Reflected Best Self Exercise Essay Example

have included in this section. I firmly believe that I possess all of them and that they are my real strengths.

After deeply reflecting on my positive attributes, I realized that I always face situations and people with confidence. When I meet new people, I always talk first and on behalf of my friends. I also strongly hold on to my stand in a conversation and change it only when I’m entirely convinced that other people’s ideas are the right ones. Besides, I’m always positive that my actions and plans will succeed. Whenever I’m doing something, I always do it with optimism that it will certainly lead to my expected results.

The second most significant strength I found in myself is openness. I’m always open to new ideas regardless of who bring them up or where they come from. When people share their thoughts with me, I first listen and criticize the latter after I have fully understood them. I also like to share my feelings and personal experiences with people, especially with my parents and my best friends. In addition, I like exploring new knowledge every time I have a chance to do so. A day ending without me knowing something new is a bad day for me. To avoid bad days therefore, I keep researching and listening to people so that I can learn new things. This attribute has particularly made me very social and active in reading and observing things. During my free time, I talk to people or engage in reading or watching educational materials.
Another positive feature I observed in myself is honesty. Essentially, I don’t like arm twisting words like most people

do in order to make their stories look better. Instead, I believe that the truth will always set me free, and that truth is what people want to hear. Even when I want to lie, the person/people I’m always talking to notice(s), because I do not know how to tell a lie. My friends sometimes tell me that honesty makes me naïve, but I still look at it positively as I believe that keeping secrets is wrong and unfair to people. I feel that human relationships should be built on trust and honesty, rather than secrecy and untruthfulness. According to me, a person who hides the truth from you does not treat you as a friend, but rather as an enemy who may use this fact to get back at him/her. With this in mind, I always exercise honesty so that I can act friendly to people.

I also realized that I care a lot about other people. When my friends are experiencing problems, I feel very concerned and sometimes even involved. I also show a lot of interest in the success of my friends and my family. When I see either of them messing things up, I feel as if I am responsible for directing him/her to the right path. This also includes my parents. In addition, I always find myself talking to my friends and family members about their goals and drawbacks. When I internalized why I do this, I found out it is because I care about their success in life.

Finally, I found myself to be a family person. When I’m free, I like to be with my family; to share life experiences

and advise them. I also realized that I keep in touch with my sister and parents too much when I’m away from home. In addition, I value family meals a lot, to the point that I can miss an occasion with friends just to take dinner with my family. This personality has made me so close and open to all the members of my family unit, especially to my sister.

In a nutshell, I have the strengths as mentioned above, and I feel that they help me cruise on in successfully in any situation. Surprisingly, I didn’t realize that I had some of the strengths I have mentioned above until I took a self-reflection. For instance, I didn’t realize that I was a family person until I took my mind through the history of my life. In this regard, I find the self-reflection a success and an exercise that has helped me value myself more.

Data and Reflection

To find out more about my strengths and those that I had left out during my self-reflection, I told eleven people who related with me closely to write their reflection on my strengths. I chose the eleven people because they have lived and interacted with me long enough to understand my strengths and weaknesses. In particular, I emailed my parents, my sister, my three closest friends, my high school teacher, my taekwondo instructor, my neighbour, my cousin, and my chess club teammate and told them to write stories about me. I didn’t feel good having people write about my positive life, but I realized I had to do so, so as to fully understand my strengths.

