Journal entries 23 and 24

¶ … Personal Rules for Success in College and Life.

I always have concrete goals.

I hunt for goals.

I hunt for success.

I hunt for achievements.

I work hard.

I welcome challenges.

I learn from challenges.

I learn from others.

I read a lot.

I write a lot

I follow a to-do list and my schedules.

I maintain a balance between work and study.

I show up to classes and meetings in time.

I participate and ask questions in class.

I participate in extracurricular activities.

I always work on my weaknesses.

I allocate time for leisure.

I maintain a healthy life-style.

I maintain close relationship with my family and friends.

I strive for best.

While I gathered this list from the top of my head, thinking about rules that I want to follow and believe will help me achieve success in college and life, it is hard for me to pick a few that I would consider most important. All of them are important, in one way or another. In my case, choosing the most challenging ones as the most important would probably be a wise decision. I am at ease with certain rules listed here and I believe I will spontaneously continue to follow those rules. Some rules, however, are harder to follow for me right now, so my future success may depend on being able to follow those rules.

I am at ease with such rules as maintaining close relationships with my family and friends, striving for best, having specific goals in my life, being in time for classes and meetings -- to mention but a few. These are absolutely important but I have also learned to live with these rules for a long time, turning them into necessary habits. I follow them naturally. The key therefore now is to choose rules that are challenging for me and try to follow them as well. Among these are following a to-do list every day, participating in extra-curricular activities, asking questions in class, and maintaining a healthy life-style.

I learned about the value of having a to-do list everyday when I realized that I began to kill too much time with useless things. I need to start asking more questions in class, overcoming my inner insecurities and making sure that I understand the topics discussed in class clearly. Participating in extra-curricular activities is essential for my future career as such activities help us apply what we learn in class into practice. And none of my work matters unless I have a good health. Therefore, I need to make having a healthy life-style perhaps a rule number one.

Journal Entry 22.

1. The most challenging course I am taking this semester is my Counseling class. Before taking this class, I thought counseling would teach me how to counsel others. But the class began to force me to counsel myself first. I understand the reason, however. If I cannot effectively counsel myself, how can I counsel anybody else? And herein lies the challenge of this course. It is easier to lecture others on how to improve their lives. It is much harder to follow these rules by oneself.

Since the beginning of this class, I have been asking critical questions about myself: my habits, my life-style, my schedule, my character, my strengths and weaknesses, my goals, and my past. These questions force me to evaluate my performance in life. This turned out to be a great challenge. For example, identifying my strengths requires confidence and a strong belief in oneself. On the other hand, identifying my weaknesses forces me to be humble and admit making mistakes in my life. Sometimes, this requires a lot of courage.

This class requires a lot of critical thinking skills. And it is a good thing. Doing assignments in this class is a challenge because they always seem especially hard to me. I try to figure out exactly what I need to do, reading the assignments over and over. At the end, however, I straighten things out and have a clear understanding of the assignments. By the end, I am able to have a clear thinking. And because this class requires that I work on uncertainties in my mind, I struggle a lot. But had I known what I know now about this class at the beginning of the semester, I would have definitely taken it because this class really reveals my weaknesses and helps me overcome them.

2. After several weeks of taking this class, I have a better idea of how to handle the difficulty I have with this course. At the beginning it was much harder. After working on several assignments, attending classes, and reading the textbook, I began to use a formula that helps me a lot in this course. Basically, I follow "What?" "How?" And "Why?" questions when I do my readings and writings. These questions lead me to logical and positive conclusions that give a feeling of satisfaction at the end.

Let us take, for instance, my Journal Entry 23. It asks me to list rules that would help me achieve success in college and life. The first question I ask myself is "what is this?" This question then leads me to a set of other questions such as "do I have such a list?" And "if I do, do I follow them?" These critical questions force me to reflect upon my way of studying, working, and conducting a meaningful life. I start thinking about things I do and things I do not and the value of both.