By – Sunaina Gera, Head CSR activities, Gera Developments driving The Gera School project in Goa and CEO, Gridlines
As we know no two persons have identical fingerprints, similarly, no two individuals can have identical personalities. Hence to identify these personalities or individual behaviors is to begin with critical and then from there one can look at developing them. The importance of nurturing or developing such individual behaviors is thus the cornerstone to creating one’s identity, which then needs to be nurtured.
As discussed above each individual has his own individual behavior and identity and that’s what makes us unique. It’s important to recognize this unique aspect for this is what our differentiator is. Developing and working on our individual uniqueness in fact gives us an edge in society and we get recognized for this trait of ours. We need to encourage this aspect of our behavior rather than ignore it because this is the aspect that sets us apart. How does the fingerprint get identified?
If Einstein, Newton, The Wright brothers, Alexander Graham Bell etc. not been the individuals they had ben the world would have been the poorer for their contribution to it. So it’s the uniqueness or the individuality of these individuals that made these great discoveries happen and we have the luxury of enjoying these discoveries. However what’s critical is to recognize this trait and the people providing guidance to such individuals like teachers, parents, etc. then play and important role Since the individuality needs to be identified at early stages of life, the people closest the child are his or her parents and teachers who can do fair justice. If left unidentified as does happen to many, the child doesn’t get an opportunity to hone his individual skills, which are unique to him and that is the child’s biggest asset in life.
So let’s look at how this helps the individual in life going forward. Whether a child decides to pursue his or her individual traits as a career choice or to simply just nurture it as a hobby is up to him. Whichever path he chooses, this growth creates fulfillment. It’s about knowing what I like and what I excel at and what and who I want to be. So for e.g., I may discover that I like to meditate a lot and that’s what brings me inner peace. That’s my calling. So be it. It’s from here that we make individual choices and grow. Today there is an app found on istore, which is best selling app called “Calm” and on it you only find various meditation alternatives. So even in something as simple as meditation as a calling, there is a future, there is a journey.
I ask myself why does it make it so important to find this individual trait or traits? Its paramount for the simple reason that while growing up no one knows, not even our parents, that what it is that we will excel in. What is that we should cultivate in our behavior and what it is what will grow to enjoy in our life journey. So for those who working closely with us and our trained to identify these traits or individual behaviors the responsibility is immense. They need to be sensitized to identifying such behaviors and then nurturing them. It’s a huge responsibility and lies in an unchartered territory.
We began with talking about the fact that individuality exists, it needs to be identified, it then needs to be nurtured, and finally their need to people to help identify these traits. So the journey may seem long and arduous but at the end, its significant and important in today’s scenario with the challenges we face as individuals and as complicated as our worlds are if we don’t delve into our strengths we leave ourselves as one of many. Question is why should we?