Dane Thorman
MGT 461 Summer 2015

LEARNING JOURNAL 1

ACQUIRE

I have chosen to apply Stephen R. Covey's Habit One "Be Proactive" from "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." I guess one could say I'm normally a very reactive person, but one who usually has somewhat of a plan as to how I intend on reaching said reaction. Proactivity means that "as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives..our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions..we have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen." (Covey, p. 78)

INTERPRET

The way that I have interpreted the way this concept is relevant to and connects with my personal and work situation was actually as to how I was approaching this semester at Walsh College. In the past, I have always been the type of student who would get the good grades but, for whatever reason, would always allow myself to wait until the very last minute to accomplish the task in question (a professional procrastinator, one might say), yet probably because of it I was exhausted at the end of it.

I really had a "light-bulb" (some might call it an "a-ha") moment while reading Habit One in Covey's text. It really struck me that, given I am nearly the end of my undergraduate learning, that this is something I really need to change for going forward. This light-blub moment came when, ironically, Covey was breaking down the word "responsibility." Not in the literal sense, but in the phonetic sense, breaking it down between "response" and "ability." In the text, he simplifies it by stating that "look at the word responsibility - "response-ability" - the ability to choose your response...highly proactive people recognize that responsibility...they do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior...their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling." (Covey, p. 78)

APPLY

PLAN

My plan is to, no pun intended, take it upon myself to utilize a more proactive approach as to how I committ to my studies this semester. The goal is to, before I even put pen to paper, to sit down, calm one's thoughts, and try to put a plan of attack together. Then, while looking over said plan, to figure out how I could go about implementing that plan from multiple angles (i.e., when I would do what assignments that week). Finally, as with anything, you have to committ to the plan of action. And, if necessary and I start to feel stressed out, that it would be ok to take just a couple minute break, if only to collect my thoughts on the matters at hand.

DO

After implementing this plan over the course of the last two weeks, I have seen mixed results. In the end, all of the goals were accomplished (completed all readings, lectures, and assignments), but I still feel it could have been executed in a far more economical way. The intention was that readings would be accomplished on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, lectures on Thursdays and Fridays, and assignments on Saturdays and Sundays. While each of these tasks were accomplished on the dates that I had planned for them to be accomplished (no problem), my level of exhaustion and comprehension may have left some to be desired (problem).

STUDY

Piggy backing off of the last statement under the "Do" portion, the level of exhaustion and comprehension did start to get to me by the middle of the week. While my general work load may have something to do with that (working 8-4:30 Monday-Friday, taking one other class aside from this one, being ADD/ADHD on top of that), I was still dissapointed in my general lack of retainment of the material (though being up until almost midnight on each of those nights and having to be up by 6:30 the next morning might have something to do with it).

ACT

While in general my reactions to the process have been generally negative and filled with disappointment, I would be seriously kidding myself if I did not see noticeable improvements on the back end of the second week. I did start to feel more alertness and attentiveness in general over the course of this past weekend, and did end up actually getting to enjoy a weekend with comparatively less stress and exhaustion than usual. I do think, though, as I stated near the onset of my planning and act of this, that I can still be far more economical and efficient in the execution of my plan, and hopefully I will see the fruits of this labor over the course of the rest of the semester.

Reference

Covey, S. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.