Reflection on my hopes, dreams, and desires
Reflection on my hopes, dreams, and desires for my life
I reflected on my desires, areas for improvement, and opportunities for growth. Something I’ve always wanted to learn but haven’t is to further my education in school. I tried to be self aware, where I can do thoughtful introspection of my attitudes, and morals and values. I wanted to be in connection to my thoughts and desires, my needs and wants in life. I’ve identified my strengths and weaknesses better. I want to have actions where I know I am being true to my values in life. Finally, I’d like to notice over time some personal growth. I want to recognize areas where I want to improve, like health and fitness. I want to set meaningful goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely - SMART goals. I also want to use my organizational skills of creating charts and lists to keep progress of my goals. For my own well being I want to make sure that I have good health and wellness goals. I want to make sure that everyday I can reach a small goal of mine. I want to make sure that my goals are still important to me, and do regular check ins with myself weekly. I want to use my strengths to the best of my ability.
How can we best affirm our strengths to create more meaning and life purpose into our lives?
How can we try to improve our character weaknesses and turn them more into strengths?
@allnaturalSky4753 I think the first step in affirming our strengths is finding out what they are. And, I don't mean just by taking quizzes online or even just introspecting and reflecting, but honestly, go to people who support you and know you and ask them for help identifying strengths. Make your own list of strengths and then have other people tell you what they think your strengths are. The reason for this, is that if you are already struggling with meaning and purpose and trying your best to introspect, you might not have the most accurate idea of who you actually are or what your strengths are. Once you have your strengths (and hopefully bonded with people as a bonus), don't focus on your weaknesses. Why? Because the goal is not to be perfect. If you REALLY cultivate your strengths, then you are good enough. An example: I am good at thinking deeply (I know this and I have had this strength reaffirmed by multiple people recently). How do I cultivate this? I can learn more about ideas that interest me, like in philosophy books and magazines. I can write. I can join communities that are willing to discuss topics deeply. I can make art inspired by deeper ideas. I can notice how in my everyday life these deeper ideas intersect with each other. Now, I know my weaknesses are that I am lonely and depressed to the point that I feel like I have lost myself and my life has no real future. Instead of focusing on the weaknesses, if I focus on cultivating even this ONE strength of mine, I could set off a ripple effect of good in my life.
@determinedSea4370 I agree with you that the first step in affirming our strengths is finding out what they are. I have taken quizzes online and introspecting and reflecting also. Your idea to go to people who support you and know you was interesting. I tried it and asked them for help identifying strengths. I now have a list of strengths that I was told about. I asked my family what they thought my strengths were. I still like taking quizzes online if I can find good websites to go to. I last heard of a website from a counselor who does counseling that I’m not going to right now. It was a free detailed assessment of my personality traits that I took. And then there is a health and wellness coach who did an assessment of how well you are doing on a wellness scale. I will have to reach back out to that person to find out how to do that assessment again. I like reading and will read more about these things like health and wellness. I can also practice writing more. I am looking for a community where I can focus on two hobbies to keep myself busy. I know what my weaknesses are and will try to improve them and not focus on my weaknesses so much.
@determinedSea4370
I love love love the idea of going to people who support you and asking for their opinion on what your strengths are! It can be so easy to be unrealistic/ harsh/ biased with ourselves. Also like you said - it's such a good way to grow our relationships with those around us which is always a bonus! :)
Oooh, focusing on our strengths to really grow them and accepting our weaknesses!! I like that too - it's like, not giving energy to things that may not actually benefit us while focusing on the things that will! Love it.
I'm so sorry to hear you're struggling a bit with feeling lonely, lost and unsure of the future. But it's so true that by focusing on ONE thing you can 100% set of a ripple effect of good and make a real positive change in your life :) It's like the sailboat analogy where by changing your course of direction by a few degrees - it definitely won't feel like much in the beginning (pretty much like you've done nothing!) but give it some time and you'll have travelled miles away from where you would have been had you stayed on your original path!
Good luck with everything and may this year be full of successes and growth :)
@allnaturalSky4753
Thank you so much for sharing your own reflections! I hope that you have success with your goals this year :) or that you learn from any setbacks and they ultimately make you more resilient!
Ugh, SMART goals! I have been meaning to sit down and write some down but have still not gotten round to it!! Maybe this post is a sign! It seems like such a good system to set out your goals
I love the idea of setting small daily goals for yourself! I think it's a really excellent way to build your confidence and work towards achieving your bigger goals by breaking them down into actionable habits :)
"How can we try to improve our character weaknesses and turn them more into strengths?" Whew, what a good question! I definitely don't have all the proper answers but my immediate thoughts are:
- Which "character weaknesses" do we actually care about/ are important to us. I.e. when we did the quiz and got the results - which traits did we see and think "hm, it would be nice if that was a little higher on the list" because honestly there were some for me where I was like "yeah, that tracks - fine with me 🤣" -- I think this goes with what you were saying about checking in with our goals and clarifying what they are and if they're still relevant
- Making sure our weaknesses are realistic so e.g. asking friends/ family for their thoughts (like said in another reply!) as maybe when filling out the questionnaire we were a bit too harsh or biased
- Learning about what each character weakness truly is (e.g. what does humility actually mean and what does it look like in everyday life/ actions?)
- Seeing how they would help us achieve our goals in life or align with our values
- Making some of those pesky SMART goals and then getting to it!
Thank you for your post and your thoughtful questions! I wish you the best with everything :)
@allnaturalSky4753
Great post! Here are my thoughts on your questions
How can we best affirm our strengths to create more meaning and life purpose into our lives?
The first step is identifying what these strengths are, either through taking an online inner development quiz or simply reflecting on the skills that come the easiest to us. Then we can reflect on how these skills can be used to improve specific aspects of our lives and push us forward to the goals we seek.
How can we try to improve our character weaknesses and turn them more into strengths?
When thinking about weaknesses, mindset is really important. If we view our weaknesses as something innate and fixed, it would be really difficult to motivate oneself to work on them. Instead, keep an open mind and remind yourself that change is possible,