Oscar Chen Pd 7 2/2/23

 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 toward achieving these standards?

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

Going into the second semester, having had all college applications and grades

submitted, it is natural for feelings of laziness and laxness to settle. Although I admit to having

such thoughts, I try to avoid falling behind by setting standards for myself. I specifically want to

focus on career development and balance work with internships with schoolwork. As many have

told me before, senior year is really an open opportunity for students to develop both their skills

and network. Knowing this, I’ve established three goals for myself: 1) keep up grades, 2) earn

part-time money, and 3) gain a spring internship to hopefully transfer to summer. Considering

this, all the standards I’ve set for myself revolve around managing my time effectively.

One of the biggest problems I have around time management is my commute from

school to home. Knowing that it takes at least an hour no matter the circumstances, really limits

the types of activities I can do in school or out, and results in a majority of my extracurriculars

being virtual. This is where the first specific standard I set for myself comes in; being

responsible in the days and times I can stay out until I need to go home. For most days, it’s

immediately after school that I have to go home, and the standard I set forces me to abide by

that whether I like it or not.

But I recognize that denying all school events for virtual experiences, beneficial or not, is

not healthy. I need to be able to experience some of those to upkeep my social and mental

health. That may sound robotic, and it is, mainly because it makes it clear to me what the

problems are, and how to solve them. This leads to standard two which is to maintain a balance

between in-person and virtual events.

However, that still leaves the problem of how to decide between them if they happen to

coincide. Really the only way to make this call is to prioritize. The default is to go home and

work on one of my three goals, so the decision I have to make is if I would consider skipping

that. One of the biggest criteria I look at to decide is if the physical event is a “once in a lifetime”

experience, especially if they’re specifically for seniors. Another consideration is if I can work

around the virtual event and do it outdoors. For example, that may work for lecture-type

activities where I’m not expected to participate as much, but not for the online tutoring I do. In

the end, there’s no definite way to decide between the two, but I can usually make the “right” call

by referring to my standards and goals.

And it’s not like my standards are codified rules to obey. They change depending on the

time. An example of a change is considering a few months ago when I really prioritized doing

college applications at home. The changes tend to follow chunks of time, like “college season” or

“AP season” As I mentioned earlier, now I’ve transitioned to focusing more on career

development, trying to land jobs and internships. I know that in late April, my standards will

revolve around doing good on AP tests, or that after that I’ll lighten my standards to enjoy the

rest of my high school life.