THE YOUTH AND SELF DEVELOPMENT

Rev. Benedict Eghan

According to the Webster's New World College Dictionary, “self-development is the effort toward self-fulfilment, either through formal study programs or on one's own.” It involves taking steps to building up yourselves such as by learning new skills. Self development can happen through formal engagements such as taking up a course at an established institution or informal engagements such as reading of books, articles and internet or online readings.

Though self development is a lifelong process, it is more critical at the youthful stage of one’s life, where potentials are harnessed for optimum realisation. Again self development is critical at the youthful stage because it enhances your employability or professional prospects, it raises your confidence and leads you to a more fulfilling and higher quality life; something very critical at the foundation stage of one’s life.  

Learning new skills in this era of our age positions you to appreciate the many opportunities available and at the same time empowers you to efficiently engage these opportunities for your benefit and the benefit of the society.  

For the purpose of this article, self development emphasizes on taking personal well thought through positive initiatives to enhance your being and as well unearth your potentials in the midst of diverse opportunities. Interestingly many youths today are glued to the provisions of the system they find themselves. If they are students, their emphasis is on their text books or lecture notes; hardly do they go in for anything extra. Why? Because for such, consciously or unconsciously, the focus is not necessarily to develop themselves but rather to pass their exams. If they are professionals, they are glued to the art of their profession as spelt out for them. They hardly come to the point of realisation that there is much out there they can do with and for their lives. Paying to attend seminars, workshops and conferences, reading books or articles on their fields of work or profession as well as other fields of life becomes something difficult to pursue. 

The young person must appreciate the fact that he or she is capable of adding value to himself or herself at any given time. The more one develops himself or herself, the more the worth. The young person must accept personal responsibility for his or her own growth. What you do today will determine your readiness for tomorrow.

I will at this stage point out some self-development measures the young person can consider:

1. Consider taking classes/courses or participate in seminars /workshops/conferences to stay current in your field of expertise. Where you will need to personally pay for these, you will have to because the world is changing very fast and one must do well to catch up to remain relevant. 

2. Listen to recordings on personal and professional growth topics. One must avoid the temptation of getting addicted to social media to the extent where opportunities keep passing by without noticing. I must admit the fact that social media offers may opportunities for self development, but in many cases some of the youths are blinded to these opportunities because for them, the social media is all about friends, trends, entertainment, etc. 

3. Read a minimum of one book a month or at worst every two months. The young person must be yearning for the opportunities life offers and must therefore position himself or herself to grasp these opportunities.

4. Pursue healthy and effective networking. Develop yourself as a resource for others by networking. Find out what others are doing; and with these you can learn from their experiences and as well be challenged by their “heights”.

5. Consciously think of new ideas or new ways of doing the things you are already doing. This is what I call “innovational thinking”. Get abreast with new knowledge, technology, methodologies etc of your professional area of engagement. This means that, you must make an effective use of the internet. 

6. Find a mentor who will challenge you unto new heights 

    Desire to be at the top; don’t be satisfied with a mediocre life; for there is much you can offer to life. Pursue life with a personal responsibility to develop yourself to remain relevant in any given time.