This week was very stressful in that we had to turn in our final proposal for a grade. Because of this, we had to meet frequently and work on the project as a whole. Right before every meeting, I found myself with a bad attitude and not wanting to go. But then I did a quick re-evaluation of my attitude. Rather than feel pessimistic and stressed about the situation, I flipped it around and told myself to think positively. Being required to attend meetings and go to classes signifies that I have a purpose and I am an asset to a team. This sort of “epiphany” came from the development of my self-motivation and self-awareness competencies of Emotional Intelligence.

We are now beginning to work on our presentation. Two members of the team and myself have already spoken in front of the class for our initial presentation, and now the other half of our group will join us. When assigning what group members should say what, I recommended that one of the group members who is somewhat shy but intelligent should read our situational analysis, a very important part of our research. I didn’t realize it at the time but I enabled this person to act and I gave the power away to someone else in the group who I believed in.

I also challenged the process this week by proposing an alternative introduction to our presentation. I think that the change will benefit the group in many ways and it reminded our group members not to just accept something just because it was the first option proposed.

There are a lot of tests, quizzes, and deadlines this week but whenever I get stressed out I think of the title of this blog post: Pressure makes diamonds. It may be hard to see and it may be a slow process, but hard work right now will pay off immensely in the end.