Reflection Essay: Exploring Personal and Professional Development

This reflection essay explores the student's journey of personal and professional development, emphasizing the significance of positive thinking as a key strength. The essay delves into how the student's mindset has evolved, enabling them to overcome challenges, maintain a positive outlook, and achieve their goals. It highlights the role of positive thinking in maintaining emotional stability, fostering resilience, and adapting to new environments. The student recounts personal experiences, illustrating the impact of a positive attitude on various aspects of life, from family interactions to professional collaborations. The essay also discusses the importance of courage, responsibility, and a solution-focused approach in maintaining a positive outlook, particularly in challenging situations. Furthermore, the student reflects on the dynamics of teamwork and the importance of individual contributions within a team setting. The essay concludes by underscoring the significance of continuous self-improvement and adapting to change, while maintaining a positive mindset for long-term success.

Running Head: Personal and professional development
Personal and professional development
Reflection essay
Student Name
[Pick the date]

Personal and professional development 1
Thoughts are considered as one of the most significant and distinct features that helps me to
remain different from other people. Thinking is also considered an important asset for society
development. It acts as one of the most valuable things in my life because this strength helps me
to remain positive in difficult situations and helps in gaining attentions of others in various
situations. It helps me in resolving various important issues which were difficult to handle with
different approach due to massive ramifications. Even according to behavioral science there is
always a balance between negative and positive energy in the form of nature cycle (Leeson,
Ciarrochi and Heaven, 2008)). In this situation, it is one of the most important aspects to form
equilibrium in between them in order to maintain progressive success. External environment and
related factors have a direct impact on the psychological relation of an individual. Though are
considered when being implemented in the form of action. Often problem causes worry which
results in stress and negativity in the minds of an individual. But in my case, my positive
thinking helps me in overcoming these issues quickly as compared to others by which I can put
my focus on my interest zone. This is one of the reasons that my zeal and enthusiasm related to
life are very high which helps me on the track of success (Day, Hanson, Maltby, Proctor and
Wood, 2010). I believe that life has two sides negative and positive and every person has to see
both these sides. But it is up to us which side we want to remain with because with positive
thinking a person is able to handle even negative circumstances effectively. My positive thinking
helps me in keeping my emotions and feeling smooth. It has been seen that people struggling in
life often face stress by which they enter into non-return stage of depression. I have actually
learned to break my habits of worry and try to convert into future leaning.
Positive thinking is one of the most important strengths because it helps in maintain hope that
situation will improve. In fact, it will help in believing that ambition will complete soon by
helping in exploring possible opportunities to meet our aims. Positive thinking acts as a strength
because it helps in replacing negative beliefs with positive beliefs. It also acts as a reminder that
things are around us can go in a negative direction but we have to just focus on the positive side
of the situation and must not change our attitude towards situation (Ng and Diener, 2009).
Positive thinking offers that strength which helps in keeping negative people away from us so
that they may not interfere in our positive potential. Even it helps in changing the minds set of
our friends who are unwilling towards change. Positive thinking acts as a strength by eliminating
fear while working on new projects. Positive things act as direction which motivates us to do
only right things which keep us connected with happiness of other people.
I believe that things which are happening around us either positive or negative are actually
happening due to specific reason. Earlier my life was similar to other individuals and I have
often found myself trapped in depressive actions that have negatively impact my life. But with
help of mentoring in overtake this situation and developed it as my one of the important strength
which keeps me grow every day (Halama, 2010). I have personally believes that valuable lesson
can be learned by bringing a positive attitude in the events that will help in enhancing our life
style. My positive attitude helps me to maintain balance between sorrow and happiness. One of

