Reflection on Personal Development in Relation to Self-Awareness and Listening Skills The WritePass Journal

Reflection on Personal Development in Relation to Self-Awareness and Listening Skills Reference list Reflection on Personal Development in Relation to Self-Awareness and Listening Skills IntroductionBodyConclusionReference listRelated Introduction This essay will examine my personal self development in relation to self-awareness and listening skills. Personal development refers to a  set  of activities that one can engage in for the purpose of enhancing self  knowledge  and  identity. It involves talent and potential development,  building  of human  capital  as well as employability, improving the quality of life, and last but not least, playing a role towards the realization of aspirations and dreams. The  idea  of personal development is not only limited to  self  development, but also entails formal and informal activities meant to  develop  others, as well.  For instance, counseling, teaching, guiding, mentoring, coaching and managing, for instance, just as required of a mental healthcare practitioner. Body Before, while working as a mental healthcare practitioner, I came to realize that, I  had  the desire to  attend  to others, but was  really  poor  at listening.  I felt like most people I was attending to were not  really  sure of what they actually wanted and that, I knew better what they were in need of.  Because I had trouble being patient enough to  listen, I  often  never got to understand what they were talking about.  The problem with this experience was that I never  really  got to provide sufficient solutions to most problems that  were relayed  to me.  After realizing this  challenge  and making an effort to  start  listening  better, I have realized how easy it can be to  communicate  and understand others much  better. Consequently, I have been able to be of much  help  in my endeavors anywhere and at  anytime. Given a chance again probably as a healthcare practitioner, I know I can be able to build rapport wi th my fellow colleagues, bosses and even the clients. Self awareness is a  fundamental  factor at the core of this  broad  and  significant  pursuit. Widening one’s self awareness involves discovering new truths about an individual. Self awareness can be described as a  circle  whereby everything within and without the circle is the  self. Those things that exist within the circle are the things that one’s current level of self awareness allows one  to consciously comprehend  (Johns, 2005). As a person’s circle of self awareness expands, not only is he or she consciously aware of a greater  portion  of him or herself, but also the borders of his or her  awareness  have enlarged in such a way that, his or her  self  awareness borders upon a widened area of future  discovery  and development. The more doors an  individual  opens, the more he or she realizes there are to be opened. Personal development starts at a point of self awareness. In fact, it may as well be the ultimate end (Johns, 2005). As I have come to  learn, self awareness is quite  important.  The views we hold concerning the daily happenings of the world and even of  our  personal lives  hugely  determines for an individual the  state  of the  world  he or she is living in as well as his/her being.  Therefore, one important lesson which can be learnt in life is the  significance  of the things we focus on.  When a person thinks about failure, he or she will  definitely  find reasons  to  certainly  succumb  to it.  When  you  think about health and well-being, you will essentially make the important decision  of doing everything within your  reach  that will lead to better health and well-being (Johns, 2005). At a personal level, the  idea  of personal development involves activities such as improving self  knowledge  and  awareness, building identity, developing strengths, spiritual development, enhancing potential, improving health, fulfilling aspirations, enhancing lifestyles,   improving wealth, improving social abilities, and building human capital (Johns, 2005).  In my pursuit of personal development, I have come to  notice  that, any kind of  development  whether  personal, economic, geological, political or organizational, demands a  framework to be able to  know  whether  change  has in  reality  occurred.  For the case of personal development, a person  frequently  operates as the principal  judge  of improvement. Corroboration of  objective  improvement requires an assessment which has to be carried out using a standard criterion (Johns, 2005). These frameworks comprise of benchmarks or goals that define the strategies, end-po ints or plans for achieving goals, appraisals and evaluation of progress, levels that  describe  milestones, and finally a feedback mechanism that provides information on developments. Poor communication is an inexorable  cause  of stress (Moss, 2008). One area of communication where most people are worst at is listening. It is through the significant impact of personal development that an individual can grow and improve his or her relationships, wealth, happiness, health, and careers. According to Burnand (1997), listening and attending are by far the most  vital  aspects of being an     effective  healthcare professional.  