When giving up my rut in class I thought it would have a negative effect on my social life and no effect on my grades but I was completely wrong. The rut had no effect on my social life really and had a positive effect on my grades. I’m glad i gave up procrastination because I got a lot more work done. I’m going to start applying that strategy in my everyday life also. The quote that goes with my experience is “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think,” (Emerson) Despite pressure to stay after with my friends I went to class. The outcome of that will power was better grades and a better understanding of material. Tonight, for example, instead of staying after and hanging out with my friends, I came straight home and started on my homework. Now that I start my homework earlier, I have more time to do things I actually like. Overall this has been a positive experience.

I have not been on any type of social networks for the bast week, and it was not been kinda fun. But its been hard not to get on any social networks  just because I get on it like ever day. I just try to think of other things to get it out of my head or ill play my ps3 or go out side to forget about it. By giving up my rut has had a pit of an positive effect on me because i have had the time to do more out side. Also to do my homework and think about it a lot more. Its been hard but it was a fun experience and to find out that i don’t need it in my life. in fact its been getting my behind in my school work. My life at the pint was just “simplify, simplify” (Thorean, 384). It just showed me that I need to focus more on my homework and not on this setup social networks. That gets in the way of my thinking and time that i should be putting all on things that matter the most. Now I know that I can just put it a side and do what I need to do then get on it.

At the being of the week i thought that giving up vitamin water would be hardest thing, but so far it has  been the easiest thing i have done. I am learning how to save up money to use for other things, such as helping out around the house with bills. With  giving up this rut i feel fine because i found a way around my plan. My plan is to switch the brand of drink to another. This helps me because the new brand is cheaper than vitamin. am looking forward to see how this all turn out in the end.

Every morning i make my way to 7-11 to buy one of the greatest drinks  that was ever made, which will be vitamin water. Vitamin water cost 1.79 plus tax, in buying my drink everyday i spend at least 10 dollars every week, which put a hole in my pocket. My rut is to give up drinking vitamin water for a whole week. This rut makes my life a little harder because i can be using the money i spend everyday on something more important, such as donating it to a charity of some cause. The difficultly of giving up my rut is that i live 2 minutes away from 7-11 so this task will be extremely difficult to overcome because i am tempted to just walking in the store and buy every flavor in of vitamin water in the store. When i started with my rut i thought it would have been the hardest thing i would do, but it turn out to be easy. If i can break this rut, it will have a positive effect on my life and on my wallet. Emerson says “With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do” (Emerson, 366). 

Abena Osei-Gyamfi♥

12/14/2012

Although my plan sadly failed for the most part, I woke up with my alarm this morning! It was so exciting. The thing is, i pushed my alarm time up to 6:22, making it a little easier to wake up. I feel like 6:22 is the perfect time to wake up because it is still early enough so that i can get ready without rushing, and it also gives me an extra 10 minutes of sleep, as opposed to waking up at 6:12. Sometimes when i get out of the shower, I take a 5 minutes nap, but that doesn’t delay me much and it won’t, especially since I will be waking up earlier. I was able to get everything done and i even got to eat breakfast! I was also, as i thought i would be, in a better mood than usual, and i did not get annoyed with everything as I normally would.  If i had gone with my plan the whole week, it would have had a tremendous effect on my life, and my mornings would have been a whole lot simpler. Once I catch up on all my sleep that i missed from participating in Christmas in Washington, waking up with my alarm should be a piece of cake. I love not having to rush to get ready and get out of the house but then again, who does not? Sometimes, I wish school started later (still ending at the same time), so that  I would be able to get more sleep. I think i want to try to overcome this rut again on my own time because this morning was a good one and I could use a whole lot more. I know some mornings will still be bad, but waking up earlier and not having to rush can make a big difference. I was not the most successful with my plan, but “our greatest glory is not in never failing, but rising up every time we fail.” (Emerson). The next time I try this plan, or any other one, I plan on succeeding.

