My Principles Center

Hey sorry I did this really quick for you so I'm sorry it looks a little funny but this is my principles center! So challenge you to do the same! It is okay if it is on paper to but give it a try it is really cool to think about what is imported to you!

Paradigms and Principles

The second part of the fist part of the book is important in everyone's life (its worth saying so I don't sound like to big of a fool the book is separated in to parts and with in the parts they clump chapters together). So the next big thing in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" is paradigms and principles so wait what is a paradigm I'm sure most of you know the word just forget the meaning so paradigm means "A typical example or pattern of something like a model of something" I guess the best way of saying what a paradigm is, is by telling you an old paradigm of myself and a new one and how it helped or hurt me. So an old paradigm I used to have about my self is or well a few are "I'm fat, nobody likes me, and I'm weak" so that is three paradigms I used to have about myself and as you can guess they all hurt me and hindered me because I didn't believe in myself and I put limitations on myself with in everything I did. A bad paradigm can really hold you back. They are something you don't want to have. some paradigms I have now are "Strong, Able to make a change, and caring" This are all helpful paradigms because I believe I can make a change with in the world and I am strong in all senses of the word I can open that bottle of pickles now! and I am caring and I'm not afraid to say it because I am strong. So yes I care about all my family friends and others I don't even know. As you can see your paradigms can really restrict you or let you soar as high as you would like. Okay so I know what your thinking that's great and all but how do I change my paradigm? Well there is a number of ways you can do it but also parts that help you such as someone cleaning your glasses. Let me explain imagine you are wearing glasses that say "I only ever hurt people" and that's what you see the world through is those words. Now think what would happen if you best friend came up and said "hey thank you so much Jenny all the help, you really supported me through that break up you helped me more then you know!"  Now wait that just went against the words you look at the world through she just cleaned your glasses. Know that may change your paradigm may not but it helps for sure! a couple ways you can make the change are think of one of your paradigms "I'm not outgoing" now do something that completely goes against that! another great way is look in to a mirror say something positive about yourself like "Trent you look good!" I did it when my paradigm was that I was fat and you know what I blew that paradigm away it didn't stand a chance! So who cleans your glasses? I know for me it is always changing but the person who cleaned my glasses last time was a close friend of my Alex! Paradigms aren't only about yourself tho you also make them about others to and they are often incomplete, inaccurate or way off! Say Sam is slowly stopping talking to you and everyone else so you stop talking to her and you stat to think she is just getting really rude and that she doesn't care about anyone anymore then a week later your talking to Matt and he started to tell you that Sam's Grandma is in hospital and it is really hitting her hard and she doesn't know what to do. I bet your paradigm about Sam just shifted! I had a paradigm about a close friend of mine that he was starting to get really self centered but just the other day he was telling me his break up with his girl friend really changed him and even while he was dating. He just wasn't as happy any more and really everything he said sounded like what he centered his life around changed to help protect himself. This story runs great in to my next topic Life-centers. What is your life center? I know with mine it just shifted around a lot lately. It started to shift on to one person and I didn't even notice it! But then some stuff happened between us and I was feeling hurt everyday because of it then I started to reading through the book and I was like WOW!!! That makes so much sense now! I feel really bad for it know because it is really tiring on the other person and it can get a little out of hand. So this book just came in time. I have changed my life center back now but I'm going to hold off on telling you what it is quite yet. Some life centers can be really unstable such as friend centered this is bad because friends come and go and they move away then you are lost because what you define your self by is now gone. material centered you define yourself off what you have you get your confidence off your fast car or your new dress. A great saying about why this is a bad center is "If I am what I have and what I have lost what am I? When you base yourself off your stuff you have no real identity your stuff has your identity instead plus image if your car was stolen or your house burned with all your clothing who are you know? boyfriend/girlfriend is a bad one as well because once your life is centered around your partner you become unattractive because you are no longer independents you are depended on you partner and not many people like that. If your girlfriend says something mean your day is ruined now if she is sad then you are sad you no longer have your own mood you are joined and if you break up then you have no identification any more now I know what you are thinking but what if I'm in love that's not how you show your love you both stay yourself after all that is who you feel for not someone who dependent on you for happiness and your world doesn't need to revolve around them. another bad one is self centered but I don't think i need to go in to that one other bad ones are parent centered school/work centered, hobby centered, drama, sports and a lot more. Okay since I just ruined a bunch of peoples centers which I'm sorry for but it will help in the long run I swear! This is what my life is based on and this is also what the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" say to, is principles. Yes principles centered life it is the most stable center you can have! All of though's bad centers can become part if your principles then your not standing on one thing any more you stand on as many as you would like! and if one doesn't work for you take it out and change it to something that does! Do people call you a lier? Okay well lets change something out or just add in honesty as a new principle! It is the best thing to build your identity off of! I am going to make a photo of mine and share it with you and I what you to stop and think what your life is centered around! and then think about becoming principles centered and if you are think about what your principles are and write them down and see if you like what you stand for! Next time your in a hard spot stop and think what principle could I use here to help? (honesty, love, loyalty, hard work or maybe patience) then follow that and don't think twice!

