Thing # 1

After viewing the online tutorial titled The 7 1/2 Habits I was easily able to order them by which ones were the easiest for me and which ones were the most challenging. Of the 7 1/2 habits the one that is the easiest for me would be having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I am a very confident person. I know that I am not perfect by any means but that I am very intelligent and capable of doing anything I set my mind to. A lot of people lose confidence due to failing at certain tasks in life but what people need to focus on is that we all make mistakes and we can not always come in first place but that how well we strive for greatness and what we do to get there is what really matters. The next habit that is easy for me to fulfill would be play. I am a very outgoing and fun person. I believe that playing and having fun can be incorporated to every aspect of our lives. When we are having fun we learn so much more and do so with a lot less effort. My friends tell me all the time that I am a very goofy person. To me, that is one of the greatest compliments available because life has many ups and downs and being able to stay positive through it all makes all the difference. Using technology to my advantage would be the next habit on my list. I love technology and think that it is of huge importance in the learning process. There are so many technological resources that can be used to simplify and enhance our daily lives, our capacity to learn, and our ability to teach others. There is a lot of technology that I am unfamiliar with, especially since new technology arises every day but I am always trying new technology and implementing it into my life. The next habit for me would be teaching and mentoring to others. I have always had a huge passion for teaching. I believe that we are called in our lives to serve others and being able to educate others is so rewarding to me. I am a natural teacher, for I find myself teaching those around me without even realizing I am doing so. The next habits are the ones that start to become challenging to me starting with creating my own learning toolbox. I have a hard time when it comes to keeping the tools I use when I learn all together. Sometimes I think that my ability to learn something would happen much more smoothly if I carried all my tools in the same box instead of scattered around my life. Putting my learning tools together is something that I need to work on. The next habit would be accepting responsibility for my own learning. Sometimes I can be very lazy and although I know that I am fully capable of doing my work and reaching my goals there are times when I would rather have someone else do the work for me. This used to be the most challenging habit of the 7 1/2 for me but I have learned over time that what I learn and accomplish becomes much more rewarding when I accomplish it on my own. Beginning with the end in mind is the next habit on my list. Sometimes focusing on the end result that is to come from accomplishing something can help you to strive on and finish something that you have started. I try to do this in my own life but when I am struggling I have a hard time focusing on what I am going to accomplish in the end and instead focusing on how incredibly difficult the now is. Challenges can be so huge and feel as if  they are never going to be conquered. Yet, this is something that needs to be worked on in my life because looking back the challenges were nothing compared to the end results. Last on my list would be viewing problems as challenges. Everyone wants to be positive and optimistic especially during difficult times but sometimes being positive or seeing the good in a negative situation can be the most difficult task of all. Viewing problems as challenges in a great way to learn from those problems in your life but in my opinion it is the most difficult task out of all of the 7 1/2 habits. Yet, at the same time it can be the most important one mind changing one of all. I loved playing with Web 2.0 and learned a lot such as creating a blog. My experience with setting up the blog was super easy and fun. I have never set up a blog before and I thought doing so would be difficult. Yet, I was wrong. Making my blog was a lot of fun and easily done :) I am actually contemplating continuing to use one after this class.