So, on my grit evaluation I scored a 42 out of 50, and on the big five
evaluation my highest scoring traits were openness and
agreeableness. I fully agree with both evaluations. Knowing your grit
level and personality traits are important, because it can encourage
you to improve where you find yourself falling behind in certain
categories. For example, I started this educational journey off gung
hoe and ready to dive right in! After a while though I began to let my
confidence override my drive to get an early start on my weekly work
and I began to put the work off until the last minute. This has caused
me to experience cramming to achieve all necessary weekly goals and
has added to my stress immensely. While in my initial terms my
classes were not so tough and this adopted bad habit was not overly
noticeable; that changed drastically at the beginning of this, my third,
term. I have come to the realization that I must reevaluate my time
management skills and decrease my procrastinating tendencies
before they do long-term damage to my self-esteem, quality of work,
or my grades. a
I definitely have to say I agree with Rita about emotional connections
being powerful motivators. The personal connections we make assist
in molding who we are, whether those connections are positive or
negative. Even if you tell yourself that you don't allow others'
opinions to fuel you, I believe to some extent we all do, in reality. And
who is to say that a negative emotional connection cannot have a
positive outcome? For example, the lack of closeness with my
parents, and the way they have always looked at me as a failure, and
never motivated me to be better had a negative effect on me for a
long time, but since I have grown up, I am now using those
experiences, those connections, and hurt feelings, as a motivator to
get this bachelor's degree in psychology not only because it is
something I am super passionate about but to prove not only to my
parents and others but also to myself how wrong they were.
My champion is myself, hands down. Let me tell you why that is. I
have spent the last few years overcoming drug addiction to opioids
(pain pills). I shifted my focus to working on the improvement of
myself mentally and physically, my self-motivation, my independence,
and achievement of the dreams I've always had for myself. I have lost
a lot over the years, and instead of coping I chose to numb the pain in
a very self-destructive manner, this choice caused me to lose even
more rather than find the peace I was seeking. Not too many people
have the strength to pull themselves out of a situation such as I had
allowed myself to be in, and I will ALWAYS be proud of what I have
accomplished and what bad behavior I have left behind for good! It
has shown me what kind of strength I truly carry, despite what the
world may think of me for my past. I have come to realize that our
pasts do NOT always determine our future!
Grit and personality have a deep relationship to self-care. You must
recognize yourself and love yourself before you can truly build
meaningful relationships with others. Holding a false bravado or an
imagined perception of yourself just to "fit-in" or be liked, I know
from personal experience, will only lead to heartache. Despite what
you see yourself as, if you are behaving in a manner that is not your
true self, that will be noticed by others, and usually has negative
results. Basically, you are lying to the world around you and most
people do not appreciate a lie. Self-acceptance and the nurturement
of who you are will create an aura of honesty about you, and in turn
will draw to you those likeminded or appreciative of who you are and
who you can build meaningful and lasting relationships with.
