BUILDING A RESILIENT AND SELF-WORTH CONSCIOUS YOUNG PERSON – AND WHY IT MATTERS.

Young people often ask themselves. _”I’m I really enough?!”__”Will I ever amount to anything?”_ It is true! adolescents do suffer victims of self-doubt regardless of the environment. 

Using the above as an inspiration, we share from what our mentorship journeys with several young adolescents have yielded in the hopes that it helps establish self-confidence and worth in the rest of them as well as build lasting characters.

Jumping right in, we think that letting young people discover their uniqueness by themselves is the key to unlocking their potential and once potential has been realized self-confidence and worth are reinforced.
How have we achieved that? We use a tool we call “the acceptance card”.

How does the tool work? Well, whilst conducting some of our sessions, we encourage young people to participate in simple exercises. For example; drawing. The assumption is that whilst they draw, they will throw caution to the wind (an unbounded exploration zone). They will dive right into the predetermined task, let their ideas, creativity, and energy come into play, giving the task their absolute best and love every minute of it.

What is the possible positive outcome of having put the tool to use?   When the task has been completed, we then ask them what they think about their work: what they like most about it and how it feels to express themselves in the manner they did. The questions asked to teach the said young adults to acknowledge their efforts as well as give credit where it’s due – appreciating their own efforts.

When we ask, we do because not only are we teaching the said young adults to acknowledge their efforts, we are helping them give credit where it’s due – appreciating their own efforts.

How contributory will the aforementioned tool be as in regards to answering the credibility question in the young people?

See, teaching young people how to appreciate their efforts is the baseline to building firm self-worth. Young people are most likely to explore their uniqueness, improve their weaknesses and  find more inspiration for their talent once they begin to acknowledge their work and efforts (unlocked potential). Continuous cultivation of realized potential, in turn, helps establish firm self-confidence and worth.

So we encourage you to try the acceptable card tool if you know a young adult asking the same questions. It might not be a drawing exercise, it could be with anything else, something you have noticed the young adult likes. So try it and kindly share with us how it went and how it has been successfully effected.

In conclusion: we encourage you to often use the acceptable card tool when you can. It might not be a drawing exercise, it could be with anything else, something you have noticed the young adult likes. We would really be glad to hear how helpful it was for you.

Get in touch if you would like to get engaged through this exercise.

This story was compiled by Emmanuel and Juliette Nabayinda.