In my Interpersonal Communication Class, students complete an individual project centered around developing personal awareness.

The project is composed of three parts:

• Strengthening a relationship

• Building self-awareness

• Facing fears / personal challenges

I decided that this semester I am going to do the project with my students, only I will blog about it.

The relationship I am going to work on is the one with myself. I have a tendency to put the needs of everyone else first, and my own goals and needs get pushed back. To begin, I am going to have two goals:

• Build boundaries around my work schedule, I tend to be available 24/7 – this is complicated by much of my work being online!
• Focus on sleep. I do not get enough, and everything suffers.

I am already very self-aware… but there is always room to grow! I am going to start this process through reading and reflection, as well as exploring a radical change in my diet to see how I feel… that change is to give up meat for at least 21 days... something I have been wanting to do for awhile but never have pulled the trigger… I am not sure how my body will react but we are about to find out!

For facing my fears…. I am going to confront issues of gravity… Box Jumps… Pull-ups… if it requires both feet leaving the ground at the same time…. I tend to run from it! I don’t know why I have this mental block, but I do! So, I am going to work on it… and see what progress can be made. The first step was admitting it!

I will be posting weekly updates of my progress in these three areas… I am ready to practice what I preach, and see where I stand in sixteen weeks at the end of the semester!