Book Study 2021-2022
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and Its All Small Stuff
Chapter 21: Imagine Yourself at Your Own Funeral
Question: If you could change anything right now about your life, what would it be?
Question: If you could change anything right now about your life, what would it be?
The person that I really want to be is a person that people will remember twenty years from now. I want to be the person that impacted everyone with positivity. I really want to be the person that helped out the unfortunate. I want to be the person that people can come to. My goal at the end of life is to be an extremely successful and well rounded person. I want to be the guy who people remember as, “hey that guy helped me on my homework,” or “hey, he’s the one that kept encouraging me.” I just wish to be remembered as a person who people could count on.
Chapter 22: Repeat to Yourself, "Life Isn't an Emergency"
Question: Describe a time or moments in your life when you turn something into an emergency.
If I could change one thing in my life right now it would be my size. The reason why I would want to change my size is because in sports I would be more dominant. With a better size I think that I would be more respected, and have more confidence. In football for example, if I was five inches taller I would simply be better. I would be bigger, stronger, and faster with this new size. I also wouldn’t be judged as much for playing a certain sport. I would overall feel more confident and proud.
Chapter 22: Repeat to Yourself, "Life Isn't an Emergency"
Question: Describe a time or moments in your life when you turn something into an emergency.
If I could change one thing in my life right now it would be my size. The reason why I would want to change my size is because in sports I would be more dominant. With a better size I think that I would be more respected, and have more confidence. In football for example, if I was five inches taller I would simply be better. I would be bigger, stronger, and faster with this new size. I also wouldn’t be judged as much for playing a certain sport. I would overall feel more confident and proud.
Chapter 23: Experiment With Your Back Burner
Question: Analyze the quote, "It puts our quieter, softer, and sometimes the most intelligent source of thinking to work for us on issues that we have no immediate answer for."
After a very deep and thorough analysis of the quote, I have concluded that this quote means that our back burner is the place where we hold information that we can use at a later time. It will allow us to focus on things that we want to do. For example, if someone is a singer but wants to pursue a acting career, they can put those singing skills on the back burner. Then in time let’s say the acting role requires you to be able to sing, then you can use your skills saved in your back burner to help you out greatly. When a conflict arises that we don’t want to deal with, we put it to the side. It puts our conflicts and problems to the back of our mind. We may use this information at a later time. Let’s say you forgot someone’s name. Your back burner is available for you. There is no need to procrastinate because the information that is in our back burner is available to help us resolve those conflicts. Using a back burner as a skillful tool that will help resolve many problems and limit your high stress levels.
Question: Analyze the quote, "It puts our quieter, softer, and sometimes the most intelligent source of thinking to work for us on issues that we have no immediate answer for."
After a very deep and thorough analysis of the quote, I have concluded that this quote means that our back burner is the place where we hold information that we can use at a later time. It will allow us to focus on things that we want to do. For example, if someone is a singer but wants to pursue a acting career, they can put those singing skills on the back burner. Then in time let’s say the acting role requires you to be able to sing, then you can use your skills saved in your back burner to help you out greatly. When a conflict arises that we don’t want to deal with, we put it to the side. It puts our conflicts and problems to the back of our mind. We may use this information at a later time. Let’s say you forgot someone’s name. Your back burner is available for you. There is no need to procrastinate because the information that is in our back burner is available to help us resolve those conflicts. Using a back burner as a skillful tool that will help resolve many problems and limit your high stress levels.
Chapter 24: Spend a Moment Every Day Thinking of Someone to Thank
Chapter 24 Question: Who is one person you would thank in this moment and why? I challenge you to communicate this gratitude with this person.
One person that I would like to thank at this moment in time would be my wonderful, loving mother. My mom has taught me to always be grateful for what you have because there are a lot of other kids dying to be in the position that you are in. She has taught me to always be humble and express much gratitude. My mom has taught me what the word gratitude really means and truly has had a great influence on my life. Since she is in my life I just appreciate it that much more, she has taught me to always give your best no matter what. She makes me want to be a better person, mentally and physically. It is crazy to think how much a single person has impacted your life and changed it for the greater good. Having my mom in my life has opened me up to many new gates of success. She has changed me as a person for the better, and has left a very lasting impression. She is truly someone that I am grateful for.
