UHMT 1012-Graduate Success Attributes (Self Reflection)
SELF REFLECTION
ADAPTABILITY – CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
UHMT-1012 Graduate Success Attributes
Prepared by:
Asa Ismia Bunga Aisyahrani
A19HM0174
Bachelor of Psychology with Human Resource Development
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Presented to:
Dr. Mastura Binti Mahfar
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Johor Bahru
- Adabtability
- Real World
Dealing with uncertain and unpredictable things is not easy. Honestly, adaptability is quite challenging for me. My tears has been squeezed out by someone who provoked others to break me down in the beginning of my life here. She accused me of not sharing information because I did not care about my own friends. Although She should check her own website and not rely on others. In this position I did not bring a communication tool to tell her because at that time I was still in the camp. Everyone blamed me heartlessly because of her provocation. I will never hate her or even revenge on her. Maybe Allah tested me to raise my level. All I have to do is return everything to Allah, so that I will never lose. As an adaptable people, knowing how to negotiate relationships, and being open to any new challenges or situations that change regardless of my background is my duty (Steve, 2019). A crime must not be paid with crime, but it must be paid with sincere kindness.
20 years is not a short period to understand life, many things have happened variously, and now I can see the real world with my own eyes. Why did I say "the real world"? because this is very different from my previous environment. I really wondered and was shocked about everything around. I don't mean to be prejudiced towards others, but I find people are more likely to spend a lot of time fulfilling their passions improperly, I find harsh words come out of almost everyone, I find many girls dressed themselves naked, I find having boy friend and girl friend is becoming a trend. What really happened?
I trully affraid about this world. I think a lot about what will happen in the future if the generation is still not ready to face the rough world. Therefore, I dedicate myself to getting along with others not only building relationships as friend, but also trying to spread goodness and changing bad habits that exist nowadays. I truly understand that survive in goodness is like sailing in the windy sky, but what keeps me going is my intrapersonal that boosts me to hang tight on Islamic values which always leads to the right path. By handling myself well, I hope I also can be a role model for my friends. Although sometimes a lot of rejection occurs when I ask them to join the right path, but I believe that Allah is The Almighty Helper of His servant, and one day my efforts will produce good results in syaa Allah.
- Flexibility
There are many challenges to adapt in a new place with many strangers, but it does not matter for someone who has a flexibility or a willingness to adapt. I myself already experienced it. At the beginning of my life in University of Technology Malaysia, I dreamed of being together with a good community. Fortunately, I met someone that asked me to join Islamic program organized by Hijrah Comunity. I was very excited and I started joining this program sincerely. Islamic values are seriously needed to correct deviations, and this comunity always holding tight to this values, I am very impressed. Alhamdulillah I still join this community until now and there are so many benefits that I get from here. I am not a person whose Islam is perfect. but I'm just an ordinary woman trying to find a lighter in life. This community teaches me about many precious things, such as how to adapt to heterogeneous societies, how to strike a balance between worship and learning, how to succeed in the world and the hereafter, and many more.
This community runs on volunteerism, they never be paid but they still carry out the mandate with all their hearts. They believe that the task of humans is to be servant and caliph, then the reward for who succeed is heaven from Allah. Therefore they still survive even if there are people who make their names worse. One of them showed off their painful opinion through UTM Confession, a facebook page –refer to appendix. I strongly believe that Allah knows and every action will be rewarded according to what has been done. Which is actually good will be rewarded with good rewards that are doubled, and for the evil one hopefully his heart will be open to accept guidance.
This is life, as a human being we must be able to choose between what is good and what is bad carefully, and we also have to maintain willingness to adapt with gradual changes throughout the lifespan. “Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition” said Steve Jobs, co-founder, chief executive and chairman of Apple Computer (Jobs, 2019).
- Versatility
Indeed willingness to adapt is not enough to be a success person. Adaptability is a personal quality that is important in handling ambiguity, dealing with uncertainty and stress. Accordingly, an ability to adapt or versatility is considered as the second core content of adaptability. Once we can successfully adapt to the new environment, it means that success is in our hand, because adaptability is a key competency for success (Connell, Mcneely, & Hall, 2008).
