Major events and people influencing personal development and growth

¶ … people in your life that helped or hindered you in your education and personal growth. Describe how they influenced your thoughts, behavior, values and accomplishments.

In the course of human development there are four different factors that have been identified as the most influential these would include: biological factors, sociological factors, psychological factors and life cycle factors. (Kail, 2010, pg. 6) These are important, because they highlight the overall influence that certain people will have upon our lives in the future. Where, our relationship with them and what we learned will shape who we become as adults. Several major events that shaped my life were: a never ending desire to become something more and the ability to focus. The desire to always become something more arose, from the poverty and struggle that I endured at early age. Where, the harsh economic realities forced me to always want something more. When I was in middle school and high school, I would discuss these ideas with my history / sociology teacher. During these conversations I would express, my frustrations of being form a lower income family. He discussed his experiences about overcoming the challenges of racism and economic persecution during the 1960's. Where, we talked about how he found a way to overcome the injustices he was facing, to become a better a person. As a result, he would give me a variety of books to read and philosophers to study, which showed me different strategies to change my situation in life. Over this course of time, this would cause me to have: positive thoughts and values. These two areas would take me in a direction of doing something constructive with my life, which helped me to go onto to college. This caused me to see, how through education, that I could change my life for the better and avoid the constant dangers in low income areas (gangs / drugs). Over the course to time, this would teach me strategies to overcome the various challenges I would face, to become successful.

The ability to focus was instilled upon me, through my uncle. He was an Army Sergeant, that I would spend the summers and holidays with. During these times, my uncle followed a basic philosophy that everyone is responsible for their own actions and that good or bad events happen to them because of a lack of focus. This would shape my thoughts and values by teaching me a sense of responsibility. At which point, it would affect my behavior, by teaching me to act more prudently, which would help me to always see the different viewpoints. As time went by, the ideas of focus that I was taught by him, would serve well in my educational career, as it would help me to do what is necessary to understand the material. In many ways, the overall levels of focus that we have are a key, to changing our perceptions about what is happening. Once you do this, is when the mind can be able to overcome its various limitations. This has helped me to overcome the different educational challenges, by look at the situation from another viewpoint.