As I have just transferred to Cornell, I did not have the opportunity to read the book that was the topic of the talk, UThrive: How To Succeed In College and Life. I was concerned that I would not be able to fully participate in the discussion, however Zach made an easy an open space to discuss the main themes within the book together with our peers. The 5 main themes that we collectively discussed: building character traits, facing adversity, decision making and finding satisfaction, willpower, and building healthy relationships.

Firstly, building characteristics: my overall main take away was that it is important to be self aware of your character strengths as well as those which are not as strong. I personally am aware of my strengths but I often ignore my weaknesses. Instead of working on them, I attempt to overcompensate with my strengths

Secondly, facing adversity: don’t internalize, don’t catastrophize(not sure if that’s a real word, you are not a failure you just faced a bump in the road. I struggle handling failure and adversity so I can honestly tell that these are very helpful for me as general advice.

Thirdly, decision making and finding satisfaction. This one has two parts: making habits, and accept good enough. For making habits, the more habits you make the less difficult decisions you will have to make every day which can take a ton of stress out of life. Zach stated: anything worth doing, is worth doing badly. This really spoke to me, as I tend to have a perfectionist streak and have a very difficult time putting myself out into the world if I don’t think I can do it perfectly. However, I am going to start making small decisions every week in order  to put myself out there even if it isn’t perfect.

This discussion gave me a ton of tips in order for me to be my best and embrace all parts of myself.