Department of Education

PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
First Quarter - Module 1

Maria Victoria G. Bilog

Writer
Marvin M. Lunar
Validator
Mariel Eugene L. Luna
Editor and Layout

Schools Division Office – Muntinlupa City

Student Center for Life Skills Bldg., Centennial Ave., Brgy. Tunasan, Muntinlupa City
(02) 8805-9935 / (02) 8805-9940

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Activity 1: Do the ENTRY #1 before you start reading your module.

Unit 1: Self-Development

Module 1: Knowing and Understanding Oneself during Middle and Late Adolescence

SELF-CONCEPT
Imagine yourself looking into a mirror. What do you see? Do you see your ideal self or your
actual self? Your ideal self is the self that you aspire to be. It is the one that you hope will
possess characteristics similar to that of a mentor or some other worldly figure. Your actual
self, however, is the one that you actually see. It is the self that has characteristics that you
were nurtured or, in some cases, born to have.

The actual self and the ideal self are two broad categories of self-concept. Self-concept
refers to your awareness of yourself. It is the construct that negotiates these two selves. In
other words, it connotes first the identification of the ideal self as separate from others, and
second, it encompasses all the behaviors evaluated in the actual self that you engage in to
reach the ideal self.

The actual self is built on self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is derived from social interactions
that provide insight into how others react to you. The actual self is who we actually are. It is
how we think, how we feel, look, and act. The actual self can be seen by others, but because
we have no way of truly knowing how others view us, the actual self is our self-image.

The ideal self, on the other hand, is how we want to be. It is an idealized image that we have
developed over time, based on what we have learned and experienced. The ideal self could
include components of what our parents have taught us, what we admire in others, what our
society promotes, and what we think is in our best interest.

There is negotiation that exists between the two selves which is complex because there are
numerous exchanges between the ideal and actual self. These exchanges are exemplified
in social roles that are adjusted and re-adjusted, and are derived from outcomes of social
interactions from infant to adult development. Alignment is important. If the way that I am (the
actual self) is aligned with the way that I want to be (the ideal self), then I will feel a sense of
mental well-being or peace of mind. If the way that I am is not aligned with how I want to be,
the incongruence, or lack of alignment, will result in mental distress or anxiety. The greater
the level of incongruence between the ideal self and real self, the greater the level of resulting
distress. Personal development modules ultimate aim is greater self-knowledge that will lead
to higher alignment between these two personality domains.

PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Personal effectiveness means making use of all the personal resources – talents, skills,
energy and time, to enable you to achieve life goals.

Your knowledge of yourself and how you manage yourself impacts directly on your personal
effectiveness. Being self-aware, making the most of your strengths, learning new skills and
techniques and behavioral flexibility are all keys to improving your personal performance.

Our personal effectiveness depends on our innate characteristics – talent and experience
accumulated in the process of personal development. Talents first are needed to be identified
and then developed to be used in a particular subject area (science, literature, sports, politics,
etc.).

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Experience includes knowledge and skills that we acquire in the process of cognitive and
practical activities.

Knowledge is required for setting goals, defining an action plan to achieve them and risk
assessment.

Skills also determine whether real actions are performed in accordance with the plan. If the
same ability is used many times in the same situation, then it becomes a habit that runs
automatically, subconsciously. Here are some skills that will greatly increase the efficiency
of any person who owns them:
1. Determination. It allows you to focus only on achieving a specific goal without being
distracted by less important things or spontaneous desires. It may be developed with
the help of self-discipline exercise.
2. Self-confidence. It appears in the process of personal development, as a result of
getting aware of yourself, your actions and their consequences. Self-confidence is
manifested in speech, appearance, dressing, gait, and physical condition. To develop
it, you need to learn yourself and your capabilities, gain positive attitude and believe
that by performing right actions and achieving right goals you will certainly reach
success.
3. Persistence. It makes you keep moving forward regardless of emerging obstacles –
problems, laziness, bad emotional state, etc. It reduces the costs of overcoming
obstacles. It can also be developed with the help of self-discipline exercise.
4. Managing stress. It helps combat stress that arises in daily life from the environment
and other people. Stress arises from the uncertainty in an unknown situation when a
lack of information creates the risk of negative consequences of your actions. It
increases efficiency in the actively changing environment.
5. Problem-solving skills. They help cope with the problems encountered with a lack
of experience. It increases efficiency by adopting new ways of achieving goals when
obtaining a new experience.
6. Creativity. It allows you to find extraordinary ways to carry out a specific action that
no one has tried to use. It can lead to a decrease or an increase of costs, but usually
the speed of action is greatly increased when using creative tools.
7. Generating ideas. It helps you achieve goals using new, original, unconventional
ideas. Idea is a mental image of an object formed by the human mind, which can be
changed before being implemented in the real world. For generating ideas, you can
use a method of mental maps, which allows you to materialize, visualize and scrutinize
all your ideas, which in turn contributes to the emergence of new ideas. These are just
some, but the most important personal effectiveness skills which make the
achievement of any goal easier and less costly.

Activity 2: Do the Entry #2 – My Banner: The Treasure within Me.

Story: YOU NEED TO TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR FUTURE

There are three kinds of people in this world:
The first is the Moviegoer. This person watches the movie of their lives, admires some
parts and criticizes others. Aside from that, they do nothing else. All she says the whole day
is, “I like this thing and but I don’t like that thing.” The Moviegoer feels she has absolutely no
control of their lives --- except to comment about it. Moviegoers are the most pathetic,
miserable people in the world.
The second is the Actor. This person does not only watch the movie of her life. She
actually realizes she’s the Actor – and can control a big part of her life. She can actually make
or break the movie – by how well she delivers her lines and how she portrays her character.
Actors are a happy bunch, realizing they’re the start of the show and enjoy some level of

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control. But many times, they wish the movie would end in another way – but realize that they
have no say in such things.
The third is the Scriptwriter. This person does not only watch, and she doesn’t only
act, but she actually creates the entire movie from her mind. She determines what she will
say, what she will do, and how the movie will end. She realizes she has enormous control
over her life, and sees to it that the movie of her life will turn out beautiful.
Who are you among these three people?
Do you merely watch your life go by?
Or do you act out a script that you feel has been handed to you? Or do you write the
script and make your life beautiful?
By the way, the Producer of the movie is God. He tells you, “Make the movie beautiful,
and I will give you all that you need for success.”