SELF- ASSESSMENT IS PEACE

SELF-ASSESSMENT IS PEACE

IS SELF-ASSESSMENT IMPORTANCE?

What Is Self-Assessment?

Self-assessment is something that is normally not done by most people in life, but it is very important in promoting PEACE. This agrees with Foss, 2018 that: “Not everyone needs to take a self-assessment to find his or her path, or to understand how his or her values and aptitudes contribute to his/her working life”. With respect to that, she is right but every human being in life needs self-assessment in general; even children. Walsh & Gardner, 2005; noted that “Assessing the Quality of Early Years Learning Environments” is important.

What then is self-assessment? “Self-assessment is the assessment or evaluation of oneself or one’s actions, attitudes, or performance” (oxforddictionaries.com). Economists too are always thinking of payment of tax return; the moment self-assessment is mentioned. “The idea of self-assessment is that you are responsible for completing a tax return each year if you need to, and for paying any tax due for that tax year” (Litrg.org., 2018). Many professions will have different perceptions about self-assessment.

IS SELF-ASSESSMENT IMPORTANCE?

It is very important for us as humans to once a while sit down and reflect on our lives; it helps us to be able to strategize on how to achieve certain objectives and how to promote or make certain changes in our lives. It helps us to identify our interest areas (McGuire, 2018) in life, it also helps us to know what is working on well in our lives and that which is not working on well for us (our Ups and Downs). Identifying our interest areas and dealing with our ups and downs in life helps us to live peacefully, thereby promoting a peaceful environment too. 

It is a very strong tool for ensuring peace at the individual, family, national, and the international level. “Human is indivisible” (Annan, 2001), therefore whatever happens to any individual; whether good or bad, indirectly affects others. Peaceful individuals make a peaceful family, a peaceful nation and a peaceful world: the opposite is violence!

Self-assessment is very important in every aspect of our lives, never forget to assess yourself. I made mentioned of self-assessment on 4th January 2017 where I said: "Sometimes those who hate you in life are not those that you are better than ...". How can one even know that he/she is hated? This is when you keep on assessing your life.

Self-assessment is very important in every aspect of our life as humans! Jesus speaking a parable to a multitude that were following him, said: “Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39). To live a life without self-assessment is like a visually impaired person trying to walk without a walking stick or someone pulling him/her. A sweet taste more often than not also has a bitter taste – an Akan proverb (Akrofi, 2018). It is through self-assessment that one can identify the taste and bitterness of his/her life. Using job/career as an example; Bernadette Walsh, a career guidance counsellor says: “There are many factors in choosing a job or career and that’s why self-assessment is important” (McGuire, 2018). After using self-assessment to choose the job or career that is of interest to you, you still need it to be able to identify your skills and which areas of your job or career that you are good at.  

Self-assessment is a very big exercise that cuts across so many areas in our lives, and that is why it is very important for peaceful living. You can do self-assessment in your family life, job or career (business), education/learning, religion, politic/country, behavior/attitude (character), relation to people, likes or dislikes, … and your environment in general: without that, then you are walking (living your life) like a visually impaired person walking without a walking stick or like a visually impaired person leading another blind person (Luke 6:39). Whatever self-assessment you may be doing, your environment is a contributory factor that cannot be ignored. That could be why the Former UN General Secretary, Mr. Kofi Annan in 2005 said: “The world that I am try to create should be of concern to everyone”. He was talking in terms of the environmental support! Whatever one does in life is very important in promoting peace but it must first start with ones’ interests, his/her knowledge, the skills or capabilities of the person, and the environmental support.

Self-assessment can never be the same for everyone; it varies from person to person, especially, depending on one’s status in life. This on itself explains why it is important to self-assess your life! Knowing oneself is very important for a peaceful living since using the popular saying, “All fingers are not the same”, makes it clear that we are human beings with differences (even twins). Knowing ourselves helps us to do things according to our strengths. Still stressing the fact that everyone needs self-assessment at one point or the other, McGuire, 2018 revealed that a psychometric assessment, which measures skills, aptitudes, interests, values and personality traits; helps you to know yourself.

The importance of self-assessment can be determined depending on the environment in which one finds himself/herself, but they all have one big importance which is the promotion of PEACE:

Self-assessing one’s religious life promotes individual and religious peace,

Self-assessing your political life, also promotes interpersonal and political peace,

Self-assessment of your family life promotes peace at the interpersonal and family level,

Self-assessment of your work or profession helps to provide personal internal peace and a peaceful working environment,

Self-assessing yourself in your studies, provides you with a peaceful environment to learn,

Self-assessment brings out the strengths and weaknesses in you, helping you to build yourself up and live a peaceful life.

Walsh, 2006 confirmed the importance of self-assessment on how one can assess his/her learning needs; saying that it helps the person in changing his/her practice than for learning to have been imposed on him/her. People in managerial positions need to self-assess themselves in whatever policies/strategies they implement in their companies, organizations/institutions. The various presidents of the world, their ministers and chief executive officers (CEOs) all need self-assessment to assess their performances .Self-assessment is PEACE, as the year is getting to an end; never forget to self-assess your life (To be continued.). Thank you for your Time and for Reading.

References:

Akrofi, J., O. (2018). A sweet taste more often than not also has a bitter taste – an Akan proverb. In a tribute by Most Rev. Dr. J. O. Akrofi to the Former 7^th UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan at the Accra International Conference Center (AICC) on 13^th September, 2018. GTV.

Annan, K. (2001). 'Humanity Is Indivisible'. The New York Times.  Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/11/world/humanity-is-indivisible.html on 22.09.18 at 12:12PM.

BibleStudyTools Staff. (2015). Top 40 Prayer Bible Verses. Retrieved from https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/prayer-bible-verses/ on 18.09.18 at 1:05PM.

Foss, E. (2018). CAREER ADVICE JOB SEARCH: 5 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Taking Another Self-Assessment Test. Retrieved: 2:16PM, 21.09.18 from https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-questions-you-need-to-ask-yourself-before-taking-another-selfassessment-test.

McGuire, P. (2018). Will there be a job for me when I graduate? Retrieved: 1:43PM, 21.09.18 from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/will-there-be-a-job-for-me-when-i-graduate-1.3475427?mode=amp.

Oxford Dictionary. Self-assessment is the assessment or evaluation of oneself or one’s actions, attitudes, or performance. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/self-assessment on 21.09.18, 8:41PM.

Walsh, G., & Gardner, J. (2005). Assessing the Quality of Early Years Learning Environments. ECPR. 7 (1). Retrieved at 9:32PM, 21.09.18 from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v7n1/walsh.html.

Walsh, K. (2006). How to assess your learning needs. J R Soc Med. 99(1): 29-31. Doi: 10.1258/jrsm.99.1.29. PMCID: PMC1325078 or PMID: 16388053.