A Thing: The 2nd One. (Blog.)

While I still hold that you are the most important tool you could ever have, you will certainly be needing more!  It is still up to you, first and foremost, to get the job done, but there are certain tools out there that can enhance and assist you in your job; they can make you into a power tool!  Today, we are going to talk about one of these tools that, if you are reading this, (which I think we can all agree that you are.) you may already be more familiar with than you think.  (The Blog.) 

The web log, more commonly known as the "blog" is a great tool for expressing yourself, sharing information, and joining an interactive communication network that revolves around the ideas of yourself and others!  I have created this blog, as an assignment for my Instructional Technology class.  Because I created this blog for a specific reason, my decisions in creating and customizing my blog were specific in nature, as well.  I chose my URL and blog title, based upon guidelines for an assignment for the class.  (In fact, every post I make on this blog, until further notice, is made in compliance with a set of 23 prompts regarding "things" that will help our class's pupils become better acquainted with technology which can be used to assist teachers, and those who they work with, such as school administrators, students, and the parents of students.)  My avatar was created using a website called doppelme.com, which was simple enough to use.  I tried to create an avatar which accurately reflected both my appearance and personality.  I think I was rather successful; don't you?

Most of the time that went into getting my blog up and running was spent on experimenting with various layouts, colors, and fonts via Blogger's "Customize" feature.  Warning:  If you choose to "customize" your blog, you ARE at risk of being sucked into a state of option-induced hypnosis which will be terminated only once you find yourself utterly satisfied with your blog's look. 

Creating Things:  23 of Them. was not difficult for me, as I already considered myself, upon setting out to create it, to be quite a bit of a veteran blogger.  That's right, kids.  I have been bopping around the blogosphere now for three years and some change--almost four.  However, I was accustomed to the ways of a different blogging site, and that makes it hard for me to define whether or not having blogging experience actually ended up coming in handy or not.  On one hand, I knew that there were certain features of Blogger that were bound to exist, because, logically, and in accordance with other blog sites, they would exist.  I would find myself looking in all the wrong places, though.  I would compare using blogspot to learning a foreign language, I think.  You know there's a phrase for "Where is the bathroom?"; but you just don't know what it is, just like you know there's a shortcut somewhere that leads you to your page as the public sees it; you just don't know where it is.

Hopefully, next time I report, I'll have figured out how to work this website a little more fluently.  In the mean time, if you haven't already discovered the wonders of blogging and all of its possibilities--try it out!  Whip yourself up a nice web log using Blogger, or any other site that tickles your fancy!  Remember:  blogging is a great tool to upgrade your always-accessible-tool self to a powertool!

A Thing: The 1st One. (You.)

So, let's face it.  Every situation you encounter in life will have one thing in common.  That's right.  Every single solitary situation.  Do you resent that?  Are you questioning me on this?  Are you making grand, internal statements about how there is no possible way that every situation one encounters could share a common variable, because in the universe around us, everything is constantly changing, so there is simply no way that anything could remain the same through every experience we ever have?  Well, if you are, then I am glad I could trick you into taking your daily dose of critical thinking.  However, you are incorrect.  There is one thing that will be there, consistently, through everything you ever do:  it's you. 

And you know what that makes you?  Super duper important, that's what.  It is for this reason that self-examination is vital to success.  Good self-examination skills may not be necessary to succeed, but they are surely a great assistance.  Think about it.  Imagine absolutely always having access to the greatest tool in the world, but not knowing how to work it.  Self-examination is your way of writing the instruction manual to that great and always-accessible tool.  (You.) 

If you dig what I'm putting down, but you honestly have no idea how to go about this foretold of "self-examination", try starting here.  This tutorial will familiarize you with seven and a curiously present "half" habits to start thinking about making for yourself.  As you're mulling these over, consider which habits you already have, to whatever degree; and which habits are more likely to fall into the "not so much" category.

For instance, when I thought about these habits, myself, I realized that habits one and three are the easiest for me to carry out, and that habit four was the hardest.  This, consequently, led to light being shed on the aspects of my character which make these habits respectively easier or harder to make.  Now, I am aware that habit one is a habit that I form almost naturally, due to the fact that I prefer to imagine the big picture, before I concentrate my efforts on just a corner of it, and that the reason I take well to habit three is that I tend not to view obstacles as having the potential to stop me, but rather view them as having the potential to make me go in a different direction (around the obstacle).  I am also aware that habit four is hard for me to form due to my intrinsic hesitation to believe in myself and my abilities.

See how that little bit self-examination familiarized me with my strengths and weaknesses?  I wrote practically the entire first chapter of my instruction manual, just by doing that!  (Figuratively, of course.)  So now, write yours!  Do a little introspection.  What are you good at?  What could use a little bit of work?  What do you like doing?  What are you a less jazzed about?  Figure yourself out!   Learning how to utilize yourself to the best of your ability will be a great advantage to you, in all of those situations you will encounter in your life, because you will always have you with you!  You are your most valuable tool; learn how to use yourself!