“I kicked the habit/Shed my skin/This is the new stuff/I go dancing in” -Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer

Think back to when you were younger. You’ve probably grown a lot since then. Which is why in grade 10, we have a new class: Personal Growth Plan, which illustrates how we have grown and how we can grow in the future. For our very first project in PGP, we read Atomic Habits by James Clear, and answered the question “How can small habits shape my success this year and beyond?”

First, let’s talk a little bit about the book. Atomic Habits is about how you can make small habits and how those habits impact you. He lays out a series of 4 laws on how to make a good habit: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. The book itself was quite interesting, but I don’t usually read self improvement books, so I had to try to shift my perspective from the book from boring to helpful.

After we learned about what makes a good habit, we were tasked with creating pop art and an artifact to represent our intentions for habits that we plan to implement this year. I think I was more successful with the artifact, so we’ll start with my pop art. I was away sick for multiple days while working on the pop art assignment, and it didn’t go so well. For some reason I didn’t read the criteria and just went off what I remembered, and I didn’t meet the requirements. But I revised it and now I feel much better about it. Next time, I plan to make absolutely sure that I have read the criteria.

For my artifact I chose to display my notes on Craft, which was a habit I picked up in Grade 8. At the end of each unit, I would take notes on the subject and keep them to myself. Last year, I began to take notes while simultaneously with the project. Now, I plan to share my notes with a public audience. I wanted to show how the habit has changed over time, and how it will keep changing while creating a learning resource. Taking notes will help me to communicate more effectively in a group setting because I will have had time to think about the content beforehand. You can view the artifact here.

We presented our artifacts to our parents during Pre-Pols. This was the first year that PLP tried Pre-Pols, and I think it went great. It was a more relaxed environment than an mPol or tPol because there were multiple people presenting at a time and I wasn’t presenting to teachers. 

So, how can small changes in my habits shape my success this year, and beyond? By making my notes public, I have to actually take them. And by taking notes as we go along the project path for a short time every day, I can feel more confident and comfortable presenting my thoughts in a group environment.

Ok, bye!