I know myself better than anyone else. After all, I have been living with myself my whole life. My highs and lows, joys and sorrows have been mine to experience and feel. There is nothing surprising or new that I can now discover about myself. Talking to a stranger about me is easy as a pie!
When I started school, my first assignment was to write about myself. My name, the color of my hair, my favorite animal and my best friend featured in this essay. As I grew up the fields I used to describe me went under c certain number of changes. Choices such as my favorite film, the book I had read last, my favorite subjects, my most loved teachers and my aim in life (the desire to be an astronaut, a bus driver, a trapeze artist or a pet store owner) went under huge transformation.
As we stand now, on the threshold of a new career, a whole new world awaits us to be explored. Money, power, success and achievement now seem to be sets of attainable and tangible objectives. All of us appear to want similar goals- that tony address, the corner office or a shining new car. But the question that pops up here is- are we reflections of one another working towards the same goal? Is there a finish line? Isn’t the journey of life a series of periodic & small goals? Shouldn’t these goals be different for each one of us?
It is these seemingly little differences that make each one of us unique. Our driving forces, insecurities, strengths and weaknesses and most importantly our individual visions about who we want to be lend make us a ‘one-of-a-kind personality’. A lot of us want to make money, but the way we want to achieve this is going to be different for all of us.
“I want to work in an unstructured environment because limitation quells my creativity; I do not want a customer facing job either because meeting strangers exhausts me to the brim. I would rather go for a sales job because I think the adrenaline rush would make up for the toiling around.” These kinds of realizations help us identify well-fit & desirable jobs. A job that tires us, one that we have to drag ourselves to is unlikely to take us anywhere! This process of self-exploration necessarily requires us to look within; to introspect. It needs us to assess, as objectively as possible, our reactions to situations; to gauge our individual feelings, in isolation from the overall group.
We must remember that acceptance of weaknesses is an opportunity for self-improvement. The knowledge of our strengths is a high upon which other highs can be built. It is a march forward all the way up.
Disclaimer: This article is written by Prof. Vinita (Faculty, FIIB and Ex-Educomp Counselor) who works towards Individual Career Development of every student at the Institute.