Personal and professional development 2
the best examples is that one day there was function going on my family in which my parents
have invested few guests. But as time started coming we realized that we have forgotten various
important things which were important from guest points of view. Suddenly my parents start
worrying but I was quite positive because I believe that it is the positive attitude of the person
which helps to create good impression on others. I arrange available resources in such a way that
included food but also various fun activities in order to make that time very special. I realized
that one of the guest couples is having a marriage anniversary on the next day and I linked that
with my program. Believe me, they were so impressed that they become closer to me every
before. This incident realized the power of positive thinking (Andreassi, 2011). Another such
incident happens with me in which one of my friends went into depression due to lose of his
mother. Even doctor has put him on depression pills. But I have strongly believed that my friend
can improve so I took him to one of the community center where he spent almost one month.
They believe that if person is engaged with fun and sports activities it will help them to recover
faster than putting them on anti-depression pills. At present, my friend has not only come out
from that ugly phase but he has become an inspiration to others that things can change if you
remain positive.
During my childhood, I have gone through various bad situations during school time I was
bullied, in some situations I have also faced discrimination but still, I have chosen the path of
never give up which turned to be my best partner in my life. It helped me in staying positive. In
addition, there are qualities such as never lose hope, do not celebrate earlier, remain focus on my
goal, self-motivated and son on. In most cases, people believe that it is important to meet short
term goals. After exploring for many years I came to know about certain qualities and traits
which help me in keeping positive. One of my important qualities is courage. This quality helps
me to remain positive which is not easy in every circumstance. According to positive
psychology theory, if a person is aware of his/her strength they are able to improve their life in
better patterns in the form of positive emotions, engagement and development of positive
relationships (Mirnics et al., 2013). At present communication, it may be on radio, newspapers,
and TV is full of things which are moving mind towards negative side and it is not easy for a
person to keep positive, it needs great inspiration and courage to handle such situations. Another
important quality in me is a responsibility, I believe that if I have initiated for some task then it is
my sole duty to complete that task on right time. I try to connect my task with my moral duty
instead of job duty which helps me to remain positive about results. Another important quality is
solution-focused that is the reason I do not waste time blaming others for something wrong.
Instead of that, I keep my focused on finding right solution which will help in resolving my issue
very fast. In many cases, it has been seen that when a person is put into completely different
environment, it becomes very difficult for them to remain sustainable for a long time and as a
result, they turn in to depression and anxiety. But in my case, my adaptability quality helps me to
get adjusted into different situations very quickly and helps me to remain positive about my new
environment. I never see change as a threat, I always admire change. These qualities have truly
changed my personality in both personal as well as professional context. These qualities have

Personal and professional development 3
helped me in growing and developing within a dynamic environment. Both personal and
professional life of an individual is full of positive as well as negative vibes and has a direct
impact on the mental stability of the individual. My positive thinking quality has helped me to
keep distant from negative vibes by offering me tactics ineffectively handle these situations so
that they may not overtake my positive thoughts.
One of the most challenging parts of workshop exercise is coordination. While taking
participants in this workshop I realized that there is no team support within the team members.
Even they have not distributed their role and responsibility among each other which has raised
issues at the implementation part. Among rest of team member, I was not fully aware of my role
and responsibility in the organization and therefore it was getting difficult for each team member
to perform their task. In addition, this miss-communication has also raised conflict within the
team and even team members were focusing on their part and not for organization. This has
impacted performance of the organization (Clarke and Braun, 2013). The possibility of this issue
is that people are only thinking about their personal growth and are not interested in growth of
organization. In this situation, they try to put their personal growth first and keep organization
goal priority. In addition, I also realized that process was not transparent so that I can act as per
the requirement of the situation. It was very difficult for me to prejudge situations and then plan
my action accordingly band also for this process I also have to gain trust of team members
because completion of this workshop was not possible while working along. Working alone on
the project will have taken more time and effort. Teamwork theory simply states that it is always
better to work together because one single person cannot possess all the skills which are required
to resolve to handle difficult situation. In this way, a team can provide effective performance as
compared to individual performance. In addition, theory of change believes that while working
in a team, every individual work style comes under the influence of work environment in which
they are operating their regular operations. In this situation, if they will not adopt the required
change then they have to face various challenges related to both work environment as well as
from individual itself because they are not going to change their regular schedule because of one
person.
As a student or working professional every individual present in this world is actually focused on
positive thinking as formula for success in achieving life goals. Positive thinking always
compromises of some significant elements such as inner strength and self-reflection. As per
various psychology scholars, only a peaceful mind is able to think rationally from small matter to
big matter. But when matter is related to individual then there must be one strength which can
aid in his reflection and for me, it is my positive thinking which differs me from others. I believe
that there is always a scope of improvement but it depends on us how we will take this
opportunity (Kitson et al., 2008). It is a very simple fact that a closed mind cannot provide ideas
and thoughts which can help them to become successful. Cultivating a positive attitude was not
easy task for me it took me years to introduce this aspect as my daily habit and then connect it
with my life and routine. Being positive for something is not an individual person quality, it can

