MAXIMISE YOUR STRENGTHS
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you succeed.
Dr.S.Yamuna
Sixteen year old Shreya, a student of XI, has angry outbursts at her parents and says, “No one likes me”. She has not been able to develop an interest in any activity be it painting, swimming, games or studying. She is not sure what type of relationships would give her comfort. She has never had a good friend since childhood. She is not clear about her choices of career.
Shreya is good-looking, as well as physically healthy. During the interview she was preoccupied with what others think about her. When asked to talk about her positive qualities, she thought for a long time but could not list any. Nor was she able to mention her negative aspects.
WELL BEING
Knowing our strengths helps us in acknowledging our success as well as appreciating our capacity to do something with or without support from others. This gives us a sense of well being and we are able to learn new skills and develop assets, thereby making us confident. Confident people attract friends and other stable relationships. In due course we are ready to accept various challenges with the right kind of investment of energy towards task completion.
Knowing our weaknesses helps us in accepting our limitations and developing a willingness to take help when offered and enables us to overcome the deficits. This paves way to expansion of skills and qualities, which prove useful in the long run. Life skills as defined by the World Health Organization is the ability to adapt and positive behavior patterns that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
Self-awareness is one of the ten core life skills, which an adolescent should inculcate, as recommended by WHO. It is worthwhile to introspect and reflect so as to realize our potential. This helps to bring about a change in us and we are able to meet challenges.
If Shreya has introspected or had been helped by her parents or teachers to reflect on herself she would have understood her positive and negative qualities, likes, dislikes, strengths, weakness, feelings, emotions, outlook, choices, values and attitude to life. Self –awareness paves the way to progress with respect to relationships, academic success, professional and personal fulfillment.
Dr.S.Yamuna is a Chennai based consultant paediatrician and adolescent physician.
E-mail:dryamunapaed@yahoo.com
Source: The Hindu
No comments:
Post a Comment