SELF-EDUCATION – THE STAGE OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT PRIOR TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT

Sooner or later, every adult realizes the need for self-improvement. Over the years, the understanding comes that it is necessary to improve your abilities and skills, because this leads to success and well-being. However, few people understand that before improving, self-education is necessary.

If in self-improvement a person strives to achieve great goals, then in self-education we set more ordinary tasks. The main object of self-education is to get used to useful habits. For example:

• an impulsive person with an explosive character fosters restraint and strives to become balanced;
• a person who is used to embellishing, exaggerating or even lying, even without special need, tries to learn to tell the truth;
• an uncollected and absent-minded person learns to be organized.

That is, in the process of self-education we get rid of bed habits and qualities. When we are doing our best and acting with conscious we can rise to the heights of perfection.

Why shouldn’t self-education be confused with self-improvement? The fact is that during self-improvement there is an enhancement in some abilities, skills, knowledge. And personal self-education is accustoming oneself to something that is necessary for effective self-improvement. For example, after graduating from university, we get a profession and a job. Gradually we hone our professionalism, improve our qualifications. But at the same time, if we are always late for work or meetings, this somewhat reduces our value, since in addition to knowledge and skills, punctuality is also important in every profession. Therefore, in order to become a specialist of an even higher level, it is necessary to cultivate organization and punctuality in oneself.

If we take into account what qualities are in question, the following types of self-education are distinguished:

intellectual (the desire to acquire new knowledge, expand the worldview);

• physical (improving physical fitness);
• aesthetic (developing a sense of beauty);
• psychological (acquisition of strong-willed qualities);
• social (improving communication skills).
  

To cultivate any qualities in yourself, you need to learn :

• self-analysis, identify your strengths and weaknesses;
• take responsibility for your actions, deeds;
• motivate yourself;
• control your actions;
• evaluate personal achievements.

The hardest part is to motivate, control and evaluate yourself. Therefore, psychological self-education is especially important. Let’s list the main methods of self-education:

1. Self-persuasion. To start doing something, you need the right motivation. For example, when planning to study a foreign language, you need to convince yourself that knowledge of a foreign language is necessary for career advancement, travel and free communication in unfamiliar countries or other goals.
2. Autosuggestion. Personal development is impossible without decent self-esteem. Therefore, when uncertainty arises, you need to convince yourself that everything will work out.
3. Self-commitment. This method consists in the fact that a person makes a promise to himself that will bring the matter to the end. It must be used if there is a habit of quitting what you started.

Self-education is not difficult. The main thing is to convince yourself that developing useful qualities in yourself will help you become more effective, successful and even happy. Parents, teachers and educators are not always able to instill all the qualities necessary in adult life. But we can learn everything that we did not receive at an early age on our own. And to make the process of self-education easier, it is useful to develop the brain’s abilities and learn foreign languages. Memory, attention, emotional intelligence – all this is necessary for the independent education of a variety of qualities in oneself.