A mentally healthy person with developed willpower, with long-term efforts, is able to change himself: get rid of bad habits, normalize his daily routine, increase his efficiency, soften negative character traits and increase self-confidence.
This kind of work on oneself is called self-education. To determine how to educate yourself , it is important to analyze your own personality and understand what needs correction in it, and then start looking for effective methods.
How to develop personal leadership qualities? Find out about this from our article.
Concept - self-education
In order to organize the process of personality formation as professionally as possible, it is necessary to understand what self-education is. By this concept, psychologists mean a person’s conscious desire to reveal their natural potential on their own, develop positive qualities to the maximum and overcome negative ones. Develop such a positive quality as self-discipline. Overcome such a negative quality as the tendency to self-justification. This is often enough to feel positive changes in your life. In Brian Tracy's book No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline” read in detail about how to take control of your life. Education and self-education, according to experts, are two integral parts of the process of forming a full-fledged, harmonious personality.
It is important! Professional personal education requires a person to be able to truthfully assess his own personality traits and recognize positive and negative qualities.
Education and self-education requires the following from a person:
- comprehensive knowledge of oneself;
- continuous improvement of positive qualities;
- development of skills and abilities, creative abilities.
The result of the self-education process will be personal achievements that directly depend on personal effectiveness. You can increase your level of personal effectiveness by studying this course.
Main stages of improvement
The procedure includes several interconnected steps:
- Decision-making. You must definitely decide for yourself that you are ready to improve yourself. After all, without this, a purposeful development process will not be carried out. Afterwards, you should study your capabilities and evaluate your job prospects, as well as develop a certain ideal for aspiration. It can be an abstract image or a concrete individual.
- Self-knowledge. Based on your chosen role model, you should try to get to know yourself better. In this phase, we identify the level of progress of certain qualities or characteristics. The accuracy of such an analysis depends on the person and his goals, but in order to obtain good results later, honesty must be a priority.
- Planning. We choose ways and methods for our own education. It is advisable to bring them as close as possible to your characteristics. We form self-attitudes that help achieve our aspirations. These may be rules or principles that govern an individual's behavior under different circumstances. Then we draw up a program that will display what needs to be worked on and what tools to use for this.
- Execution of plans. This is direct practical and, most importantly, active activity. It is value-based and takes quite a lot of time.
Why should a person engage in self-education?
The essence of independent education is the topic of scientific works of many philosophers, psychologists, and teachers. According to scientists, the driving force behind the formation of a person is his soul. Several factors are involved in personality development:
- self-education;
- strength of will;
- a certain line of behavior.
It is important! According to Erich Fromm, a German psychoanalyst, moral education and personality formation is the desire to become the person you originally are. The main goal and object of effort is one’s own essence.
Psychologists note the special role of self-education in professional development. Constant work on yourself and your own character helps to achieve the following results:
- successfully overcoming life's difficulties strengthens the will and strengthens character;
- working on your own negative character traits contributes to the development of strong and positive qualities;
- By engaging in self-education, a person learns to control emotions, this significantly increases emotional stability;
- Moral education and self-development helps you achieve your goals and clearly follow your chosen path in life.
Professional self-education is a necessary process during which a person learns to find a way out of conflict situations that arise with other people and within himself. It is necessary to understand that knowing yourself is in most cases an unpleasant process, but a necessary one. Understanding one's own negative qualities, a person goes through a series of unpleasant emotions - resentment, aggression, guilt, but this is precisely where the element of self-improvement lies.
Why is personal self-education necessary:
- a person becomes happy and helps other people feel happiness;
- the joy of overcoming arises, as a result, a desire to help others appears;
- a person expresses himself creatively and achieves success.
Self-education methods used
Psychologists identify specific methods of self-education, with the help of which you can control and correct work on yourself.
Basic methods of self-education:
- self-commitment - constantly reciting and reminding oneself of obligations forms the habit of strictly following them;
- empathy – moral education and development require a person to be able to see himself in other people’s shoes, this helps to understand how others perceive you;
- self-compulsion - helps to eradicate the lack of volitional qualities and cultivate the will. Read in detail about how you can cultivate your will in Kelly McGonigel’s book “Willpower”;
- self-punishment - education and self-education involve punishment for non-compliance with established rules, the system of punishments is thought out along with obligations;
- self-criticism - without internal contradiction it is impossible to achieve success;
- self-persuasion - each offense must be spoken out loud, thus, special attention is paid to points that need to be further worked out;
- self-analysis - this method involves keeping a personal diary and preparing reports.
Its types.
Self-improvement is a complex and comprehensive process. You cannot constantly develop in one direction. Life will correct the movement anyway. For example, someone decided to become a first-class specialist. He devoted himself entirely to his chosen profession. But this person absolutely does not know how to behave in society. Even being a professional, he miserably fails interviews and, even if hired, does not stay in one place for long. This means that work skills or abilities alone are not the key to success.
