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HSS 401: Soft Skills and Personality Development: ACL1

Self-assessment activity-based questions:

Lecture - 01
Introduction: A New Approach to Learning

1. How do you define learning?

Learning is the process that involves one’s interaction with the environment so as to bring
positive changes in one’s behaviour and actions. The task cannot be called a learning experience
unless we implement the positive takeaways of that task in our day-to-day lives.

2. Which mode of learning do you prefer: Normal or Fuzzy? And why?

I prefer the normal mode of learning because it helps to achieve my targets and goals in time
without much hassle as fuzzy mode makes me procrastinate a lot. Normal mode helps to learn the
skill of discipline too which also helps in other spheres of my life. I feel that being too used to the
fuzzy mode of learning makes a person lazy which thus, affects all the other activities of one’s
life.

3. What do you understand by the term “soft skills”?

Soft skills are the people skills that help in the overall personality development of human beings.
Unlike hard/technical skills, these are not specific to any profession or task but help in improving
the overall quality of our life and play a very crucial role in our success in any sphere of life.

Lecture- 02
Planning and Goal-Setting

1. Write an incident where learning something modified your behaviour.

During the second-year summers, I had the opportunity to go to Germany for a research
internship but that got cancelled at the last moment and I was very disheartened. I felt very
demotivated. But now, when I look back and see the bigger picture, I feel that it gave me another
fantastic opportunity to work with a professor virtually, got enough time to prepare for my
internship season, go on a trip with friends and many more things. Although a physical internship
would also have been an enriching experience, the latter experience helped me in various ways,
and I learned to stay positive from this incident. Now I have developed a more optimistic
approach towards my life.

2. What do you think is more crucial for success: Intellectual knowledge or soft skills?
Why?

I feel that although intellectual knowledge and soft skills are both important and go hand-in-
hand, soft skills have an upper hand in one’s success in any sphere. Any path to success involves
one’s interaction with people and environment as a crucial part and soft skills help us to ace this.
They not only help in our overall personality development but also help us tackle all the obstacles
effectively that come in the path of our success.

3. What do you expect to learn from this course? How do you think it might impact
your life?
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By the virtue of this course, I wish to develop some crucial skills like discipline and time
management that will help me achieve my goals and dreams along with helping me to overcome
this vicious thinking of mediocrity. These skills will help me become more confident, and more
focused and will pave the way for my success.
4. Write a goal you wish to achieve through this course.

Through this course, I want to improve my emotional quotient and wish to become a more
confident, courageous, and disciplined individual. Since the level of success and personal
development go hand-in-hand, I aim to fulfil all my dreams and live up to my potential by
developing some important skills via this course.

Lecture – 03
Human Perceptions: Understanding People

1. Give an example of a perceptual difference from your own experiences.

Being living beings, we think differently and it’s common to have perceptual differences.
One example that I recall is the review of the movie ‘ANIMAL’. While some people said it
glorified violence and hated the movie, others said it showed the love of a child for his father and
liked it. Thus, these contrasting views represent different perspectives of the people.

2. Write your own mission statement for your life.

My aim in life is to do something purposeful and meaningful that can really make a positive impact on
this world. I want to learn with the best people, foster meaningful connections and lead a life of
integrity, compassion, and empathy. I aim to work hard to achieve my dreams, fulfil all my desires and
be a person in life who can help others and whom people can admire. I want to continuously grow my
knowledge, work on my skillset and aim to live up to my full potential.
3. How does Steve Jobs’s commencement speech inspire you? Write in brief.

Steve Jobs’s commencement speech moved me deeply. I was greatly inspired


when I heard it for the first time and am moved each time, I hear it again. It
motivated me to work hard to achieve my goals and make a meaningful impact
in this world as he said, “We are here to put a dent in the universe, otherwise,
why else even be here”. It helped me to work in the right direction by thinking
about the end and doing what’s most important rather than doing what’s easy. I
feel he was a great leader and I idolize him.

4. What can you do to understand another person’s perspective during a conflict?

The best thing to do in order to understand another person's perspective during a


conflict is to listen to his arguments carefully without any bias that we may
have for our view. We must evaluate his arguments unbiasedly without
associating them with someone’s nature, caste, or beliefs. This can surely help
us to get the point the other person is trying to convey.

Lecture - 04
Types of Soft Skills: Self-Management Skills

1. What do you understand by self-management skills?

Self-management skills are the skills that help us to behave and work according
to the situations. They help us to regulate our emotions, and make us more self-
aware, confident and adaptable for each and every situation we may encounter
in our lives.

2. Take five minutes to introspect. Write 5 things that inspire or motivate you.

Five things that motivate me are:


1. The feeling of being happy and content with my work and life
2. Making my parents proud by working hard and achieving my goals
3. Giving back to the society and nation that has always provided me
4. Being a positive role model for others
5. To be in better shape and having a good health

3. What steps can you take to boost your confidence?

I feel that to boost my confidence, I can take the following steps:


1. Positive self-talk:
I believe that this can help me stay positive and thus, more confident.
2. Embracing constructive feedback:
I believe that feedback from supportive people around me can help me to
become more confident by working on my issues.
3. Meditation:
Meditation will help me remain calm and composed and will boost my
overall confidence.
4. Setting realistic goals:
Setting the goals realistically and achieving them each day will help me
become more confident in myself.
5. Body Language:
Maintaining good posture and standing straight up improves and conveys
confidence.

