Enables Agentic Action
Family
My ability to engage in efficacious action is aided by my family, specifically, my parents. This is because on most cases, my parents give me the freedom and autonomy to do what I want as long as it is important, purposeful, and for a good cause. To add to that, my overall sense of agency and self-esteem is increased though their supportive nature, acceptance, and understanding of my intentions
Ateneo de Manila University
Ateneo as a school enables me to practice and engage in agentic actions through its different mediums, such as the several organizations it offers. The different orgs cater to the various needs and wants of the students. In a sense, the orgs act as channels for the students in manifesting agentic actions. Similarly, the multiple courses offered to the students act the same way. As courses supposedly teach students specialization in a certain field, if one is in a course that they actually want, then this helps them develop their self esteem in the sense that they are able to realize what they want for their future (which is the case for me).
Constrains Agentic Action
Family
While acting as a social structure that enables me to practice agentic action at most times, there are some cases wherein my family constrains my sense of agency. This happens when I am unable to do what I want in fear of their rejection or disapproval. And as parents, they often unknowingly project their wants for me, and going back to the fear of rejection, this causes me to do things that they want for me, rather than what I want for myself.
Ateneo
Similarly, while it can act as an enabling social structure, it can also do the opposite. Being a college student in Ateneo entails that I constantly have homework, projects, deadlines, etc. I think that work overload is not uncommon here and that fact can lead to students not being able to put their effort, time and priority to the things they actually want to do and focus more on what Ateneo wants them to do.
Lack of Resources
In relation to being agentic, this of course, requires the use of resources in order to continue and fuel my actions. However, some of my resources are rather lacking which results in the constraint of what I would have been capable of doing if only I had more of them. An example would be my lack of courage, I often find myself unable to go out of my comfort zone and courage is especially important in crossing that barrier. Courage first and foremost is the basic resource one needs in order to do something, do anything for that matter, which leads to my second resource, my lack of motivation. I’d like to think that as a person, I have the ability to give so much to others, to the community, and to the world. But this ‘energy’ cannot be manifested without the sufficient motivation to act, to move and consequently, to have a sense of urgency. The capacity might be there, but to bridge to connect that to agentic action is blocked by the lack of direction.
Acquiring Resources
Rather than acquiring courage, I think it would be better to lessen my abundance of fear and this can be done by practicing having a positive state of mind and by slowly accepting the fact that failure may come at certain instances, but I will never meet success without having the courage to try. As for motivation, the easiest way would be to have a set of priorities and goals. Goals will help give direction to my energy and effort, and overall will act as incentives. This can be done by having a clearer realization of my intents and aspirations and by having a methods on how I can reach those intents given my capabilities.
Abundance of Resources
The main resources that allow me to increase my self esteem would be money and education. Money first and foremost in my opinion opens the most avenues for one to engage in agentic actions this is because most if not all intentions require financial resources, or at least at some point is required to continue it. Being able to what I want such as going to Ateneo as my school among other things without having to worry about finance further increased my self-esteem because money allowed me to broaden my options on what I’m capable of doing. By opening different avenues for me to engage in efficacious action, I am able to actively inform my self concept which intern helps my self-esteem. Alongside this, I believe education and intelligence allows me to enter the avenues opened by money.
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