The Habits of Mind seem so obvious: purposeful communication, problem solving, integrated perspective, and self-regulated learning. Four crucial variables to making a person successful. Without these factors most people would not succeed in what they do. Even though I am someone who perceives myself as representing all of these traits, I would not have thought of the specific moments where I portrayed all of these.
The one I resonate with the most, purposeful communication, is one that I believe is important in all aspects of life. This component of the Habits of Mind is one that I have close to mastered in my daily life. As someone who has played sports their whole life (soccer, track and field, basketball, etc) there have been many moments where I have had to communicate with my teammates. Specifically, I am a captain for the women’s track team here at Plymouth. This position means that I have to communicate many things to my teammates, coordinate captains practices, and makes sure that my teams chemistry is on good terms. I also have to communicate with my coaches about what we are doing during practices, when we need to be there for meets/when buses leave, and what specifically we have to do as a team to be successful. The past year as a captain has improved my communication skills drastically and I am so grateful for that opportunity.
Problem-solving is another Habit of Mind that I have had a lot of experience with. Connecting this aspect of the Habits of Mind to my major (Exercise and Sport Physiology) is only fitting. One major issue that we dive into in my major is “how do we get people to exercise?”. Surprisingly, this is a very difficult question to answer. So, in class we would talk about the different barriers to exercising/participating in physical activity regularly. Transportation, time, location, weather, health conditions, and simply not knowing how are all barriers to participating in the recommended amount of physical activity. This is a big problem, especially for the younger generation (us) to solve. Coming up with ideas to get people to want to exercise is so important and definitely helped to improve my problem solving skills.
An integrative perspective is another habit of mind that is important to have. A moment where I have experienced this is when I was picking my major for college, my senior year of high school. I originally wanted to go into forensic science. My dad is a detective and I always found that field of work interesting. My dad sat me down and explained some of the implications that field of work can have on a persons mental health and how that can change my view of the world. I had never thought of it like that and he made me reconsider my decision. He then reminded me how much pride I take in sports and exercising, then reminded me how I love the field of science. After researching more about it, I found Exercise and Sports Physiology and the rest is history.
Coming into college, I didn’t have the best time management skills, but after my freshman year, they improved significantly. This was because of self-regulated learning. Spring semester of freshman year, I had an online class that had many assignments. By many I mean, 7 or 8 a week. This made me have to plan out my assignments and when I had to do them. I went through many trials and errors. Many nights of cramming, but by the end of the semester I had a groove. Now, I have great time management skills and I owe it to self-regulated learning.
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