• Can you identify causes for any challenges or setbacks you faced? What factors contributed most?

• From the evidence you’ve collected, which piece would you defend as the strongest demonstration of your growth?

• Looking at your evidence, how can you differentiate between what shows genuine growth and what shows gaps?

Answers:

• Causes or setbacks I've faced was my pride and ego. People that judges me without fully understanding the back story would really sway me away from my goal of being an open minded and understanding person.

• A piece that I would defend as the strongest demonstration of my growth would be my increased knowledge in perspectives. I have became more aware and weary of what I think before saying as this demonstrates that I always listen to others and understand their perspectives than speaking without one.

• Genuine growth is how I became more understanding with people, more empathetic, and a more active listener. These are some of the main criteria that show proof of my growth in becoming an open-minded person. Although the positives are great, there are gaps that shows as well. Gaps of being open-minded is that I would be gullible and could easily be manipulated.

Moving forward I hope I can continue working on my journey in to becoming more open-minded and eventually I can confidently answer these 3 questions soon.

These habits include:

• Challenging my own beliefs and assumptions

• Practicing active listening to understand people's perspectives

• Seeking out diverse opinions by researching for information I am not aware of.

For these past few days, I have practiced one of the three habits mentioned above which is challenging my own beliefs and assumptions. A great evidence that I have done this habit, to becoming a more open-minded person, is when I had mixed opinions about dogs and cats. Growing up I have always favored dogs more than cats because I had the belief that dogs were more superior to cats. I never really understood why people prefer to have cats as pets more than dogs. Recently, I've thought about my past opinions. By listening to people's perspectives of cats, I have challenged my personal belief about them by engaging in activities relating to playing with cats. I successfully alter beliefs and assumptions about dogs being better than cats. In present moment, I have understood now that both cats and dogs are equally good and bad in their own characteristics. This is evidence of me being more open minded to other people's opinions on personal beliefs and assumptions.

For me to be more open-minded, I have did my personal best to integrate this habit into my life. Through this repetitive action, it helps me understand other people's opinions and reflect on my own personal beliefs.

A profound evidence of me putting this habit into action is during school time in recess with a friend of mine. Initially, I fully believed that "networking can get people into places a degree never will". My friend on the other hand had a contrasting point of view to my opinion stating that "having a degree in the first place can get people started networking as without one will be extremely difficult."

My friend and I debated with each other on our contradicting opinions and beliefs. The conversations and the words that he stated made me really think a lot about my own beliefs and point of view on the topic. Through practicing active listening and understanding his perspectives, it has shaped the way I thought about my conviction. I reflected on my own perspective and my friend's realizing that you do not need a degree in education to be successful but it is easier to start networking if you were to have a degree in any field. By being opened minded I have evaluated both mine and my friend’s opinion and made a conclusion that both are equally important.

Milestone: By the beginning of term 4, I aim to achieve an open-minded personality so that I will be able to understand, be empathic, and relatable with people.

Practice: The micro-habit I'll do 2-3x per week would be trying out new things or learning new things that are unusual to me without complaining whether or not they're hard.

Anticipation: If mean people might say harsh words to me, then I would be really upset. This might be the opposite of what I wanted to be and put a setback on my progress. If this were to happen though, then I would not let the mean words get to my head, asking for feedback of why they've said it, and always striving for change rather than conflict.

Check in Plans: By check in one, I plan to: see what mistakes I've made such as did I not try anything new? Was I inclusive? Am I changing? By check in two, I plan to be myself and trying to be a better person through prioritizing love over hate and talking less in exchange with listening to what others have to say more. By check in three, I plan to be more open-minded.

Transfer: At the end, I will show my growth by creating a collage or doing a padlet of my adventure.

My plan for the next few weeks to become a more open-minded person include things such as:

• Being resilient. Always getting back up after every failure.

• Seek for opportunities outside of my bubble. Understanding that comfort does not allow growth to happen.

• Reminding myself that regardless of whether perspectives are good or bad, the more I know today is better than who I was yesterday.

• Trying out new things that I am unfamiliar of. Keep trying until I find something that interests me.

These plants that I've set for myself are designed so that I not only expand my knowledge to a variety of aspects in life but also understanding people's perspectives, ideas, and reasons. All these characteristics would allow me to achieve my goal of being more of an open minded person.

Being open minded has made me understood people more easily and realize that I should never let my pride get too much of me. Aside from becoming open minded, I have actually practiced the skill development of being persistent and resilient. This whole journey I felt like giving up but in the end it was all worth it just because I kept trying. No mistakes is failure except for giving up and I'm glad I never gave up on myself.

Evidence of my journey includes having more connections with classmates and people around me, deeper connections with people I used to have contradicting personalities with, and most importantly a hopeful future for myself.

To become more open-minded, I try actively listening without judgment when others share different opinions. I can challenge myself to read sources and consume media that present viewpoints I normally disagree with. Instead of reacting defensively, I should ask clarifying questions like "Can you tell me more about that?" This proactive approach will help me absorb new information and broaden my understanding of the world.