Changing a behavior - Essay Example

I kept track of my daily progress through a data tracking sheet which I will provide with the paper. Motivation My goal falls in upper-level needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. My wish to change my behavior is my social need and self-esteem need, which are the psychological needs that come up in the hierarchy when the low-level needs are satisfied. The only counter-motive that made it difficult for me to accomplish my goal was the lack of comfort in my life. As I already stated, my life has been very hard and I had to struggle a lot to get at this point in life.

This hardship made me doubtful about my future and thus I became afraid of many things. This counter-motive falls in the category of safety (comfort) needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. I felt extrinsically motivated to change this behavior because the appreciation I was expecting to get from my peers and others after my changed behavior was enough to motivate me to achieve my goal. My motives did contribute toward the outcome because communicating with people is always fruitful in the development of speech skills.

Also, facing the danger reduces the fear that one feels while encountering dangerous situations. In this way, my motives were good enough to contribute toward a positive outcome. Learning I set my email and other passwords on the words that could remind me of my goals. For example, I changed my email password to “don’t_be_afraid”, so whenever I logged in, my mind accepted this fact that I had to come out my timidity. I decided to pick a debatable topic once a week and make an appointment with a friend to come and discuss the topic with me.

I made a plan to look into the mirror for continuous 10 minutes daily and tell myself that I am a confident person. All these methods proved very helpful to me in the accomplishment of my goals and brought out the long-lost confidence from within me. Emotions, Barriers and Social Support I felt very much motivated to change my behavior. I made a resolution that I had to change this behavior at all costs, and I felt pleasure in my decision. I felt as if I was valuing myself. This feeling filled such energy inside me that I wanted to do more and more to become confident.

I found myself emotionally strong enough to keep myself going. It was a nice surprise to me. The only barrier that made it difficult for me to accomplish my goal was the lack of social support. Since I live alone, I am far away from my family and friends, and their support was much needed during this whole process. I was expecting this barrier but to overcome it, I arranged to keep myself busy with my friends and decided to stay in group rather than being alone all the time. Thus, I enlisted some of my colleagues to help me during the process and this was very helpful.

Conclusion I am proud to state that I did accomplish my goal to much extent. Although at some points, I felt that it was all useless, but when I started feeling a positive change within me, I decided to continue the process, and in the end it proved to be very fruitful. I feel very delighted at this change because I am getting very much appreciated among my peers. Now, I am able to lead a group. I can speak in front of crowd and deliver a speech. I feel confident enough to tell someone about his mistakes and how to correct them.

My self-esteem has risen. Now, I am not shy of giving presentations and delivering speeches. In the future, I plan to