PersonalEffectivenessandDevelopmentReport.docx

1、PersonalEffectivenessandDevelopmentReport1. IntroductionThis report aims to identify my personal value and goals and seek approaches to achieve personal development by understanding and managing self. The body part is divided into five main sections. The first two sections aim at better self underst

2、anding. And the three following sections are discussed about how to manage myself. Personal values, vision and goals are described in the first section. In the second section, my own current attributes and areas need to be developed are analysed. Two development areas are further justified with two

3、accordingly action plans followed. The key findings of this report are: Firstly, personal values and the corresponding goals are the ultimate destinations individual need to move towards. Secondly, self-awareness positively related to overall happiness, vision and effectiveness. Thirdly, increase on

4、 character strengths and self-efficacy can improve the well-being and help to achieve lifetime goals. Fourthly, by taking appropriate action plans and continuously review, personal development can actually be achieved. 2. Value and Personal Vision2.1 Personal Values and VisionShwartz (1992) defines

5、that values are critical principles leading our conduct and goals. In order to gaining a comprehensive self understanding, identifying my core set of personal values is of great importance.According to the Personal Values Card Sort Exercise, it is found that my ten prioritised values are, in sequenc

6、e, Pleasure, Health, Friendship, Excitement, Growth, Beauty, Helpfulness, Achievement and Wealth.Pleasure, as the result, is my core value. As the explanation of the cards for sorting, pleasure means to feel good. I always seek more meaning work such as assisting others or pursuing and nurturing rel

7、ationship, travelling in order to feel better. The essence of my pursuits is to enhance the physical and emotional pleasure. My second most important value is Health. I appear to give health greater concern than peers. In my view the healthy body is the fundamental of a happy, exciting life. Friends

8、hip is indispensable in my life as well. I would like to spend my leisure time with my friends rather than stay alone. The next value is excitement. Life is too short to waste. I am always eager to experience all meaningful things around the world. Helpfulness can be my personal values as well. To g

9、ive other assistance and to help them out of suffering situation is one of the obligations for every human being. In many cases, only a little help you offered for others can actually solve their big problems.Although it sounds superficial, I do care about my appearance. As a young woman, keeping ph

10、ysically attractive is not only to please people surrounding, but also, more importantly, please myself.Last but not least, the truth is nobody can live in a decent highquality life without money. Thus, to be financially successful is another thing I want in my life.Personal values are the principle

11、 which guides the goal setting. When creating a vision and setting the goals, personal values should always be take into account.2.2 Vision and Lifetime GoalPersonal vision, like ones dream life, takes into account the current situation, and serves to point the direction of where we wish to go (Cove

12、y 1989). Crafting the personal vision is pivotal for individual to move towards the right destination.The best possible self exercise (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky 2006) provides me a broad view of my personal vision. As far as I am concerned, I want to live in a happy, abundant life with my family and fri

13、ends, and enjoy my work. When it comes to my lifetime goal, both professional survey result and my own opinion are taking into consideration.To describe my goal and vision, I participated in a “Life Goal” survey (Personal Lab Org 2010). Six categories of goals are identified and fall into two larger

14、 classes of life goals, termed Intrinsic and Extrinsic goals. Intrinsic goals are those can directly satisfy innate human needs. The goals of Affiliation, Community Involvement, and Self-Acceptance assessed in this survey are examples of Intrinsic Goals. Extrinsic goals are largely focused on being

15、a worthy person in the eyes of others or being recoginised by the society. The goals of Financial Success, Social Recognition, and Attractiveness go to Extrinsic Goals (Kasser & Ryan 1996). According to the feedback, I appear to placemore focus on financial success, attractiveness than the typical s

16、tudy participant. On the other hand, I placeless attention on community involvement, Affiliation, and especially Self-Acceptance. In a nutshell, Iprioritize intrinsic goals over extrinsic goals to a substantially lesser extent than others.Although the feedback comes from a professional psychological

