Smarter Youth for the Smartest Change!

Youth is a promise of hope for our future, a reservoir of confidence, driven to bring change in the world – youth is power.

Young minds are the most important aspect that can make or break the socio-economic conditions of any country. The youth are blessed to play a key role in the creation of any positive change in society. But, at times, youngsters have numerous thoughts running in through their minds. They fear failure and often lack the ability to control their emotions. Sometimes they desire to change the world but are unable to channelize their zeal in a productive way! They may find it difficult to claim a path they can call their own. At times, their confidence may be hampered by a lack of self-motivation. The young have a great deal of potential energy, but often feel directionless, often doubt their capabilities. They tend to measure their success and compare themselves with others. But the question is whether it is really worth it to doubt yourself and fear future results, risking sinking into depression? Waste your precious time thinking about what you couldn’t achieve? The answer is NO, as the youth of today are blessed to have the skills to bring change, the only thing they need is to KNOW THEMSELVES. We must understand who we are, what we want, what we expect of ourselves, our needs, our desires, and our purpose of being on this planet and immediately start working on it in the most focused way.

For a better understanding of our lives and our likes, we must first understand who we are, for which we must understand the meaning of personal and personality development and inculcate that within our lives. Talking about development of a youth, it includes issues such as the extent to which development occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage-like development, or the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures versus learning through experience and personal choices at large. The study of development is important not only to psychology, but also to sociology, education, health care and, most importantly, parenting. By understanding how and why a young mind changes and grows, one can apply this knowledge to help youngsters live up to their full potential. Parents play a crucial role here, developing a child into a happily successful youth. The goal of youth development is the growth of humans throughout their lifespan, to an age of giving his / her best. It refers to the development of patterns of change over time, energy, research, education, peer- and self-driven thoughts, which are the key to anyone’s success. It does not just involve the biological and physical aspects of growth, but also the cognitive and social aspects associated with development. To build a life of value, we must understand a few aspects of learning which help us develop a clear mind and vision towards our lives and help fulfil our desires in a much more productive way.

The most important aspect of developing ourselves is a personality development, an impressive personality boosts you up to stand apart from the rest, allows for the creation of strategic and tactical plans for personal and professional growth towards future goals, and most importantly helps you to handle failures, because failures are as crucial as success in our lives.

Intellectual development such as knowledge of essential life skills, essential vocational skills, academic success, rational habits of mind-critical thinking, reasoning skills, in-depth knowledge of more than one culture, good decision-making skills, knowledge of skills needed to navigate through multiple cultural contexts, and lastly research, research, and lots of research – all help to make clearer decisions about our likes and dislikes. While education is important, it is also important to self-analyse and work on our psychological and emotional development, which includes good mental health, positive self-regard, good emotional self-regulation skills, coping skills, conflict resolution skills, mastery motivation and positive achievement motivation.

Combining all these values in our lives helps us design a productive plan towards our future goals, which is also known as ‘Planfulness’ – which means planning for the future and for future life events. Doing this gives us a sense of a ‘larger’ purpose in life, strong moral character, commitment to effective use of time, and lastly, helps work on our social development which is the key to handling ourselves in a much smoother way.

All these aspects of development form a web – deeply connected to produce a happy, healthy, and productive young mind. Following our dreams is what we all do, but not having a map to that path makes it useless. Follow your dreams to the extent that they give you an identity in the society you belong to; dreams give you the motivation to grow stronger each day, they empower you to become an asset to the country rather than being a liability on it. To conclude, understanding your inner voice and shaping it through self-development while moving towards a productive goal is all that a smart youth of today needs.

• The article was originally published in Career Ahead April 2022 issue.