Motivation

--Original published at CurtisCollegeBlog

To start off this post, I would like to say making the choice to come to Etown was fairly simple. When looking at colleges, I was interested in so many, but I never applied to any unless they fit athletically and academically. So, I looked at many schools that I liked and if they didn’t offer engineering, basketball, and track I generally put them to the wayside. For instance, I thought Wilkes was the school I wanted to go to, but they didn’t offer track so I didn’t want to go. Then, I also looked at schools that offered me free applications rather than ones that charged you to apply, and only applied to schools I didn’t have to pay for. Ideally, I ended up finding Elizabethtown College, over Moravian, Lebanon Valley, and Widener. Since this school was the most expensive, I kind of regret the decision, but I know it will pay off later. Good grades drive me to do well by themselves, because I love to know I’m doing well, but making my family proud is an added bonus. Plus, doing good now will help employers see that I am hard-working and they will want to take the chance on me as a future employee. So, I am motivated to do well now so that I can do big things in the future. This way I can do whatever it takes to provide for myself and all my family. As I say when I eat, we all eat big dog style.

First Impression Post #12

--Original published at MaddiesCollegeBlog

For this weeks first impression post, I decided to discuss why I decided to choose Etown College & what motivates me to do well in my classes.

I chose to attend Elizabethtown college for a number of reasons. What I liked most about etown is the how small the college was, coming from a big high school, I really hated how big it was and I hated having almost 40 kids in one class. So, when I was looking at etown and the average size class was 13-14, I was thrilled. Another reason I chose Etown was because of how close it was to my hometown. Being an only child, I have always been extremely close with my parents and knew that I couldn’t go more than 2 hours away, so conveniently etown is only about an hour from me. A final reason I chose Etown was because I was able to play sports here, and it not consume my entire life, like at a Division 1 school.

What motivates me to do well in my classes is mainly because it is going to benefit myself and my family in the future. I want to become successful and have a stable job so that I can provide for myself and my future family. Also, My parents both work extremely hard to be able to fund my college and without them it would not be possible for me to attend college, so I really owe it to them to work hard in school so it proves to them that their hard work and money is going to something worth while.

I plan to continue my motivation till graduation for the sole purpose in life, which is being successful so that I can one day give back to my parents for making it all possible. I feel as if I didn’t stay motivated to do well that I would be disappointing & failing them. I feel that knowing that will always be my motivation to do well. but, if somehow that were to fail, I would look at it from my perspective that not only would I be letting them down, but also my future self and family, and I need to remember why I worked so hard up until this point and so on. that there will always be a reason to continue to do well while making the best of my college experience.

First Impression Post #12

--Original published at Miguel's College Blog

For this first impression post, I went with option 2: Why I chose to come to Elizabethtown College, what I do to motivate myself to do well in classes, and plan an intervention to keep myself motivated until graduation.

Originally, Elizabethtown College was not even on my radar when I was looking for schools to go to. From my senior year of high school and my first year of community college, I applied to all of military academies twice and was rejected twice. At the same time, I was also applying to numerous other colleges and was getting grim results as well. As a high achieving student all throughout K-12, it would not be wrong to assume that my motivation was hit pretty hard after two years of rejection from schools. It was also pretty harsh because I did not really get any information back as to why I was not accepted. I had the high GPA, I was top of my class, I had the extra curricular, and my resume was packed. Still, nothing. So after the first year of community college, and my second rejection, I decided to give up applying to the academies because there had to be another way to get where I wanted to go in life. I started applying to some other colleges that summer and Elizabethtown College gave me the best scholarship and had a program I wanted to pursue so I took it and ran. It took me some time to adjust and get my motivation where I wanted to be because this was not where I thought I would be two years prior, but I really like it here and I am making the best of it.

To motivate myself to do well in classes, I like giving myself self-talks, telling myself things that I can do, and all the things I can achieve. I also like seeking out social support in others and talking to others because that can not only get my mind off negative things, but motivate me to keep going. I also try to keep in mind a quote I heard somewhere and that was, “Failure is an event, not a destination.” That definitely keeps me going because everything happens to make you a stronger individual on the road of life.

An intervention to keep myself motivated is to find ways to keep learning new things on times school is off so I can keep my mental capacity elevated. Another thing is to keep bringing myself to optional lectures throughout the year to learn about things not just tailored to my major but to be more well rounded.