7 Good and Bad habits

So I have just finished part one of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" and over the first part I found it a little hard to read but at the same time Sean Covey really tries to keep you interested while your reading. I think he has the prompts to keep you interested more geared towards younger teens or per teens but yet the information is useful to all ages so far and I think that will show even more as I get farther in to the book. It already has covered to big points before he even brought up the first habit that the book is based off. The first thing he brought up was habits and how there are good and bad habits which we all already knew but I thought this could be fun so I want to list 7 of my bad habits and end on 7 good habits I have and where they came from or how you developed them. I dare you to try the same!

Bad    

1. I procrastinate, I think that developed back in elementary school when they gave you homework but never checked it.
2. Little lazy, This came from whenever I offer help around the house I ways got told no its okay go do something else.
3. Need prompting to do some things, Once again I think this has the same stem to it because I was only ever expected to do something when I was asked. 
4. On my laptop to much, This developed because of just how much you can access on just this one little thing I mean I love looking stuff up and learning on it (which is good) but I waste a lot of time on it to.
5. Great at wasting time, I think this came from my laziness it was just away to avoid the work.
6. Easily distracted, I think this one comes from my personality because I always like to know what is going on around me for a few different reasons.
7. Stubborn at the wrong times, This is a trait I learned from my dad he is very stubborn so I can be stubborn at good and bad times its more so I don't fully think it though before I'm stubborn in a bad way.

Good

1. Enjoy doing a good job, This came from my dad getting me to do stuff just seeing how much doing a little work can change something for the better.
2. Like hard work, This also came form my dad he doesn't like hard work much so he made me do it and I have grown to love it when I was in Kenya and I was pickaxing I felt great! (I broke 7-9 pickaxes right in half or down the middle over the 20 days)
3. Enjoy working out although I don't do it much, This came from back in grade 7 when I couldn't even do 10 push ups in one minute so I trained every night and I got up to 40 in a row with in i believe a months time.
4. Always trying to help others, My mom always taught me to help others and even put people before yourself sometimes.
5. Thinking environmentally friendly, This I think came from my mom as well but she didn't know she was doing it and if she did she wasn't expecting it to go as far as it has.
6. I watch out for others, This fallows right with the always trying to help others.
7. Mannerisms, My mom made sure I was always kind and polite and if I wasn't I had to say sorry and say it again with the polite way of saying it. 

Now that you have seen mine I am challenging you to try the same who knows maybe you will come across something you want to change.

First week done!

So now that the first week has come and gone looking back at it and thinking there are a few things that come to mind such as what we are there for. When I was told about the classes and researched I was told that it was a coarse to help grade nines with their academics well it turns out when they say academics they mean English (my worst subject) what I was expecting was all subjects. I was thinking I could help them with math and science and pass them off for the English help. I was wrong. At lest I feel at ease with the idea of helping the grade nines so far. I am hoping to be able to mentor them in more then just English I'm hoping to help them and prevent them from falling in to the cracks so I am really hoping to get them involved in to the school. They are all at a higher risk of falling do to their learning disability because I know with my I.E.P. (individualized education plan) I was starting to slip at points. One of the hardest parts about having this I found was teachers didn't know how to deal with me they either treated me like a child as if my whole mental health was held back a 5 or more years or they didn't do anything to help you which I liked a whole lot more then treating me like I was in grade 2. I'm not saying IEP's are bad I think they can really help to prevent kids from falling in to the cracks although I think teachers need more training with how to deal with IEP's because it can be hard on the person with the IEP if the people don't know how to deal with you. Going back to helping prevent the grade nines from falling in to the cracks. I would have to say I am going to make that my goal over the whole coarse and a weekly goal. With that being said tho I am very happy I was talking to a couple of the grade nines and saying they should join sports and other clubs that would fit each of them I had about 3 kids come up to me and ask when different meetings are when I first got asked that I was super happy and I was amazed once I was asked by all of the three I have to say that made my week. Now I am adding some tasks for me to do and that is staying in the know of when meeting are and I hope that will help me help them along with help me within our student council meeting (just got changed to student union) as I am acting president at my school. So I really hope to help them with some of my knowledge past academics.

Before I start

Hello everyone who will be reading this blog I just want to a little insight to what kind of things you will be reading and why I am writing this blog. The reason I am writing this blog is for my leadership class it will act as a sort of journal of my thoughts in the class along with typed responses to some questions I will get every week or so to help push me to blog. The main part of this class is to help grade nines with there studies or at lest that is what I'm told. I will also be blogging about a book called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens". I'm hopping to get some key points out the book for my life along with key points that will help me to help others. Oh! before I forget I guess I should introduce myself I am a grade 12 student at my school and I am every interested with helping others and trying to become the best leader I can be (main reason I took this course). I just recently came back from a volunteer trip from Kenya Africa were I helped to build teacher accommodations so you may see some things that are influenced by that on my blog. One last thing I am very bad at spelling so if I spell something really weird you are aloud to laugh but if it is a deep thought I would like you to try your hardest to try and get back in to after your break of laughing at me.