17、 estimation, I may not hold the same view about my goals. Speaking for myself, my lifetime goal is, at the end of my life, I am able to look back on my life as meaningful and complete. Surely I would like to have sufficient amount of money for spending and successfully hide the signs of aging. Howev

18、er, I do care about my friends and one of my visions is to have some good friends I can count on all the time. Furthermore, I am willing to engage in a committed, enduring relationship in the future. Sometimes I appear fear of an intimate relationship probably because the family breakdown I experien

19、ced. In terms of the career goal, frankly speaking I do not have a specific one at this moment. Ideally I want a career which can utilize my character strengths and get a sense of achievement. It also should be both interesting and challenging. I put my interests in the first place since I know few

20、people can maintain good performance if they are not interested in the job and devote to the work. In light of the above, my vision and goals are set aligning with my value.2.3 Impact of self-awareness 2.31 Self-awareness and Personal Values/ GoalsThe personal vision and values are hardly to be achi

21、eved if we do not aware of our resources and gaps. Hassed (2002) argues that unwillingness to inspect ourselves is a reason for making mistakes repetitively. Lack of clear self-awareness can easily lead us to a dead end, since we are highly possible to overestimate our capability, or vice versa. Sel

22、f-awareness works for everyone to perform better and obtain success (Duval and Silvia 2002). By identifying what we have, our strengths can be efficiently utilised and our gaps can be sufficiently narrowed as well. As a result, we can attain the goals and values easier. 2.32 happiness, success and e

23、ffectivenessSelf-awareness is also regarded as a necessary approach to overall happiness and effectiveness. According to the investigation did by Smith (2011), the awareness of thesecharacterstrengthsmay make employees work as a calling rather than a job, and might increase their productivity, satis

24、faction with work, and happiness.Moreover, self-awareness can guide me to success as well. By understanding my strengths and weaknesses, I will go through a process of self-accepted, motivated and improved. These steps, eventually, will empower me to a bright future. Having considered all the argume

25、nts above, self-awareness not only plays a critical role when achieving my values, it also links tightly to happiness, success and effectiveness.3. Explore the Present3.1 Current Personal AttributesTo find out my current personal attributes, I focus on analysing my character traits by using tools su

26、ch as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Briggs and Myers 1995) questionnaire and the VIA strengths diagnostic (Peterson and Seligman 2004). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a classification of personalities, which measures the preferences in individuals perception of the world and judgement (Bri

27、ggs and Myers 1995). After attempting this test, I was described as the ENFP type, that is Extroversion, intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. People of this type are enthusiastic and imaginative, spontaneous and flexible (the Myers and Briggs Foundation 2010). It also indicates my willingness to experie

28、nce all the fascinating possibilities of life. I would love to give support to others while I need a lot of external affirmation. I can connect events and information and react very quickly. On the other hand, VIA strengths test is an acknowledgeable online survey which ranks ones strengths in order

29、. The top five strengths are relatively significant and need to make frequent use. Based on the survey result, my top five strengths are Optimism, Kindness, Perspective, Appreciate of beauty and Judgment. The result turns out to be in alignment with what I perceive myself. From these tests, It can b

30、e concluded that my personal attributes are optimism, enthusiastic, perspective, generosity, curiosity, gratitude, judgment, flexibility. These attributes help me to my goals and value. For instance, my prioritised value and goal is pleasure. Since I appreciate the beauty of life and show strong opt

31、imism and enthusiastic, I am easy to be pleased and always feel happy. Furthermore, I am generous to others, which bring me lots of friends. I am wise and judging, which let me make right decision on work and study. I am curious to everything in the world, which push me to explore the word. To sum u

32、p, these personal attributes enable me to achieve my value and goals.3.2 Areas need to be developed Having considered my current personal attributes, there are three perspectives addressed here need to be develop. Some of my character strengths require further develop while the weaknesses in respect of self-efficacy, and overall personal effectiveness should be redressed.3.21 Character strengthsA character strength is termed a disposition to act, desire, and feel that involves the exercise of judgment and leads to a recognizable human excellence or instance of human flourishing (Yearley 1990,