Most times, I feel I am obliged  to  talk  and  do  only a  little  listening.  Over-talking on the part of healthcare professionals is  normally  considered to be less productive (Burnand, 1997).  I   will develop in my listening skills   so that I can be of   help  to other people.   It is   important  to understand the difference between attending and listening to a person. Attending  generally  involves ,a  true  direction  of focus on the other person  you  are communicating with.  It requires one  to consciously pay attention of what the person is actually saying and what he or she is trying to  communicate.  Listening, on the other hand, is the process of hearing the other person  you  are communicating with.  It requires an individual  to not only  note  what the other person is saying, but also the other many, aspects of communication (Burnand, 1997). Before, I never used to  have  the capacity  to consciously choose  the perspectives I  took.  Most of my thoughts, which I may consider as being  stealthy  behavior, had been rolling with life, becoming influenced by events around me, the media, as well as my peers.  This made me feel like I gave up my  power  as a human being to come up with my world the way I possibly  see  it.  In other words, it felt like I was using my own  power  against myself to make myself feel  absolutely  powerless.  It was impossible to develop and  grow  myself with a lack of self awareness Johns, (2005). After, making enough efforts to  get  myself into a point of self awareness with improved listening skills, I have been able to maintain a high level of self awareness by keeping my attention focused on everything going on around me. It is  true  to say that human beings are complex and diverse Elearn Limited, (2005). To  develop  my  self  awareness, I have been able to develop an understanding of myself based on a number of self awareness areas for example personality, habits, emotions, values, and needs.  Through, a personal  study  of  myself it  has been  evident  to me that, personal needs, and values can not be changed based on what I have been able to learn about myself.  However, an understanding of my  personality  has enabled me to  discover  those areas where I can  flourish, and avoid situations that are likely to cause  unwarranted  stress  to my life. For instance, I have come to  acknowledge  the fact that I am an in trovert. It is  essential  for each person to  acknowledge  and focus on personal values. My current priority has been to  build  my relationship with God. It has been  very  hard personally for me to keep sight of this priority on a day-to-day basis. During a  normal  busy  day, I  face  so many challenges and arising opportunities that my list of â€Å"things to be done† often exceeds the  time  available for me to  do  them.  Because of this reason, before, a lot of times I used to  find  myself spending much time on activities of lower priority since only few of these things  are related  to what I value most.  Currently, I can  get  myself to focus enough attention on my values, and as a result, I am always much more likely to  realize  those things I  consider  most  important. Habits can be described as those behaviors that one routinely and frequently automatically repeats (Elearn Limited, 2005). I have realized that, I always have the  urge  to develop habits that would  enable  me to interact effectively with other people, especially while executing my duties as a mental health practitioner. Before, in while attending to my patients, I never used  to  often  consult  enough before making  important  decisions. This habit interfered with my ability to  build  the  commitment  of the people around me towards the decisions I make. I have since come to  learn  that, there are a number of  psychological  needs that fuels a person’s behaviors, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Personally, I have been able to understand how  certain  needs in my life affect my interpersonal relationships.  After making this realization, today, I am able to  know  which needs actually influences my behaviors most. Looking at my life, I am always in a high  need  for status. I am  very  much attracted to high-status occupations, and desperately in need for high-status positions in  high status  organizations. This is one of the reasons why I found myself joining the( medical )industry. I always have the desire to be shown respect, and  get  privileges that most people of a lower  status  are not able to  acquire.  For this reason, many times, I find myself fighting for things that other groups of people  consider  inconsequential,  for example spacious rooms and fancy things.   