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Becoming A Master Student, Concise, Tenth Edition
Dave Ellis
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| | Seven Discovery and Intention
Statement Guidelines | | | | | | | |
Discovery Statements
1. Discover what you want. You can have more energy when your activities lead to what you want. Many students quit school simply because they are unclear about their goals. Writing down what you hope to achieve can make your path more clear.
2. Record the specifics. Observe your actions and record the facts. If you spent 90 minutes chatting online with a favorite cousin instead of your anatomy text, write about it and include the details, such as when you did it, where you did it, and how it felt.
3. Notice your inner voices and pictures. We talk to ourselves constantly in our heads, and our minds are always manufacturing pictures. When internal chatter gets in the way, write down what you are telling yourself. If this seems difficult at first, just start writing. The act of writing can trigger a flood of thoughts. Mental pictures are especially powerful. Picturing yourself flunking a test is like a rehearsal to do just that. One way to take away the power of negative images is to describe them in detail.
4. Notice physical sensations. When you approach a daunting task, such as a difficult accounting problem, notice your physical symptoms--a churning stomach, perhaps, or shallow breathing or yawning. Record your observations quickly, as soon as you make them.
Also notice how you feel when you function well. Use Discovery Statements to pinpoint exactly where and when you learn most effectively.
5. Use discomfort as a signal. When you are writing a Discovery Statement and you begin to feel uncomfortable, bored, or tired, that may be a signal that you are about to do valuable work. Stick with it. Tell yourself you can handle the discomfort just a little bit longer. You will be rewarded.
6. Suspend self-judgment. When you are discovering yourself, be gentle. If you continually judge your behaviors as "bad" or "stupid" or "galactically imbecilic," sooner or later your mind will revolt. Rather than put up with the abuse, it will quit making discoveries. For your own benefit, be kind.
7. Tell the truth. "The truth will set you free" can be viewed as a cliché. Practice telling the truth, and you might find out why the phrase is so enduring. The closer you get to the truth, the more powerful your Discovery Statements will be.
And remember, telling the truth requires courage and vigilance. Don't blame yourself when you notice that you are avoiding the truth. Just tell the truth about it.
Intention Statements
1. Make your intentions positive. Instead of writing "I will not fall asleep while studying accounting," write "I intend to stay awake when studying accounting."
Also avoid the word try. Trying is not doing. When we hedge our bets with try we can always tell ourselves, "Well, I tried to stay awake." We end up fooling ourselves into thinking we succeeded.
2. Make intentions small and keepable. Give yourself opportunities to succeed. Break large goals into small, specific tasks you can accomplish quickly. If you want to get an A in biology, ask yourself, What can I do today? You might choose to study biology for an extra hour. Make that your intention.
Experience success by choosing your intentions with care. Set goals you can accomplish.
3. Use observable criteria for success. Experiment with an idea from trainer Robert Mager, who suggests that goals be defined through behaviors that can be observed and measured.1 Rather than writing "I intend to work harder on my history assignments," write "I intend to review my class notes, and I intend to make summary sheets of my reading." Then, when you review your progress, you can determine more precisely whether you accomplished what you intended.
4. Set timelines. Timelines can focus your attention, especially if used in conjunction with suggestion #2. For example, if you are assigned a term paper, break the assignment down into small tasks and set a precise timeline for each one. You might write "I intend to select a topic for my paper by 9 a.m. Wednesday." Remember that you create timelines for your own benefit, not to make yourself feel guilty. And you can always change the timeline.
5. Be careful of intentions that depend on others. Your intention might depend on the actions of other people. If you write that you intend for your study group to complete an assignment by Monday, your success depends on other students in the group. Make such intentions carefully; then ask for the assistance for the people they depend on.
6. Anticipate self-sabotage. Be aware of what you might do, consciously or unconsciously, to undermine your best intentions. If you intend to study differential equations at 9 p.m., notice when you sit down to watch a two-hour television movie at 8 p.m.
7. Identify your rewards. Rewards that are an integral part of a goal are powerful. For example, your reward for earning a degree might be the career you've always dreamed of. External rewards, such as a movie or an afternoon in the park, are valuable too. These rewards work best when you're willing to withhold them. If you intend to take a nap on Sunday afternoon whether or not you've finish you English assignment, the nap is not an effective reward. Another way to reward yourself is to sit quietly after you have finished your task and savor the feeling. One reason why success breeds success is that it feels good.
Try out your own Invention/Intention exercise.
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