Realizing My Potentials - Essay Example

Realizing My Potentials "Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy." (Norman Vincent Peale) This quotation has become a complete code of life for me. Through this, I take inspiration, gather myself up and face the obstacle and all the hurdles that obstruct my path. To have faith in myself and to be confident about my potentials is what best describes my personality. I am Yveren, born on 29th October, 1989 in Miami, Florida. Belonging to a place which is the hub to all activities such as culture, entertainment, sports, media, trade and arts has influenced my personality in many ways. The purity of my land has affected my upbringing and has bought a positive impact on my personality. Miami Beach being a center of attraction for many has developed great affinity in me for beaches and has also helped in to build up my love for water sports. Being the youngest in my family with two elder brothers, I have always been pampered and that has also made me a really family oriented person. For me, my utmost priority is my family. My family takes its roots from the African Americans. Apart from that, I am personally a sports lover. Football has influenced me since childhood and has been an essential part of my life since then. Football has been my passion and I have played football for my school that is Hialeah High School. I have also represented the University of Central Michigan in football at various events bringing laurels for them. The love for sports and other athletics has shaped my personality. I believe that I can compete in all areas of life irrespective of what obstacles and hurdles come my way. I am very determined and I have firm belief in my capabilities. Education has always been the priority of my family. Belonging to an average middle class sector of the society, value of education has always been given in my family. Currently, I am enrolled in school to study criminology. The reason behind choosing criminology was because of my interest in crime and what causes crime, its nature and to what extent it can be affected. This inquisition made me opt for this subject so that I could study in depth the behavior of crime on individuals, as well as the society. Concepts The first and the foremost thing that has developed within me is conscientiousness. Conscientiousness deals with the "Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors." (Coon, 394) This apparently means that I am very organized and I take care of the minutest details in everything I do. This trait has been really controversial for me as at times as I do not let go of myself and my feelings resulting in being quite reserved and loosing people who make difference in my life because of lack of expression of my feelings. Anxiety is also something I possess. Nervousness and anxiety go hand in hand. Despite this fact, I have always been really confident, active and determined. Public speaking has always made me nervous. I find it really difficult to face masses of people and, therefore, I undergo issues like "headaches, stomachaches, breathlessness, hyperventilation, blushing, trembling, increase heart rate, muscle tension and sweating." (Kearney, 103). These are the symptoms of nervousness mentioned by Kearney in his book. Because of the anxiety and nervousness, I tend to show all the symptoms I previously mentioned which drain my confidence and leave me numb when I have to face the public. Another issue which is affecting my personality is my behavior in public. Socially, I do not tend to mingle with people that easily. Since I get reserved and show signs of nervousness, this has made me a bit quiet when it comes to dealing with people. I feel very comfortable with people who are my type and share common likings, but it gets really difficult for me to interact with people having different personality traits. The reason behind this is that I do not like to be judged. Usually people who don't know me start to judge me, which apparently affects my behavior and causes me to boycott social interactions. Thus, "From a social cognitive standpoint, the self is an interesting case that includes both the perceiver and the perceived" (Fiske, 345). In agreement with this cognitive stance, I believe that the people perceive me according to whatever they see in my social interactions. However, because of their judgmental power, I am unable to interact with them easily. Thus, I can say that my personality is easily affected by the people who are around me. Being a sportsman, I realize the adverse effects that drugs can have on me but despite knowing all the consequences, I cannot help get over with this addiction. Consuming various drugs has affected my immunity and is also affecting my performance but despite all the efforts, I am not being able to overcome these addictions. But now in order to get done with this addiction, I have started to focus more on my health taking alternatives that help build my stamina and cause no harm to my body. Lastly, the issue that I face is with my short attention span. I tend to procrastinate quite easily which is causing great difficulties. I cannot focus on something for long and then I get distracted very easily, resulting in lesser efficiency. This problem takes its peak during exams when I cannot concentrate for long although I try my level best. Lack of concentration has caused me immense problems and at times, I get deprived of my sleep to cover up for the loss I made because of a short attention span. It is said that "Adequate attention span requires optimal arousal, selection of task relevant information, maintenance of attention long enough to get a task done and central processing of a task" (Reynolds, 205) which I cannot merely do. Through writing this essay, I have learnt to face my problems upfront. Earlier, I was trying to disguise my problems only seeing the brighter side of myself. But today, I have actually evaluated what my shortcomings are and what needs to be done to overcome them. Staying reserved and not facing the world just because of the fear of being judged had developed inside me, but now it feels like these petty issues are just acting like obstacles that are blocking my way to success. These acute issues and fears are not so difficult to overcome. What I need to do is to stop thinking about other individuals and live a life for myself. Getting addicted was just an easy way I used to deal with my insecurities, but now the situation seems to be quite different for me. I've developed an optimistic approach to life. Conclusion At this point, I would want to find out whether I can actually become more confident than I was previously, despite being aware of my insecurities and letting go of my fears. The questions still remains unanswered until and unless I start to practically implement my evaluation and eventually let go of my prevailing fears. This essay has helped me in realizing my potentials and has also bought a positive change within me. Works Cited Coon, Dennis. Psychology: A Journey. Australia: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002. Print. Fiske, Susan T., and C. N. Macrae. The Sage Handbook of Social Cognition. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE, 2012. Print. Kearney, Christopher A. Silence Is Not Golden: Strategies for Helping the Shy Child. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Internet resource. Reynolds, Cecil R., and Elaine Fletcher-Janzen. Concise Encyclopedia of Special Education. New York: Wiley, 1990. Internet resource. Read More