Managing Oneself

This article touched on a number of valid points that are essential in discovering how you work as an individual, with others and overall how you can use that knowledge to be a more successful/productive YOU. The first element in determining how to manage yourself is to determine your strengths. You must know your strengths to know where you belong. When you discover your strengths, put yourself where your strengths will produce results. Continue to improve these strengths and acquire new skills when needed. Another element of managing yourself is to determine how you preform. Are you a reader or listener? How do you learn? And so on. How one learns is something that I found very interesting. My 8th grade teacher once explained the seven levels of learning to us... I cannot remember all of them but I do remember realizing that I function well at some levels of learning but not at others. For example, I function extremely well at the lowest level of learning: memorization. When studying for tests I find it easy to memorize terms, concepts, responses,etc. However, I do not function well at the highest level of learning which is being able to take an object/concept and completely break it down and then put it back together and explain step-by-step how you came back to the original object/concept. Knowing how you learn will not only be of benefit to yourself but will enable you to better understand how others learn and work more productively with them.
Your personal values must be compatible with the organization's values, they do not have to be identical but they must be close enough to work. I think this is a very important concept that many people either do not understand or do not acknowledge. Far too many people are in it for the money. In the end these people usually are not happy with their work and sometimes they are unhappy with their life in general as a result. I understand that money is a necessary thing in life, but it is not the only thing. People sell themselves short of happiness and success when they work for organizations whose vision that they do not believe in. The idea of the 'second half of your life' is a scary thought to most, but for those people who have worked for a company that they cannot relate to or do not believe in, the second half of their life can be just as depressing as the 25+ years they spent at the organization. Starting on a new venture later in life is terrifying no doubt, but it could be the beginning of a more successful and happy life that everyone is entitled to.