Abena Osei-Gyamfi♥

12/12/12

I did a televised event called Christmas in Washington this weekend. We’ve been practicing for it the past 2 weeks and i still have not been able to catch up with my sleep. This morning, I strayed from my plan and stayed asleep till 6:30 instead of waking up at 6:12. So far, I have failed my plan everyday this week. I still have to rush to shower, do my hair, choose out and put on my clothes, and leave the house.  I more than love the extra sleep but in the end, it has more of a negative impact than a positive one. The only good thing I have done while trying to overcome this rut, is waking up at 6:30 instead of 6:45. I thought giving up this rut would be a whole lot easier for some reason, but it is the total opposite. I know i adore my sleep, but i still thought I would be able wake up after the first snoozing of my alarm. Doing Christmas in Washington is probably the main reason why my plan has not been working since its so draining. Going to school all day, rehearsing intensely for hours after, and coming to home to homework after has been a lot to deal with and I need enough sleep as I can get. Who ever thought singing could be so tiring?! If i were able to fulfill my plan, my mom would be very pleased with me because she always tries to wake me up early, but i always whine a little so i can sleep more. I would love to take my time to get ready in the morning because “for every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness,” and If i could put my plan into a successful practice  i will be a lot happier in the morning (Emerson).

My Walden plan is gone and it was cool, because it helped me to change my rut and have a positive attitude to my life. First I made a plan which includes what I suppose to do and what I might do. Then I did everything step by step, instead of going to sleep or watch movie. Obviously it gave positive effect to my life, also I’m glad I had this experience. According to the Thoreau “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life.” It’s better to live deep, do something interesting in life and can’t waste our time, but it has to based on changing our ruts and do something special.

It was pretty good, for me it was easy and I did cave in a little but it was still good. Giving up my rut was a positive effect on my life, I was able to get a lot of work done and did other things other than be on my phone all the time.  Even though I say that I love being on my phone I really didn’t miss being on it that much and really thinking about giving up maybe 2 hours each day of not being on my phone an doing something better.

This will not be the first time me doing soothing like this so I was kind of use to the feeling of not having my phone for a long period of time. My mom was thinking maybe doing a fast of things that we are always doing or on our electronics. My life was the same before I tried to get rid of my rut so I wouldn’t say my life was struggling without me being on y my phone.

The quote I have chosen is, “Things do not change; we change.” (Henry David Thoreau). This quote meaning if you change your item will remain the same it will not be going anywhere if you just but it aside and try something new. Like some people say you can always try something new and don’t be afraid to  face your fears or maybe even taking a break from a bad habit.

-Billena Bates

My alarm is set for 6:12 every morning, however, I always ignore it until 6:30 or sometimes even 6:45. Then, when i get out of the shower around 7, i lay back down for about 10 to 15 minutes before i look for something to wear and put on lotion and stuff like that. Sometimes if I am really flustered on what to wear, it can take up to 30 minutes and by the time I am done, I can not make breakfast because my bus comes around 8:50. While I am making my way out of the house, everything begins to anger me since i have to rush to get my stuff together and everything is all of a sudden against me. Then, people bother me and walk too slow and get in my way and say dumb things that make me even angrier. With all that being said, most of my mornings suck.

It will be difficult to overcome this rut because i love sleeping and i feel like i never get enough, hence why i wake up 18 or more minutes after my alarm goes off. Also, I do not really like school so I am not really motivated to get up on time to get ready. Getting out of bed is always so difficult because my eyes never want to stay open and my bed is extra, super duper comfortable and the fact that I am only getting up for school makes it so much harder. If i can break this rut, it will have a very positive effect on my life. Waking up early will give me a lot more time to get ready so i wont have to rush to leave the house. If i do not have to rush, i will be a lot happier in the morning and i will be able to eat breakfast. I am actually pretty happy about trying to wake up when my alarm goes off. I wish to “go confidently in the direction of [my] dreams” and overcome this rut for a week to have smoother mornings (Thoreau).