Motivation

--Original published at Manda's College Blog

I chose to write about my motivation for school and why I chose Elizabethtown College. I was never in my life motivated to go to school or even care to perform well in school. I was very set in joining the Military and staying in for the rest of my life. Well, things like real life tend to happen, and I’m no longer in the military. Thinking back, a had so many peers urge me that I should go to college especially because being a member of the military, they help pay for your tuition. At that time I had zero patience and motivation to seek out going back to school after never really trying in high school. It took me several years later and I honestly didn’t really “plan” on going to college, just one day I called a old military friend and asked her how do I apply. I didn’t think of a major or anything, I just knew if I delayed it any longer I’d lose motivation. It’s just the type of person I am, impatient.

I actually have friends who are social workers, and they’ve always discussed to me what they do and the pros and cons about it followed by the need for my social workers. I’ve always wanted to help female veterans especially, because the social workers in my time have failed me. It just so happened that Elizabethtown College offers a social work major and that it’s not at all far near my home. I believe the closeness of the college besides having the major I wanted gives me more motivation every day to go to class, because it’s right there. I don’t have to worry about traffic, worry about how late I would get home, chores, cooking, and other things an engaged 28 year old home owner needs to do. So I guess to sum it all up my motivation definitely comes through convenience.

I have a lot of days, especially this week for some reason to even go to class and engage in the lecture. Sometimes my motivation goes down because I sometimes get beyond overwhelmed with all the assignments that I need to get done. That and lack of sleep just makes the situation worse for myself. The best advice I received from a teacher was to just keep showing up to class, no matter what. So no matter how I feel that day, formed this habit to not question if I should or shouldn’t go. I just go. It makes it worth it in the end because I don’t feel like I’m missing anything in the lecture.

To maintain motivation until graduation, again the closeness of the school helps. I email updates at least every two weeks to someone in the school that checks on my accountability and if I have any concerns or questions. I am very honest with her and she helps me a lot to maintain my consistency. My family member also goes over my goals and keeps me accountable and gives me reasons why graduating from college would be a great thing for me, which usually is realistic and exciting.

First Impression Post Week #12

--Original published at Collin's Blog

For this week’s first impression post I decided to explain why I came to Elizabethtown College and how I motivate myself during my time here. I decided to come to Elizabethtown College for a few reasons. First, it was one of the colleges that had offered the most financial aid and scholarships to me which really helped to lighten the load of paying out of pocket and loans. Another reason I came to Elizabethtown, was because I really liked the campus and the town. It felt a lot similar to my hometown, just being a little bigger and a nice quiet town in a rural area. Also, when I had come to visit the college, I met Dr. Bridge and Dr. Yorty from the Biology Department, both of them were extremely kind and happily gave me advice during the application process and for my future endeavors. The friendly professors and students on campus made the college seem very friendly and was another factor for why I came here. To motivate myself, I try to set weekly goals to stay on track with my assignments and studying. Also, I enjoy most of my classes and most of the material is interesting to learn, which is motivation enough sometimes to do the extra work.
I plan to raise my overall GPA and maintain a high overall and major GPA in order to be a strong applicant for medical school in a few years. A good intervention for motivation could be applying for the early admission into medical next year as a sophomore, even if I am not selected it could be a good way to gauge where I am at by the end of sophomore year and what more I need to do.

Week 12 Blog Prompt – Motivation

Hand writing on a notebook

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag “Motivation.” The first impression posts will be due by the start of class on Wednesday, 4/4. The refinement posts will be due at noon on Tuesday, 4/10.

Option 1

America is currently facing an obesity epidemic that some experts have labeled the biggest public health threat we have today. We have all heard the recommendations to eat healthier and get regular exercise. Some people, however, are taking the message of healthy eating too far. A new mental health disorder called orthorexia nervosa has been proposed, in which eating healthy food becomes an obsession. One set of proposed criteria are available here. Look over the criteria and comment on whether or not you think this is a good way to define the boundary between eating healthy and having a mental disorder.

Option 2

Motivation is not a stable force, but often waxes and wanes. Throughout your time at Elizabethtown College, your motivation for school will undoubtedly be higher at some times and lower at others. I want you to discuss why you chose to come to Elizabethtown College originally and what you do to motivate yourself to do well in your classes currently. I also want you to plan an intervention for yourself for how you can maintain motivation to succeed until graduation.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Bonus Post

--Original published at JD's Blog

Completing the Johari Window was an eye opening experience. We all spend a lot of time thinking about how other people act, but sometimes it is good to reflect on yourself. After I completed the Johari Window it was really interesting to see how peoples thoughts lined up with mine. People agreed with four out of the six things I choose to describe myself. They thought I was friendly, happy, helpful and silly. It was very cool to see all of the other personality traits that people associated me with. Looking at all of the different descriptions really made me look back at myself and think about all of the times I exemplified each trait. It was relaxing and a great self-reflection. The two things I picked that no one else agreed with were observant and idealistic. This made me realize that I might not be as creative as I saw myself as. I am planning on using that information to try and be more creative and more observant. But I will also be concentrating more one being all of the things people say I already am. It was nice to know that other people pick up on things that I may not when I am around them. I hope that I can one day be all of the tings on that list. After learning what we did about someone’s personality and how it can be affected of affect others. Thought that was very interesting too. I learned a lot about myself during this process.