It is  evident  to me that needs  cause  motivations. When they are not fulfilled they  cause     lot of frustrations, unease,  stress  and conflict. Emotional self awareness is a  topic  that causes much  excitement  to me because of its impacts (Pavlina, 2008). It also happens to be one of the components of emotional intelligence. Being in a  state  whereby  you  are able to  understand  your own feelings, the things that  trigger  them, as well as how they impact on your thoughts together with your actions on a daily basis can be considered to be  emotional  self awareness. Before, while starting my career as a mental healthcare worker, I realized that, at first I was  very  much enthusiastic. Slowly I started losing the  motivation  and the  excitement  faded. Before, the question that lingered on my  mind  most  was  whether I could be able to  get  the  excitement  once again. To answer this question I managed to seek the services of a counselor who informed me that, before I can be able to answer that question I needed to understand the  internal  processes that  are concerned  with getting excited.  For sure this sounds  quite  easier than it actually is.  She gave me another  perspective  of looking at the matter i.e. associating the  internal  processes that  are concerned  with getting excited in my work place. Most patients are aggressive, restless and irritable on admission, this   makes me feel like   nursing stable patients only, however I become excited when patients are mentally stable and on their way home. Similarly, an  individual  with  high  standards of emotional self awareness is better informed about the  internal  processes involved with emotional experiences and, therefore, has a better control over them (Pavlina, 2008). People can develop interests towards their jobs by probably doing things differently. This way, I have been able to  sustain  my  subsequent  jobs that I have been taking. I   have evaluated my perfomance and identified areas of which I would like to develop in order to improve my standard of achievements in my skills. Kolb‘s learning cycle(currently have a better control over my feelings and emotional experiences  thus, I am able to  tackle  things differently in different environments, in different occasions and  in  different ways. Concerning my personal awareness, I will  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   have become aware of my good qualities and weaknesses. Therefore I will arrange clinical supervision with my mentor to plan future development. Butterworth (1996) suggested minimum clinical supervision of 45minutes every four weeks. Conclusion Personal development refers to a  set  of activities that one can engage in for the purpose of enhancing self  knowledge  and  identity. It involves  talent  and  potential  development,  building  of human  capital  as well as employability, improving the quality of life, and last but not least playing a role towards the realization of aspirations and dreams. The  idea  of personal development is not only limited to  self  development, but also entails formal and informal activities meant to  develop  others, as well. As a person’s circle of self awareness expands, not only is he or she consciously aware of a greater  portion  of him or herself, but also the borders of his or her  awareness  have enlarged in such a way that, his or her  self  awareness borders upon a widened area of future  discovery  and development. The more doors an  individual  opens, the more he or she realizes there are to be opened. Listening and attending are by far the most  vital  aspects of being an  effective  healthcare professional.  Over-talking on the part of healthcare professional is  normally  considered to be  less  productive.  If people can  train  themselves to learn on how  to  really  listen  to others, then they can be of  really  much  help  to the society.  Personal development starts at a point of self awareness. In fact, it may as well be the ultimate end. It through the significant impact of personal  development that an individual can grow and improve his or her relationships, wealth, happiness, health, and careers. Self awareness is a  fundamental  factor at the core of this broad and  significant  pursuit. Widening ones self awareness involves discovering new truths about an individual.  Any kind of  development  whether  personal, economic, geological, political or organizational, demands a  framework  for one to be able to  know  whether  change  has in reality occurred.  For the case of personal development, a person  frequently  operates as the principal judge  of improvement. Corroboration of  objective  improvement requires an assessment which has to be carried out using a standard criterion. Reference list Butterworth, T.1996.Primary attempts at research based evaluation of clinical supervision.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nursing Times Research 1(2):96-112  Ã‚   Burnand, P., 1997. Effective communication skills for healthcare professionals. Cheltenham:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nelson Thornes. Elearn Limited., 2005. Managing yourself. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Johns, H., 2005. Personal development in counselor training. London: Sage Publishers. Moss, B., 2008. Communication skills for health and social care. London: Sage. Pavlina, S., 2008. Personal development for smart people. London: Hayhouse. Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D. Jasper, M., 2001. Critical reflection for nursing and helping  Ã‚  Ã‚   professionals. Palgrave MacMillan.