Final Project for Psy 1220

This Project caused me a lot of stress. It is a paper on my definition of Success written in letter form to my Children. I struggled because I couldn't really wrap my head around what my definition is. It's a great question to really ask yourself and think about.

Erin Godfrey

Success Project

The purpose of this letter is for me to express my knowledge, opinions and lessons learned in creating success in all that I do through out life. Hopefully by reading this letter my posterity will get to know who I am, and how I define success; and how I implement it in my life. 

While contemplating how to define success in life and career, I asked several people what they thought being successful was. By doing this I realized everyone has their own definition. Success is a very personal thing, we all have different aspirations, hopes, fears, trials and dreams. What may be right for one, will not be right for another.

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved." 

 Helen Keller

Helen Keller's definition of success is beautiful. It is very true to who I am and how I would define it. In my world things have not always been easy, this I am so grateful for. I have many experiences to help shape and mold my Goals and Life Plan. I am learning to chose to be happy, no matter the circumstance of the day. I am going to College so that I can be educated and set an example for my kids. My idea of Success is achieving the goal of raising a happy, well adjusted family. In the following paragraphs I will dive deep into 3 Core Beliefs that I feel are so very important to develop in order to achieve my personal success in my life as a whole.

Accepting Personal Responsibility for the outcome of our life is the first Core Belief that I find so vital to achieving the goals we set for ourselves. On May 25, 2008 I was 8 months pregnant with my third child Sophie. Hayden was 9 and Gracie was 7. It was a typical Sunday evening, my husband Wes was snoozing on the couch as I was cooking dinner. The kids were quietly playing and doing homework. Within 30 minutes time my life went from perfectly normal to perfectly chaotic. I went from living in the home of my dreams and having pretty much everything I ever wanted to being left homeless with only the clothes on my back due to a record breaking 205 mi per hour winds of a  tornado that flattened my home and blew away most of my belongings. While standing on the lawn looking at the devastation around me I knew I had a choice to make. I could choose to let this horrific event ruin my life by allowing myself to be a victim of the tornado or I could choose to overcome the trial and better myself because of it. I chose the latter and have benefited greatly because of that choice. By taking Personal Responsibility I have created an outcome of gratitude for the blessings and miracles that I witnessed, I recognize that ,though, one of the hardest things I have gone through in my 32 years of life it has strengthened me in ways that were not possible without the trial and devastation of the tornado.

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." 

 Eleanor Roosevelt

The second Core Belief that I value as an important role to my success is Self-Motivation. Without it we live from day to day, with no plans or goals insight; by which it makes accomplishment something we never know. Feeling Accomplishment promotes such important things as Happiness and Self-Worth. You must set goals and make a plan. Then the fun part; Visualize yourself accomplishing your goals this will make for great Self-Motivation. As of late, one of my goals is to get my Degree. I have set up mini goals and written out a 5 year plan to help myself achieve this. I visualize the day I get my degree often, I feel the feelings of happiness and this helps me to stay motivated.

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it."
 Ralph Waldo Emerson

The third important Core-Belief that I would like to make note of is Self- Awareness. I have made my choice to be Personally Responsible, I have set my goals and recognized my motivation to achieve those goals, but reality sets in and I start to digress...STOP, recognize self-sabotage, learn to recognize self-defeating habits that could potentially take you off the course of accomplishing your goals. Most important learn how to get back on course. We are all living by life rules, whether they are self-empowering or self-destructive. It is important to recognize your rules and make new ones that are self-empowering and let go of the not-so-good ones. My rules are derived from the words of Gordon B. Hinkley, they are as follows:

"Be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful."
 Gordon B. Hinckley  Way to Be! : 9 Rules For Living the Good Life)

There are many more Core Beliefs that you can form to help in creating a successful well-rounded life, the three I have chosen to highlight are beliefs that are important and personal to me. Not because they happen to be strengths for me but actually because they are all very challenging for me which in the long run make them the most full-filling and beneficial to how I create my own Successful life. My hopes is that this letter will cause self-reflection if not inspiration, and help lead my posterity "On Course".

My Grade: Thanks you Erin for this assignment. I seldom give the whole 100 points but I thought the manner in which you completed this paper was excellent. You followed the directions and included some personal experiences for each of the strategies used!

Congrats!

Bob

100/100