The behavior I selected in
the beginning of the semester to change was my work out schedule. My overall
goal by the end of the semester was to be working out at least four times a
week. I chose this behavior because I wanted to try to do something that would
benefit me in some way and that would make me feel better about myself. In
working out I would be healthier and would feel physically and mentally better.
I also know that working out is a good coping strategy for stress. Since this
was my most challenging semester since beginning college I felt I needed
something to help me to cope. In order to be successful at making working out a
habit, I needed to not only be motivated to go to the gym, but also I needed to
stop procrastinating and making excuses.
At first it was very
difficult for me to continually go to the gym at least four times a week. I
struggled a lot in the beginning because I often made excuses that I was too
busy that day or I would procrastinate and tell myself that I would definitely
go to the gym tomorrow. Usually I did not go to the gym the next day. I had to
finally accept that I was the problem and that I had to schedule time to go to
the gym in order to be successful at this project. When I began scheduling
times to go to the gym, it made it a little easier to be motivated to go to the
gym. I still had some difficulty though. Since my tactics were not working as
well as I had hoped, I decided to ask some of my friends to go to the gym with
me on different days. This helped me a lot because they motivated me to go when
I did not feel like it or felt like I did not have time. Throughout the
semester it became easier to go to the gym continually and I even began going
five or six times a week at one point. However, when I went home on Spring Break
and for Easter, I had a bit of a relapse. I got out of my routine and when I
got back to school it was a little difficult to become motivated again. It was
not as difficult as when I first started however. Today, sometimes I still find
myself making excuses or procrastinating going to the gym, but I have begun to
take notice when I do this and push myself to do what is healthy for me.
At first I did not have much
support to make working out a habit. However, when I began to go to the gym
with my friends it made it a lot easier to become motivated to go and made it a
lot more fun. Some days I even looked forward to going to the gym. My friends
motivated me to go to the gym when I did not feel like it or when I felt
overwhelmed with my work. I think that working out with my friends is a major
reason for why I was successful with making working out a habit in my daily
life.
One thing that I learned
about myself through this assignment is that if I work hard I can accomplish
anything that I want to. I also learned how much I procrastinate and make
excuses for things that I do not want to do. I think that this is human nature
to procrastinate when you do not want to do something, but in doing this
project, I realized how much this affects my life. Becoming aware of how often
I procrastinate and make excuses has helped me in not only being successful in
this project, but also in other areas of my life. I have since been working on
not procrastinating with school work. If I had not completed this project, I
would not have realized how much stress procrastinating causes in my life. I also
learned that I need to be willing to accept help. When I began this project I
thought it would be easy for me to motivate myself to go to the gym. I did not
think that I needed anyone’s help and that I could do it completely on my own.
I learned through this project though that it is not always possible in life to
accomplish everything on your own. I learned that sometimes, asking for help
can be a good thing and that it can help me to accomplish my goals. I also learned
not to give up especially when things were difficult. When I began this
project, it was really difficult for me to make time in my schedule and to
motivate myself to go to the gym. I continued to work at it though because I
knew that it would be better for me in the end. Also, a big source of
motivation was the fact that I did not want to have to write about how I did
poorly on this project at the end of the semester. I learned that if I continue
working at something, it will eventually get easier and I will be happier with
the success in the end.
My habit was a small scale of
what we have learned about in class. I feel that a lot of what we learned
connects to my experience, which helped me during class. This allowed me to
connect what we were learning to something I was actually experiencing, which
made some of the concepts easier to understand. One concept that I thought
about a lot during my experience was the Trans theoretical Model. The Trans
theoretical Model included the stages precontemplation, contemplation,
preparation, action, and maintenance. In a way I watched my progress through
this model and it allowed me to see that I was making progress. Today I believe
that I am in the maintenance phase in that I am working to continue to work out
at least four times a week.
Throughout the semester we talked about the fact
that in order to overcome an addiction, it is important to not only change that
specific behavior, but also needing to change your thoughts and other
behaviors. I experienced this during the project because I realized that in
order to be successful I needed to change how I thought about working out and
also my other behaviors. I found that when I ate better I was more inclined to
go to the gym. I also found that it was necessary for me to be more organized
and to plan my day ahead of time. I changed the way I thought about working out
in that instead of thinking about it as something I had to do, I thought about
it as something that would make me feel better after I was finished.
Based on what we have learned
in class and my experience, I think that it would be very difficult for a
person struggling with addiction to change his/her behavior. As I mentioned
above, we learned that in order to overcome an addiction, it is important to
change not only that specific behavior but also thoughts and other behaviors.
When dealing with an addiction, the individual needs to change his/her whole
life and find new ways of coping. I think that this would be a very difficult
thing to do. For individuals struggling with addiction, their addiction is
their coping strategy. When they stop doing the drug or behavior, they no longer
know how to cope with life’s events. They then need to learn a whole new way of
living and thinking. Even though my project was a very small scale to what
individuals go through when recovering from an addiction, it gave me a small
insight into how difficult it must be to overcome an addiction.
Based on what I have learned
throughout the semester I think that support is a very important aspect of
changing behavior. For people who are experiencing addiction, support is the
most important thing to them. In order to change a behavior it is important to
have people to talk to and to help you to continue to be motivated. It is
important to look at the positives of why you are changing the behavior and why
it will benefit you in the future. I think that the strengths perspective is
very important in this situation. I also think that it is very important to
work at understanding yourself and understand why the behavior is so important
to you. This will help the individuals to not only work at changing the behavior,
but also will help them to find a healthy alternative to the behavior.
I do believe that in a way
habits can be broken. I think that it gets much easier to avoid doing something;
however I think that the reflex is always there. I think that you always have
to work at not having that habit, even if you aren’t always thinking about it.
I do not necessarily believe that addictions can be cured. I think that
individuals can overcome the addiction and can find positive things in their
life to replace the addiction, but I think that they have to work every day to
not use this substance or do a behavior. I think that over time it can become easier;
however it is still important to be aware of yourself and understand that you
have to continually work every day. The fact that many individuals who are
addicted to a substance cannot use any other substances, such as alcohol or
other drugs shows that addictions are not necessarily cured. Although
addictions are not cured, they can be overcome, which shows that these
individuals have great strength.
Very insightful! I'm glad you found personal meaning in this assignment and were able to relate it to concepts that we discussed in class. best wishes for continued success! :)
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