Hi all. I never got much time to write my personal statements until now because i have so much homework. =\ Prompt 2:
Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?
Help/feedback/suggestions appreciated!!
When I examine my personal qualities, the aspect that strikes me as most important is my ability to ignore extrinsic motivation and let only my intrinsic motivation drive me. This factor has let me do better in school in addition to feeling less stressed even when the difficulty of my classes has gone up. I do not like to think of my classes as stressful and difficult, but as fun and challenging. I am grateful for this quality because it essentially allows me to follow my personality and do well academically without the pain and stress that would result if I forced myself to do better for a reward such as good grades. I actually look forward to tests so that I can test my knowledge and understanding of the subject. In addition, when I do poorly on a test, I do not try to punish myself with an excessive amount of the "end of the world" feeling; I just analyze the mistakes that I made and correct them for the next occasion.
Although this factor does wonders for my academic scores and health today, I have only recently been able to tap the potential that it holds. Before, I had self criticism problems and stress problems when I had too much homework. Then I learned that these problems were not caused by my nature, but by how I reacted to stimuli. I decided to recondition myself for each of these problems in order to get rid of the fear and anger. This freed up an appreciable amount of my willpower and energy, which I use to make sure that I perceive my classes and my life as fun and challenging instead of too easy or too difficult.
The primary aspect of my personal nature is creating, analyzing, understanding, and adapting ideas, and because carrying out my primary function is natural and fun, I realize that I do not need to have to have any kind of reward for it. I pursue my academic interests just for the sake of pursuing them. Occasionally, I may slip up and let a fear of the future enter my mind, but I can easily remove it. I now welcome challenges such as my social life and time management because I know that I can only improve when I overcome them. I even get bored when I have no challenges because I know that it will cause me to stagnate, and stagnation is the last thing I want; I prefer to constantly improve. The knowledge that I can face these challenges without any stress or self criticism makes confronting them all the better.
Refreshing essay, oh, how true! Congrats on being able to achieve this enlightenment!!
Funny, it was NOT easy to come up with a simple title for the personal quality you described in your essay: "my ability to ignore extrinsic motivation and let only my intrinsic motivation drive me."
Effective cognitive reconditioning (or adjustments,) unconditional living, detachment from extrinsic motivation, having "right" perspective (or attitude) makes all the difference, or cliches like the power of positive thinking??? Impossible to sum up in one word.
hyphen: self-criticism
The primary aspect of my personal nature this does not really mean anything, so it makes the sentence unnecessarily complicated, and that is never good. And you can't have all those things be the primary aspect.
I think you should do a little more to share insight into intrinsic motivation... what is it that drives you? Something you hope to accomplish as soon as possible in this world full of suffering people? :-)
And here is a sentence I would like to change:
In addition, when I do score poorly on a test, I do not try to punish myself with an excessive amount of the "end of the world" feeling;(that part is awesome)
I just analyze the mistakes that I made and correct them for the next occasion. (Right here, you leave the reader hanging a little... the first paragraph should have one more sentence added to it so that you can leave the reader thinking about the main idea the essay intends to convey.
