Selective attention is essential in our daily lives because it controls our awareness of certain things in our surrounding and how we process information. Focused attention can be described as the process by which human beings filter a message from a combination of signals occurring at once. According to Stevens and Bavelier (p. 40), selective attention enables a person to focus on one stimulus and overlook other irrelevant or distracting stimuli. For instance, a student doing an assignment in a place where there are too many external noises may ignore the sound because it is irrelevant. This concept has helped me in my academic performance because I depended on it to extract meaning from the words I heard, thus improving my language skills.
The principle of Success Related To Selective Attention
The principle of success which relates to selective attention is being extraordinary. When an individual decides to become extraordinary, it means that he or she has given up the healthy life. One of the goals for assignment 1 was to lose 20 pounds before January 1, 2019. This principle applies to this goal because I might have gained weight due to many things that form part of my healthy life. I will live an exceptional experience for the remaining portion of this year and up to January 1, 2019. In this case, normal life could mean that I have been binge-eating junk food while binge-watching TV most of the time. I will have to leave the safety of the eating and relaxing flock. The fact of the matter is that losing 20 pounds by January 1, 2019, may not be a walk in the park. I will have to get out of my comfort zone and exercise regularly. Besides, selective attention will come handy when choosing my dietary plan so that I can maintain a desirable weight, size, and shape during the throughout the workouts.
Spaced-Repetition
Spaced-repetition can best be understood as an approaching to learning that focuses on long-term memory. It entails reviewing learning material frequently over time rather than accumulating a lot of information in the brain at once. I firmly believe that spaced-repetition best describes my approach to learning from elementary through high school to the university. From my viewpoint, learning usually begins with what people are taught in class. I usually review class notes after a concept is explained and after a week until I fully understand and can contextualize the idea. I can report without fear of any contradiction that the results of using this learning concept were just amazing for me. I could remember a lot of information for a long time and have not forgotten essential concepts I reviewed. As a result, I realized that I always had ample time for other activities because preparing for the exam was not a big deal (Kelley " Whatson p. 589).
Consistency is the principle of success that I will put into practice while pursuing my goals. In the words of the famous movie actor, Bruce Lee, "Long-term consistency beats short-term intensity." This statement demonstrates that individuals with commitment and determination are usually motivated to win. I am confident that I will purposefully accomplish my goal to read four books in the next year if I remain committed to the course. Spaced-repetition alone may not be enough to enable me to understand all the four books in the next year. In this respect, I will consistently read the books through spaced-repetition so that I can grasp as much information as possible and for my course and future use. As a principle of success, consistency will enable me to leapfrog the problem of book monotony because I will be committed to reading them.
Habit Formation
Habit formation can be understood as the process by which our old manners become part of us through repetition. There is no doubt in arguing that we form habits when actions we involve ourselves in are automatically stimulated through the activation of an individual’s mind. As a result, a person has little control over whatever they are doing, and his or she is not aware when these types of behaviors are taking place. Habit formation gradually transfers one’s ability to initiate actions from their mindful attentional to the unconscious attentional. This concept has greatly impacted my daily practices in that I automatically reach for a cigarette every day I wake up in the morning, thereby making it my habit because it is always hard for me to involve myself in any activity before I use cigarette (Lally et al. 998).
The principle of success that relates to habit formation is taking responsibility for everything a person does. In this case, an individual should form good behaviors because he or she is responsible for his or her own future. This principle requires people to think of their future and be accountable for the mistakes they do in life. I plan to use this principle to achieve my goals because it will make me learn from my mistakes, I will understand why I need to lose 20 pounds by Jan 1st, 2019 so that I do no gain weight again in the future. As a principle of success, taking responsibility will help me develop the best habits such as reading the books every morning I wake up (Lally p. 138).
Mindset
An individual's mindset refers to the view he or she has adopted. Achieving success in classroom activities, in business, and in life depends on an individual's mentality because it determines whether his or her abilities and characteristics can change. Mindset can be grouped into fixed and growth mindset. People with a fixed type of mindset only think about how good they will look rather than looking at the available learning opportunities while people with a growth mindset are after developing and advancing in the activities they do, they rarely give up. I have seen this concept severally in my life because being this kindly of person who always wants to develop my knowledge capacity; I do not give up as I learn from the challenges I face in the class (Stauffer p. 233).
Growth and comfort cannot co-exist the principle of success which relates to mindset. According to this principle, I can either step forward into growth or backwards into security. I plan to put this principle into action to all my such as losing 20 pounds before Jan 1st, 2019, reading four books in the next year, and completing 12 college course over the next year because I believe that growth and comfort cannot co-exist. According to this principle, the increase cannot take place if an individual chooses comfort over education because for a person to grow and develop he or she has to struggle. I plan to use this principle to achieve the abovementioned goals because I will have to fight and overcome the obstacles that come with losing 20 pounds by Jan 1st,
2019, reading the four books, and completing the 12 college courses.
Grit
Grit entails flexibility, passion, determination, and focus that enables an individual to uphold the discipline and to be optimistic to persevere even in the face of rejection, failure, discomfort. Grit encourages an individual always to remain positive, work hard, and remain committed to whatever they are doing in spite of the many challenges they may be going through. There is overwhelming evidence to support the argument that gritty people are always motivated and courageous because they always seek happiness even where there is no happiness (Eskreis-Winkler et al. p 36). Even though the learning process is not always enjoyable as a gritty person, I learnt that I could not improve without putting the effort in the things I do. Grit has helped me in my academic performances and life in general because I am always motivated to advance in whatever I do even if it is tough, thus making all my struggles worthwhile.
The principle of success which relates to grit is consistency beats intensity. According to this principle, every individual can succeed in his or her endeavors if he or she adopts a different tactic to approach the issue. Achieving my goals will not be a walk in the path if I do not remain positive because, in the long run, it is consistency, not intensity. Therefore, I plan to use this principle to make the strongest commitment to lose the 20 pounds, read the four books and complete the 12 college courses despite what will happen. There is no doubt in arguing that success is all about how consistent an individual is, I will have to be passionate, positive, and hardworking throughout the journey (Bowman et al. p. 639).
Work cited
Bowman, Nicholas A., et al. "Keep on truckin’or stay the course? Exploring grit dimensions as differential predictors of educational achievement, satisfaction, and intentions." Social Psychological and Personality Science 6.6 (2015): 639-645.
Eskreis-Winkler, Lauren, et al. "The grit effect: Predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school, and marriage." Frontiers in psychology 5 (2014): 36.
Kelley, Paul, and Terry Whatson. "Making long-term memories in minutes: a spaced learning pattern from memory research in education." Frontiers in human neuroscience 7 (2013): 589.
Lally, Phillippa, and Benjamin Gardner. "Promoting habit formation." Health Psychology Review 7.sup1 (2013): S137-S158.
Lally, Phillippa, et al. "How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world." European journal of social psychology 40.6 (2010): 998-1009.
Stauffer, Dennis A. "Evaluating mindset as a means of measuring personal innovativeness." International Journal of Innovation Science 7.4 (2015): 233-248.
Stevens, Courtney, and Daphne Bavelier. "The role of selective attention on academic foundations: a cognitive neuroscience perspective." Developmental cognitive neuroscience 2 (2012): S30-S48.
