Growing up, we’re told to learn more about ourselves and what we’d set out to be. Although we are told to think about what we are passionate about, schools hardly use strength or value assessments to help understand the foundation of leadership development. In the past, society has put pressure on all students to know what they want to do by age 18. There’s hardly enough time to understand the main elements of choosing our strengths and aspirations at such a young age when everything in our curriculum has been controlled by state standards and grade levels. We forget that people change over time, with life experiences, mistakes, crucibles, heart-break, pain, loss, and many more life factors we don’t present to youth.
It’s taken me over 12 years of working to narrow down the work I love, as well as the strengths I possess in my working experience. Learning more about yourself and how you work with others on a group project is a start to understanding what type of environment you want to work in. Do you like working with many people or do you like working with animals? Are you customer focused? Do you enjoy working alone or collaborating with others? Do you like presenting or do you like producing events behind the scene? There are many question to ask based on what you are trying to find. First, ask yourself what matters most to you.
Justine Yotti 