Chapter 25: Smile at Strangers, Look into Their Eyes, and Say Hello
Chapter 25 Question: When you read this chapter, regarding eye contact & connect, what are your initial thoughts?
For me, this chapter was interesting to say the least. For one, I do sort of agree with it, and I disagree with it. I don’t think that if you don’t make eye contact it means you are not being kind, but I think that eye contact is important for socialization purposes. I do believe that spreading positivity and happiness, and making eye contact is important to a certain extent. For example, let’s say that you are out Christmas shopping on Black Friday, and there is a stranger in line. In this situation, it would be perfectly fine if you make eye contact and start talking about life and such. However, if you were walking in a mall and were passing by someone, then it would be really weird to start staring at them and start asking them how their day was. They might think you are just some crazy person and run away or something. I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to talk to a random stranger because I am decently shy and stay away from talking to people. That is just not who I am. However, if I am with my friends, then I would make eye contact, smile, laugh, and spread positivity.
Chapter 26: Set Aside Quiet Time, Every Day
Chapter 26 Question: When do you find a quiet moment in your day, everyday, just to be present and quiet? Do you? Or perhaps you don’t...explain.
A moment where I find a quiet place to sit down and reflect on what’s happened would probably be when I go to my room after I eat and have soccer. I will put in my Airpods, turn on noise-canceling mode, and play a steady noise of a flowing stream. I will close my eyes and think to myself what happened today and what could have I done differently. After that, I will do homework in peace and quiet. I personally think the feeling of being productive is one of the best feelings in the world. So when I am in this state of mind, I normally feel really good about myself and I am being productive and time-efficient. Another way I improve my mental fortitude is by either working out or playing a sport. When I am working out, I just forget about everything in the outside world and focus on getting in that last rep. Playing sports is the same thing too. When I play sports, it takes me to a place where I can escape to and have fun and improve myself mentally and physically.
Chapter 27: Imagine the People in Your Life as Tiny Infants & as 100 Year Old Adults Chapter 27 Question: Describe a time when you have been frustrated with someone, but you “let-go” of the situation and moved forward with your life. How did that make you feel?
A time when I was frustrated with someone was when my brother started making fun of me for no reason. Normally when this happens, I go and get into a fight with him. However, this time, I decided to just walk away. He was pretty confused because he wanted the attention but I didn’t give it to him. This made me feel powerful because I knew how to defeat him. I knew how to prevent a big dramatic mess where I would be scolded by my parents. It made me feel really good about myself because after all, I had more important things to deal with in my life.
Book Study 28: Describe a Situation Where you didn't seek to understand first. Was there a resolution with this conflict?
A situation where I didn’t seek to understand first would have been when in math class I thought that I knew what I was doing with the subject we were studying. However, when it was time to check all of our work I got nearly all of them wrong. I truly felt like a dummy, because I thought I was some genius, and thought that I was on the right track. However, the resolution that I found was how important it is to pay attention in class and be attentive. It really taught me that if I wanted to be successful, then I must be able to learn and pay attention.
Book Study 29: Who is someone that you can talk to, that you know will listen to you? Describe this relationship.
Someone that I can genuinely talk to would be the one and only David Wang. David is truly such a wise person that is just so attentive and intelligent. Whenever I talk to him in class, he's always maintaining eye contact, and just hears you out. He does the little things. For example, he nods his head which gets your attention because you know he is listening, and his posture. He is extremely proper and it shows that he values your opinion and what you have to say. The relationship that I have with David Wang is a good relationship. Whenever I see him I always try to say hello, if he doesn’t beat me to it, and I just look up to him as a person, and I strive to see where he goes in life.