Regarding to the previous sub-heading. In this part I will share about the feedback of flexibility. Firstly is about how to adapt with heterogeneous societies. society is always composed by individuals living together in one environment. For me, every individual has a chance to be whether being good or bad. The good community will be gathered naturally with the same characteristics like them, same goes as the opposite. I remember that water will not unite with oil. I have observed and experienced this case for the whole of my life. Therefore, if someone wants to find a good environment, the first thing to do is to try to be a better person. Allah who will show us the way in syaa Allah. It does not stop here, but we must call for kindness to others as well, so that a good environment can truly be created.
Next point is about how to strike a balance between worship and learning. I have joined a event named by “Hijrah Gathering 2.0”, one of the speaker shared about “Deen vs Dean”. Deen here means worship and dean here means learning. Humans are the servant of Allah, so the reason we study is for the seek of Allah’s blessings and of course to obey all His orders. But we have to emphasize that humans was created in order to do worship, and learning is included kinds of worship itself. Then it is wrong if we reverse the prayer with the excuse of being busy studying, we rarely read the Qur'an with the excuse of many assignments, and so on. Everything must be arranged wisely. I just realized this precious thing after joining that program, so now I begin to walk on my new chapter of life, to be succeed in the world and the hereafter.
- Critical and Creative Thinking
- Critical Vs Criticism
My father used to say “Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument”, this is a simple sentence but meaningful one. Voice here represents criticism, and critical thinking is represented by the argument. Producing asumption in critisicism field does not need any analysis towards the issue, what you see is what you will asume. This is the illustration of criticism, an action of identifying faults or negative aspects of something (Eng, 2019).
Sometimes the difference between criticism and criticism is very confusing. I have a friend who likes to talk. She easily criticize other people from negative aspects, and it tends to prejudice. She continues doing while she lacks of relevant background informations. Lastly, lots of fake news spread and many people become victims provoked by her words. Too bad if we judge something always from bad sides, because everything happens for a reason. It is better for us to analyze before giving an assessment. This is what is called by critical thinking.
Critical thinking is absolutely different from criricism. Critical thinking is a metacognitive process, consisting of a number of skills and dispositions. Which increase the possibility of producing logical solutions to problems or valid conclusions for an argument through planned reflective assessment and self-regulation (Dwyer, 2019). To be a critical thinker, we have to be an open minded person towards surroundings. There are many life rules in society, one of the rules is that those who do not follow the rules will be considered as old-fashioned. Accordingly, criticism will come continuously. A critical thinker will asume that someone who does not fulfill society standards is not making faults in that case. In reality this person is financially incapable, but he might has a better life if he is grateful for what he owned.
Next is about learning about something as a whole, not just from one side of the view. In this way ambiguous arguments will certainly be avoided. Days ago I felt that my friend was not responsible for his duties. She seemed slow to answer the chat from me, even though our task was nearing the end of the gathering. The first thing that crossed my mind was this person running away from responsibility. But to her surprise, she had instead tried to complete her task by not sleeping from Isya’ until 5 am she has just rested from working. Here it turns out, the side that I see is sometimes just as it is, while the other side turns out to be where the real meaning is stored.
Then also about handling problems that arise in life. I have heard there is a wise word that says "Life is about questions and answers". Where there is a problem, it will be followed by an answer afterwards. Depending on how the person chooses the way to handle the problem in front of him. As a critical thinker, I look for varied choices and credible sources solving my problems. When a method cannot work effectively, just use other methods, still cannot, there are still many other methods. I am the type of person whose daily activities must be written, if the written notes cannot manage me well, then I use the application, and if not, I will use an alarm to remind me exactly. I train myself to rack my brain for getting the best solution. Because the best solution is absolutely come from within.
