What we read
We have now read and checked our understanding of both "Making a Difference" (2013, pp. 78-79) and "Most Likely to Succeed" (pp. 80-81).
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Our response
As usual, Bixby and Scanlon now invite us to respond critically to the ideas in the readings.
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Bixby and Scanlon's questions
Comment on the following questions, which are the critical thinking questions on page 82 (Bixby & Scanlon, 2013), and then reply to at least two of your classmates' comments.
Then read and reply to a couple of your classmates' comments.
Post this second comment.
First, respond to these questions about "Most Likely to Succeed."
Think for a couple of minutes and then write a comment for about 8:00 minutes.
- The article claims that while there are some people who are driven to be high achievers, others are "perfectly happy with whatever life brings."
- Which type of person are you most similar to? Why do you think so?
- What do you think might have made you the way you are?
- Do you agree with the writer's suggestion at the end of the article for how to find the balance between stress and success?
- What other suggestions would you make to help people avoid feeling the pressure to succeed?
- Do we want to avoid this?
Then read and reply to a couple of your classmates' comments.
Next, respond to the ideas from both "Making a Difference" and "Most Likely to Succeed."
Again, think for a minute or two before you write a new comment in response to these questions.
- Who is the most successful person you know? How did they achieve their success?
- What is an idea that you have not yet followed through? What (has) stopped you?
Post this second comment.
Then read and reply to a couple of your classmates' comments.
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Reference
- Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing: Student's Book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education
Although I do work hard, for example preparing for my classes, I think I've fairly relaxed and like to enjoy life. Perhaps I'm lucky that some of the things I really enjoy fit well with some traditional measures of success and striving for success. Even when I was in primary school, I loved reading, so read not only all of our text books, but a lot of extra material from the school library, including browsing through encyclopaedias. For me, this was not work, it was fun. In high school, I didn't have to force myself to sit down and work through mathematical theorems or problems in physics: I loved it. And today, I still enjoy the sort of reading and learning that fits in well with the courses I often teach at AUA. But sometimes I manage to drag myself away from the serious business of history, philosophy and my other interests to enjoy a meal with friends, or even a bit of entertainment on NetFlix, and I don't only watch stuff that is arguably serious, such as the BBC's excellent Black Mirror or NetFlix's own production House of Cards, I also watch rubbish sometimes just because it's fun, for example Grimm and even the seriously silly teen show Teen Wolf (my teenage niece recommended it, and whilst it's not something I might watch again, it had it's moments.)
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of person who is happy with whatever life brings. The reason is because I used to be very stressful person and high achiever, however, as time goes by, I realise the importance of letting it go, otherwise I would worsen my health status. It was getting worse and worse when I was at 7 years old. I got stressful to the point where my stomach could not tolerate pain. At that time, I have problems with load of homework and didn't know how to overcome it. Moreover, the problem of getting along well with the leader of the group friend could be one of the challenges. I think at that time I put pressure on myself a lot and my mom was away for months to do her academic research in other countries. Thus I felt like I had no one to consult with.
ReplyDeleteIn order to avoid the feeling of getting too much pressure on yourself is to tell yourself that you do the best that you can do. The rest of things that is out of your hands, you should let it go and think that you already do the best that you can do. And this will save your health since you do not put pressure on yourself too much, then the good mental health will come and it will also finally strengthen your physical health.
I think I'm most similar to people who are driven to be high achievers because if I'm not a high achiever, my life in school won't be good and it will effect to many things in the future. I think that the thing that makes me to be high achiever is probably be my family. My family encourage me to do many things that they want me to do and I always do it because I think that is the best choice. Also, I think that my family want me to be a high achiever too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with writer's idea about finding balance between stress and success, It looks true that family and friendship are more valuable than success.
My family was also very encouraging, even when I made choices that might not have been their preferred options. My mother would have liked me to study medicine, but was still supportive when I opted for science, philosophy and languages, which were less likely to ensure a financially rich future.
DeleteI'm not an ambitious person but I have clear goals. Because when I doing something I always following my mood if that time I feeling unhappy and don't want to do a work I will not do my work, it is not good to do like this but anyway I always finish my work before deadline. The way that I being a person who doesn't has an ambition because I think I don't care enough what it will happen but I think I just do my best.
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm a bit the same. I was preparing for this class last night because the deadline is this morning. And I did a little bit more this morning. I could have done it a few days ago, but didn't.