Book Study 30: Describe a time when you lost your Shhhhhh, and in reality it wasn't worth your energy. How was the Confrontation? How would of things gone if you didn't sweat the small stuff?
One time where I lost my shhh was when I was playing this mobile game on my phone, Clash Royale. My friends and I take this game extremely seriously and hate it when we lose. So basically when you win you gain trophies and when you lose a game you lose trophies. Sounds simple right, well it is, but here’s the twist. You have a deck of these specific characters that you can use; there are around 106 of them. Some of them I describe as very weird and unfair. And there are some people that play the game and abuse those cards. So once I played one of those fellow people, and sure enough he was using some of the weird cards. I tried my best, and it wasn’t enough, and I ended up losing. That was when a sudden rage came upon me and I was just angry for no reason at all really, it was just a game. After the realization of how stupid it was to get mad at a game. It could have most definitely gone different if I didn’t sweat the small stuff. If I didn’t sweat the small stuff, then I would have just shrugged it off and went on with my day.
Book Study 31: Explain a time when you were in a bad mood. How did this shape your day? Vice versa, describe a time when you had a good day and how did this shape your day?
One time when I was having a bad day it shaped my rest of the day in a very interesting way. I found that I was pretty rude to everyone that I made interactions with. I was extremely ignorant and just wouldn’t let my day get better. When I had a good day it shaped my day with very good things. I had a positive attitude and vibe. I heard my peers out and interacted with them. Everything that I did went smoothly, and was overall just a good time. When I had my bad day everything just went downhill, and it was slow. I dreaded everything, and I just wanted to be alone. When I had my good day, the day went by fast, it was enjoyable, and I wanted to be around all of my friends.
Book Study 32: As an experiment, see if you can apply this idea to something you are forced to deal with right now. Explain your emotions and logic behind this situation. Can you rise above it?
At this moment in time, there are many things that are stressing me out. One of them is my grades and the AP testing that is coming up. The reason why I am stressing about grades is because I currently have a 3.8 GPA and I am not thrilled about that at all. So I am stressing to get that grade up, and keep my 4.0 GPA. So in chemistry I am really stressed to get 4s on all of the tests that I get. Taking APHUG also means that I have an AP exam. I have never taken one before, and I really want to get a 4 or 5 on the test. After what Spencer has told me, it seems as if I need a lot of studying to do, and it doesn't seem like at the moment that I will do that well. However, we have time to start preparing for it, and I am really going to try my best on it. Considering that I am extremely hard on myself if I do not do well on that exam I will never forget myself. I hope that I am able to rise and conquer all the obstacles that are in my way, and get over those bubbles that are attempting to cause destruction in my life.
Book Study 33: You will not please everyone... how does this statement sit with you and why do we tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive?
The statement “You will not please everyone,” I don’t like it but I agree with it. I can sit with the fact that I will not make everyone happy, but I don’t like the reality of it. If I could I would most definitely try to make most of the people I meet happy. However, I cannot control how people may perceive me, and react to what I do. I cannot control what they think of me or how they respond to me. So the phrase “You will not please everyone,” doesn’t disturb me because I have accepted the reality of it. I personally do not find myself a people pleaser, but I do enjoy making people happy. I could argue that it is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Whenever I make my parents happy for example, I adore the joy that I see in their faces, and the gratitude they show me.
Book Study 34: Describe a time when you had a completed RAK and how did it make you feel?
A time where I showed a random act of kindness would have to be when I helped serve in a soup kitchen a few years back. I was probably in fifth grade, and when I saw the crowd I have to admit that I was a little shaken up. Most were homeless and extremely unfortunate. My mom noticed that I was a little shaken up, and comforted me that everything would be just fine. Once I warmed up, I felt extremely grateful that I had the opportunity. The smiles on the people’s faces made me happy. I think being at the soup kitchen puts into my perspective how fortunate I am to be in a financially stable situation. From this moment on I never took the things I got for granted, but I realized just how lucky my family, and I are.