Personal and professional development 4
be found in many other individuals. But maintaining that though for a long time is very difficult
for everyone. But in my case, I believe that success is just one more try towards failure and this
makes my personal quality different from other individuals.
In future, things are going to change very rapidly and it will rise to various complex problems. In
this situation, just remain positive will not be helpful in achieving success. It will definitely
require some new tactics which will offer me more knowledge and experience that can be used
effectively as per the present requirement. In addition, positive thinking will help me in acquiring
advance skills which will be essential to remain sustainable in this change business environment
(Salas, Cooke and Rosen, 2008). Positive thinking will act as aid in exploring new approaches
that will enhance my personal as well as professional life. My positive things will act as a mode
of attraction to other people and will help in creating a positive work environment that will be
needed for future in order to survive in business competition. This quality will encourage me to
learn new technology which will act as a helping hand for me as well as my team and in future, I
can emerge as one of the key members of the organization by managing others. I will be able to
think out of the box which is necessary for near future because product is becoming very similar
and therefore it becomes important to launch new products in the market which can create a
positive impression on the targeted audience.

Personal and professional development 5
References
Andreassi, J.K. (2011) What the person brings to the table: Personality, coping, and work–family
conflict. Journal of family issues, 32(11), pp.1474-1499.
Clarke, V. and Braun, V. (2013) Teaching thematic analysis: Overcoming challenges and
developing strategies for effective learning. The psychologist, 26(2), pp.120-123.
Day, L., Hanson, K., Maltby, J., Proctor, C. and Wood, A. (2010) Hope uniquely predicts
objective academic achievement above intelligence, personality, and previous academic
achievement. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(4), pp.550-553.
Halama, P. (2010) Hope as a mediator between personality traits and life satisfaction. Studia
Psychologica, 52(4), pp.309-314.
Kitson, A.L., Rycroft-Malone, J., Harvey, G., McCormack, B., Seers, K. and Titchen, A. (2008)
Evaluating the successful implementation of evidence into practice using the PARiHS
framework: theoretical and practical challenges. Implementation science, 3(1), p.1.
Leeson, P., Ciarrochi, J. and Heaven, P.C. (2008) Cognitive ability, personality, and academic
performance in adolescence. Personality and Individual Differences, 45(7), pp.630-635.
Mirnics, Z., Heincz, O., Bagdy, G., Surányi, Z., Gonda, X., Benko, A., Molnar, E., Jakšić, N.,
Lazary, J. and Juhasz, G. (2013) The relationship between the big five personality dimensions
and acute psychopathology: mediating and moderating effects of coping strategies. Psychiatria
Danubina, 25(4), pp.0-388.
Ng, W. and Diener, E. (2009) Feeling bad? The “power” of positive thinking may not apply to
everyone. Journal of Research in Personality, 43(3), pp.455-463.
Salas, E., Cooke, N.J. and Rosen, M.A. (2008) On teams, teamwork, and team performance:
Discoveries and developments. Human factors, 50(3), pp.540-547.

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