DeleteIn fact, I think it's sometimes useful to delay things. It gives us more time to think about them, but of course, we don't want to delay for too long.
I am one of people who is driven to be achiever. I live in a developing country. To achieve a career can guarantee the rest of my life. My government does not provide me an enough money to spend in daily life when I retire. Nowadays, it is not only to make a success in what I have worked, I must stabilize it also.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, everybody get pressure of their work and life, but I would be rather to ignore it for a while to recharge your energy and prepare for a new tough challenge. I would suggest others that it is fine to leave a serious and then find out something happiness to heal your soul. Afterwards, you would feel fresher.
I think I most similar to high achievers because if I can achieve the goals, I would happy with that success. The goal set will be lead me to success and never give up.
ReplyDeleteI agree...
Everyone have different pressure and stress, but it would be better if you ignore them and forget that stress. Don't think of anythings that causes strees and pressure just live with happiness.
DeleteI recommend silly American TV series to reduce stress.
DeleteRegarding the article saying that while there are some people who are driven to be high achievers, others are "perfectly happy with whatever life brings." Each people would have their own opinion. I think I am similar to the first one who are driven to be high achievers because I am an ambitious person and always step out from my comfort zone. I don't want to just do the same thing every time. It is so boring doing that. The main reason that I am the one who always looking for the higher achievements is my environment. For example, My brother is really enthusiasm. I have stayed with him for a long time, and got influentially impact from him.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the writer suggestions about how to find the balance between stress and success. We don't need to avoid the stress because sometimes it motivates us to do the things.
Type of person , I am most similar to high achievers because when I set the goal of my mind , I achieve more than the other. For example, when Admission in G.12 I am one of the student who what to be engineer but I did not good at math,so I achieve by have the extra class and practice the lessons while brake , lunch time and after school.
ReplyDeleteIt might be my father that made me the way I am because when I was young if I want something like I want some toys , my father said if you want you have to earn my yourself. He would like to say you have to doing by yourself without asking other people help.
It was hard to pick one person as an example of someone who is or has been very successful. The first one I thought of was my father, whose hard work and intelligence built a very successful financial and social foundation for his large family. Very different is my youngest brother Matthew, who has regularly changed jobs and boyfriends as he seeks what is a fulfilling life for him. I like him because we have similar ideas as to what constitutes success. In the end, I chose my friend Scott because although he is a very old friend, having known me for more than 30 years, the courses of our lives have been very different, and his success is very different to that of myself and brother, perhaps a bit more like my fathers.
ReplyDeleteScott actually came from the same country area in Australia as my family, but we only met in Sydney when we were both studying at Sydney University, but in very different courses. He was majoring in English and was active in the drama society and such things. I was into mathematics, philosophy and dead languages, so we ran into each other at the Gay and Lesbian Group for students, and both got involved in working to change the laws at the time which made gay sex illegal.
Scott worked very hard and did well at his studies, best especially at performing. After graduation, he toured England for a few years putting on plays. Then he moved to Bangkok, where there is not much demand for Shakespeare or more modern English plays. But while he was indulging his passion for theatre, he had also been working hard on a master's degree in sociology. After settling in Bangkok, this evolved into a Ph.D. in the area of HIV policy and management, for which he also studied a lot of management. Today, he travels the world running management and human resource development courses. His complete reinvention of himself has been made possible by the same attributes that contributed to his success in theatre, but have provided a more solid financial foundation whilst still allowing him to do something he is passionate about. This seems to me a great example of success.
The successful person that I know is my close friend his name is Nam. He was studied in Political Science and he want to became an assistant district officer and now he is. The way to successful of his is his attempt and ambitious person. He was failed in an examination once but he never giving up. He read books in everyday though it is a holiday because this job is his dream when he was young, he told me. Moreover, he also want to makes his mother proud of him that he get a good job too. So his attempt and ambition are what I want to be like him and I will try to.
ReplyDeleteI also managed to fail an exam once. But that was actually a success: I was annoyed that my school had forced me to study a silly subject (environmental studies) in year 11, so I deliberately got everything wrong on the final exam. It wasn't a problem, and my teachers didn't worry too much baout my protest either.