Out of the eleven people

I emailed, nine answered back. I was so much impressed by seeing how the results turned out, with most of their reflections describing me with similar strengths and most of them relating to my personal evaluation. Starting with, the most common theme I observed in the responses is that I am a caring person. My friend Jane said that I care a lot about not angering her. She also commended me for always being so much concerned with how she is doing, how she is feeling and how far she has reached in her ambitions. To illustrate my caring attribute, Jane reminded me of one Saturday night when she broke-up with her boyfriend. I left home at almost three in the morning to be with her and comfort her for the loss. According to my mother, I am always concerned with the wellbeing of my family, and even though I am younger than my sister, I always look out for her and guide her where she is going wrong. My mother reminded me of an occasion when I missed out a chess tournament just because my sister was under stress and needed someone to be with her.
My friend Jim also indicated that I care a lot about the well-being of people. He said that he instantly became my friend when we first met because I showed that I cared for his good performance in high school. Also, my taekwondo coach indicated that I care a lot about the success of others. He reminded me of one day when I seriously insisted that a new trainee had fighting skills, although the other trainees were convinced that

he couldn’t fight. At that moment, I was so much concerned that the trainee would drop taekwondo because his abilities in participating in it had been looked down upon.

Another one of my strengths that were eminent in the reflective stories was that I’m hardworking. My father described me as a person who is very dedicated towards ensuring that what I’m doing is completed successfully. He said that I love my education and that I put a lot of efforts to make sure that I succeed in it. According to my High school Maths teacher, I was the most hardworking student in her class. She mentioned that even though I was not good in mathematics, I always struggled with it to ensure that I appeared among the top performers. She reminded me of an occasion when I approached her twice for help on solving the same mathematics question. When I sought help for the first time, I didn’t understand fully the problem and therefore I went back to ensure that the concept behind the question sunk deeply into my head.

My chess teammate also felt that I am hardworking because I always do further research when I go home beaten to ensure that I win next time. He mentioned a time when he beat me in seven games out of ten games and then I came back in the next meeting having researched and beat him ten out of ten games.

A significant number of those who answered also indicated that I’m kind to people. My friend Jim said that ladies like me because I am kind to them. According to my elder sister, I am the most

generous person in her life. She said that it is through my kindness that we have a strong bond as siblings. In her story, she was so much charmed by how I share my things with her. My friend Jane also expressed a lot of enthusiasm for my kindness in her reflection on me. She said that I respect her decisions and talk to her calmly even when I’m angry with her.

According to my friend Jim’s story, I always acknowledge other people and compliment them when they do good. Jim also indicated that I like saying thank you when people do good to me and that I always smile when talking to people. He reminded me of how I strongly acknowledged his presence during our chess club meeting even though he was not a member.

My father also said that I am kind because I show family members that I’m concerned whenever they have problems. He reminded me that a week earlier I insisted on taking juice with him when situations at his workplace saddened him.

A significant number of stories also portrayed me as an open person. My neighbour Emma said that I tell her a lot of things about myself and also listen to her when she tells me about her personal experiences. She said that it is due to my openness that we learned a lot about each other in a very short period after their family moved to our neighbourhood. She also indicated that I have taught her to be open and for this reason she has known many people over the little time she has lived in the neighbourhood.
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he reminded me that

I welcomed her to our home the second day we met and shared a lot about myself with her. My mother and my high school maths teacher said that I am open to new things. According to my mother, I’m never satisfied with what I already know. My high school maths teacher said that I like knowing more about new things and new experiences. My friend Jim also indicated that I’m open, although he didn’t mention why.

Finally, three of those who responded indicated me as a confident person. According to my taekwondo coach, I always face challenges with confidence and optimism. He said that I am not afraid of trying and that I don’t see any impossible thing. My friend Jim said that he finds me confident because I always represent him and our other friends whenever we meet new people. He said that I always talk first and know what to say in such situations. My father also indicated that I’m confident, but he didn’t give any reason.

However, despite the many positive attributes that they described I possess, some stories also indicated some negative attributes in me. First, my chess teammate and my friends Jane and Jim mentioned that I am slow in making decisions. They concluded that I always don’t give the final decision, but rather offer suggestions. Secondly, my mother said that I sometimes hesitant to do things that I had planned to do. Lastly, my friend Jim said that I am envious of other people. He added that I don’t like seeing people succeed when I’m not succeeding.
In conclusion, I think that the people I chose to write about me know

me very well. They gave similar reflections, and most of my self-reflected strengths appeared in their reflections as well. I therefore feel that the above strengths plus my self-reflected strengths make up all my strengths and they are what help me in everyday situations.

