Yesterday morning I had the great pleasure and excitement of handing in my first Honours assignment. The adrenaline rush was definite no joke! I ran high on it for several hours after. It was such an accomplishment to hand that assignment with it. Especially since I felt like I struggled all through that.
The biggest lesson I learned from the week’s proceedings is that sometimes, you shouldn’t listen to what other people say about “where you should be up to at this point in time”. It was all the unnecessary stress that I was feeling that really pushed me over the edge. I had taken to heart everything a particular lecturer had said and starting panicking because I wasn’t up to any of those. Plus I was feeling so exhausted and run down, to the point on Tuesday night, I felt like I had collapsed within myself and just couldn’t do anything. And that frustrated me even more because I was pushing against a brick wall.
Conceding defeat for the day, I slept but I promised myself tomorrow will be a new start and I will do more tomorrow refreshed.
Wednesday morning, I attended a seminar that Hons students have to go to hear about various projects and things. This seminar was presented by Wendy Lawrence in relation to the Southampton’s Women’s Study in the health psychology area and looking at women’s dietary habits etc. But the biggest thing I took away from that was their training for health professionals to ask better questions and listen more to clients. The training focused on asking more “What” and “how” questions rather than bombarding patients with suggestions or telling them what to do. We did a little exercise using that and I was very struck by how difficult it is to refrain from jumping in, giving advice/tips and to just listen and formulate more open ended questions. Similarly, I found it very difficult to answer the questions thrown back at me.
Yet over the week I found myself thinking about it more and more and how I would answer the question differently, then a plan started formulating and I started working out what I needed to do to achieve my goal of organising my time better. I think this technique is not rocket science but it’s amazing how something small like that could catalyse such a change. Since then I’ve been trying to use it as often as I can. It’s always interesting to hear how people deal with issues in their lives. I find it exceptionally inspirational to hear their stories. Funnily enough I am never fond of telling people stories about myself.
Another thing I really like hearing from people is what motivates them to do what they do. What are the things that drives them and keeps them going when they feel everything is going against them.
What does on in people’s heads is amazing and I will never tire of hearing and wondering about it. It’s my favourite thing about talking to people.
Makes me realise that there are so many inspirational people in my life and that I admire them all for one thing or another 🙂
HangryPancreas 