Praxis: Phase One
What I’ve Created
Over the past seven weeks, I’ve created many things. The most familiar project was building my website, Gracie C Sawyer: Growing Through Learning. I love the challenge of creating and maintaining a website, and it perfectly aligns with my passion for design. I also developed a case study for the Babylon Bee, using the information I gathered to create a simple, informative poster that I’m really proud of.
The most challenging project was my about me video, which I worked on over two weeks. In the first week, I created a rough version, and in the second week, I polished it into the final cut. This project was particularly difficult due to my inexperience with editing and my discomfort being on camera. In contrast, I also created a self-promotional ad that felt much more comfortable because it relied entirely on visuals.
While I enjoyed most of what I created, one week truly stands out: my writing week. During that week, I produced four different pieces of writing along with two challenge writing activities. My favorite was the Life Lessons Post.
My Reading
In these past seven weeks, I’ve read The Concise Mastery by Robert Greene and Atomic Habits by James Clear.
I believe The Concise Mastery is a book of example. serves as a book of examples. Rather than just providing methods for mastering a skill, it showcases how others achieved mastery. This allows readers to learn from both the individuals in the book and the author. I appreciated how thought-provoking this book is; it’s definitely one you can revisit multiple times and discover something new each time.
Atomic Habits is an extremely practical book. It uses data and analogies to explore the nature of habits and provides valuable insights into how our minds work. My favorite aspect was being able to recognize concepts from the book in my own daily life. However, I found the book somewhat repetitive. Despite this, I believe it’s an excellent read that everyone should experience at least once.
Key Takeaways
Throughout this first phase of Praxis, I’ve learned many valuable lessons. Here are some key takeaways:
1. Your environment affects you. Set it up in a way that makes good habits easier and bad habits harder.
2. Showcasing your work is important. Even if it's just a short blog about what you did each week, demonstrating your value through actions is essential.
3. AI tools can be incredibly helpful for automating processes and checking grammar in your work.
4. Networking is a powerful way to expand your reach and promote your work.
5. Having a community of like-minded people helps keep you motivated.
6. “You can’t work on what you can’t see.” Regular reflection on your work will reveal areas needing improvement.
The Next Chapter
In the next four months, I plan to read four different books, with each month dedicated to a new development module. The first month will focus on AI tools, followed by modules on podcasts/YouTube and starting a business in the second and third months. I’m still deciding on the final module, but I currently plan to work on my own project for that month.
