STRIVE: Habits with Molly Swenson
Molly Swenson was the presenter at STRIVE on Thursday, November 9th at Minnetonka High School in Room 1602. To begin her habits lesson Molly said that one of her favorite professional quotes is “We become what we repeatedly do.” She explained that habits are the basic structure of how we live and that forming good habits is an important part of being successful.
Molly gave her background to get started mentioning that she has been a Rotary Member for about five years and in her professional life she is a senior loan officer. She is a college graduate from St. Thomas and talked about her blended family and her five children.
At this point Molly interjected a personal story that happened to her in college about forming good study habits. Early in her college career she had put off studies and at the end of the semester she pulled an all-nighter. As a result she got a “D” on the test and ended up with exhaustion and some health issues. Molly stated to the students “…And I never did that again!” Form good study habits and it will help you do well in school was her advice. She then quoted Henry Ford “If you think you can do well in school you are right. If you don’t think you can do well in school you are still right!”
Molly then turned her attention to the bad habit of procrastination and asked if any of the students and mentors ever procrastinated and slowly everyone raised their hand. “Procrastination is a bad habit so gets rid of it!” was Molly’s advice. She pointed out that procrastination is a life-long challenge for all of us and she relayed a story-quote that Mark Twain had made about frogs and that if you were faced with having to eat a frog, get it out of the way first; and if you are faced with having to eat a bunch of frogs, eat the biggest one first! “So in school and life get at what you have to do first and take on the toughest things first!”
Next molly moved to sleep habits and polled the group about how many hours of sleep they get on an average. I turned out that most students got about 6-7 hours and most of the mentors get about 6 hours of sleep. Molly advised the students to get 8 hours of sleep and especially prior to tests and other important school events.
Test Taking habits and hints was Molly’s next objective and she listed many habits that would help the students achieve better in tests including taking good notes, being an active listener, asking good questions and going in for special help to mention a few. Likewise preparing for a test students should review old tests and quizzes, not leave anything to chance so study everything, go into the test calm and do muscle relaxation exercises, mark items you are not sure of and go back to them later in the test, and use all the time given for the test and don’t rush through the test to finish early.
Molly then asked how many of the STRIVE students have set the goal to go on to college and all of the students raised their hands. She suggested that the students to get their college applications in ASAP. Molly continued with goals and said that she had asked a lot of successful people about how they set goals in their lives and came up with a list for the students:
1. Write goals down
2. Be specific
3. State goals positively
4. Also set other types of goals in your everyday life like friendships and talents
5. Set goals in a timeframe
6. Check-off goals as you achieve them and then set new ones – keep score!
7. Goals change in our life so doesn’t be afraid to change your goals as you go along.
Molly had also asked these successful about what their best habits were and made a laminated bookmark for the students and mentors. They were:
1. Get good sleep!
2. Make a daily to do list and eat that frog!
3. Read the news (at least the front page!)
4. Smile, smile, smile – It makes you look positive and approachable.
5. Ask questions!
6. Make eye contact and engage.
7. Offer a firm handshake.
8. Be interested and show interest in others.
9. Always have your notebook.
10. Work on a positive attitude.
Molly ended her presentation by asking everyone to take out their notebooks and to write down three of their good habits that they are now doing and have them ready to share in discussion groups. The STRIVE students then went into small groups to discuss their three habits and things that they needed to work on from Molly’s presentation.
Pictured above with Molly Swenson is Malia Henchel.