Personal Journal 7.1

I have to work hard on my resume because I want to get a lot of interviews because I have chosen a career that I love. I am out getting a lot of references because networking is a great skill to have and I am going to put it on my resume. It is a numbers game so I am out applying for a lot of jobs to increase my odds of getting a job in this career that I love. I am going to practice interview techniques because practice makes perfect. I am going to follow up on every interview because I am ready to work hard in this field and I want this job to support my family.

Personal Journal 6.4

A major decision I have coming up in my life here in a few months is trying to figure out whether or not Jill and I are going to keep our baby or give it up for adoption. Option one we keep the baby, it would support my goal of always wanting to be a dad. The value it would support is I would always put my kid on top and make me realize that it is not just all about me anymore. If we gave the kid up for adoption it would be to Jill's older sister. A goal it would support would be is my kid would getting a mom that can not have kids. The value it would support is it would make me feel good about myself and it would an unselfish act. The goals that would contradict this decision of keeping my child is it I might not be able to provide for child. If I do not watch my school academics closing my grades could drop. The values it could contradict in keeping my child is that my baby would be born out of wedlock. If we decide to give our baby up for adoption it would contradict my goal of wanting to be a father. It also would contradict my value of taking responsibility. The option i would choose is to keep my baby so I do not have any regrets.

Personal Journal 6.2

My biggest impulse is spending money, this is a big problem for me because it is usually money I do not even have to spend. When I buy concert tickets to go see a band I love the pleasurable short-term consequences are I get to go out and have fun with my friend and get to enjoy seeing this band play music live and in person. The negative long-term consequences are it takes time away from my family and my girl friend. It also puts a hole in my wallet because I spend more money at the concert on top of buying the tickets. I have loans I have to pay back and bills I have to pay as well. It can be a bad environment for me because their are a lot of drugs and alcohol at these concerts and I am a recovering drug addict. One of my goals is stay sober and concerts are a trigger for me. I have always liked instint gradifaction, if I want something I wanted it yesterday. It is not worth it a couple of hours of fun can end up changing my whole life. So finally the negative long-term consequences for sure outweigh the positive short-term consequences, it is just not worth it. Next time I start to act on an impulse I will pick up a phone and call my AA sponser and talk to him about it. My girlfriend is a good accountability partner to talk to about my actions.

Personal Journal 5.3

My first irrational belief is I must succeed at everything. I rationalize that belief into I will try to be succeed but in my failures I will learn from my mistakes. My second irrational belief is I should always put other people's needs first. I rationalize that belief into I will help other people's needs if I am able to. My third irrational belief is I can't do anything about my bad habbits they're stronger than me. This is a big one for me. I rationalize this belief into I can work on my bad habbits and with a support group and help I can overcome them. My fourth and last irrational belief is if people do something I don't like, they must be punished. I rationalize this belief into nobody is perfect I also make mistakes and there are different levels of mistakes.

Personal Journal 5.1

Today I am grateful to have my freedom, I was locked up for two years in a state prison, so I am very grateful to be able enjoy my freedom. I am grateful to have a family and a girlfriend that love me and are very supportive of me. I am grateful that I am sober today. I did really well on my ncaa college basketball tournament bracket that I filled out in a contest on espn.com. I got to enjoy this awesome weather we are having today. I finally finished a book I had been reading for fun for a while now, which is a good accomplishment because I have not had much time to read it with all my school work I have to do. Looking into the future, I have a kid on the way that is do in september. I am doing everything I am suppose to be doing on parole, so I will be getting off of it a year early next may. I am looking forward to my favorite passion every fall which is college football. I try to look at everyday in a positive view because it can all be taken away me in a heartbeat.

Term Paper Blog #2

My book "Everybody Wins" by Gary Chapman has a lot of ideas in dealing with our relationships with each other. When I argue with my girlfriend I do look at it as a battle and keeping score. I will say I won that one. In reality nothing gets resolved that way. This is hard to do. Instead of yelling right back at her, I try to listen to her points and keep the noise level down where it is not as loud. I now try to make a disagreement sound like a conversation and not a verbal fight. She is my best friend as well, we get along well. We don't always see eye to eye but using the tools in this book, we are able to workout our problems in a much more civalized fashion.

Personal Journal 4.2

One problem in my life that I try to avoid is making payments on my loan. This problem will take over and ruin my entire day. When I avoid the problem I feel lazy, worthless, and depressed. When I cope with the problem I feel happy, good about myself, and proud. The best way to cope with this problem is to communicate with the people I owe the money to. When I try to avoid them, the negative feelings about the problem really rise up and hit me hard. I can use these actions with a lot of my problems instead of avoiding them. I feel awful about myself when I avoid my problems when I should attack them head on and get it over with.