Habits of Mind Essay Example

There is a saying how a certain decision can affect us for the rest of our life which is true. Habits of Mind which is an excerpt from Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing that I have chosen to speak about how it has affected my life and motivation especially in school. Habits of Mind as it says on the excerpt are ways of approaching learning that is both intellectual and practical are crucial for all college-level learners and also helps succeed in a variety of fields and disciplines.  I have a few examples of how Habits of Mind has affected me in an amazing way because it is not just one habit. There are eight habits which are curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and metacognition. These habits are what I have used in my classes that helped me gain motivation because I was never interested in my classes. Each of these habits has helped me in every situation in school which impacted my life and motivation in an amazing way.

The first example of my educational history would be my tenth-grade year in high school. I would say it was not a huge impact in my life but Habits of Mind helped develop more motivation in high school and my future. 

I was always a student who did the work but never realized why it was assigned. This was the year where I feared that I would be transferred to another school because my grades were so bad. My favorite class was history and I always did great at that subject which got me wondering why was I getting bad grades in the rest of my classes. As I continued to struggle in my classes I realized that I was not using these habits from the excerpt so when I realized that I needed to have an engagement in the rest of my classes that is when everything started to become better. In Habits of Mind, engagement is a sense of investment and involvement in learning. The key points of engagement are what helped me the most because it showed me to make a connection between my ideas and others. It is also acting upon the new knowledge that I have discovered which is what helps me gain motivation. Engagement has impacted my motivation in my classes after eleventh grade because I used this habit as a technique.     

The second example would be last year in my first semester of college which affected my motivation in a great way. When I first started college I thought it would be easier because I am picking my own classes and schedule,however, I was wrong. As the semester went on I gave up because I was failing my classes and knew I could not get them back up right away. I assumed that college would be easy and that I would not have to do a lot of assignments because I would not have any assignments. I have always been the “lazy” student which sounds bad however I never had a teacher push me or help me discover these habits so when I read Habits of Mind it changed my entire perspective. The semester ended and I realized I can not do the same mistake so one habit that helped my motivation was creativity. Creativity, as it is explained in Habits of Mind, is the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and repressing ideas.      

This habit has helped me a lot because it made me discover new ideas in my future classes by taking risks and exploring new ideas. Being more open to ideas I may have not known about helped me be more interested in topics that were being discussed in my classes. It has helped me, especially in my math class because I realize that there are other ways to do the math and explore new ideas and questions that will motivate me more.

The last example would be outside of my academic learning which was a personal experience. Habits of Mind impacted and motivated me in a very powerful way that I did not know it can do. Each habit from the excerpt helps me in any situation and the main habit that has helped me a lot is and openness. 

Openness has motivated me in my life because the meaning of it is the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world which helped me make connections with different people. I started a summer job at a daycare center and I loved it until I realized other employees were making friends and I tried to make connections with them but somehow it did not work. I started to realize that I expected them to do what I wanted, however, I did not take into consideration trying out new things like asking about themselves. I used to have my own group of friends and we had everything in common so I stuck to them. That is not what I should have done because when I met my co workers I had nothing in common with them. As time went on I started to have conversations with them and realized I have a lot in common with some of them whether it was music or books I should not have assumed that we had nothing in common. I always have been a type of person to jump conclusions which resulted in causing more problems and not making any friends. Openness is what helped me see other people’s perspective that I might actually relate to.  

Each of these examples has helped to better myself and give me the motivation to achieve my goals. Whether these habits were used in my educational or personal life I can say that each habit can be used in every scenario that I have been through. Habits of Mind is a concept that I will follow throughout my life because these habits have key points that help me understand more about it. Responsibility is explained in the excerpt as the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others. That is a habit I use every day no matter if it is in a positive or negative way because if I take responsibility for my own mistakes or achievements that boosts my motivation. These habits have pushed me to take risks and strive to achieve my goals without giving up because I did not do great in a certain category. It is a concept that is making me a better student because I am more interested in learning and trying new techniques that I may have never heard about.

 I can develop this trait in this specific writing class by using each habit to connect on every assignment I do. Overall the way  I will develop my motivation as a student is to be open to new ideas and different perspectives from others. Habits of Mind will help my motivation in this class because it has changed the way I learn in class and in my personal life. Habits of Mind is a concept that helped me throughout my whole educational life and I still continue to use it. I connected to the other concepts however this is the one that connected to me because I didn't even realize I used these habits before. All eight habits have helped me mature in class and as a person, because I used to think I was lazy for not trying hard enough in class however when I discovered Habits of Mind my idea of new techniques were changed. I always say that if I do not take a risk in any way that I will never achieve anything because taking a risk helps me be a better person and learn more things I have never heard about. Habits of mind will always be a part of me because it has impacted my motivation and life.