DeleteThe most successful person I know is my auntie named Auch. She success for either her personal life or her working life. For her personal life, She has three kids which is staying with her. Every weekend, she spend her time with her kids and husband. She is a very happy person. Moreover, for her working life, she and her husband
ReplyDeletehave their own business about exporting fish to Japan, Taipei and some other countries. She is a smart working woman which has more than hundred employees in her company. She also con manage the time for her working life and personal life. The main reason that she can have this kind of life is, she can manage her time really well. Also she is a hard-working woman. I think what I need to improve form her story is managing the time. I think I am good to manage my time but not good enough. I have to continuously practice this skill. I think nothing stop me but I just need to keep practicing it.
THat reminds me that I should also have mentioned that Scott has been successful in his personal life, maintaining the same rewarding relationship for more than 20 years now.
DeleteWho is the most successful person you know? How did they achieve their success? I think my mom is the most successful person that I know, she is very tolerant in any hard situations in life. However, she doesn't show much how she feels about things. The reason I think she is the most successful person that I know is because she proves to succeed in her career path. Even though she graduated in languages, she has shown her visions in various aspects regarding trade, policy, future technology, and perspectives concerning situation around the world. She might not be funny person to stay around but she will be someone you can talk to when you need some serious suggestion and perspective. The way that paves her to be successful is being persistent. I'm quite in the opposite with her style even though I'm her daughter, LOL. She might have good Amigdala brain to control emotion while trying to achieve with what she is doing. She managed to graduate degrees while raising me which is quite impressive. Imagine a woman does the two things at the same time, that woman must need to put extra effort a lot to complete both jobs.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of impatient person and not really persistent with what I am doing. I always expect the result to happen in the near future, thus sometimes I lose my interest while I am doing things. This is quite different with what my mom is doing. I need to increase my level of self-conscious and the degree of concentration in order to do things long enough to make it perfectly complete. I would expect my level of persistence in the future and hope my perseverance will address this issue. My mom suggests me to go for meditation and doing some yoga class in order to calm myself and find way to lengthen my concentration. Hope it helps. Apart from that I need to keep in mind that things need to take sometimes to get success, don't be too impatient to wait for good things to happen. :)
The most successful person I have known is my uncle because he is hard working and reliable. So, he can work well and many people trust him. Also, I think that he doesn't have a lot of stress. Maybe, He can finds balance between stress and success. This makes he can work better than anyone else. So, he can achieve his success.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, I used to have a lot of ideas that I wanted to followed through. But the thing that stopped me is time. I don't have so much time. So, if I wanted to followed through idea, I have to finish everything for example, homework. I have spent a lot of time doing homework. So, I don't have any time to followed through idea. That makes me give up to the ideas and now I don't have any ideas left.
The most suceesful person I know is my father.He's work hard everydays and responsible for his duty.He's leaders that has full of passion and charisma,reaching out and inspiring others to achieve and to do good in the work. With natural confidence that begets influence,he take a great deal of pride and joy in guiding others to work together to improve their work . That is what makes him sucessful in his life.
ReplyDeleteit reminds me of my dad, who worked everyday until the day before he died suddenly at age 79. Right up until the end, he was still going out to work on his farm, attend business meetings and run the local school and parish business in addition to caring his large family.
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ReplyDeleteMy mom is one of the most successful person I know and admire all the time. Our family had not been wealthy, but because of having kids and being a single mom, she struggled and worked hard to ensure future life of her kids would have very great opportunity coming in. She started run a new business in which she did not have any professional, to earn higher income to afford her kids for famous and potential schools. Finally, we, her kids, already have what her expected. By the way, personally, the greatest achievement of her success is to transfer and teach her kids how to overcome fear and problem when they are struck on, including being our role model. I would prefer to have more successful than she has. Especially, to teach or encourage others is probably much difficult task that I have never done. Hopefully, when I have enough experience and achievement to be worth, I somedays share it to inspire others.
ReplyDeleteThe most successful person that I know is my father.He is one of people who take care of me and know my personality more than I know myself.He is my hero, he always hard working and doing his duty really well. Mostly,his success , he achieive by himself .He read a lot of books and look for answers many of sources. Last year he had work in BTS, he has assignment from his boss to manage the new green line BTS to open in December.He achieve by knowing the person that make the BTS such as engineers , background business persons to mange him by balance pressure deadline from his boss and work from worker in his process.For me , The idea that I have not yet followed through becuase some of goal I disturb by another idea that I think it is better than the first idea ,so I would throw that idea out of mind.
ReplyDelete