During these experiment days, the sheer significance of self-motivation and perseverance are every obvious. In fact, in this experiment, I sometimes felt very tired and sleepy, and even thought about giving up doing this lab. Thanks to all the group members I had, every time I saw them working hard on their task, kept focus on what they were doing, and discuss about their difficulties with each other, I feel shame on myself. I would immediately remind myself of my responsibility in this group, and I felt myself full of motivation and enthusiasm again. I still remembered that I felt really sleepy yesterday afternoon, coupled with the realization of “last half day” of our project, I felt extremely exhausted. However, at that time, Tenny asked me a question about the video editing and James asked me about the evaluation problems. I was inspired by the motivation of them, and kept doing my editing job too until the end of that day. What’s more, when I kept concentrating on my researches, I found that the perseverance itself toward the heights is enough to fill my heart. It is no exaggerate to say that it is motivation and perseverance that help me learnt the importance of group working and responsibilities, and have the honor of making friends with all my team members.
Moreover, working with our group members who think differently has its own benefits: considering things in a holistic way. Four of us who came from four different areas and four different social fields have very distinct personalities. Although sometimes I felt it was hard for me to communicate with them and delivered my opinion as clear and accurate as I thought, it is a treasurable opportunity for me to get along with different kinds of people. On the first day of our group working, I came up with an idea that maybe I should use my camera to record all the procedure of every member continuously. James, however, pointed out the problem of my idea that it will caused lots of problem for Tenny to edit our video, and never thought about this problem before. Therefore, we discuss together and finally came up with an idea: using time-lapse function of my phone to record the procedure in a short time. From this, I know that although similar minds may see the same solution to a challenge the only possible solution is not necessarily the best. Seeing and solving the same problem with different sides requires different thinking patterns. Group 4 project can enable us to look at challenges from many different angles, and choose the option that fits a particular situation best.
Finally, daily reflections also help me a lot. In the action day2 reflection, I described the interpersonal conflict happened during our discussion of video planning. Due to the unexpected results we got, I need to reschedule all my work again, but apparently, this is terrible and I was not willing to do so. The reflection gave me some time to write my thought down and helped me think this situation in a more logic and reasonable way. It enabled me to considered this situation from two sides: From one side, I didn’t want to change my plan since I had another test tomorrow, which means time is limited from my point of view; From the other side, James and Tenny thought this problem from the group’ view, so increasing the efficiency and productivity, and reducing the pressure of all team members were on the top of their lists. By thinking in this way, I realized my fault in this event. Reflection helped me to calm down and think the situation from the holistic way, evaluate all the factors objectively and always be clear on the aim of the negotiation. Also, self-reflection enhance our relationship because we all take the group as priority in our hearts, so there was less conflicts and more understandings.
Sabrina's blog 