An important role in the formation of personality is played, of course, by the family, the environment, and school. However, self-education is also of great importance. This is in a certain life period almost the only way to make adjustments to the character of a person. If up to four years a child adopts a manner of behavior, learns social skills in adults, then a younger schoolboy and, especially, a teenager becomes much more resistant to any outside influences. For young people, self-education is an exceptional means of personal development. How is it carried out and how to direct the young soul in the “right direction”?
Do not think that self-education is some special special activities that take a lot of time and effort. No, most often it happens gradually, as if imperceptibly. This is not only the purposeful volitional efforts of a person who wants, for example, to develop attention, memory, become more seasoned or acquire physical strength. Of course, sports, training, self-education are ways of working on yourself.
However, self-education is also reading books, and
internal dialogues (often in the form of diaries or blogs), and communicating with smart people who can teach something good. With value attitudes, people are not born. Self-education of a person is imperceptibly carried out when watching high-quality content films, and when formulating and expressing, and then defending one’s point of view - for example, in the framework of discussions and disputes. For each of us, "getting better" means very different things. For one, it is to develop muscles, endurance, physical strength, speed. For another - learn to
be kinder and more tolerant. For the third, historical and heroic examples of self-education are of the greatest importance. First of all, strong-willed hardening. Examples are Alexei Meresyev or Nikolai Ostrovsky. For many, the example of great will is Napoleon Bonaparte. For others, Mikhail Lomonosov, like other prominent self-taught. But for Leo Tolstoy or Anton Chekhov, self-upbringing consisted in the development of genuine humanism - sympathy, tact, participation. It is no coincidence that so much attention is paid to moral issues in their works. Diaries and letters clearly show the writers' internal work on themselves. The fight against vice - ludomania or passion for gambling - was also described by F.M. Dostoevsky, and the author himself was the prototype of the hero.
It is believed that, in addition to introspection and self-hypnosis, excellent ways of educating a person are both auto-training and the method of empathy, which is to put yourself in the place of another person, imagine what you would feel or think in such a situation. An important element is promotion. For example, if you succeeded in fulfilling your goals, achieving your goal (which you should definitely formulate, say out loud), then you can make yourself a small gift. Self-criticism does not bring the desired results for everyone, although without it it is difficult to identify shortcomings that a person considers it necessary to work on. At the same time, it should not go into self-flagellation, which is a deviation from normal behavior.