I think of the last year as one of the most formative periods of time in my life. As an engineering student that participates in a rotational co-op program, the chapters of my life (at least for now) follow a pattern of semesters. This last year, then, has consisted of three major chapters: a summer co-op in 2021 in Houston, TX; a “standard” academic semester during fall 2021, and another co-op semester in the spring of 2022. This fast-paced schedule can be exciting – moving to a new city for co-op only to reunite with close friends and family back home just a few months later feels like riding a rollercoaster, always anticipating the next hill or sharp turn. At the same time, however, it’s also stressful. The time seems to be going by faster and faster, which has encouraged me to continuously reevaluate my personal, academic, and professional goals as well as my life trajectory.

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One experience that I have had in the last year that has impacted my goals in each area of my life and adjusted my life trajectory was reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey. As the title would suggest, 7 Habits is a book that educates the reader on specific, tangible habits that can transform them into a better person. While on co-op during the spring of 2021, I had the opportunity to read this book as part of a “professional development book club” with other co-ops working at my company. 7 Habits is an interesting book because it begins by telling the reader that simple self help books that instruct on how to revolutionize one’s life are usually lofty, unfocused, and ineffective – but then it turns around and does just that. At first this angle of attack by the author made me weary of his advice and counseling, but the 7 Habits ended up having a profound impact on my outlook in life.

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The 7 Habits is full of pithy sayings and mantras, but the first one that stood out to me was that “private victories have to come before public victories.” In my own life, I took this to mean that I had to internally focused and at peace before I could achieve any kind of “victory” that was visible to others, whether it be a successful presentation at work, a high score on an exam, or even posting a picture of myself online. Another set of phrases that stuck with me from the book were habits #2 and #5: begin with the end in mind and seek first to understand, then to be understood. Covey expands on these concepts with a variety of examples from professional and personal life, and upon reflection I found that they changed how I viewed my own life in each of these areas. While reading The 7 Habits, I was beginning a new co-op experience, navigating a new relationship, and trying to operate as an individual in a new environment. These phrases and habits adjusted my outlook from an object-oriented one where I aimed to have a successful meeting, date, or weekend adventure to an identity-oriented perspective where my goal was to become a better engineer, partner, and independent individual.

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While this shift may not seem like a significant distinction, I believe that it will have a large impact on my current role as student. Instead of stressing and applying my academic skills toward just an individual assignment, my goal instead will be to “sharpen the saw” (in Covey’s words) as a more effective student overall, allowing the individual assignments to come as a result of this pursuit. Specifically, my goal is to become more effective at time management as a result of this paradigm shift and spend intentional time every week focusing on becoming better at each role I am responsible for: student, engineer, son, partner, friend. At this point, the next big milestone in my life trajectory is graduating college and transitioning to life no longer as a student. Again, instead of approaching this shift in an object-oriented way by focusing on a single job or position, I will approach it by aiming to be the most effective person overall that I can possibly be, and seeing where my trajectory takes me as a result.

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