Posted: March 24th, 2023

Self Reflection Essay: What Attributes do I Need to Help Others?

People can help others in their day-to-day activities. However, people have become self-pleasing, self-conscious, and self-centered (Murray, 2015). Nevertheless, few individuals have chosen the path of volunteering as a noble course. Such people sacrifice their freedom and time to help others in need. However, supporting others requires demonstrating several attributes that ensure all parties are satisfied.

I possess desirable attributes such as patience, dedication, kindness, and attention that assist people around me as I focus on their needs. Additionally, I am willing to support others in their daily activities whenever I can. Moreover, I know about understanding people’s needs and how I can solve such necessities in different situations. I am persistent in learning new ways to assist people who need help. These attributes play a key role in strengthening skills when caring for people with diverse needs.

Recently, I undertook a volunteering program serving children in an orphanage in Vietnam. Together with other individuals, we taught English and Mathematics to children from different orphanages in the country. The process of learning was difficult since pupils lacked self-control and had little motivation. Most of the children did not focus on schoolwork and concentrated on their toys. However, we shifted our attention and focused on new learning approaches, including motivating them with incentives every time they achieved a milestone. A poor learning environment and lack of parental guidance might have contributed to the self-control issues. Therefore, to enhance performance and learning experience for those children, encouragement, persistence, and patience were key factors in our approaches. I became more persistent with the students to ensure they took their studies seriously.

Moreover, I was dedicated to teaching the children and sacrificed my time to play with them after school to affirm my commitment and love. Additionally, I would spend more time with the students who were weak in their schoolwork as they worked on their assignments. Gradually, the students who had a negative attitude toward me became loving and respectful. Through the entire volunteering program, learners became more focused and disciplined in class and schoolwork.

To help others without hurting them, several attributes need to change to reinforce the ability to assist. Firstly, I must be more patient with people, especially young learners. In my experience as a volunteer teacher, I felt that I was strict and expected much from them. Nevertheless, when I became more approachable and patient, most children became friendly and behaved well. Secondly, I should understand learners’ backgrounds to appreciate diversity and focus on the best approach. Lastly, being attentive to individuals’ needs to understand their experiences and why they behave in a particular way is important (Moylett, 2013). Therefore, to assist people with diverse needs, it is important to be flexible in approaches used in every situation.

In today’s world, it is not easy to find individuals who are willing to help others. Nonetheless, few people have attributes such as kindness, dedication, and knowledge of assisting others. In my case, I volunteered to teach in an orphanage in Vietnam, where I met uncooperative children who lacked the will to learn. However, with my persistence and dedication to teaching, I overcame students’ resistance, and most of them started appreciating my work. Later, with time they began performing better in their school work. Therefore, one must be patient and understanding to approach the diverse needs of every individual.

References

Moylett, H. (2013). Characteristics of effective early learning: Helping young children become. United Kingdom, U.K: Open University Press.

Murray, A. (2015). Absolute surrender by Andrew Murray. Pennsylvania, PA: Infinity.