Next important thing as a critical thinker is to take the best place and justify that. Each person actually has advantages and disadvantages of each. Therefore we must put ourselves in place and strategy wisely. It is not possible for a soccer striker to be exchanged for a goalkeeper, nor can a person who supports the physical be placed in an internal financial position that supplies foresight in terms of counting numbers. In groups, I often get a position as a leader, this is fine for me, because I know from experience and also my characteristics, I might suitable to be in this position. While my friend will position myself as a good member of the group, those who have the ability in the editing field will be placed there, those who have the ability to compile reports will be given tasks that are suitable for them. Being sensitive to other people's feelings is especially important, because this one will affect the quality of performance. Then, everyone should be placed in the best place according to their respective abilities. Listed above are some examples of critical thinking.
So let’s talk about criticism. Why criricism shloud be avoided? Because When criticism becomes pervasive, the relationships starts becoming toxic. Partners behave more like enemies than teammates, because the focus is on finding mistakes, not on evaluating in proper way to improve each other. Criticism begets criticism, fights multiply and good times disappear. This is definitely happening, unless someone wants to budge and improve the situation. But in general, criticism will be replied by criticism to the stage of loss of harmony. The sense of “us” disappears and emotional distance grows. I really do not want this to happen, because human relationships are very important to be maintained, remembering that humans cannot live alone. (Buffalmano, 2019).
- Creative People
Creative has no explicit limits on the quality of its development. What I believe is to be creative is very fun. Life without creativity will feel very heavy and boring. Creative people have a great deal of both physical and mental. The brain works, the body responds with right reactions. This is an example of being energetic, but besides that he also remains focused on maximizing what we want to achieve. Like an airplane, it moves very fast in the air, but is also very focused on its main purpose. Perfect, because wrong navigation can be a big mistake. In human life, this can be implemented by being proactive in everything, when the instructor says something from the letter A, what comes to mind in the brain is the expanse of letters A to Z. The smallest thing we can imagine is the consequences, good or bad, whatever that needs to be prepared, and so on. So that, no mistakes will happen in the future.
Realistic dreamer must be a creative person. Because realizing a dream is not only by chestless effort. Unlimited creativity creates many opportunities for success. Because success is the result of your efforts and continuing efforts. These creative ways that will help someone survive to fight for their dreams. I used to dream of going to school abroad, what I did for that was to prepare early on. I began to collect evidence about my activity in various aspects, I went here and there to get endorsement, I even started making essays about my exposure. This is all I do when other people still relax happily through life. But the results are sweet now. We must go ahead and move forward even though the environment at that time was still backward. Motivation is needed as a main factor that direct and energize my behaviour. Therefore sometimes I ask my parent to give me supports (Feldman, 2016).
This is the continuity between creativity and many achievements in life. Strategies such as self-confidence, imagination, curiosity, and risk-taking are very helpful in becoming a true creative thinker. So we must not despair to always try. Because actually the opportunity to become better is still open widely. Spirit!
References
Buffalmano, L. (2019). Criticism in Relationships: Examples & Solutions | The Power Moves. Retrieved 2 December 2019, from https://thepowermoves.com/fixing-criticism-in-relationships/
Connell, D. J. O., Mcneely, E., & Hall, D. T. (2008). Unpacking Personal Adaptability at Work, (February). https://doi.org/10.1177/1071791907311005
Dwyer, C. (2019). Integrating Critical Thinking into Educational Settings. Retrieved 1 December 2019, from https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/support/cirtl/CriticalThinking.pdf
Eng, E. (2019). Difference between criticize, criticism, critique, critic, and critical. Retrieved 1 December 2019, from https://www.espressoenglish.net/difference-between-criticize-criticism-critique-critic-and-critical/
Feldman, R. (2016). Psychology and your life with P.O.W.E.R learning. 4th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill Education.
Jobs, S. (2019). 300 Inspiring Life Quotes That Will Move You (Deeply). Retrieved 1 December 2019, from https://wisdomquotes.com/life-quotes/
Steve, M. (2019). Are You Adaptable?. Retrieved 1 December 2019, from https://personaldevelopment.com/steve/are-you-adaptable.htm
Appendix