Saturday, January 23, 2016

My Learning Challenges

The first video that we watched with the jelly beans representing the days of our lives is such a great visual representation. When I first saw it it made me realize what I spend the majority of my time doing. A lot of the tasks they talk about that take away from "free time" seemed mundane and ordinary to me at first but then I decided I needed to shift my mindset. Instead or craving free time and worrying about capitalizing on free time in order to feel good or happy I wanted to focus on finding what I think is great about those mundane tasks. By looking at what I love about the mundane tasks I was able to flip my mindset and I found more joy each day. It takes continual effort to do so though and it is a skill I am trying to hone more and more each day. There are days I can do this really well and days I struggle with it so consistentcy is also something I am working on. Some tasks that have given me more happiness have been things like folding laundry, cleaning my room, taking showers, driving in a car, and even having to study. 

Time is a confusing concept
Image Source

One of the areas I would like to work on as part of the HEART system is attention. As I have gotten older my ability to not become distracted sometimes seems weakened. There are so many things that battle for my attention on a daily basis and sometimes it is really overwhelming. I want to get better at setting myself up for success when I need to focus on something by making sure to eliminate any possible distractions before beginning a task. I also want to get better at deciding what needs my attention first. In a way I want to become smart with my attention so that I am efficient and not inadvertently spending more time on a task than need be. 

I thought the procrastination ad we watched was really creative and definitely made me think about what I might have stopped pursuing that I should revisit. However, when it comes to procrastination I would say that I might need to use it more. I tend to be a person who will work on something or began worrying about something earlier than necessary. I will have friends tell me to relax a little and not put so much pressure on myself. Over my undergraduate career I feel as though I have gotten better at it but it was really hard when I was younger and wasn't good at working smart. I have gotten better because I am better at knowing what classes and other tasks will take in terms of time and effort. Now that I am older I realize my relationships are just as important as school and I don't want to be a poor friend to someone. So I am actually going to work on my procrastination skills.

 

1 comment:

  1. Hey Steve! I too loved the jelly beans video because of exactly what you said: it makes you open your eyes as to how you’re spending your life! I think that working on your attention span is a really good idea too. I struggle daily to stop myself from checking social media or changing over to Netflix. Having access to all of that on the same computer can become difficult! Good luck with your semester!

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