Personal Philosophy
of Success
Chloe Mills
CG101 College survival & success
Fall 2018
Findings from “On Course: Strategies for creating success in college and in
life” by skip downing
Table of Contents
Time Management 2
Off-Course Assessment 2
Self-Sabotage Assessment 3
Core Learning System 4-5
Improve Writing 5
TESTING SKILLS 6
Compelling Life Plan 7
Affirmations 8
Emotional Intelligence 9
Tech Tips 10
Quotes 11
Time Management
1
Habit Tracking Form: For Tracking Actions That Need To Be Repeated Numerous Times.
I have printed out a great habit tracking work sheet that lots of rows for differen’t habits and
checkboxes for each day in a month. I’ve laminated it and can track my progress with a dry-
erase marker and reuse the form over and over again!
Waiting For List: For Tracking Commitments That Others Have Made To You.
When the progress towards a goal is stalled because I’m waiting on someone else to get back to
me, I’ll put them down on the Waiting-For-List along with the date. Reflect on this list daily and
after its been a while, contact the appropriate person and give them a nudge.
Off Course Self-Assessment:
Where are you off course in your life today? (School? Relationships? Work?
Health? Finances? Elsewhere?)
What desired outcomes and experiences are you moving away from instead of
toward?
What goals and dreams seem to be slipping away?
On the next page is a Self-Sabotaging Behaviors Assessment, make it a priority to re-do this
periodically.
2
3
C.O.R.E. LEARNING SYSTEM
“Some students fool themselves by putting in “sufficient time,” but spend little of it engaged in
effective learning strategies (such as the ones you are about to learn). Instead, they skim
complex information in their textbooks. They attempt to memorize information they don’t
understand. Their minds wander to a conversation they had at lunch. They rummage through
their book bags and dresser drawers and closets looking for their class notes. They surf the
Internet. They play a video game...or five. They phone a classmate. They send a couple of text
messages, and the next thing they know, it’s time to go to bed. When they fail the test the next
day, they complain, “But I studied so long!” Some students have a chemical imbalance that
prevents them from focusing for long periods of time, and their learning suffers.”
SOLUTION:
● Collecting key information,
● Organizing that information into effective study materials,
● Rehearsing information and skills for future use, and
● Evaluating how well you have learned.
Collect: In every waking moment, we’re constantly collecting perceptions through our five
senses. Without conscious effort, the brain takes in a multitude of sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
and physical sensations. Most perceptions disappear within moments. Some, such as our first
language, may stick for a lifetime. Thus, much of what we learn in life we do without intention.
In college, however, learning needs to be more conscious. That’s because instructors expect
you to learn specific information and skills. Then, of course, they want you to demonstrate that
knowledge on quizzes, tests, exams, term papers, and other forms of evaluation. In college, two
of the most important ways you’ll collect information and skills are through reading textbooks
and attending classes and labs.
Organize: Once we collect information, we need to make sense of it. When learning in everyday
life, we tend to organize collected information in unconscious ways. We don’t even realize that
we’re doing it. However, in a college course, you need to organize information systematically so
it makes sense to you. In fact, making meaning from collected information is one of the most
important outcomes of studying.
4
Rehearse: Once we collect and organize our target knowledge, we need to remember it for
future use. Rehearsing (also called “practicing”) strengthens neural networks and makes
learning stick. When you solve 10 challenging math problems, you’re rehearsing. Over time, the
process of solving becomes easier and more natural. Good learners know how to rehearse
information and skills so they can use them, whether on a test, in their career, or in their
personal life.
Evaluate: Life is great at giving us informal feedback about the quality of our learning. Maybe
you tell a joke and forget the punch line. You know immediately you have more learning to do.
Higher education, however, provides us with more formal feedback. Yup, those pesky tests,
term papers, quizzes, lab reports, essays, classroom questions, and final exams. Evaluations—
whether informal and formal—are an essential component of all learning. That’s because
without feedback, we can never be sure if our learning is accurate or complete.
IMPROVE WRITING
Before writing:
1. Create a positive affirmation about writing
2. If you choose the topic, select one that truly interests you
3. Carry index cards for collecting ideas
4. Create focus questions
5. Discuss your topic with others
6. Group your notes
7. Identify your audience
8. Define your thesis
9. Organize your ideas and supporting details (Outline, Concept Map, Question Outline)
While writing:
1. Use an essay blueprint (to help visualize)
2. Write a hook (for the beginning of essay)
3. Add your thesis statement
4. Write an agenda (for main ideas)
5. Use transitions
6. Add support
7. Offer a refutation in a persuasive essay (emphasize then dispute those reasons)
5
6
Compelling Life Plan:
GOALS
To be truly motivating a goal needs five qualities. Achieve this by applying the DAPPS rule.
