"The Three Ages of Woman" (1905) by Gustav Klimt
According to Grant, if we want to learn when our opinions are "off the mark" and learn to rethink them, "detaching your present from your past" is important.
For this challenge, describe ways in which your present self is different from your past self.
If you want, you can refer to the diagram included in the chapter that has six pairs of circles (you can pick the first from the left, the second from the left, the third from the left, the third from the right, the second from the right, the farthest on the right).
Reflecting on the past few years, I think about how I have matured as a young adult. I realize that it was not by my choice that I matured. It was certain events that shaped me as a person and have caused me to look quite different from my past self. For example, I cry a lot more now than my past self would have ever allowed. Not only do I cry more, but I also discuss my feelings instead of keeping them bottled up. This change in character was caused by a close family member passing away several months ago. I allowed myself to be more emotionally open after this event took place. Unlike my past self, I have learned that that its good to be emotionally open with yourself and others. If I had to pinpoint which circles represents me, I would say third from the left. I still carry parts of my old self, but certain events in my life have caused me to rethink the way I process my emotions.
ReplyDeleteEmily Crowley
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ReplyDeleteI have never been a reflective kind of person, I have always accepted that past me was more of a trial run that lead into me becoming the best present me can be. The past is what shaped me and everyone else who the young adults that we are. I was always more mature than others my age naturally but I really matured and stepped up after a tough event. I lost my little brother four years ago and changed from open and outgoing to shutting everyone out of my life. Emotional isolation was my life for two years before I learned to open up my feelings and accept help from others. I was always self-centered and would not help anyone but now I love collaboration and discussion that solve issues. I became a giver rather than a taker. In terms of the circles from the diagram the third from left fits me since I am the sum of my past but they are now both largely different.
ReplyDeleteSaul Padilla
Its interesting to see how different the grieving process is for everyone. Even though I didn't include it in my comment, I also had periods of emotional isolation. I am glad that you are able to be more emotionally open now and that you became more of a "giver".
DeleteEmily Crowley
It's interesting to see the ways in which I have grown as a young woman, looking back at my past self. I was painfully shy until I started working at a restaurant a couple years ago, where I had to teach myself how to talk with customers. Chances are I won't talk to you in public if I don't know you, but I find it a lot easier to talk to people now. I also find myself now being more mellow and, dare I say, wiser the older I get. I worked at an afterschool program this summer with children, and it is easy to think of yourself at their young age when you're around them - how you were once as curious and unknowing at that age, the life lessons you were about to learn around that time. It's really fascinating to compare the past and present versions of yourself. You can even think of it as a character arc, if you will.
ReplyDeleteLauren George
As I reflect on my past self, it is interesting to see how much I have grown throughout my life. I matured at a very young age, around the time I was in 6th grade. Looking back now, I realize that I did not matured my choice but rather by the situation. My parents did not speak English and had no education so they did not have a good paying job and had to work night shifts to provide for us. That left just my siblings and me at my house with no one to take care of us but ourselves. I realize that made me grow up at a young age and mature earlier than others in general. Certain events that occurred in my life shaped me into who I am today. I have always learned to think of others before yourself as I helped my mom run the house and take care of everyone. This is one of the value that I learned at a young age that I always keep in my mind. In looking for differences in my past and present selves, I would say that I have a little less responsibility now because I live away from home and I don't have that pressure to take care of others as much anymore. I am a little more open to others emotionally now than in my past.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the best way to explain the differences between my present self and my past self is that if my past self could see me now, she wouldn’t recognize me. My current self has experienced more allowing it to be considered wiser whereas my younger self was extremely impulsive and a little naïve. There are many days where I find myself missing the person I once was, I could control my emotions like a light switch, cut ties with others instantly, I was cold hearted, but it made life easier. However, as I’ve grown up, I choose to deal with emotional struggles, I choose confront others when there are misunderstandings, and I choose to experience life to the fullest. Even though I sometimes feel that I miss the person I once was I remind myself that without her, I would not be the person I am today. Although life isn’t as easy as it used to be, and I am not completely satisfied with who I am currently I continue to love myself and make small changes to be the person I want to be.
