Employability Skills II: Self-awareness and self-motivation

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. What are you good at, and what do you need to improve? Can you push yourself to study without anyone telling you? Today we will learn self awareness and self motivation, two skills that every employer values.

Self management means managing your own feelings, time and actions. It begins with self awareness, which means knowing yourself. It also needs self motivation, which is the drive to act on your own. Let us learn both.

Self awareness means clearly knowing who you are. It means knowing your strengths and your weaknesses. It means knowing your interests, and your values, which are the things that matter most to you. It means understanding your feelings and how you react to situations. It also means seeing how others see you.

Let us look at an example of one student. A strength is something you do well, like being good at maths. A weakness is something you need to improve, like poor handwriting. She helps friends, but she gets angry quickly. She is always on time, but she is afraid of speaking on stage. Knowing both lists helps her plan.

How can you build self awareness? Write a short diary every day about what happened and how you felt. Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses, and update it. Ask teachers, parents and friends for honest feedback. Take simple interest and aptitude tests, where aptitude means your natural ability to learn a skill.

A useful self awareness tool is SWOT analysis. S stands for strengths, like being good at coding. W stands for weaknesses, like being shy in groups. O stands for opportunities outside you, like the school tech fest. T stands for threats that can stop you, like distraction from the phone.

Now, self motivation. It is the inner push that makes you act without anyone telling you. It keeps you going when things get difficult or boring. Self motivated people start tasks on their own and finish what they start.

Motivation is of two kinds. Internal motivation comes from inside you, like the joy of learning something new. External motivation comes from outside, like a prize, marks or praise. Both help, but internal motivation lasts longer.

Goals keep us motivated, and good goals are SMART. Specific means clear, like maths chapter five. Measurable means you can count it, like twenty sums. Achievable means possible, so not two hundred sums in a day. Relevant means it matters, like a chapter needed for the exam. Time bound means it has a deadline, like by Sunday.

Here are five ways to stay motivated. Break big goals into small daily steps. Reward yourself after finishing each step, like a short walk or a favourite snack. Track your progress in a chart or diary. Spend time with positive and hard working friends. And when you fail, learn the lesson and try again instead of quitting.

Pause and predict which goal is smart. The goal, study more, is not smart, because it is not specific, measurable or time bound. Solving ten sums by eight pm today is smart, because it is clear, countable and has a deadline.

Let us revise what we learned today. Self awareness means knowing your strengths, weaknesses and values. Build it with a diary, honest feedback and a SWOT analysis. Self motivation is the inner push to act on your own. Motivation can be internal or external. Set SMART goals, reward your progress and never quit.