Personal Development - Essay Example

Personal Development Personal Development Personal Development constitute of those activities that develops awareness, talent, identity and improves the quality of life. In this paper, it is discussed about a person who was interviewed to find out his experience on personal development. A personal experience teaches a lot of things and the way people act and behave provides guidance, which helps in similar situations. It is more interesting to share the views of immigrants as they face a bigger change and such changes have a big impact on their lives. They experience more things as they have to adopt a new culture and social life. The person interviewed was a middle aged African American who was born in America. The interviewee shared his experience of life and how things going around him developed his personal characteristics. He confessed that he faced many problems in life because of his different ethnicity, culture and social values but all the challenges he faced developed him personally. The interviewee shared his views on socialization, interpersonal behavior and language and cognition. In addition to it, self and personality, family, gender and sexuality and illness and health helped him in developing good characteristics (Rose, 2008). The interviewee shared his childhood and adulthood moments and discussed about the support he got from people and the difficulties he faced in his life. He mentioned that everything that occurred with him in his lifetime helped him as he took everything positively. He was determined that a positive attitude can change his life and he can come over with all his problems if he takes everything that happens to him positively (Rogoff, 2003). From his experience of childhood, he shared that he was not very social with people belonging to different ethnicity. For example when was a toddler, he was confined to his home and was restricted to go and play with other children. His only relation was with his family with whom he used to socialize and was not aware about the attitude of people belonging to other ethnicity. It was mainly because of his surroundings that he was hesitant in socializing with everyone. When he got more exposure about the behavior of the people his views got changed. He felt that people belonging to different ethnicity are also good and are nice people to interact with. He faced difficulties as he was bullied at school but he sooner found out that it was not a particular ethnicity that troubled him and many of his friends from different ethnicity supported him. From this his personal development started building and he realized the positive impact of socializing. He conveyed a message that socializing helps a person a lot because by socializing a person learns more about others. He learnt how different people greet when they meet and how they talk. He learnt many things from socializing and tried to adopt all the good things he found about the other people (Pavlina, 2010). The interviewee is of the view that socializing is an important part of life and one cannot improve himself until he socializes with different people. He claimed that one should not only search for good behavior of people and learn from it rather if a person observes a bad behavior he should learn from it as well by avoid behaving in such a manner. Socializing grooms a person and gives them a chance to be a part of a society. Socializing is very important to adopt different culture, values and belief as these elements helps a person in easily adjusting in a society. This developmental process related to socializing is also associated with the concept provided in the book. As from the example of the book it is noticed that the interviewee and Matilda both were confined to their family at a younger age. As both of them grew up they started socializing with people in their society (Masters & Wallace, 2010). Interpersonal behavior is the behaviors that are present in a relationship. The human relationship gets much strong by interpersonal behavior as it is also a way of verbal and non-verbal communication. A human can develop many habits by viewing people the way they communicate. Verbal communication leaves a much stronger impact on the mind of people but non verbal communication is also very important to build some characteristics. The interviewee shared some points of interpersonal behavior, as he wanted to discuss its impact on lives of human beings. In his lifetime he interacted with a lot of people and had different experiences. From some people he learnt the manners of communicating and from some he learnt the benefits of non verbal communication (Johns, 2012). From his memories of college he shared how effective communication has been and how it taught him in developing his personal characters. For example, in the college he had to give presentations in a group through which he improved his interpersonal skills. He communicated with his group members and learnt many non-verbal actions which helped him understand many things without uttering a word. A relationship was built while working with them and he started understanding his group members. He also conducted interviews of different people along with his group members through which he learnt how to communicate with different people. The whole process of being in a group and working with people belonging to different ethnicity has helped his a lot through his life. From that experience in his life he understood how to communicate in a group and how to deal different people and work along with them. A person needs to work in groups at some stage of his life and must know how to communicate in a group and deal under difficult circumstances. In a similar manner the interviewee discussed that the verbal communication especially in a group has helped him a lot at work place and at other situations (Rose, 2008). Most of the people consider that non verbal communication is not very necessary or it is almost the same in all parts of the world but it has been discovered through various researches that non verbal communication is not the same in all parts of the world and it varies from place to place and culture to culture. Things from past has always helped him in building something goods for himself in future. As belonging to a different culture he also adopted the non verbal actions of the society in which he was living. He said he learnt various facial expressions from his friends, colleagues and members of the society. He observed people around him and try to develop their good habits which he felt were essential to adopt as it would help them in future. Interpersonal behavior is very important as observing the actions and styles of other helps in developing a person. Interpersonal behavior is a skill which is lacked by many people and it is effects their lives at work places. It is necessary for the humans to develop interpersonal skills as it improves our way of communication and helps us to be a prominent part of the society. Skills gained can be used in various situations and it is easier to convey your message to others (Rogoff, 2003). From the readings of the book it can be said that the concepts of the book also implies to the experience of the interviewee. One of the examples in the book gives an idea that interpersonal behavior is a part of developmental process and it is developed more when the a person meets different people and work along with them. Self-concept is the perception what one thinks about himself, his desires and abilities. It is the way how a person evaluates himself and his capabilities. It is upon an individual and his way of thinking, whether he thinks about himself in a positive or a negative manner. Personality is the way a person represents himself. The impression that other people get of a person is personality. During the interview, the interviewee discussed about the self and personality by sharing his personal life experience. He focused on being positive as it helped him in becoming a better human being. He believed that the rather than listening to people a person must experience it, as it is more authentic and tested. He mentioned that one should not only focus on their positive or negative traits but must completely analyze them (Johns, 2012). The interviewee gave his example that after socializing with new people he realized that establish his own personality and will learn good traits from people he meets in his life. At his job he was very much impressed by the reading habit of his employer and wanted to adopt this habit in his life. From reading different books he learnt many things, which still helps him and keeps him updated. The interviewee considers it as a part of his personality that the change he observed from reading was very beneficial to him. The experience of the interviewee is related to the concept of the book as it mentioned in the book that the person established her own personality, which helped her in life. The interviewee also conveyed a message that building personality is important as these characteristics are also developed in their children (W. Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). The reflections from the interview gave an idea that after completely analyzing, a person must avoid negative traits that he posses and must improve his positive traits. By doing so, a person will possess a good personality which will be admired by many. A person can also work on his personality by observing other people. By following the good habits of others a person can build their own personality. A person learns how to represent himself at various places which reflects their personality and good characteristics. It is also a part of personal development which helps a person in improving a lot (Pavlina, 2010). Family is one of the most valuable assets a person can have in their life. Family works as a group and support each other every time. A person can learn a lot from his family members as they continuously keep on guiding him in every stage of life. The first lesson which a person learns is from his family and it is because of them a person is confident enough to face world. The element of bonding in the family members is helpful as a person can easily trust them and discuss all the issues which they face. Continuous personal development takes place when a person is living with its family. It is not necessary that a person only learns from his family when he/ she is a child but it is a continuous learning process (Rose, 2008). It is reflected from the interview that the interviewee learnt many lessons from his family which are now a part of his development. For example, in different cultures there are different things taught to the children. In some families fathers play an important role while in some families mother is responsible for the acts of her child. The interviewee described he was raised by his parent and they both provided equal time to him to teach him different manners. He claims that from his family he learnt the way to eat in a respectable manner, which helped him a lot in his entire life as he was able to eat properly in public. He learnt from his family to respect elders, this is also a part of personal development, it has also helped him a lot in earning respect for himself in the society because of his behavior toward others (Johns, 2012). Different families have different culture and way of behavior but all of them teaches a person how to behave in public and what should be done in different situations. As everyone has their own way to greet, eat, etc. it is important to learn from them as well. Teachings from family whether it one’s own or other family, it helps in personal development. The concept of role of family in personal development is also provided in the book which is similar to the experience of the interviewee. The book discusses about different families and culture which reflects the family values, it also explains how children are raised in different culture and the interviewee has also discussed how he was raised by his parents and the things he learnt from them (Masters & Wallace, 2010). All cultures have gender stereotype and men are given more opportunities than women because of male dominant society. Even parents especially fathers want boys, gender discrimination usually starts at home. Gender differences helps in developing a person’s character as gender stereotype which involves discrimination. From many studies and researches it has been found that men are physically stronger and women are stronger mentally and emotionally. As women are more emotionally stronger they are able to deal certain situations better than men as they develop this trait from childhood (Rogoff, 2003). The interviewee gave many examples on how gender helps in developing human personality. He described that he was the only male child in the family and everyone in the family loved him, he did not had to wait for things he wished to have in life as his wishes were made true by his parents. From that experience he realized that gender plays an important role and women are mostly deprived of their rights and wants. His personality developed in such a manner that he respected women a lot and spoke for women rights many time in his life. He viewed that there is injustice in the society and people should do something for others as well. Gender and sexuality helped the interviewee in developing his character which was reflected in his personality. He even mentioned that people must observe bad things and learn from it in a positive manner by avoiding such things in life (W. Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). The concept of gender stereotype is discussed in the book as it is mentioned in the book that men have more economical and social powers than women and the interviewee also shared his experience which is similar to the concept of the book (W. Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). Personal development is not an easy process, which can be learnt in a few days or months. Life is a learning process and all stages of life are equally important to learn from. By learning a person develops his skills and personality and gets awareness of representing him in the society. It is totally upon a person whether he wants to accomplish something in life or just live it without achieving any goals. If a person is motivated and wants to do something in life he will work hard to acquire good things. A person will learn from his experience and imply those things in life for personal development. Personal development is necessary in life and is reflected through many ways like communication, interpersonal behavior, family, etc. A person must be willing to cultivate good habits in him so that he can make progress in the society and live a prosperous life. It is very important for a human being to socialize in order to live their life happily and for that personal development is the key. It can be concluded that personal development is necessary to communicate and socialize in the world. If a person has quality characteristics then people will admire him and will feel goods to communicate with him. This will increase the social life of a person which is also good for his health. One must understand the benefits of personal development and must try hard to achieve them from his personal experiences. Reference List Gardiner, W. H., & Kosmitzki, C. (2010). Lives Across Cultures: Cross-Cultural Human Development (5th Edition). New Jersey: Pearson. Johns, H. (2012). Personal Development in Counsellor Training. London: Sage. Masters, A., & Wallace, H. R. (2010). Personal Development for Life and Work. Mason: Cengage Learning. Pavlina, S. (2010). Personal Development for Smart People. New York: ReadHowYouWant.com. Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rose, C. (2008). The Personal Development Group. New York: Karnac Books. Read More