Interpersonal Communication, Unit 3

Describe a time when you tried to bring about a change in your self-concept and were not successful in doing so. As I have mentioned before I have two versions of my personal self-concept, one that applies to the office and one that applies to my personal life. There are many attributes to my business self-concept that would not only be useful in my personal life but would help alleviate issues that arise. Things such as being organized, being a multi-tasker, etc. Around the holidays, as my personal life became hectic, I decided that trying to bring some of my business self-concept into my personal self-concept would be brilliant and set out to do so. I spent one weekend organizing and planning life around the house and thought I was well on my way until Monday hit and I fell back into the same routines, habits and behaviors that were present before with no change. In retrospect, I realize that I had a starting point, but no plan put in place to ensure follow through, reinforcement and I didn’t ensure that my support system was aware of the changes I was working on. This equated to the failure of changing my personal self-concept. I plan on revisiting it in the near future because it has become more of a need than want.
Summarize the guidelines for improving self-concept in our textbook and explain how each might apply to a change in self-concept.

The four guidelines for improving self-concept outlined in the book are as follows:
1. Make a firm commitment to personal growth.
2. Gain and use knowledge to support personal growth.
3. Set goals that are realistic and fair.
4. Seek contexts that support personal change.
(Wood, 2010) Changing your self-concept is no different than any other change that you need to make and requires hard work and dedication. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day and rebuilding your self-concept is a long-term process. A good way to approach a change is to explore where your current self-concept is and