Course Takeaways
#1 The first takeaway I learned from this course is that it is important to have your own goals and to live your own life. Similar to the ideas in ‘What Does “Being Successful” Mean to You?’ from week 2, being “successful” has many different interpretations. Some people want to earn as much money as they can. Others want to pursue a passion or raise a family. I learned that whatever it is you want to do in life, in order to be successful you have to set goals and work towards achieving them. Having a dream and desire (no matter how strong) is not enough. To actually accomplish the things we want to we must take action and then step-by-step reach our goals.
#2 Another takeaway I learned is that in order to reach these goals mentioned above, we need to understand the best way to reach them. For example, in order to master content in an academic field, we must understand that we cannot study for long sessions on rare occasions and hope to retain everything we read. By first realizing that we better remember when learning steadily and consistently, we can better prepare ourselves for success in reaching our goals.
Similarly, having an organized environment and tools catered towards our strengths can increase the chances we remain focused when following these goals. For example, when taking an online course I personally like to use notability to keep my notes organized. However, I know other people who prefer to use google docs. By knowing our own learning styles and strengths/weaknesses, we can create our own environment for maximum growth.
#3 Finally, something I took from this course is that it is important to surround ourselves with like-minded passionate individuals. Just like the ideas in the “Collaboration” module of this course, there are many tools available to help students come together and share their ideas (Doodle, When2Meet, etc). By remaining organized and aware of these tools, we can encourage collaboration and growth with those who offer unique perspectives on topics that will help us reach our own goals.