Rumination of Self
Privileges/Advantages:
I believe that my parents, family culture, and being a “military brat”, are advantages that have shaped me into the person I am today. My mom and dad are both very educated, open minded, and involved parents. Their personalities ties in with our family culture. Being the involved people they are; my parents always believed it was highly important to be physically and socially involved. They always made sure I attended summer camps in the summer, sports and clubs during the school year, and extracurricular activities over the weekends. This is an advantage, because it helped me to become comfortable when working with others. Not only is my family culture an advantage, but being a military family gives me an even bigger boost. Since, my family is a military family; we move around the country a lot. This caused me to easily adapt to different environments, and different people. These three advantages will contribute to my success, because it gave me my social savviness. According to The Trouble with Geniuses Part 2, parents being more involved with their children’s education and extracurricular teaches their children to be accustomed to their environment, the ability to communicate with adults making them less afraid of authority, and giving them a sense of “entitlement.” This relates to me, because my parents are involved with my life, and it caused me to be accustomed to any environment I endure.
Disadvantages/Oppressions:
I believe my primary disadvantages are: my low attention span, and lack of time management for school work. Ever since I was a kid, I always struggled with giving my undivided attention to my homework. I would get distracted by the most little things, and end up finishing my homework late at night. My low attention span ties in with my lack of time management. Since I am constantly distracted, I usually do my work when there are literary no acceptations, or zero room for procrastination (last minute). This is a disadvantage, because it causes me to become accustomed to last minute working, and it limits my potentials of improvement. I feel that, the reason I usually have a low attention span when doing work outside of school is, because it is of my least interest (especially being surrounded by all sorts of entertainment). When doing school work I am not as easily distracted vs. doing my homework, because there is nothing I would prefer doing rather than my work, besides going home. “Hard work is only a prison sentence if it does not have a meaning,” a quote from Outliers, page 150. I think this quote best relates to my two primary disadvantages, because I simply lack the passion for homework. Since I lack the passion I am distracted easily, which causes me to cram it all at the last minute (lack of time management). My plan to avoid these problems, is to become more organized, and to find a different study/homework environment. If I become more organized, it would make it easier for me to manage my time, because everything is in its place. For example, cleaning out my binder. Also, finding a new study/homework environment will help me focus more, because I usually do my homework in my room, which has many distractions.

Mindset: Outliers has changed my way of thinking tremendously. Every time I look at someone that’s very successful in life, I automatically think of the ingredients of success according to The Matthew Effect, or the 10,000 Hour Rule. It made me realize how wrong most people are about the key to success. Most people believe that everyone has the equal amount of chances to get “to the to.” Yes, the Sky is the limit for us all, but some people are on the ground while others are on the clouds. My point is, some people have more opportunities than others; whether it’s the family they were raised in, their birth date, or where they live. Sometimes it’s even simply being at the right place at the right time. After reading Outliers, I realized that you can connect almost anything to that book; especially movies! For example, in my 6th period class (Tools for College Success), we watched the Gabby Douglas movie. All I could think about is the stream of opportunities that got her to where she is. Most importantly, Outliers showed me that there is no such thing as a disadvantage once you have reached success, because that “disadvantage,” was just leading you to your true meaning. Failures are like northern stars, pointing you towards your true destined success.
Concept:
I think the Accomplishment of Natural Growth is probably one of the only concepts that would affect someone in a negative way or leave them lacking a certain skill. Accomplishment of Natural Growth is a parenting style when the parents aren’t very involved with their children. Which could help them with independence and survival. The downfall about Natural Growth, is that the child is usually scared of authority, lacking the advantage of knowing how to properly assert themselves in the presence of certain people (authority vs friends), and socializing period. This relates to The Troubles with Geniuses and Practical Intelligence. Practical Intelligence is knowing what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. Practical Intelligence, is basically what it sounds like, it’s using your common social sense to get your way (separate for IQ). That is something a child who is raised by natural growth would lack, because they never experienced a situations involving practical intelligence, or have been taught how to properly use practical intelligence.
Quotable Quotes: * “Hard work is only a prison sentence if it does not have a meaning,” pg.150
This is probably my favorite quote out of the whole book, because it is so true. It basically means, hard work is not valuable if you’re not doing something you love. You won’t enjoy the hard work for something you have no passion for. If you have no desire to do something, working on it is more of a force, rather than a choice. * “Practice isn’t something you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” Pg.42
This quote is also one of my favorites. Gladwell is basically saying that, practice makes perfect, perfect doesn’t make practice. It takes determination and practice to become the best, it’s not a natural thing. It reminds me of the quote that Macklemore used in song, Ten Thousand Hours, “The greats weren’t great because they could paint; the greats were great because they painted a lot.” * “Don’t depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.” Pg.238
This quote basically means, don’t depend specifically and only on a God to give you food, you have to find it yourself. You have to actually find/grow/catch your own food, rather than sit around, and pray about it. Praying for food without doing anything to help bring the food won’t get you fed. You have to tribute to that blessing by actually trying to find/grow/catch it yourself.
Recipe for Personal Success: My personal recipe for success is: passion, hard work, dedication, opportunity, and social savvy. I don’t feel like having a talent for something is required for success. As long as you have the passion you can do anything. If you have a lot passion for something, you will naturally work hard to improve. Once you see that your hard work is paying off, you will start to set bigger goals, like becoming the best. That takes dedication. Dedication is basically loyalty to your hard work. Even though most people don’t really notice opportunity is a key for success; it is a major one. Most people look at opportunity as fate, but I believe that opportunity is destiny, you just have to take it. I feel Social savvy allows you to take those opportunities, because most of them involve stepping out of your shell, and being able to use your “charm.” Social savvy is the cherry on top. Being able to use practical intelligence is social savvy. Being able to use your “charms” is a huge advantage, and it helps you get to your success easier.
Missed Privileges/Opportunities: There are a few school privileges/opportunities I haven’t made the most of. I haven’t been taking advantage of the school clubs lately. For example, the DECA club. At the begging of the school year I was sure that I would join the DECA club. I even got the signup sheet signed. The issue wasn’t laziness or busyness, I just started to let my doubts get the best of me. I started to tell myself, “what if it’s too difficult,” which I find ridiculous every time I think back on it, because I never done that, usually I’m excited to join new clubs. Even though I can take it my senior year, I wish I had joined now. If I had, I would already have the experience, rather than it being my first and last experience of DECA Club.