Dated (specific deadlines, Semester’s Desired Outcomes,
Achievable (challenging but realistic, outer reaches of your present ability)
Personal (goals are your own, be aware of pressures to conform and expectations)
Positive (translate negative goals into positive ones, don’t focus on don’t wants)
Specific (state outcomes in specific, measurable terms, include evidence)
DREAMS
It’s difficult to define a dream, but they’re grand in size and fueled by strong emotions. Unlike goals,
which usually fit into one of our life roles, dreams often take over our lives, inspire other people, and
take on a life of their own. Think: passions.
THE LIFE PLAN
Include a page for each of my life roles, all of them may be with the same dream. Some life roles are
going to make a more significant contribution to my dream than others.
My Dream:
My Life Role (student, sister, daughter, friend, advocate, significant other):
My Long-Term Goals In This Role:
My Short-Term Goals In This Role (This Term):
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Affirmations
Living Your Affirmations:
1) Repeat Your Affirmations (at the start of the day, or the end? When?)
2) Dispute Your Inner Critic (you already possess the qualities you desire)
3) Align Your Words and Deeds (be what you affirm)
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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Four components:
1. Emotional Self-Awareness- Knowing your feelings in the moment
2. Emotional Self-Management- Managing strong feelings
3. Social Awareness- Empathizing accurately with other people’s emotions
4. Relationship Management- Handling emotions in relationships with skill and harmony
Skills:
Build a vocabulary of feelings
Be mindful of emotions as they are happening
Understand wat is causing your emotions
Recognize the difference between a feeling and resulting actions
Never make an important decision while experiencing strong emotions
STRESS
To reduce your stress on your own, here’s a simple, two-step plan. First, read the following section that
addresses your most pressing symptoms of stress: feeling overwhelmed, angry, anxious, or sad. In that
section, pick one stress reduction strategy and make a 32-Day Commitment (see the “Developing Self-
Discipline” section of Chapter 4) to do it. In little more than a month, you’ll likely feel less stressed.
Better yet, you’ll have proven that you, and not stress, are in charge of your life.
Skills:
Separate from an external stressor Reframe
List and prioritize everything you need Distract yourself
to do Forgive
Discover time savers Identify the hurt
Eliminate time wasters Assume the best
Say “no” Say your affirmations
Keep your finances organized Listen to uplifting music
Exercise Breathing exercises- Meditation
Get enough sleep Help others in need
Keep it in perspective Dispute pessimistic beliefs
Trust a positive outcome Remind yourself “THIS TOO SHALL
Take a mental vacation PASS”
Journal
Channel anger into positive actions
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Tech Tips:
*Wisconline.com: Self-awareness inventory test
*Zenify: mobile app to help you move out of auto-pilot and become more aware of what you are
thinking, doing, and feeling in every moment
*Queendom.com: a website with many self-assessment tests and quizzes
*42Goals: mobile and web app to set and track numerous goals. Log your progress and create charts.
*Mindbloom: imagine that you are a tree, and each leaf represents important elements of your life
*stick.com: uses incentives and accountability to motivate users to achieve a goal
*Myhomeworkapp: mobile and web app that provides a student planner to track assignments
*Josegoals.com: website that works like an electronic Tracking Form for goals
*Focusboosterapp.com: website that’s a digital timer to help avoid distractions
*RescueTime: tracks online usage
*Dontbreakthechain: online way to track a 32-day commitment
*iStudiez, My Study Life & myHomework: web and mobile apps that are digital planners
*OpenStudy: online study group
*ThinkBinder.com: offers opportunities to create online study groups and share course notes and files
*Rcampus.com: another source for online groups
*Mindsetonline.com: website of Carol Dweck
*Mindsetworks.com: offers four assessments related to mindset
*VARK-learn.com: online self-assessment about learning style
*MindShift: mobile app to help deal with anxiety
*Awareness: mobile app that intercepts your daily routine and prompts you to journal
*Happify: web and mobile app that delivers games and activities proven to bring happiness
*Prezi and HaikuDeck: Online presentations
*StudyBlue: Like Quizlet, lets you make digital flashcards
QUOTES:
10
“Consider this: If at first you don’t succeed, something is blocking your way. “
-Michael Ray & Rochelle Myers
“We take our eyes off the path for just a moment, and some invisible force comes
along and pulls us off course. By the time we realize what’s happened—if, in fact,
we ever do—we can be miles off course and feeling miserable. What’s going on
around here, anyway?”
“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling
deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments,
propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start
searching for different ways or truer answers.”
-M. Scott Peck, M.D.
“The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world
can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that
forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach.”
-Carson McCullers
“Of all the drugs and the compulsive behaviors that I have seen in the past
twenty-five years, be it cocaine, heroin, alcohol, nicotine, gambling, sexual
addiction, or food addiction, all have one common thread. That is the covering up,
or the masking, or the unwillingness on the part of the human being to confront
and be with his or her human feelings.”
-Richard Miller, M.D.
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