait.

Increasing your own Self-Awareness through the Big Five traits

Since the Big Five personality traits reveal a lot about your personality, knowing how open, conscientious, extroverted, agreeable, and neurotic you are will help boost your self-awareness.

Self-awareness is a powerful tool. It helps you understand yourself better, and it helps you understand others better. When you know yourself, you are less likely to get caught up in the trap of taking things too personally because you know yourself well enough to understand that another person’s actions may have nothing to do with you.

It also works the other way around: self-awareness is one of the best ways to get a better understanding of your personality type and the ways in which it affects your life. Once you know more about yourself, you can start making choices that better suit you, and you can avoid making choices that do not suit you. By understanding your own personality type and the Big Five traits, you can make better decisions in your career, your relationships, and in all areas of your life.

By becoming more self-aware, you are also able to recognize areas where you need to improve, and thanks to self-awareness, you can then take steps to improve. You can identify what works for you and what does not and where you need to improve.

Let’s find out how the Big Five personality traits and self-awareness are related and how understanding each trait can help you become more self-aware.

Openness and Self-Awareness

Openness to experience is one of the Big Five traits. It refers to how eager you are to learn about new ideas and ways of thinking and to enjoy new experiences, new situations, and new ways of living.

Moreover, being willing to take the personality test regularly, look at the results objectively, and track changes in your personality is the first step to becoming more self-aware!

Openness, both to other people and to yourself, is a character trait you can develop and can contribute to the development of your self-awareness in a number of ways.

Questioning how things work, listening carefully when someone says something, having the courage to engage in philosophical discussions, and appreciating being around diverse groups of people are just a few ways you can become more open-minded and self-aware.

Once you are open to new ideas and concepts, you will realize how your actions and reactions affect situations you find yourself in.

You can then use this self-awareness to avoid getting stuck in a certain way and to find the best way to do something.

Conscientiousness and Self-Awareness

Conscientiousness is one of the Big Five traits and refers to how organized and determined you are to defer immediate gratification for a more successful future.

How diligent, rational, and hard-working you are when it comes to achieving the goals you have set for your future says a lot about you.

By keeping track of how often you make impulsive or careless decisions, you can improve your self-awareness.

Your levels of conscientiousness and self-awareness will help you determine what types of careers and activities are a better fit for your personality.

Studies show that conscientious leaders have higher scores in integrity and responsibility.

Other research shows that you are likely to have higher income and job satisfaction if you possess the conscientiousness trait.

Most importantly, if you are a conscientious person, you are more likely to have lower health risks and better health.

Just as conscientiousness can boost your self-awareness, it makes you even more responsible about your decisions, to-do lists, goal setting, and self-control.

If you take care of your tasks, take the time to carefully consider your decisions, write down the tasks you want to accomplish each day, develop a plan for achieving your goals, and pay more attention to your work, you will significantly increase your level of conscientiousness.

But first, it’s worth using MindBank Ai to find out how much of this trait you have.

Extroversion and Self-Awareness

Extroversion is one of the Big Five traits that refers to how much you enjoy the company of others and how you recharge your energy.

Just because you do well in group situations does not mean it recharges your energy.

As you embark on a Big Five journey to your personality with MindBank Ai, you may be surprised by your explorations.

You may find that you draw inspiration and excitement from conversations and discussions with other people.

As an extrovert, you probably talk a lot and get your way with others. Based on these and other sub-traits, you can determine how extroverted you are.

With this knowledge, you will become more self-aware of your needs in life and in relationships.

Agreeableness and Self-Awareness

If you are popular and make friends easily, it is likely that your personality is strongly aligned with the agreeableness domain of the Big Five personality traits.

Rather than being hostile and competitive, an agreeable person forgives others and works with them.

However, if you find it difficult to assert your wants, needs, and preferences and focus on helping others get ahead, you may forget to plan your own advancement.

This is mainly because you are not self-aware and do not properly assess how agreeable you are in the eyes of others.

By becoming more aware of your agreeableness, you can understand how to express your feelings while making sure they do not get in the way of your relationships.

Neuroticism and Self-Awareness

Neuroticism is a personality trait that can tell how emotionally stable you are and how much it can cause friction in your relationships.

For example: as a neurotic person, you may be obsessed with small details and always strive for perfectionism, not completing tasks that others ask of you, which can lead to tension and conflict.

You may also be easily agitated when stimulated, or have difficulty calming down when upset or worried.

It’s important to be self-aware of how often you let fear, doubt, or guilt keep you from doing things that interest you.

Neuroticism does not make you a bad person, however, because you are sensitive and observant in a way that others may not be.

Using MindBank Ai to note the things you are grateful for will remind you that even when your life is not perfect, there is still much to appreciate around you and that you have some control over how you respond to situations.

Conclusion

One of the most important things to remember when thinking about your personality is that it remains mostly unchanged once you reach your early 20s. And only extreme life experiences can cause your personality to change in adulthood.

In other words, there is no one right way to behave. Instead, there are many different ways that are valid and worthy of recognition. Each personality trait represents a spectrum of two opposites.

​​The Big Five will help you better understand yourself, enjoy the things that make you unique, identify areas where you can grow, leverage your strengths, and shape your life the way you want it to be.

In the age of smart technology, digital tools like MindBank Ai can define your personality, give you insights, and help you make self-aware decisions in your daily life.