Feedback Process: Analysis and Observation

This section comprises of an analytical summary of my self-reflection and the themes I observed from the respondents’ emails. In this section, I categorize my strengths and show how they exist in me. I also describe how the observed strengths help me deal with life situations.
Conducting a self-evaluation and having people to write their reflections on my strengths have revealed to me my true abilities. Before this exercise, I didn’t see as much positive attributes in me as I now see. In particular, the reflective stories have helped me to see how people view me. These reflections have also helped me to find out the difference between how I perceive myself in public and how the public truly perceives me.

This is important as it helps me to know how to balance between the two, in order to be good to others and also to myself. The two exercises, my self-evaluation, and the reflections have also allowed me to know my most important strengths. Most of the strengths I identified and those identified in the reflective descriptions were recurrent, meaning that it is highly likely that they are my true strengths.

The most common of them in the reflections was that I am a caring person. In general, the people that talked about me being caring indicated that I am concerned with the well-being and the success of others. This

aspect of me also occurred to me during my self-evaluation. I felt as if I care a lot about the problems of my friends, my sister, and my parents. This is true because whenever I see my friends heading into the wrong direction of life, I feel bad as if it was my responsibility to have told them before they decided to take that path.
I always guide and talk to them to ensure that they are heading to the right side of life and that they are working towards achieving their ambitions. This attribute goes on well with me being kind. When I express care for others, I’m at first kind to them. This means that I don’t like taking advantage of people, but rather help them to grow and succeed.

Another common theme in both the reflections and my self-evaluation was that I am confident. The confidence in me comes mostly from how I approach new people and new situations. I don’t feel afraid of interacting with new people, even when there is a reason to make me afraid. I think this gives me not only social but also daring. I am also confident in trying new things and in doing my things.
Based on my self-evaluation and the reflections from people close to me, whenever I start doing something, I do not doubt its success. This augurs well with my attribute of being hardworking. If I am hardworking, it means that I value the results; thus I am confident in what I do. I had not realized that I’m hard working until I read the reflections. Maybe being industrious also makes me confident when approaching

tasks as it helps me feel that I will see the tasks come to completion.

Although no one observed this trait in me, I feel that I am always honest. I don’t tell lies even about my personal issues. I think it is because of this aspect that I am also open. Being social and honest, I tell people a lot about myself and that I listen a lot to people telling me about their experiences.

Finally, I think that the people who mentioned negative attributes about me were right. Firstly, I feel that I’m envious because I like competing with people. This trait gives me a bad feeling when I loose, and this could be what people view as envious. I also feel hesitant in making decisions. In most occasions when we are planning about what to do with my friends, I always give a lot of suggestions, but don’t give the final decision. This is a weakness in me because it makes me dependent on other people to make decisions for me. Maybe it is because I am the last born child in our family.

Final Best-Self Integrated Portrait

In this section, I present my best self-integrated portrait based on the analysis and observation I have conducted above. To do this, I critically consider the personal, relational, and contextual factors that enable and hinder my best self at work. In simple terms, the section shows how I integrate my most significant strengths and weaknesses in dealing with day to day activities.

I am at my best character when I act confident. In particular, I feel good when I’m able to approach new people with courage. This confidence helps

me to be more connected and more social with people. I also feel impressed with how I confidently face tasks and problems. This confidence helps me to explore and know many things in life and my career. Knowing many things and being connected to many people is paramount to my success. In this regard, I feel that my confidence brings me success.

