Austin Beebe

COMM 3050-OC1

Ms. Emily Jensen, Ms. Chelsea Ball

February 17, 2015

Personal Development

Personal development is a sense of understanding and know-how that is unattainable

overnight; instead, the person undergoing the process must be willing to dedicate their entire
lives in order to gain a complete alteration. This course of action assesses ones qualities along
with their skills and aims to set benchmarks in order to realize and maximize their full potential.
Throughout the orientation experience, we as orientation counselors are tasked with the
challenge of unearthing our weaknesses and discovering critical ways to better ourselves, for not
only personal gain but also for the sake of others.
We began this subdivision of the class with the topic of student development as well as
communication, in which we discovered the most effective form of communication to use with
students, other OCs, and hopefully anyone you come in contact with. Assertive communication
or being able to honestly express your opinion, feelings, attitudes, and rights without fringing
upon the rights of others was mentioned by both Chelsea and Emma as being the go-to form
of communication. This form allows for one to acknowledge others feelings, clarify whats
wrong in the situation, and request for a change in behavior from the troubling issue. In recent
classes; however, weve spent a majority of our time discussing what category we specifically
fall under as individuals and where we fall in line in terms of team placement. We spent the
majority of one class discussing the differences between: introverts and extroverts, sensing and
intuition, thinking and feeling, and judging and perceiving. One of the most important things that
Emily stated during this discussion is that people can oftentimes freely move between the two

categories (even though they can be very contrasting) and that just because someone happens to
be quiet and reserved, doesnt necessarily mean that they are introverted in comparison to
extroverted. After taking the Myers-Briggs test (for only the 20th time since Ive been in college)
Ive came to the conclusion that I was an ENTP, only matching with Fahn in a class of 34 other
people. Some of the common characteristics of an ENTP are: being resourceful in solving new
and challenging problems, good at reading other people, bored by routine, stimulating, alert, and
apt to turn to one new interest after another. I personally believe that this little descriptor hit me
spot-on besides the outspoken factor, because I am anything but outspoken when it comes to
sharing my opinions. Finally, we were all tasked with completing the True Colors Word Sort,
where I was placed into the orange group. Some of the oranges factors were: witty, charming,
spontaneous, impulsive, competitor, assumes flexibility, and works in the here and now. I, like
the individual assignment, was greatly pleased with the outcome that I received because I had
agreed with a great majority of the terms (besides being a natural performer for the group
activity). After reading over all of the characteristics of the orange team, I believe that I add a
great deal of excitement and have created a welcoming area for change for my fellow OCs and I.
I personally believe that my greatest contribution to the OC team is that I am more than willing
to have a flexible approach on just about anything I do, even though it may be frustrating when
given deadlines, I always am open to hear ideas thrown at me for a sense of improvement. I think
that the orange team offers a sense of impulsiveness, whereas the rest of the team sort of beats
the greater OC team down a straight and narrow path, because if we were all orange, we would
definitely struggle to gain a sense of routine.
Most recently weve finalized this section of the class by discussing the topic of values,
or core beliefs that guide the decision making process, and how exactly our values impact our

everyday lives. This was quite possibly the hardest assignment Ive had to do thus far in my
collegiate career, where we had to compose 30 values and slowly set aside one at a time, to
prioritize what holds the most weight. One thing that I managed to link between my personality
of being an ENTP and the values that managed to make it within the top ten, is that I enjoy living
in the here and now quite possibly more than anything else in my life. My top priority in life was
to, live life, love, and explore followed in pursuit by waking up with a smile on my face every
day and go on more road trips than I can handle. I need constant excitement and always more
than willing to go on road trips at the drop of a dime. As far as my sense of communication goes,
as much as I would like to classify myself as an assertive speaker when it comes to issues that
Im not exactly fond ofI do tend to lean towards a more aggressive approach and am looking
to veer off to centralize around a firm assertive communication. I personally believe that the
material weve discussed over the past few weeks was very engaging for me, because it allowed
for us to learn more about ourselves and gain a true sense of connection between ourselves and
the given assignment as well as other OCs who were put in our small colored groups. The
communication discussion definitely is forcing me to try and try to become more assertive in the
way I handle matters, instead of overreacting and taking the aggressive approach.
One of the biggest senses of personal development Ive gained from this section in the
course is realizing what truly matters to me in my life. We all prioritize people, items, and places
on a daily basis; however, when it is finally laid out before you and you actually have to stack
one another to show a degree of importance, it makes you open your eyes. I learned that I
actually have to take a step back from helping others around me and doing things that may not
necessarily return any form of benefit and take the selfish route, or the path that is whats best for
me at that given time.