Academic Survival Gaining Self-Awareness Presentation based on: Downing, Skip. On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and Life, 3 rd Ed.

Gaining Self-Awareness Successful Students  Recognize when they are off course  Identify their self-defeating patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior  Rewrite their outdated scripts, revising limited core beliefs and self-defeating patterns. Struggling Students  Unconsciously wander through life unaware of being off course.  Remain unaware of their self- defeating patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior.  Unconsciously persist in making choices based on outdated scripts, finding themselves further and further off course with each passing year.

Gaining Self-Awareness Self-sabotage is a mystery that has plagued human beings from the beginning of time. What causes an individual to continue in thoughts and behaviors which result in problems, conflicts, agony, heartache, or failure?

Gaining Self-Awareness Unconscious forces are the usual culprits behind self- sabotage. Experiences from our past play a subconscious role in our behavior patterns. Research shows that the part of the brain called the amygdala stores our emotionally charged experiences and uses these past experiences to evaluate everything that happens to us in the future. When the mind compares a current event to a past event, the amygdala tells the human body and mind to react in the same way it did to the previous, similar experience even if these outdated responses are totally inappropriate.

Gaining Self-Awareness What is your life’s script? Scripts are predetermined responses to any given experience that are based on events from our past and how we reacted to these previous, similar events or experiences. A successful person always ask, “Did my previous response work well?

Gaining Self-Awareness Scripts are composed of two parts: 1.At the conscious level of thinking we find directions for how we are to think, feel, and behave. These directions include our:  Thought patterns – our self-talk patterns  Emotional patterns – our usual feelings  Behavior patterns – our usual actions 2.Deeper in our subconscious are our core beliefs. These are the unconscious judgments we make based on our total background.

Scripts Core Beliefs Emotional patterns Thought patterns Behavior patterns

Self-Awareness How are our life scripts written? 1.The ways others respond to us. 2.What significant adults said about us. Attributes are qualities that tell us how we should be. Injunctions are qualities that tell us how we shouldn’t be. 3.Observing significant others (both adults and peers). 4.Physical, mental, emotional wounds.

Self-Awareness Self defeating patterns are developed when an individual reacts to a current situation by using an outdated or inappropriate script. We can rewrite these outdated or inappropriate scripts by identifying the effects that these scripts are having on our lives, When we identify our self-defeating behaviors, we can take action to alter our responses and thus recreate ourselves. Thus, we stop making strange choices that do not promote our goals and dreams.

Self-Awareness When we become more self-aware of ourselves and our actions we develop a set of rules by which we lives our lives. A good set of life rules would include: 1.Showing up 2.Doing your personal best 3.Participating actively

Self-Awareness Once you are aware of the rewrites that need to be made in your life scripts, use the self-management techniques already developed to recreate your thought patterns, emotional reactions, and your behaviors. Change ineffective scripts and habits by: using a 32-day commitment form avoid “what if” thinking