https://kevan.org/johari?view=j.d.+sterbens

Bonus Post

--Original published at Emily Garvin's Psych Blog

As part of our exploration of personality, each of you completed an online Johari Window. This process helps you learn how similar your self-perceptions are to how others see you. For this bonus blog post, I want you to discuss what that process was like for you, how similar your self-description was to what others selected, how valid of a measure of personality do you think this is, and what, if anything, you learned about yourself in this process.

I sent the Johari window link to my friends and family and got a decent amount of responses back. I was intrigued to see what others would say about me and if they would match the perceptions I already have about myself. For my six character traits I chose caring, dependable, friendly, helpful, kind, and trustworthy. It was difficult for me to choose personality traits to describe myself. It is hard for me to pick words to describe myself because I don’t really know how others view me. I was very surprised and honored by my top percentages. My top percentages included dependable (60%), loving (53%), and trustworthy (66%). I was surprised that 2 out of my top 3 were character traits that I chose. I was also honored that my friends and family thought so highly of me that they also chose these traits to describe me.

I think this test is a valid measure of personality because it allows you to get judged by your peers who know you better than some random questionnaire test online. I also think that a test like this is a great for someone’s morality. Personally, made me feel loved and appreciated by all of my friends and I got to see what they truly think of me. I also learned that people really think I am trustworthy, dependable person who cares and genuinely care about others.

Johari Window Post

--Original published at *Psych 105*

When we were initially given the Johari Window assignment, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. The directions were straightforward, yet I didn’t get what the outcome of the whole thing was. I chose my adjectives, sent out the link and called it a day. The next day I checked the window and was thoroughly surprised at what I saw. The initial adjectives that I had chosen were: dependable, giving, kind, accepting, patient, and wise. Upon returning to my window, I found that 11 people had responded and many of their responses were different than my own. The list within my blind spot was rather extensive, but mainly consisted synonyms of the initial words I chose. Of the 11 people that responded, 72% said I was trustworthy, 63% said loving, and 54% said intelligent and caring. These were all characteristics I see in myself, however, it didn’t occur to me to choose them for my window. It was comforting to see that these are the things that people find the most memorable about me. That is also not to say that there weren’t any surprising adjectives chosen either. 18% of people said that I was mature and spontaneous, and 36% said I was dependable. It was a little bit of shock that so many people said I was spontaneous as it isn’t necessarily a word I would have on my shortlist of adjectives that describe my personality. This whole experience gave me a new perspective as to how my personality is presented to the people I am closest with. The aspects of me that I don’t think present themselves actually do, whether I know it or not.

Something I have come to understand about the answers of the various individuals is that each entry was heavily influenced by the type of relationship that I had with him or her. Each person that received the link was either grouped into childhood friends, college friends or family. In comparison, the friends gave answers that speak to my quirky but caring side, and the family members spoke to the characteristics that I typically choose for myself. That being said, the validity of the test can vary from situation to situation. The responses that are given depend heavily on the individuals asked to partake in it, and what your relationship is to them. I feel as though my Johari window is pretty accurate. I received input from people that have known me my whole life, from college, from a school setting, from a social setting and those that I have lived with both in the short and long term. The variety of relationships allows for different characteristics to be prominent, which in turn creates a more comprehensive assessment.

Johari Window Bonus Post

--Original published at Pisacane Perspectives

Link to my Johari Window: https://kevan.org/johari?view=pisacanea

I think Johari Windows are a good introduction to a person’s personality. They give you a general idea of who they are, and what they think of themselves versus what others see them as. It’s not too in depth however, and I found that all the adjectives (at least on this particular website) were positive. There are less desirable and even neutral traits that factor into who we are as people. I feel that these are of equal importance, even though it may be harder for the participants to be honest about picking them since this was not anonymous. Sometimes our flaws or shortcomings stick out just as much as our better qualities, though.

With that said, this assignment still taught me a lot about how I come across to others. Some traits that were popular for me were dependable and witty, which didn’t come to mind when picking traits for myself. I was happy to see that people thought of me that way and I was very surprised as well. I was also surprised that the qualities I wanted myself to be and valued in a person made it onto the list such as maturity and intelligence. I wasn’t surprised because I didn’t think that I was those things, I was more surprised that others noticed. Overall, I think this showed a lot about how I come across as a person, but it doesn’t give anyone the full picture of who I am.