Sunday, August 17, 2014

MSLD520.1.2 - Self Awareness, part 1

This was the first time I have taken an assessment of skills like this one.  It was rewarding and thought provoking when considering the questions and situations given.  I struggled with a few of the assessment questions because I sometimes have trouble eliminating the effect a situation can have on my judgment, so it was difficult at times to give a single answer for all scenarios. 
            The results were interesting and helpful.  For the first section, I was somewhat surprised to see my scores in the top quartile, as self-awareness is something I’m always working on.  I’ve noticed a huge shift in my self-awareness in the past couple of years as I go through more experiences in my life, but naturally I’m still questioning some of my instincts, so this assessment was a helpful reminder that self-awareness is an on-going effort in improving yourself.  I have felt that I have grown a lot in self-awareness, but I was surprised to see just how much.  The emotional intelligence was also another area of surprise for me, scoring in the top quartile for this assessment as well.  I scored really low in my first leadership class when we took an emotional intelligence test, so it was exciting to see an improvement from that point to now.  I also found this assessment easier to follow than the assessment I had previously taken, which made it easier to understand and think about the questions more clearly. 
            For the defining issues test, I found this one a challenge for me.  I think most people probably struggle answering questions like the ones provided, but what I enjoyed most about this assessment was not the idea that your final answer was the most important, but understanding why you got to that conclusion.  Having to pick the top 4 statements I thought were most important really helped me analyze and understand why I was making the decisions that I chose.  The first story given, I read it and just couldn’t decide what the moral thing to do was.  I knew what my emotional side felt, but my rational side felt somewhat differently.  Being able to recognize these feelings and analyze that helped me understand more of why I picked what I picked, which can help down the road. 
            For the cognitive style indicator, I also felt that I scored fairly well for what I was anticipating.  I have never really considered the method I use to go about analyzing problems and ideas, so this was beneficial because I could think more specifically about the methods that I do use.  I have always felt that I approach decision-making in an open-minded manner.  I’m not someone who generally has 1 answer for everything, so it’s beneficial to have a marker for the effectiveness of this method I use. 
For the lotus of control section, I scored a 4, which places me in the second quartile.  I’m not sure what the results indicate at this point, but I found the assessment interesting because the questions were a wide range of ideas, so I felt that it touched on a variety of areas in the way I respond to situations.  The Tolerance of Ambiguity scale took me a while to figure out how to score it, but determined I scored a 58, which places me in the third quartile.  I think this is generally correct if I understand the scoring right.  I think I actually enjoy ambiguity at times.  I’ve never been much of a planner or need to control situations out of fear of uncertainty.  I also feel that this is an area that I have improved in overtime as I get more experience in situations.  I have learned to just roll with things as they come and recognize that some things are out of our control and that there is no sense in worrying over them.  I also sometimes feel that a life with uncertainty can sometimes become monotonous.  I enjoy a little adventure at times, but I feel I balance control with adventure fairly well.  This is still an area that I feel constantly improves and changes as we change. 

            Finally, for the last assessment, the core self-evaluation scale, I scored a 4.25, which placed me in the third quartile also.  At this point, I am not 100% sure what the scale represents, but based on the questions asked, I feel that I scored in the range I would have guessed I would be in.  Everyone possesses doubts about themselves, but I think what is important is to know how to grow from the doubts and learn from negative thinking.  It’s important to recognize that we don’t know everything, which is why we are always striving to learn.  I used to be very hard on myself because I wasn’t grasping something or learning something overnight.  As I get older, I recognize that we really don’t know everything and we are not expected to have all the answers all of the time.  I recently graduated from college in 2013 and I am only 24 years old.  I still have a lot of my life to live, but my first few years in college really helped me grow and understand these concepts.  Going to an art and design school, I was incredibly self-conscious and nervous about my abilities.  I was and still am a fairly bad drawer.   I didn’t go to school to draw, but I just assumed that that was a skill that represented your worth as an art student.   When I realized that that isn’t true and that I have many other skills and abilities that make me valuable, I was able to gain more self-confidence in myself and in my work.  These are ideas I try to remember whenever I doubt my abilities. 

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