Hurdles & Obstacles: Building Tools For Personality Development

Be it in sports or academics, competitions are an integral part of school and college life. Participating in competitions is a great way to unleash your true potential, polish your skills, and develop your personality. Extracurricular activities can not only improve one’s knowledge base but also ignite students’ passion and help them open up to new challenges. Educational institutions organize competitions to allow students to challenge themselves and get a glimpse of the real competitive world. Competitions of any kind, be it sports, academics, or any other field, can play a significant role in a student’s career path.  Parents and educators should encourage children to take part in competitions that are aligned to their field of interest. Schools and colleges hold frequent competitions like tournaments to give students a window to explore their strengths and interests. This participation can groom a student’s personality and hone people skills beneficial for their career journey.

Reality check

When students participate in competitions, they get a chance to apply their knowledge to come up with innovative ideas. This enables them to enhance their creativity and problem-solving aptitude, along with providing an opportunity to acquire a new skill set. Furthermore, competitions serve as a reality check to understand personal strengths and weaknesses. This is the best method of self-discovery for students which can be immensely helpful when they are deciding on a career path.

Making connections

Contests are not only platforms to showcase your talent, but also a great opportunity to connect with new people. Meeting and interacting with new people, is a great social and emotional learning experience. This helps a student to widen their horizons. In addition, when a student performs exceptionally well in a competition, it increases their chances of being noticed by recruiters and receiving scholarship offers.

Building confidence

When a student exhibits their skills through various competitions, it instills a sense of self-belief that what they do, matters. This boosts confidence and motivation to work harder towards their desired career path. The more they participate in competitions, the more confident they become.

Better resilience

Participating in competitions frequently helps students to learn resilience. They learn to work harder, intending to improve their performance. This resilience helps them to be determined about their career journey and prevents them from giving up without trying one more time.

There is an array of competitions in which one can partake to build up one’s personality. Here are some interesting competitions that may interest students:

• Mock parliaments or mock court hearings to prepare better for real court cases as well as enhance public speaking skills.
• Culinary arts competitions for students who are creative or interested in becoming a chef. 
• Styling and fashion competitions offer a great learning experience for students who aspire to become fashion designers and/or stylists.  
• Coding competitions hone analytical skills and are great for those who want to pursue coding as a career.

Competitions organised for students are a perfect mix of work and play. Along with an opportunity to refine skills and talents, contests are also an exciting break from conventional methods of learning. Competitions play a significant role in the career journey of a student. So, if you have been holding back for too long from participating in competitions, it’s about time you let go of the apprehension.

Along with participating in competitions, when students take initiative to organise events and contests, it is a great way to develop one’s personality. Organising a competition, hosting it, and coordinating with different teams offers priceless opportunities to learn team building. Take every opportunity to partake in group activities and competitions to hone your skills and learn new things.

Competition and challenges play a great role in shaping an individual’s mind. The absence of a tough phase causes a hindrance in personality development that leads to a comparatively dry and dull perspective toward an individual’s idea of self and the world.

Sushma Sharma

Guest Author The author is Director, Career Success Strategy, Veative Group