ReplyDeleteDeborah Thornton
I frequently reflect on who I have been in the past, this allows me to be able to learn and grow so that I can become a more authentic version of myself. I have grown to love who I have been in the past, but to also appreciate the fact that I have made and will continue to make mistakes that I will continue to learn from in years to come. Due to past challenges that I have faced, I regret bits and pieces about how I handled situations. I have learned to keep my emotions better under control and am now able to take constructive criticism without letting it personally affect me. I am now able to embrace conflict so that I get what I want out of life instead of blindly only doing what others want in order to make them happy. If I had to choose one of the diagram circles to represent my past and present self, I would have to say that I am the third circle from the right. My past self is extremely important in who I am currently, the trauma and lessons that I have learned previously definitely affect how I react to most, if not all circumstances. Although my past self heavily influences who I am in the present, I also am constantly learning new things and making new mistakes and honestly that is something that I am incredibly grateful for.
ReplyDeleteMadylyn Emerson
When I reflect on how my past self is different from my present self the first thing that comes to my mind is the way in which I no longer allow what people think of me to control the things I do. Looking back, I see how much I used to let what others thought of me get under my skin and limit the things I did. It affected what I ate, who I spent time with, and my behavior and mannerisms I would have when people were around. As I have gotten older, I have become more confident with who I am and have come to realize that what I think of myself is much more important. I now put my best interests forward and have branched away from the negative atmosphere and impact that time of my life had on me.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I have had an issue with cynicism and apathy to the world around me for a while now, and I can't truly feel if I've felt I've out grown that or if that's just me, but I certainly have mellowed out. I loved to play devil's advocate all the time, I used to argue for things I didn't actually believe simply because I loved an argument, a debate. Looking back, I don't think there was anything truly wrong with that but it did hurt forming relationships with others, it made me seem completely disingenuous, as if I held no true values or beliefs of my own and was just looking for a rise out of someone. I'm glad that I'm not constantly looking for a verbal fight anymore, and I hope I can make some better relationships here than I had doing so.
ReplyDeleteI am very different from my past self, in my opinion. For example, I trust my emotions far less as they can be wild but have learned (Especially recently) to identify my gut feelings as opposed to actual emotions. I guess you could call it intuition. I used to rely very heavily on my emotions for everything and was a fairly dramatic child, and was often told so. I spent a lot of time self reflecting and trying to manage my emotions and those of the people around me. Now, I still tend to be a pretty empathetic person and take my emotions and others very seriously, however the reactions to these emotions are more communicative and less for emotional release purposes, which I have learned alongside therapy to find healthier methods for. I believe this latter thing has contributed most to my changes and made room for other things to take foothold.
ReplyDeleteOne way that I can clearly see how I am different from my past self is how I deal with my emotions. From elementary school to high school, I was a competitive gymnast. I loved the sport and I know I learned a lot about having confidence in yourself and getting out of your comfort zone. But, I also know in that environment I was trained to bottle my emotions entirely. We were taught that crying was weak, being afraid was weak, and you were never allowed to say no to a coach who asked you to do a skill. Being so young and impressionable, I took these to heart and carried them with me for a long time. I never cried in front of other people, because I was taught it was a sign of both physical and mental weakness. In the gym, toughness was praised and sensitivity was looked down on, and I definitely took this into the real world. Not only did I see emotions as weakness in myself but I also looked at others who were emotional as weak. It took me a long time to grow out of those views. Now I have gained emotional intelligence, and while I am still working on it I can see the progress I have made. I know that I will only continue to get better and learn to express my emotions to others.
