To Grow A Beanstalk
“There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your own thinking” -Brian Tracy
This year we were introduced to PGP, our Personal Growth Plan. PGP has been an extremely helpful and interesting course for me this year.
PGP is about learning how to be a successful, productive, organized citizen of earth. It has been teaching us goal setting, time management, organization, self growth, and more!
[PRODUCTIVITY]
The year began with learning about how to be productive. For myself, I have always been a huge procrastinator. I find that procrastinating is not a very effective way getting things done, and it causes stress.
We were introduced to two new tools for productivity. Some people in PLP have found these very helpful, and some hate them and think they are useless. Either way I think these tools have helped me personally, quite a lot. These skills are; Time Blocking, and Things.
–Time Blocking–
Time blocking is the act of mapping out your day(s). I personally use the calendar on my iPad and phone to do this. When you time block, you’re putting time aside for what you need to get done and also planning out the time you can spend doing other things.
Have a lot of after school activities? Plan them out.
Have a favourite tv show? Time block an hour out of your day so you can watch the newest episode!
Time blocking has helped me with my organization and making time for everything I need to do. The 24 hours in a day have never felt like so much and so little hours at the same time. I often will put my work shifts, after school activities, and busy homework days in my calendar, as well as my classes. I have become a lot more effective with my time this year and I have to give credit to time blocking for that.
–Things–
Things is an app used for making to-do lists. I’ll admit, I have forgotten this exists on occasion this year, and I didn’t really use it at the beginning. As time went on however, I have used Things more and more to keep track of assignments and things I need to do.
The most common thing I put in Things is school assignments, projects, ext. but that’s not all I use it for. I will also use it for writing things like online orders I want to get done, tasks I said I wanted to do but forgot about and didn’t want to forget again, or even just reminders of things I need to remember.
Things has really helped my serious lack of memory with homework. Last year I found it difficult to do everything and remember everything we had to do. This year, I have barely ever forgotten to do an assignment, and if I have, it’s because I didn’t put it in things.
[GOAL SETTING]
One of the most aesthetically pleasing things I have ever made has been is my Dream-Board. Why do I have a dream board?
To map out my goals for the future. Near, far, this year, three years from now, the goals I have are all on there!
I believe that Goal Setting™ is a very important skill to have for any person to have. It’s the skill you can use forever and it really really helps get you where you want to go. Goal setting is the map of the road to where you want to go.
A good way to plan goals out is a dream board: a plan of everything you want to do in the next year or few years, visual and where you can see it all the time. I have mine up above where I do my homework, so that I can see it as I work and remember what I am working towards.
An example of how goal setting has helped me this year, is keeping track of what I want to do. Things is for the specifics, Time Blocking is for finding the time, and goal setting is the skill that shows where everything is leading up to.
A goal of mine this year has been to start learning how to speak Spanish. I chose Spanish because I was going to Spain. I was falling a bit behind on my goal, but I am still working towards it. I haven’t had a lot of time lately, but I am planning on picking up on my goals again once “3000 Projects and an Exam” season is over.
For more information on goal setting and productivity:: What Do You Really Want? by Bachel, Beverly K.
[THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENAGERS]
In a shocking turn of events, I am a teenager. This means that there is a book dedicated just to teaching me how to be a highly effective citizen of the world.
The Seven Habits are:
JUST KIDDING (sorry)
The seven habits taught me to put myself, my principals and beliefs, and my values first. They taught me how to flourish as myself in both my academic and personal life. I use the 7 habits as ways to look at growth. At the beginning I was reluctant to believe these habits could help me. As time went over, I realized that growing off of these habits would actually be effective.
[TIME MACHINE]
“The climb is fantastic. The success is rewarding. But loosing yourself on the journey removes the point of trying at all”
One habit that really stood out to me was habit number 7, Sharpen The Saw. The act of renewing yourself. There were many things about the 7 habits that stood out to me, but number 7 was the winner. It talks about needing to renew yourself to strengthen your relationships with yourself (soul, mind, body) and others (family, friends, co-workers, ext.). These things stuck out to me because this year has been a year of working on myself and my relationships with the people around me.
If September me could see where I am now, who I get to spend time with and how much better I am with myself, she would’ve never believed it.
For our time machine, the assignment was to create an artifact that showed the most important or meaningful thing we learnt this year. For me, that is Habit 7, alongside all the other things I have talked about. The video above explains the importance of self-renewal, and giving yourself what you need.
[THE END]
And with that, I leave you with a message: Don’t forget to take care of you, weather that’s mentally, physically, relationship wise, you are your main focus. You deserve it.
Thanks for reading!