Showing posts with label Self awareness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self awareness. Show all posts

Monday, January 22, 2024

Self Awareness - High School Students

Image credit: North Kitsap High School 

Few days back, our son Kanishk, a 9th grader, yes officially a teenager :) brought home a bunch of papers from school as part of his assignment. The assignment is called MY PROFILE.

 Both of us Sonia and me, as parents were intrigued and happy to see this assignment on Self-Awareness and Self-Introspection. I am sure, like us, so many of you would also agree one of the finest quality is Clarity. Unfortunately, in today's 24/7 competitive world not enough importance is given to inculcate and practice the habit of Self-Awareness and Self-Introspection.

This is a short blog, in which I am basically transcribing the Self-reflective Questions asked in MY PROFILE. The idea behind this blog is to share this template, so that if you are a parent or a guardian or an adult invested in teaching/mentoring/guiding youngsters, you can make use of them.

SELF-REFLECTION - PERIODIC TESTS

Q. How statisfied are you with the score in your periodic tests?

Q. When did you start preparing for these exams - months before or a week before or a day before?

Q. Approximately how many hours do you spend in a day studying before exams?

Q. If you ran out of time, what could you do in the next exam to increase your speed in the next exam? (Memorize more, practice writing more or pace yourself better).

Q. Have you reviewed each question to see why you got each one right or wrong?

Q. How can you learn from the mistakes you made in these exams?

Q. What active study strategies do you want to start incorporating?

SELF-REFLECTION ON ART INTEGRATED PROJECT ACTIVITIES ON EK BHARAT SHRESTHA BHARAT

Q. How much did you know about the topics before you started?

Q. What problems did you encounter while you were working on the projects? How did you solve them?

Q. What resources did you use while working on them? Which ones were especially helpful?

Q. What were your goals for completing the projects? Did your goals change as you worked on it?

Q. What did you learn about yourself as you worked to complete the projects?

Q. What would you change if you had a change to redo the projects?

SELF-REFLECTION - WHO AM I?

Q. My favourite way to spend the day is...

Q. If I could talk to my teenage self, the one thing I would say is...

Q. Any five things that make me smile...

Q. Five people in my life who have genuinely supported me and whom I can genuinely trust...

Q. I really wish others knew this about me...

Q. One instance when I've supported a friend in a compassionate way recently....

Q. One thing/thought that always brings tears to my eyes....

Q. Ten words to describe myself....

Q. What have I learnt from my biggest mistake....

Q. I feel most energized when....

Q. What inspires me the most - books, quotes, people, paintings, music, stars in the sky or...Why?

Q. One thing I have overcome in my life....

Hoping you too found it intriguing, felt good about it and you can make use of this template to help a young mind to reflect, introspect and raise their self-awareness. 

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Do we kNOw to say NO?

 

Mitchell Strac - The Hindu newspaper

Recently a newspaper clipping of Mitchell Starc called my attention. For the not so cricket fans (if there is such a thing in India) Mitchell Strac is part of the Australian cricket team, which few days back won the WTC (World Test Championship 2023) defeating India by 209 runs. This Australian team became the 1st team to have won all major ICC tournaments.

His last appearance in IPL was way back in 2015. He played in IPL for only 2 seasons for RCB bagging 34 wickets and is one of the most successful overseas bowler. By estimate, between 2015 to now (2022) Strac's potential earning at IPL which he has let go, would be 10 million AUD.

In several interviews, Starc mentions his priority is international cricket, his dream of representing his country Australia in 100 Test matches. Hence to keep himself fresh physically and mentally for national commitments, he opted out of 2023 IPL tournament, instead choosing to spend time at home with family.

Why this newspaper clipping struck me? 

Well it made me think, What it takes to say NO to a Trend, to Popular Culture, to Big Quick Money and to Peer pressure when his fellow 47 Australian cricketers participated in the IPL auction the world's richest cricket tournament. 

Well for sure, couple of things:  

1. Vision (a strong personal vision, of manifestation of one's life). 

2. Clarity between Needs and Wants.  

3. Knowing one's Priority - what's most important for him/her. 

4. Conviction to carry on, on the roadless travelled without succumbing to the external pressures and internal self-doubts. 

The key question to reflect upon from Mitchell Strac's story is Do We kNOw to say NO? 

- May be Life is not meant to be so complicated and cluttered. 

- May be Life can be Simpler and free-flowing.

- May be Life can be Designed by rules what matters to us most.

So maybe the answer is not to do more, rather to do what matters! 

It's about kNOwing to say NO to things which do not align with one's Vision. 

To say NO to things which are not one's needs.

To say NO to things which are not one's priority and to say NO to the feelings of self-doubts and external pressures when one set's foot on the roadless travelled. 

Do we kNOw to say NO? 

The possible answers are No, Yes, Maybe or shades of all of them. 

Irrespective of where we lie on the spectrum of answers, the more important thing in Life is to Ask the Right Question.

With a Thanks Mate! gesture to Mitchell Strac's :) leaving you all (including myself) with this Big Question - Do we kNOw to say NO?