Student Spectrums

Habits are woven so quietly into our everyday lives that we may not recognize their power until we stop to examine them. The 11th graders are currently reading Sean Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and here they reflect on the habits that contribute to their success as well as those that sometimes hold them back. Their reflections reveal that meaningful change often begins with something surprisingly small: recognizing a pattern and deciding what to do about it.

Idriss Ben Hassin — Small Stones; Big Dreams

For Idriss, exercise and an early-morning routine demonstrated how small changes can influence many different areas of life:

“Taking control of my morning routine and habits proved to me that small daily changes in my habits drove long-term success. By continuing to be more ‘proactive’ and ‘sharpening the saw,’ I am not only setting myself up to perform better in school but also building a mindset that will help me get past obstacles and challenges in the future. When I realized that I wasted almost 3 hours sleeping in, I realized I had a serious problem with my time and how I managed it. By taking control of my time, I stopped letting the day control my success and took charge of that success. It’s pretty clear that something as small as practicing a 30-minute run early in the morning can lead to great changes in the future. ‘The little things in life are the stepping stones to the bigger things.’”

Muhammad Umar Ahmed — How Habits Shape Us

Umar considers how changing his eating habits affected not only his health but also his performance as a student:

“Another example I want to talk about is a personal experience, which is feeling brain fog or a lack of ideas in class. This was constantly happening to me when I was writing an essay for my English class, and as I looked into it, it was the food I was eating that caused my brain fatigue. I started a habit of eating healthier foods and aiming to get my recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals. This habit helped me improve my brain fog. I started to see the difference as I was able to write better essays and the ideas formed freely. But one change I would make to my habit is being consistent. When we do our habits consistenting, it starts to add up even if it is only one percent.”

Aisha Ahmed — Destructive Habits

For Aisha, recognizing a destructive habit meant confronting her tendency to rush through schoolwork instead of slowing down to check it:

“I’m impatient in the way that I don’t have the motivation to check my work before turning it in. I don’t know what the word for it is, but I believe it is closely tied to restlessness. I don’t enjoy doing tedious work because it takes too long. And re-reading essays is extremely tedious. Also, on math exams when I am checking work, I skim through it instead of carefully re-reading each question, which is what brings my grades down. The only mistakes I have in math are usually confusing a ‘2’ for a ‘7,’ for instance. I also don’t read questions carefully and just jump into the answers. Sometimes I don’t even read the question.”

Aisha ultimately recognizes that changing this pattern requires becoming willing to face the very discomfort she has been avoiding.

Kulsum Ahmed — Half Empty or Half Full

Kulsum talks about avoidance and the way the pressure to be perfect can sometimes make beginning a task feel more difficult than the task itself:

“I don’t start assignments until I feel ready because I feel like I have to memorize everything I read, every single word. It makes me scared to even start because the expectation is so high and the worst part? I am the one setting it for myself and I know it’s irrational but I can’t stop. The behavior that follows? Avoidance: Not even opening the book or opening my backpack to start the assignment. I am not a procrastinator and I actually really enjoy learning. It is just my fear and myself that holds me back from being the full potential of a person I could be. For a long time I was convinced that these things will never change. That my fear will never go away. Or at least that is what I thought. Change doesn’t happen within a day. It certainly doesn’t happen immediately or for the first time ever. It is a process of trial and error. Because habits are so engrained within us that it is so difficult to break them. However, you can beat them. If you start believing it.”

Musa Omarkhil — Dreams and Determination

For Musa, habits are closely connected to ambition—and to the uncertainty that can accompany the pursuit of a significant goal:

“I will always work hard and make sure I achieve my dreams, but the second part is that I don’t know if what I am doing right now is good enough to make it. The part that needs to change is different. What I need to change is not my ambition, but the way I see challenges and how to overcome. What is most important is bringing my dreams to reality and working my way to them.”

Alesha Siddiqui –“Ring Ring Ring, Said the Clock“

Alesha, the individual habits we practice are connected by something deeper: discipline.

“The one thing that all of these habits have in common is discipline. Discipline is the ultimate habit that affects me in every aspect of my life. It’s the discipline to wake up early, the discipline to prioritize work, and even the discipline to rest when it’s called for, that I believe is the recipe to success. I’ll admit, I’ve fallen off the tracks a bit and occasionally wake up at 11 am or miss my salahs. And that’s where I know I need to improve. The first step to change is finding the problem, which I’ve done. I’ve identified my lack of discipline in recent months and have plans to reestablish my past habits in order to reach a level of discipline I’m satisfied with.”

Small Habits, Lasting Change

These students write about very different habits: exercise, nutrition, impatience, avoidance, ambition, and discipline. Yet their reflections share a common understanding. Habits are not simply things we do. Over time, they influence how we learn, how we respond to difficulties, how we see ourselves, and ultimately who we become.

Perhaps that is the transformational power of habits: small choices, repeated often enough, have the power to shape much bigger dreams.