Take a personality type test
It is appropriate to say that there are such types of self-education:
- Intellectual;
- Physical;
- Aesthetic;
- Psychological;
- Socially oriented.
The first is the desire to acquire new knowledge and expand your worldview. The second maintains a good level of physical fitness and the ability to handle your body. The third helps to see beauty and enjoy the world around us. The fourth develops strong-willed qualities. The fifth helps to establish connections and maintain communication in society.
Elements of self-education.
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Personal self-education becomes possible only if the following four main components are present:
- Self-analysis - the ability to see your strengths and weaknesses;
- Self-account – taking responsibility for your life;
- Self-motivation – the ability to motivate yourself to work;
- Self-control – checking personal progress with the predicted one;
- Self-esteem is an adequate assessment of one’s actions.
In fact, all these are attributes of the school process, only in adult life a person uses them himself. It is always easier to evaluate others than yourself. It is even more difficult to control and motivate yourself. Therefore, psychological self-education is one of the most important stages of self-improvement.
Where to start self-education and work on yourself
Parents should pay attention to the question of what self-education is from early childhood. The main components of pedagogy are education, self-education and re-education. It should be noted that re-education is necessary when a child develops erroneous judgments and an incorrect perception of the world. The psychologist works to transform the child’s negative character traits and incorrect behavior, which complicate the further process of personality formation.
The components of self-education for a child are to establish norms and rules. However, given that the conscious process begins only in adolescence, it is during these years that a person is able to independently develop personal characteristics.
If we are talking about a teenager, for him the formation of personality begins with specific steps:
- awareness that changes in oneself are necessary;
- enough determination to change daily;
- motivation and belief in one’s own strength and success;
- correct choice of methods.
The task of parents at this stage is to monitor what reaction certain forms of self-education (educational process) cause in a teenager. If the reaction is negative or neutral, it is necessary to make timely adjustments, otherwise the teenager will not have sufficient motivation to work on himself.
Parents need to understand that the constituent factors for the harmonious development of a child are heredity, environment, and upbringing. That is why it is important to control all elements of the process and adjust them in a timely manner.
What is the problem with self-education?
The problem of self-education has occupied the minds of scientists since antiquity. The idea of personality formation and development appeared thousands of years ago, during which time it has changed, but the eternal truths have remained unchanged. In their works, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates noted the value of the development of a person as an individual. The problem with self-education is that a person tends to form false values and waste time inheriting them. However, society needs talented people who were able to form true, high values.
Great people who have achieved success in self-education
Many great people have engaged in personal growth - this is an excellent example of how working on yourself allows you to overcome life's difficulties and difficult fate. Among these people are musicians, country leaders, writers and artists. Here are a few such great personalities.
- Demosthenes - overcame a weak voice and a nervous tic, became an excellent speaker and influenced many political processes;
- Peter I - Peter said about himself - “a king with calluses on his hands”, the monarch strove to be an example for his subjects in everything;
- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a great writer who overcame ruin and, thanks to constant work on himself, developed a unique talent and creative potential;
- Franklin Roosevelt is the President of the United States of America, who from childhood was engaged in self-development and strived for deep and comprehensive knowledge;
- Albert Einstein is a famous physicist who, according to doctors, was lagging behind in mental development and was characterized by slowness, but only as a result of hard work on himself did Einstein develop the talent of a scientist and the incredible power of thinking.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov - his biography is an excellent example of personal development - watch the video.
Success in life largely depends on your own efforts and perseverance. Read books that motivate and follow the example of great people - develop as a person.
Examples
Examples of self-education from real life:
- A. V. Suvorov. The legendary Russian commander, who was never defeated on the battlefield, was a weak, sickly boy as a child, and his father assumed that his son’s life would not be connected with military affairs. At the same time, Alexander himself, from an early age, was actively interested in everything related to the war, read thematic books, of which there were many in the library, and later began to harden himself and engage in physical activity, which gave him the opportunity to begin a military career.
- Demosthenes. This famous ancient Greek speaker, before starting hard training, had a lot of serious problems: his voice was weak, he did not have enough breath for long speeches, he did not know how to express his thoughts with dignity and beauty.
Stubborn long-term training helped Demosthenes overcome difficulties. - Nick Vujicic. This is a modern Christian speaker, born without legs and arms, who wrote several books and became world famous. His childhood was extremely difficult, he contemplated suicide, but was able to find himself in public speaking and, through long training, learned to use his only tiny limb (partial foot) well.
In fiction, in films, TV series, and cartoons, there are many images of heroes who raised themselves, persistently overcame difficulties and achieved success : for example, every superhero created by Marvel went through a difficult path, learned to cope with difficulties, raised themselves in one way or another. to a different extent.