ReplyDeleteMy present self is different from my past self in many ways. The most notable change is how I interact with others. I used to be very shy and introverted, and being around people that I did not know brought me a lot of stress. While being in a big crowd is not my favorite, I am now much more personable and feel less anxious around people I do not know. I am also much more focused on the present than I used to be. When I was younger, specifically in middle school and the beginning of high school, I was constantly thinking about what my future held and what I could do to get where I wanted to be. While I don’t believe that it was always a bad thing, it kept me from appreciating my life from moment to moment. After living through a global pandemic, I have learned that things can change at any moment, and I am much more appreciative of the situation I am in right now.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about myself six years ago, I can point out many areas of growth. At the age of fourteen, I was immature, insecure, ignorant, and shy. At that age, I was unable to control my emotions to the point I said extremely hurtful words to a dear friend of mine. Since that day, I learned two of the most valuable things in life- never speak out of anger, you cannot take it back, and it’s always better to consider someone else’s feelings over your own. The amount of ignorance and immaturity I had baffled me. I truly believe the occurrence described previously shaped me tremendously into who I am today. Finally, I would like to say that I gained a great amount of confidence in myself, which has in return made me more outspoken. Reflecting on my past behavior encourages me to do better, and to be better.
ReplyDelete-Caitlin Lynn
I would’ve described my past self as someone who was very exciting, however looking back on it I would describe my past self as someone who was very young and insecure. I’ve gotten a lot older and more mature, even in just the last year, and my eyes have definitely opened up a lot since I was a freshman in high school. I've also obviously grown physically, however I would say that the growth mentally has been the greatest amount of change I have seen compared to my past self. I was very arrogant and ignorant in the past, and now that I’ve grown up and learned a lot more (both in the classroom and outside) I can say that the mental maturity that has occurred has changed me into someone who is much more confident and founded as an individual.
ReplyDeleteWhen I look back on my past self I am saddened. I am saddened by the way I reacted to situations, the way I let people treat me, and the way I treated myself. I allowed myself to be walked over and used for years. Going into my sophomore year I met several people who changed me for the better. Whether our memories are good or bad, I learned from them. This past year I reached the highest point of my life and the lowest all within a few months of each other. This has given me a unique view of life. “In one study, when people felt detached from their past selves, they became less depressed over the course of the year. When you feel as if your life is changing direction, and you’re in the process of shifting who you are, it's easier to walk away from the foolish beliefs you once held.” (Think again, Adam Grant, 63). This quote from the book made me realize that the major changes that happened in my life last year created a ripple effect that allowed me to detach from my past views and look towards the future. Thus, creating a new sense of self. I went from unhappy, quiet, shy, and a follower to someone who takes any opportunity to make a new friend and smile at someone new. Permitting myself to listen to the change has helped me grow in ways that I don’t even fully know yet. - Emily Ford
ReplyDeleteAs I reflect on my past self and compare to myself today, I see a lot that has changed throughout the years. Mostly, I have matured substantially in many ways, whether it be in my intellect or physically. Also, I have met so many incredible people. In contrast, there are some habits that I have become prey to. One thing that is different from my past self is procrastination. When I was younger, I liked to hurry up and get things done. Since I was a senior in high school, I have begun waiting until the last minute to do any assignments in school or chores around the house. Another difference is how I approach my diet and exercise. College baseball really helped me become more cautious about what I am putting into my body and how I stay in shape. I am a healthier version of my past self without a doubt, physically. However, I have also noticed a change in my mental health. My past self was in a better mental state because of constant anxiety and stress being built up in my head in the present. Recently I have found ways to manage my headspace, so overall I would say that I am very pleased in the man that I have become, and I hope to continue meeting new people and gaining knowledge from topics that I may not be too fond of now.
ReplyDeleteMy past self was much nicer to people who were antagonistic towards him, as he believed that you just have to be nice to people and eventually they'll be nice back. My past self was a much more miserable person because he had less control over his emotions. Over all I think my past self was a much more emotionally stunted and reckless person.
ReplyDeleteMy past self was much more shy about everything than my present self is. Both my present self and my past self still have anxiety and can be really bad at speaking out when something is wrong or when I don’t understand. The biggest difference between me and my past self I think is that I have become more aware of things. As I grew older, my view on things have changed slightly, enough to where I can detect feelings better than I could before.
ReplyDelete