Week twelve - summary

Overall, I found this personal change project to be a success, and it is one that I definitely want to continue to work on. I think one of the biggest components of personal change is to be realistic. You don't want to make a personal change goal that is too lofty because then you won't find success early on and you'll get discouraged and maybe back off entirely (something we need to keep in mind when making goals for our clients as well). That being said, it's also good to try and push the limits because you don't want to make your goal TOO easy. This is where the "zone of proximal development" comes in - we want to find the balance of enough success to want to keep going, but challenging enough to really push ourselves.

For instance, with my project, I've found that it's unreasonable to cut out complaining entirely, as sometimes it's necessary for our well-being to confide our problems in someone we can trust. Now that I've gone through with my project, I wish I had made my goal something like "to stop myself from complaining about things that can't be changed." Complaining about things that CAN be changed can be helpful, because others might be able to help you improve on your situation. Complaining about things that CAN'T be changed, however, seems meaningless. For instance, complaining about people, your job, the day of the week, homework - what's the point? Why not just look at the bright side instead?

I had an epiphany last week while I was sitting in one of my classes and the professor was discussing the final exam. I began to get overwhelmed thinking about all the studying I had to do, but then I thought about how much I actually enjoy the material I'll be studying. Yes, it may take me a while to review everything, but I actually find it interesting! It's not like I'm studying something I don't care about! Then I started thinking about all the other things I have to do before the end of the semester. They are mostly all things I find interesting! So, I could sit and complain about all the work I have to do, or I can be happy about the fact that I love what I'm learning and will most likely continue on to love my future career. So, I guess thinking about what you're going to say before you say it can change your perspective on it - and I definitely feel better about myself and my situation when I think more positively.

Personal change is definitely something I want to focus on for the rest of my life - I really believe it's important to continue to grow and change because improvements can always be made! While I had difficulty at times measuring my success with this project, I think it helps having a goal that is measurable so you can really track your progress. It also helps to hold yourself accountable if the raw data is right there on paper - it's not something you can make excuses about! So, I've learned a lot about personal change and myself from this project, and I hope I can continue to make change and better understand the difficulty associated with the changes our clients are asked to make.