The activity I have chosen to do is Healthy Girls for Life. After two sessions of this activity, I can say that it is definitely not what I was expecting. Firstly, the group of girls I was working with was, to my liking, much smaller than I anticipated. I definitely found it less intimidating and lonely than I thought. Secondly, we as the participants have a big say on what we want to be doing next week. We can collectively ask for a certain workout, such as CrossFit/yoga/weights/Zumba, etc, and our instructor, Ms. Toth, will help keep it at a level and pace appropriate for us. This really makes the activity that much more enjoyable. The first session, we did a cardio based work-out, as well as a small introduction into the activity. The second session was surrounded by weights activities. This one, in particular, was quite challenging because I hadn’t extensively used weights in any activities I did. However, I did find the session all the more enjoyable because I was trying something new. As well as this, I was able to pass the time by making friends from different grades, which is once again something I haven’t done a lot of.
#LO 4: Commitment
- How did I show perseverance, resilience, and commitment in this activity?
- The second session was harder for me, as the pace was quite fast considering I had very little experience with weights. This was something I wasn’t comfortable with, however, despite it being a new experience, what was very encouraging was my desire to try new things and challenge myself. This “challenge” mindset was what helped me persevere and push myself, and after this activity, I can definitely see myself trying this again.
- How did I maintain my motivation for this activity?
- Because of the enjoyment I got from not only the new weights based work out itself, but also the joy of doing something new, I know that I will stay motivated for this activity through the emotional benefits following the session.
- How did I help others of how did others help me stay committed to this activity?
- The motivation was bidirectional, meaning that both parties kept each other committed through our constant engagement with each other. There were some people where weight based activities were new as well, so it was fun sharing our thoughts on them as we did the session. As well as this, Ms. Toth told us to find an interesting fact about one person by the end of the day. Not only did this stir up more conversation, but because of this, it was easier to talk to each other, and not only be motivated by how everyone else was doing, but also be motivated by the conversation and encouragement of others. This helped more because of how small the group was; it was easy to familiarize yourselves with your group members.
- What impact did my commitment or lack thereof have on the success of the activity
- My commitment worked as a motivational factor for those who were perhaps slightly unmotivated, as it did for me. But, something to note was that when I was unmotivated and needed a break, those who needed one but were too scared of judgment took one too, and thanked me for starting the break. This was very interesting to me, as I didn’t expect people to go out of their way as to waiting for someone else to stop to breathe or get some water outside when they needed to. Referring back to the question, my actions induced a chain reaction. While this did reduce the time we had, however, it made the activity more successful in the way that it was done much better than it would have done otherwise, due to more motivation and energy, instead of the performance being sloppy.
- What things affected my commitment levels, ability to preserve or my resolve?
- The amount of encouragement, the conversation, and of course, the intensity of the work out all influenced my perseverance. As mentioned before, when there was an engaging conversation, I found it easier to carry on with the workout. When there was motivation, through either watching someone else who was really good at what we were doing or, of course, verbal motivation, it was easier to carry on.
