My Journey Through MGMT 2275
By: Katelyn Mallett
Tags: Reflections, Projects, Higher Education, Creative Process, Creativity

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This journal is a little bit different than my past one about ETOL Film Night. Rather than discussing how specific course theory can be applied to the outdoor industry, I will be analyzing how the course as a whole was revolutionary for the way I look at creativity and my own personal development.

Personal Developments Throughout the Semester

At the beginning of the semester I was nervous for this class. I had this preconceived notion that if you didn’t enjoy art then you weren’t creative. Because of this I thought so many of my strengths and skills were not applicable to developing my creativity. However, I thought it would be beneficial to my own self confidence to take a look at what skills I listed as having back in my first journal entries, and compare them to the person I am now. This self development in the recognition of my strengths is what I found the most rewarding throughout the class.

My strengths I wrote at the beginning of the summer were:

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I am driven and motivated to always do my best and whatever tasks I take on.

I am not afraid to take risks, try new challenges, and learn from my failures.

I am social and enjoy talking to all different types of people from different areas of life- and I make a point to learn something from all of them.

I look at what I wrote now, and even though I still commend myself for recognizing these strengths that I have, I think they are not a true reflection of the smart, diverse person that I am, which this course has helped me realize. Below is an outline of even more strengths that I now realize I have. Learning that creativity can encompass so many different avenues has made me see that all the strengths I have as an individual are applicable to my creativity.

My strengths now:

I have a strong sense of how to step up as a leader within a variety of different areas

I have a wide range of knowledge from taking a broad degree with two majors

I AM creative. I may not specifically like art, but I enjoy taking part in brainstorming sessions and thinking outside the box in regards to all projects I’ve worked on

I am good at self reflection. It was mentioned above that I learn from my failures, but in more detail I am good at reflecting on what went wrong and turning it into a positive experience that I can use to fuel myself to further grow. I also understand how to separate my own personal emotions from this to avoid becoming discouraged when doing this self reflection.

Just as mentioned above I am always willing to do my best, but I have learned through this class that I enjoy pushing myself to do my best even when the challenge is particularly hard or uncomfortable

I am brave. I am not afraid to try new things, or challenge people on their ideas to further help everyone with their personal growth and development.

And so many more..

I think this personal development is such an important lesson to learn because it helps you realize how some of the skills you learn throughout university courses can generally benefit you throughout life. This was the most rewarding because I recognize that the developments I have seen will definitely stick with me, and continue to benefit me throughout my entire professional career.

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Moments of Frustration and Then Reward

Throughout this course there were definitely many moments that I found challenging. However, one of the best lessons I learned was how valuable these challenges and obstacles can be to not only force you to pivot and innovate, but also teach you valuable life lessons that someone who remains comfortable at all times will not learn. I found the challenges where I had to design/draw/write things to be the most uncomfortable. As I said above I typically do not consider myself to be an “artsy” person. However, because they made me uncomfortable they also taught me the most about myself. I definitely learned that I still do not like traditionally art related outlets, however I also learned that sometimes the best way to complete things you are nervous about is to just jump right in and try. I typically did not overthink these challenges because I didn’t even know what to overthink about, so I also noticed that these were the ones I found the most rewarding and did the best on. So even though this was originally an area of frustration for me, in the end it turned out to be the area where I impressed myself the most.

This satisfaction of impressing myself definitely surprised me, and has made me want to continue trying new things because you definitely don’t impress yourself this much by continuously excelling in areas that you already knew you were good at. Having the constraints placed on many of them also helped me to see that I need constraints to be my most creative self. I don’t do well with an open pallet, but rather a problem that needs to be solved. I have since used this method of defining what my constraints are to help me be creative with other class projects!

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Successful Strategies For the Future

There were a few strategies to develop my creative abilities that I tried throughout the semester, as discussed in the project tasks, that I found did wonders for my development. For example, the lesson on prioritizing your mental and physical health really resonated with me. I did some reflecting on the fact that I can get carried away when working and forget to eat properly, drink water, or take breaks and how this was potentially negatively impacting my performance in school. After reading that article I decided to prioritize my health and see where it took me. After implementing many regular relaxation breaks and walks into my day I immediately noticed an improvement in my ability to focus, and subsequently my ability to generate more ideas for the projects I was working on.

I also tried to frequently change my surroundings after reading the article about the impact that a dull work environment can have on your idea generation. First I did some self reflection again and asked myself what good I was doing by working in the same stale workplace day after day. Then, I made it my mission to change the decor around my desk at least once to help stimulate my thoughts. This did wonders for my creativity. Not only did it teach me simply how important it is to have a lively workplace, but after seeing the impact this had on my ability to complete assignments for other classes it helped me realize how applicable these lessons are to all avenues of people’s lives.

Both of these strategies definitely made a huge difference in my best piece of work throughout this semester, mine and Briana’s reflection on ETOL Film Night. Through staying stimulated Briana and I were able to create a piece of work that was to the best of our ability and different than anything we’d created before.

Takeaways and conclusion

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In conclusion, this course has opened my eyes to a world of possibilities for improving my performance in all areas of life. After seeing the impact this course could have on my self confidence, performance in other classes, skill development, etc.. I now recognize how useful the knowledge learned in MGMT 2275 can be to anyone, no matter their career. This in itself was a big learning experience for me, because it shifted my perspective from thinking creativity was only useful if you were involved in the art scene, to recognizing how crucial creativity is to life.