Starting a new activity of any significance generally produces excitement for me. It could be a new semester, a life or family event, an upcoming activity or project, or even a workout. \u00a0I try to attack most things with all I can and for the most part, this strategy has worked in my favor. I am often inspired by almost anything which fuels my desire and leads to movement. \u00a0My enthusiasm to excel and to be proud of my effort has become a personality trait and part of who I am.<\/p>\n
I believe my sanguinity and perceived invincibility are an asset but unfortunately, I also find them to be a liability and stressor that leads to undesirable outcomes. I struggle with telling people \u201cno\u201d even when I know wholeheartedly I\u2019m mismanaging my schedule and I will suffer the consequences. I lose sleep, skip meals, miss workouts, and constantly feel like I\u2019m everyone else\u2019s slave. Worse yet, I have conditioned those around me to expect my assistance. When I do step back, it often creates frustration on my part because I know it will either not be completed or not meet my standards. \u00a0I am in a role in my professional career that is taxing on my time and this assessment has been much deeper than an analysis of my educational skillsets. It has been extremely revealing to me and humbling from a leadership standpoint in my career and as a father.\u00a0 It is my hope that this semester is the beginning of a new life for me that includes new leadership tactics, strict scheduling, and improved life balance.<\/p>\n
What does this have to do with reading, note-taking, or writing? Everything! I enjoy the process of education. I love knowledge and the development of learning and conveying my opinions or arguments. I like working with others and I also love to escape in a book or an essay. However, my honest self-assessment of my particular skill sets does not express my passion, joy, or meet my standards. \u00a0I believe I have enormous room for improvement. It is not that I struggle or dread the essential tasks that accompany a doctoral program. I struggle with managing the rest of my life and my personal desires take a back seat. My optimism and grind are great qualities I appreciate but I\u2019m finding it increasingly more difficult to continue on my previous paths of constantly pleasing.\u00a0 This assignment has certainly been a reality check and I am praying that I can regularly stick to the principles I have set for myself and avoid stressful or rushed situations.<\/p>\n
I am grateful for a program that encourages a scholarly strategy that assists in efficient reading and note-taking. I was motivated by our assigned reading and I am greatly encouraged by the guidance presented in \u201cHow to Read a Book\u201d and \u201cSmart Note Taking.\u201d \u00a0Albert Einstein said \u201cPaper is to write things down that we need to remember. Our brains are used to think.\u201d\u00a0 I am encouraged by this and other quotes from Ahrens that have helped me see the vision from a wide lens and not waste time on minutia. It is my hope that I can utilize the new skills I have learned and create a comfortable and efficient flow with school, work, and life in general.\u00a0 This assessment has helped me put a lot of my obstacles into perspective and prioritize my activities. I firmly believe and pray that my leadership going forward will create life balance and there is a direct correlation between my happiness, efficiency in this program, and implementation of these new skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starting a new activity of any significance generally produces excitement for me. It could be a new semester, a life or family event, an upcoming activity or project, or even a workout. \u00a0I try to attack most things with all I can and for the most part, this strategy has worked in my favor. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2342],"class_list":["post-28750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-self-assessment","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28751,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28750\/revisions\/28751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}