Jonathan Sarmiento, Period 2, 11/12/20, Day A

Jonathan Sarmiento 

Period 2

11/12/20

Day A

At this current point in time, what specific goal(s) do you have for yourself? Why?

    One goal that I absolutely want to achieve before the end of my senior year is gaining more self control. While that is a very broad goal to have, it is the area I lack the most in. Being more disciplined is a better way to word it as I want to be able to stay on top of anything I have to do. For right now that would be college applications, which have recquired the most time and effort out of anything I've ever done in my academic career. Having to write several essays, stay on top of deadlines, and constantly having to send and reply to emails has been nothing short of a struggle so far for me. It's so easy for me to get distracted by my phone's buzzing when I receive a notification and end up spending an hour scrolling through social media rather than getting any work done. I also often catch me giving myself some pretty generous breaks throughout my time working. A result of my lack of self-discipline is my tendency to procrastinate. This has come back to bite me multiple times in high school, as those many nights I've stayed up past midnight to finish a project or to study are all a result of my procrastination. 

    Other than learning self-discipline to help me with college applications, I believe this skill will help me in the long run. I'll most likely by dorming for college this year, so I won't have my mom constantly nagging me to get my homework done. So if I want to succeed in college I'll have to learn how to discipline myself to put away any distractions and finish my tasks for the day. Starting this process now is the perfect time in my opinion because if things go according to plan, I'll be the most disciplined person ever by the beginning of my freshman year of college. For most of my time in school I've relied on my brain to get me through it and never had to truly work for my grades. However, I know that this trend can't continue into college, so learning how to be more disciplined with myself and take initiative in my tasks will only benefit my college experience. 

How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving this goal? (or these goals?)

    Like I said before, I've started working on becoming more disciplined this year as a way to prepare for college, and I've been pretty successful at times. The most effective way I've been able to achieve my goal is by completely shutting off my phone and leaving it downstairs in my kitchen while I work upstairs. Who knew a gesture as small as this would allow me to become so much more consistent with my work ethic. It has led me to see a noticeable increase in not only in the quality of my work, but also how proud I am of it. Being able to look at a writing piece or homework with pride and satisfaction has been without a doubt the most rewarding part of my journey to self discipline.

    Another way that I have been able to strive for my goal is changing the time of day in which I do my work. Like most high school students, I would do my work in the evening and at night, often into the early hours of the morning. This was one of the key problems I wanted to addresss, mainly because I wanted more sleep. I began to work earlier in the day, whether in the afternoon after school or in the morning before remote sessions started. This simple change showed massive positive changes in my mental health and energy levels. I'm able to wake up more refreshed in the morning, and somedays I even look forward to doing work. The progress I've been able to make so far has been nothing short of exciting as well as motivating.

How does the world around you affect your perception of this goal? (or these goals?)

    The world around me has definitely altered the way I view my goal of self discipline. The biggest influence would have to my peers at school. Hearing them talk about their experiences with achieving my goal have allowed me to find out what works for me and devise the best plan to try and achieve my goal. On the flip side, a lot my peers complain about their lack of discipline and how it affects their sleep schedule and mental health, as well as overall motivation. Hearing them describe this is what has kept me motivated to try and achieve my goal, since I don't want to have school affect my life negatively. My classmates have been instrumental in helping my achieve my goal of discipline and have completely changed my perspective on said goal.

    Another big influence that affected my perception has been social media. Scrolling through the numerous apps on my phone, I've come across countless videos or posts about college, specifically college majors. I intent to major in psychology in college and also take pre-med classes- definetely not an easy four years to say the least. Seeing people post about their experiences in these majors and the amount of work and studying they had to do is what really made self-discipline an important goal to achieve for me. Mixing a hard major with a procrastinating student doesn't result in a successful college experience in any scenario, and realizing this is what initially motivated me to begin to strive for the skill of discipline.