KNOWING AND UNDERSTANDING

ONESELF DURING MIDDLE AND

LATE ADOLESCENCE

MRS. MICAH T. SITCHON

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW
YOURSELF?
INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
 Your personal development is your journey to
discovering yourself, your abilities, qualities,
and strengths in order to realize your full
potential. It is a process of self-improvement, a
continuous growth with a goal in mind to fulfill
your dreams. Your journey starts with knowing
who you are. Developing yourself takes time
but it is worth the journey. Starting to build your
life now determines what your future will be.
 In contrast to human development which
primarily deals with the physical, mental,
social, and emotional development, personal
development involves self-awareness of
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. You have to
consciously work toward personal development
and you should not stop at being content with
what you have achieved. You need to press on
towards actualizing your full potential.
 As the saying goes “knowledge is power”. Knowing
yourself, in terms of how you develop, how you
acquire new habits and characteristics, and how you
gain new strengths as well as weaknesses, results in
knowing who you are, what you are, and who you will
be. It can irrefutably give you an advantage in your
long journey in life.
 A close look at your weaknesses( vulnerabilities, blind
spots, things you need to improve on) your strengths
( capabilities, talents, and potentials) and the
wholeness of yourself make you more effective as you
face challenges in life.
KNOWING YOURSELF IS THE
BEGINNING OF ALL WISDOM

-
ARISTOTLE
 Achieving one’s full potential requires
understanding ourselves, accepting our
strengths and weaknesses, and being aware of
the developmental tasks and challenges that
accompany our development.
 Before you start to build and improve your
relationships with other people and before you
can identify and set your career and life goals,
you should know yourself well first.

 He who knows others is wise; he who knows

himself is enlightened
-Lao Tzu
DIMENSIONS OF THE SELF:
PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL,
SPIRITUAL

The word “self” is popularly and generally defined as what
an individual sees, perceives, and defines oneself apart
from others. Self-perception, on the other hand, is basically
how one thinks of oneself. It is interchangeably used with
self-concept, which is another complex concept.

 The self has several dimensions. These are the physical, the
psychological, which covers the social and emotional life of
the person, and the spiritual aspect. To know oneself, one
must distinguish these dimensions apart from each other.
PHYSICAL DIMENSION
 Revolves around the physical body of the human being,
specifically its processes, functions, mechanisms, and
chemistry. From the cells as the smallest unit, they
unite to form tissues that gives shape to organs and
organ systems that are responsible to keep us alive.
That is why we can breathe, walk, and talk. This
dimensions is responsible for giving the ability to move
our muscles, to perceive our surroundings with our
senses, and to think of the ideas and opinions that
make life exciting and interesting.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
DIMENSION
 Covers stress, cognition, behavior, attitude, emotion,
and ultimately, personality. As compared to the
physical dimension which could be observed directly
and be measured, the psychological dimension has
both internal and external factors that can or cannot
be measured, observed, and calculated.
 Refers to the individual as a set of characteristics ,
behaviors, attitudes, cognitions, and emotions that
also includes how one relates with other people and
how a person regulates his or her emotions.
SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
 Allows us to view ourselves as spiritual beings.
 This dimension is subjective and cannot be
observed, but can be perceived only by the
person himself or herself.
 It holds relevance to a perceived existence of
God and how a person views one’s Creator in
relation to one’s self.
 This dimension talks about the greater good
and gives meaning and significance to our
SELF-CONCEPT
 Your ideal self is the self that you aspire to be.
It is the one that you hope will possess
characteristics similar to that of a mentor or
some other worldly figure. Your actual self,
however, is the one that you actually see. It is
the self that has characteristics that you were
nurtured or, in some cases, born to have.
 The actual self and the ideal self are two broad
categories of self-concept. Self-concept refers
to your awareness of yourself. It is the
construct that negotiates these two selves. In
other words, it connotes first the identification
of the ideal self as separate from others, and
second, it encompasses all the behaviors
evaluated in the actual self that you engage in
to reach the ideal self.
 The actual self is built on self-knowledge. Self
knowledge is derived from social interactions
that provide insight into how others react to
you. The actual self is who we actually are. It is
how we think, how we feel, look, and act. The
actual self can be seen by others, but because
we have no way of truly knowing how others
view us, the actual self is our self-image.
 The ideal self, on the other hand, is how we
want to be. It is an idealized image that we
have developed over time, based on what we
have learned and experienced. The ideal self
could include components of what our parents
have taught us, what we admire in others,
what our society promotes, and what we think
is in our best interest.
 There is negotiation that exists between the
two selves which is complex because there are
numerous exchanges between the ideal and
actual self. These exchanges are exemplified in
social roles that are adjusted and re-adjusted,
and are derived from outcomes of social
interactions from infant to adult development.
 Alignment is important. If the way that I am (the
actual self) is aligned with the way that I want to be
(the ideal self), then I will feel a sense of mental
wellbeing or peace of mind. If the way that I am is not
aligned with how I want to be, the incongruence, or
lack of alignment, will result in mental distress or
anxiety. The greater the level of incongruence
between the ideal self and real self, the greater the
level of resulting distress. Personal development
modules ultimate aim is greater self-knowledge that
will lead to higher alignment between these two
personality domains.
PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
 Personal effectiveness means making use of all
the personal resources – talents, skills, energy
and time, to enable you to achieve life goals.
 Your knowledge of yourself and how you manage
yourself impacts directly on your personal
effectiveness. Being self-aware, making the most
of your strengths, learning new skills and
techniques and behavioral flexibility are all keys
to improving your personal performance.
 OUR PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON OUR
INNATE CHARACTERISTICS
– TALENT AND EXPERIENCE ACCUMULATED IN THE
PROCESS OF
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.
 Talents first are needed to be identified and then developed
to be used in a particular subject area (science, literature,
sports, politics, etc.).
 Experience includes knowledge and skills that we acquire in
the process of cognitive and practical activities.
 Knowledge is required for setting goals, defining an action
plan to achieve them and risk assessment.
 Skills also determine whether real actions are performed in
accordance with the plan. If the same ability is used many
times in the same situation, then it becomes a habit that runs
automatically, subconsciously.
HERE ARE SOME SKILLS THAT WILL
GREATLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF
ANY PERSON WHO OWNS THEM:
 1. Determination.