The caring attribute in me also portrays me so well. I act best when I show concern of the well-being and the problems of other people. Helping people solve their problems makes me feel good and more motivated. I think this is why I am open to share my life experiences with others and as well listen to their experiences. When I know about people’s experiences, I understand their character and, therefore, know how I can help them solve their problems and make improvements in their lives. This attribute also allow me to show kindness to people. When caring for others, I talk calmly to them, help them in their work when they have problems, comfort them and make them feel confident with life. This is part of my way of being kind to people. Because of my kindness, people want to relate more with me and this gives me confidence and allows me to make many friends.

Finally, I feel that I am well behaved when I am open and honest to people. I share my true self with people and tell them the truth about how I observe them. No wonder whether it is negative or positive, I openly tell people about themselves and myself and leave them to judge. This helps me

to eliminate the aspect of secrecy in me, thus making me trustworthy to people. Whoever opposes that this is not a good thing to and thus doesn’t qualify to be my friend. By telling people about how I see them, I clear the air and eliminate any pretence and guilt that may be existing between us. This kind of an environment is what I feel friendship should be built upon.

Learning and Application

This last section of the essay denotes what I have learnt from the best self-reflected exercise and how I plan to apply this knowledge in my day to day situations. To begin with, I will look at how this new view of myself correspond to my old view. Secondly, I will discuss how the new realization of myself will make me a better person and how it will contribute positively towards my career. Finally, I will look at how I will use this new understanding of myself to rectify my life mistakes.

Reflecting on my strengths and asking people to their reflections on my strengths have made me realize that my strengths contribute a lot towards my success. In particular, the final best integrated portrait has helped me to visualize how I integrate my strengths to ensure success in what I do. Before the exercise, I didn’t know that I had some strength that I often use to ensure my success. After the exercise however, I have realized that these strengths make a large part of my life. Starting with, learning that I am confident has made me realize why I’m always dedicated towards completing the things I do and the things I plan to

do. Every time I’m faced with a new task, I take it lightly and as something that I’m completely capable of seeing to completion. I also do not fear talking to new people regardless of their position in the society or their strange looks or manners. Meeting with new people impresses me as it is an opportunity for me to include some other people in my life.

Having more people in my life is good as it makes me more connected and more influential both in the society and in the business world. My caring attribute revealed in this exercise is also highly evident in my true self. I always look out for my friends and family to ensure that they feel comfortable and happy with life. When my friends are depressed, I’m always there for them; comforting them and giving them encouragement. I’m also very concerned with the direction of life that my friends and family members take. This also makes me kind as I try to guide my friends where they go wrong and show concern for their problems.

These two attributes, confidence and caring, correspond to the stage of life I am living presently. Right now, I’m focusing on connecting with more people so that we can help each other excel through life both in the society and in business. Being confident and caring helps me achieve this ambition as it brings me closer to people. In my current stage of life, I am also focusing on learning new thing and confidence and hard work are key factors to achieving this objective. I dare every new knowledge I come across and work hard to

ensure that I acquire it.
Also, I feel that learning about my strengths has impacted positively on my career. When I become an employee, I will be choosing tasks wisely by assessing my strengths to determine in what tasks I can perform the best. I will also be able to combine my strengths properly towards ensuring success in the tasks assigned to me. In addition, I will be able to determine which strengths to capitalize on in different situations so as to provide best performances in the situations. Knowing my skills has also impacted positively on the development of my leadership career.

With an understanding of my strengths, I feel that I know what talents and strengths that can help me relate well with my subordinates. Knowing my strengths also helps me to understand how to choose the best leadership style I can use on my subordinates in order to drive productivity in them. This experience also helps me to be a better person in the society as it allows me to know how I can relate well to people and what I can do best to help them.

The related-best self-exercise has also contributed positively towards me realizing my talents. By knowing that I am hardworking, I can now put more efforts to improve my talents. I can also integrate my strengths in different ways so that I can identify my hidden talents. Finally, I will work on my decision-making attribute to make me a better decision maker. As a student who aspires to be a manager in future, I need to know how to be making final decisions, but not only contributing towards the decision-making process.