Self-concept

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

First, Do This Exercise

(Start reading my posts on "Self-concept" serially. Start from this post and then, keep reading the subsequent posts on the subject in sequence for better understanding on what I am writing).

Do this simple exercise. Take a blank page and a pencil. Start writing randomly everything that you have observed from the start of your day till now. Like you might have noticed that you woke up forty five minutes late this morning as compared to the other days. Put that down on the paper and label it as observation number 1. Now, jot down your next observation and label it as 2. This second observation might relate to say, aroma of something yummy being cooked in the kitchen by one of you family. You get curious and walk into the kitchen to find a cake being baked in the oven. Your getting curious could be your observation number 3 and baking of the cake seems to be your fourth observation. They deserve to be called your observations only if you really did observe them and can recall them now. Do not write anything as observation if you have not observed it, i.e. do not write your imaginations. So, in this way, keep on recalling all that you observed and keep jotting it down.

The moment you start feeling some kind of strain on your mind to recall any further, stop writing. That's an indication that what all you observed, you have been able to pour it down on the paper and now you are finding it tough to write any more. In a sense, you have exhausted all your observations.

What are total number of observations you noted on the paper? Write it.

Also, out of total observations you made, how many pertain to human beings and how many pertain to inanimate things or other than human beings. For example, your observation on your getting curious as to what was cooking in the kitchen belongs to observation on human beings (animate observation) and baking of cake belongs to observation on other than human beings category (inanimate observation). Work out a rough percentages of each one of them.

Take a pause here and complete the above-mentioned exercise before you proceed to read further (the next post).