It allows you to focus only on achieving a specific goal without

being distracted by less important things or spontaneous
desires. It may be developed with the help of self-discipline
exercise.
 2. Self-confidence.

It appears in the process of personal development, as a result of

getting aware of yourself, your actions and their consequences.
Self confidence is manifested in speech, appearance,
dressing,and physical condition. To develop it, you need to learn
yourself and your capabilities, gain positive attitude and believe
that by performing right actions and achieving right goals you
will certainly reach success.
HERE ARE SOME SKILLS THAT WILL
GREATLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF
ANY PERSON WHO OWNS THEM:
 3. Persistence.

It makes you keep moving forward regardless of emerging

obstacles – problems, laziness, bad emotional state, etc. It
reduces the costs of overcoming obstacles. It can also be
developed with the help of self discipline exercise.
 4. Managing stress.

It helps combat stress that arises in daily life from the

environment and other people. Stress arises from the
uncertainty in an unknown situation when a lack of information
creates the risk of negative consequences of your actions. It
increases efficiency in the actively changing environment.
HERE ARE SOME SKILLS THAT WILL
GREATLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF
ANY PERSON WHO OWNS THEM:
 5. Problem-solving skills.

They help cope with the problems encountered with a lack of

experience. It increases efficiency by adopting new ways of
achieving goals when obtaining a new experience.
 6. Creativity.

It allows you to find extraordinary ways to carry out a specific

action that no one has tried to use. It can lead to a decrease or
an increase of costs, but usually the speed of action is greatly
increased when using creative tools.
HERE ARE SOME SKILLS THAT WILL
GREATLY INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF
ANY PERSON WHO OWNS THEM:
 7. Generating ideas.

It helps you achieve goals using new, original, unconventional

ideas. Idea is a mental image of an object formed by the human
mind, which can be changed before being implemented in the
real world.
For generating ideas you can use a method of mental maps,
which allows you to materialize, visualize and scrutinize all
your ideas, which in turn contributes to the emergence of new
ideas.

 These are just some, but the most important personal

effectiveness skills which make the achievement of any
YOU NEED TO TAKE CHARGE OF
YOUR FUTURE
BY BO SANCHEZ
There are three kinds of people in this world:
 1. Moviegoer.
This person watches the movie of their lives, admires
some parts and criticizes others. Aside from that, they
do nothing else. All she says the whole day is, “I like
this thing and but I don’t like that thing.” The
Moviegoer feels she has absolutely no control of their
lives --- except to comment about it. Moviegoers are
the most pathetic, miserable people in the world.
YOU NEED TO TAKE CHARGE OF
YOUR FUTURE
BY BO SANCHEZ
There are three kinds of people in this world:
 2. Actor.

This person does not only watch the movie of her life. She
actually realizes she’s the Actor – and can control a big
part of her life. She can actually make or break the
movie – by how well she delivers her lines and how she
portrays her character. Actors are a happy bunch, realizing
they’re the start of the show and enjoy some level of
control. But many times, they wish the movie would end in
another way – but realize that they have no say in such
things.
YOU NEED TO TAKE CHARGE OF
YOUR FUTURE
BY BO SANCHEZ
There are three kinds of people in this world:
 3. Scriptwriter.
This person does not only watch, and she
doesn’t only act, but she actually creates the
entire movie from her mind. She determines what
she will say, what she will do, and how the movie will
end. She realizes she has enormous control over her
life, and sees to it that the movie of her life will turn
out beautiful.
THE POWER OF JOURNAL
WRITING: UNFOLDING YOUR
PERSONAL JOURNEY
 The purpose of journal writing is to help you become
the Scriptwriter of your life.
THERE ARE FOUR (4)
PRACTICAL REASONS TO
MAINTAIN A JOURNAL:
 It is cost-efficient and available.
Emotional stress can be dealt in many ways like
talking to a friend over a cup of coffee, eating,
travelling, shopping, painting and many more but
writing is the most inexpensive. Notebook and
pens are easy to find, available and do not cost
so much.
THERE ARE FOUR (4)
PRACTICAL REASONS TO
MAINTAIN A JOURNAL:
 It is preventive and pro-active.
Writing yields self-awareness. When you write, you can
discover your strengths and limitations. You will
know what your reactions are in different
situations and what better ways to prevent,
avoid, or face your fears.
THERE ARE FOUR (4)
PRACTICAL REASONS TO
MAINTAIN A JOURNAL:
 It is creative and productive.
Journal writing expounds your imagination. You can
see various dimensions of your problem,
different points of view and better solutions.
THERE ARE FOUR (4)
PRACTICAL REASONS TO
MAINTAIN A JOURNAL:
 It is personal and private.
Unless you want to share your stories, you have the
choice to keep them to yourself. Writing is your time
alone. It is my way of loving yourself. You will not
be judged by your writing.
THANK YOU!