Daniel Liu, Period 6, 12/13/2022

Atomic Habits & Growth

At this current point in time, what specific standards have you set  for yourself? 

How and why did you come to craft these standards? 

How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving these standards?

How do you assess yourself?  What adjustments do you make? How often?

As a person, organization and planning are really not my strong suits. I always find a way to wing it and get things done without a whole lot of preparation, which is both good and bad. I get to live in the moment and have fun, but I also get overwhelmed when it’s time to do all the work that piled up on me. It’s not like I choose to procrastinate, but I’m often unaware of deadlines until they’re already looming close. 

After school, I do sports, and then get home super late and tired. By the time I’ve finished eating dinner and doing chores, it’s already about 8:00 PM, and my motivation to do schoolwork and college applications is pretty low. I usually do the homework that’s due the next day, or study for an important test, then work on essays for 30 mins and call it a day. I’m too stubborn to sacrifice sleep or fun.

A standard I set for myself is working to manage my time better, so I can have fun but also not be as overwhelmed by responsibilities. Instead of ignoring work until the last minute, I will try and make a calendar to organize my deadlines, and create a buffer for myself. If I do work slightly earlier, then I can have more time to do other things in the long run.

I also want to be a more opportunistic person. I have a problem with being too comfortable in the status quo, and don’t go out of my way to pursue as much as I should. 

In order to meet these standards, I try to be more self aware when I fall back into my bad habits. If the voice in my head tells me to ignore my homework and play videogames, I tell myself that I’ll regret it in the future. If I’m having doubts about doing something that could be beneficial for me because of fear, I tell myself that I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

I’d say I’m getting better at meeting my standards, it’s difficult to change, but that’s what makes it worth it. Learning and growing as a person, and trying to be a better person is the whole point of life anyways. My growth isn’t linear, there are days when my procrastination or self doubt get the better of me. But I always try harder the next day. The calendar to keep track of work and self affirmations are some methods I use to keep myself in check.

I think as long as we are trying our best to be better, eventually we will be better.

A sapling might not grow noticeably bigger everyday, but with enough consistency in water and sunlight, eventually it will become a huge tree. Growth is like adding grains of sand to the sea. It might seem like the sea is overwhelmingly bigger than the sand, but add enough sand to it and you can have an entire island.