4. Share an instance where you learned from your mistake.

During the JEE days, I started disliking some portions of the physics and as a
result, was running away from it. It affected my score in the examinations. Then
on discussion with my teachers, I felt that I was running from what needed to be
done and thus, improved on that. Then \, I realized the important thing that we
must do what is right, not what is easy and have been following it from that day
since. This thinking has helped me in excelling in. other areas of my life.

5. What steps do you take to manage your stress?

Student life can sometimes be very stressful, and we must not allow it to
hamper our growth and progress. When I feel stressed, I often listen to music,
play outdoor games, chit-chat with friends, and call my parents to feel relaxed
and relieved. I have also discovered that exercising regularly improves stress
management and helps you to stay stress-free.

6. Share an instance where you exhibited a high level of emotional intelligence.

Recently, my friend’s father got critically ill and was hospitalized. He was
devastated on hearing the news and was adamant about going back to his
hometown, against the will of his mother due to the ongoing endsem
examinations. His mother called and requested us to convince him to stay for 3
more days to complete the examination and then go back as his father was
recovering. I talked to him and handled the matter quite maturely and at last,
convinced him to stay and leave only after three days. I think that this matter
was quite sensitive and required a high level of emotional intelligence to be
dealt with.

Lecture - 05
Aiming for Excellence: Developing Potential and Self-Actualization

1. What do you define as excellence? Write an example.

According to me, excellence means having some good qualities in a high


degree. Excellence can be in a particular sphere of life or in general. For
example, Virat Kohli is an excellent cricketer. With his hard work and
dedication, he has achieved excellence in cricket and is now the no.1 player of
the sport in this world. We must always work hard in the pursuit of excellence.

2. Write your five important qualities that make you unique.

Every person has some qualities that makes them unique. For me these are:
1. Good Listener
2. Optimistic
3. Trustworthy
4. Courageous
5. Self-Confident
I feel that these are the qualities that make me somewhat unique.

3. Using Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, write a need you would like to
focus upon.

From Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I feel that the need I would like
to focus on currently is the esteem need. I feel that as a college student, our
basic, safety and emotional needs are somewhat taken care of. So, climbing up
the pyramid, I would like to work hard to make a name for myself and wish to
make positive contributions towards the society for which I can be
remembered. Ultimately, I also wish to focus on the need for self-actualization.

4. How do you define the need for self-esteem?

Self-esteem is how you see yourself. Although it is a psychological concept, it


is highly influential in the success that we achieve in any sphere of life. It
provides us with a sense of identity and motivation that ultimately helps us
towards our goal achievement. Low self-esteem can hamper our growth, as if
we are not confident in ourselves, people will not notice the spark that we have
within us.

5. How can you make your life extraordinary, or how can you self-actualize?

I think that I can make my life extraordinary by working hard to create a future
for myself where there are no limitations to my dreams, and where I can achieve
all my goals and fulfil my heart’s desires. But this can only be achieved by hard
work, sacrifice, and courage. Developing soft skills to further improve my
personality is an important step towards achieving my goals and making my life
extraordinary.

Lecture - 06
Need Achievement and Spiritual Intelligence

1. Give an example of radical change and constant change from your life?

One of the radical changes which I made was getting up early each day to
follow the morning routine I learnt by reading my IP book ‘The Miracle
Morning’. I have followed that each day since and am starting to see some
positive changes in my life.
One of the constant changes in my life is the process of learning and becoming
better at programming. I put in some effort every day towards this direction and
aim to achieve my goal steadily.

2. How do you define spiritual intelligence?

Spiritual intelligence is the trait by which we associate a sense of meaning and


purpose with our lives. It helps us to become self-aware, empathetic, and
compassionate. It helps us to see things without any biases and judgments. It
instils a spirit to give back to the society that has helped us to achieve our goals
and desires.
3. What area of your life would you like to excel in?

The area of my life I would like to excel in is to be more content, along with the
spirit to achieve greater heights and achieve inner peace. If our mind is restless,
we are not able to focus on more important things and fail to look at the bigger
picture. I wish to overcome this by hard work, meditation, and exercise.

4. Share an instance where you exhibited “field independence.”

It is often difficult to stand against the crowd and follow one’s convictions.
It happened to me during the class 11/12. During the JEE preparation, when all
my friends used to go out and enjoy, I decided to work hard to achieve my goal
of getting admission to one of the best colleges in the country. They tried to
convince me many times that such small breaks wouldn’t affect my preparation
but I was more passionate about studies and decided to go against them. This
really helped me and today because of field independence, I have achieved one
of my dreams.

5. What is emotional intelligence according to you? Write in your own words.

According to me, emotional intelligence is how well I can regulate my emotions


in different situations along with respecting others’ opinions and emotions. I
feel that it is one of the most important skills to have, as it affects how we deal
with people in different situations. A person with high emotional intelligence is
more self-aware, empathetic and respectful towards different views and
opinions.

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