LESSON 1.1.3: Personal/Self-development

Interpretation of score

0 – 18: Time to change You question every decision made and do not respect yourself. Your self-esteem is dangerously low. Improving your selfesteem should be your number 1 priority in life.

19 – 36: Signs of trouble 37 – 54: Middle of the road

55 – 72: On the right track You believe that other people are worth more than you are. You need to start believing in yourself. You have days when you think you are doing OK and days when you question everything you do. Work on believing in yourself more. Your faith in yourself is on the right track. Practise recognising small accomplishments and be proud.

73 – 90: Strong selfesteem You have a healthy amount of self-respect and are comfortable with making decisions. You learn from mistakes.

Adapted: (Templateroller, n.d.)

Personal development is a lifelong journey. It covers all the aspects of oneself like physical development, intellectual growth, emotional intelligence and spiritual growth. This may sound overly complicated, but it could also be fun. Most of us find it easier to motivate ourselves to learn and improve purposefully if we have a reason for doing so. The best way to embark on this journey is to develop your own personal vision – a clear idea of where you want to be in a few months or years and knowing why this is important to you. We will look at eight aspects involved in the successful planning of our own self-development.

1. My personal vision

You need a clear vision of what you want and where you want to be in life. Without this picture in mind, you will not be able to identify your personal development needs. What is your idea of being successful? How do you perceive personal success? In which of the following areas do you want to achieve success?

• Formal studies • Career or professional life • Personal life and relationships • Hobbies or sport

2. Setting personal goals

There is a strong correlation between self-motivation, personal goals and achievement. Each individual has their own personal goal which might be quite different from someone else’s. These personal goals may change from time to time as we grow and move through life.

Study Guide

G10 ~ Life Orientation

Unit 1 At present, achieving good grades might be your goal. Later you may want to pass your driving test or get a job. In general, the more someone achieves, the more self-confident they will become. As self-confidence increases, so does the ability to achieve. Poorly formulated or unrealistic goals can cause failure to achieve these goals. This may lead to a poor selfesteem and low self-confidence. It will also affect motivation levels.

It is important to plan the setting of goals. After you have set and identified your goals, you have to try immediately to achieve those goals. You have to revise your goals daily or weekly to ensure that you are well on track with the achievement of your goals.

Goals must be guided by the SMART principle. • Specific: Goals must be detailed and target a particular result. • Measurable: You must be able to determine whether you are making progress or whether you have achieved your goal. • Achievable: You must be able to reach your goal. • Realistic: You must look at the bigger picture and be realistic when setting goals. • Time-bound: You must have a deadline by when the goals must be reached.

3. SWOT analysis for personal development

To ensure that goals are realistic, we need to understand our own strengths and weaknesses.

A SWOT analysis is a way of looking at yourself and your situation to identify areas in need of attention. Use the template below to reflect on your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Strengths Weaknesses

The areas that can support you reaching your goal, e.g. I do not give up easily. All the areas that could keep you from reaching your goal, e.g. I spend too much time on social media.

Opportunities Possibilities that you could take advantage of, e.g. My friend is excellent in time management and can maybe help me to plan my time better. Threats The things that might prevent you from reaching your goal, e.g. My friends do not respect my study time.

4. Design your own personal development action plan

To be able to turn your vision into reality, you need your own action plan. After identifying your strengths and opportunities, you need to overcome weaknesses and threats. The best way to do that is to use your strengths and opportunities and develop an action plan so that your vision becomes a reality by reaching your goals.