In this class, EDL610 we will focus on 7 habits of highly effective people, by Stephen Covey. It is my understanding that we will be learning, implementing and teaching these habits to another person or group of individuals.
The first habit is to be proactive, and Dr. Pumpian highlighted this habit by recognizing that we have control of three things:
1. What I think
2. What I say
3. How I behave
While I am very much aware of this, for me and I am sure for some others it is really easy for me to forget that I do control these things, and react emotionally instead of responding appropriately. Even more counterintuitive is that responding professionally is easier, however personally it is all to easy for me to get emotion involved and react inappropriately.
Let me clarify, in my personal life with my wife and family I am not a disrespectful, unhappy, or aggressive person, I am just referring to little things like my tone of voice or body language. Often I am extremely happy and passionate about life. The flip side to this is that even if I don't understand or agree with what you are saying my body language is very passionate in letting you or that person know this. I would like to be proactive about my thinking and actions. I need to more often approach conversations, specifically with my wife as if we are on the same team, and we can learn from each other. After 15+ years together it is easy to assume what she is thinking or asking and this is most likely not so healthy.
So that I am not only pursuing personal goals, I also plan to be proactive in my professional life. I plan to do this by merging my profession with my passion, and this year I am being proactive about beginning a mountain bike club for my students. Please follow our progress at http://hshmcmtb.weebly.com/. My goal is to create a student run club that is sustainable for future classes. I will work with a small group of students to form habits that will allow this club to be a successful learning experience.
I look forward to learning more about these habits, including being proactive