PERMA Portfolio Laura E. Welch
P (Positive Emotions)
In the first week of the course, we identified our core strengths by taking a self-assessment from VIA Character.org. This allowed us to find positive traits about our personality that would serve us well in our learning at Unity College. We also wrote about how we are utilizing our top strengths, and identified any ways we may be over or underutilizing our strengths.
VIA Visual Presentation of My Top Strengths from Week 1
Over/Under Utilizing Strengths Reflection from Week 2
One of my top strengths according to the VIA survey is creativity. I enjoy creating artwork, so I wasn’t surprised to see this rated as one of my highest strengths. As I reflected on how I was utilizing this strength in my personal life, I realized I use it for more than creating artwork. As an example, I went grocery shopping recently and have a full freezer. It is also a small freezer. I utilized my strength of creativity to figure out a way that I could reorganize the items in my freezer. I realized that I could take some food items out of their packaging and put them into storage containers. I could then freeze the storage containers full of food and have more space in the freezer. I find utilizing creativity to store and organize items around the home to be within optimal use. I am not trying to do anything out of the ordinary to simplify my life and make it easier to go about my day. Another way that I could utilize my creativity would be to come up with a new routine for cleaning. I could also utilize this strength more in my professional life by finding new ways of creating work for my art portfolio.
According to the VIA survey, one of my lesser utilized strengths is bravery. In my professional practice as an artist, it takes bravery to complete a piece of artwork. There are often times I will make a single mistake and want to give up on continuing with the piece. It takes bravery as an artist to continue working on a piece of artwork when it gets to an imperfect stage. As I went about my day, I realized I do succumb to this pressure a lot more than I assumed. I consider myself to be brave when choosing to explore new art mediums. But it doesn't always translate when I don't create anything beyond color swatches. This is where I found I underutilize the strength of bravery in my professional practice. As I was working with soft pastels, I found working with the new medium was challenging and I wanted to give up. But continuing to reflect on the strength of bravery, I pushed myself to work through the challenge. In the end, I created a piece of work in my sketchbook that I am proud of and found inspiration for more art to create. I could utilize this same strength of bravery in my personal life by staying committed to a long-term personal goal such as planting a food garden. Or finishing my college degree.
E (Engagement)
In the fourth week of the course, we created mind maps of possible research topics for a future capstone project. This ties back into an assignment we had the first week of EVPC101 Professional Skills where we identified academic and professional goals. For that assignment, part of my academic goal was to identify possible capstone project ideas.
It also ties into E (Engagement) by immersing us into the libraries resources for research as we had to identify and properly cite sources for one of the topics within our mindmap.
Research Topics Mind Map with Annotation from Week 4
R (Relationships)
In the second week of the course, we created a context map to visualize how we are using our top strengths in different areas of our life, both personally and professionally. In week 3, we also learned about appreciative inquiry and high-quality connections. These are important topics as we need to be able to cultivate supportive relationships with others, such as our professors at Unity College, who can assist us in achieving our goals.
Context Mapping Diagram from Week 2
Context Map Reflection from Week 2
In creating my context map, I can see where I am using the same strengths across different domains but in different ways. As an example, when it comes to health, I am using my strength of humility when I don't share with others how big of an achievement it is for me to do simple things such as washing dishes and getting chores done around the house due to chronic migraines. I use this same strength of humility in my leisure time when I am consistently engaged in a daily practice to improve my painting and drawing skills, believing there is always room for improvement. I can also see how my strength of bravery plays out when I work on creating an entrepreneurial path. This same strength of bravery shows up differently when I choose to go out and explore the new town that I just moved to instead of staying home and not getting acquainted with the area.
With this exercise, I learned that I tend to rely on the same strengths over and over again, in different ways within the domains of my life. It would be nice to branch out and learn how to apply some of my lesser used strengths in some of these areas so that I am not overusing any strengths to point it becomes detrimental to my growth as an individual.
Appreciative Inquiry Presentation from Week 3
High Quality Connections Presentation from Week 3
M (Meaning)
In week 5, we learned about meaning and purpose, and wrote a reflection on what brings us meaning and purpose at work and school, in relationships, and spiritually. It was also a way to tie in how the previous learning materials of the past 5 weeks can be helpful to us in being able to find meaning, purpose and direction in our lives.
Meaning and Purpose Reflection from Week 5
At work and school, I find meaning and purpose using methods of appreciative inquiry. It allows me to see challenges as opportunities for growth rather than problems I need to solve. Using appreciative inquiry allows me to observe how my strengths are best used to navigate the challenge, focus on a positive outcome, and find opportunities to learn and grow as an individual. This fits into my capacity to flourish by allowing me to utilize my love of learning strength, along with my strength of curiosity.
When it comes to relationships, I find it is important to remember the following quote from Managing Interpersonal Conflict by Louis B. Barnes and James P. Ware:
“…it is one thing to blame the other person for the problem and another to describe the impact of that behavior on you while recognizing that the problem may be partly you and your sensitivities. After all, it’s your perception that defines the other person’s behavior as a problem.”
I find this quote to be significant because of my struggles with PTSD. It can sometimes be hard to identify when someone is hurting me due to a misunderstanding and due to my own personal triggers or sensitivities. Reminding myself that other people see things from alternate perspectives allows me to stay grounded and manage my emotions before I unwittingly cause harm to another individual based on a perceived slight. By managing my emotional reactions to my own triggers and sensitivities, I can manage my capacity to flourish by maintaining supportive and appreciative relationships with other individuals.
In the realm of spirituality/transcendence, I find meaning and purpose in creating and sharing my artwork. This is significant to me because it allows me to slow down, appreciate the simple things, and provide value to others who may need help learning how to slow down and appreciate the beauty and nature that is all around us. I learned about Ikigai in therapy for PTSD many years ago when I was struggling deeply with depression. Throughout the process, I discovered my passion for artwork has never diminished no matter what I am going through. So long as I have a pencil or pen and something to draw on, I will create art to relieve stress. I believe this shows not only that I do possess some GRIT such as that described in chapter 6 of Flourishing by Martin Seligman, but also that I maintain my capacity to flourish in the spiritual/transcendence arena by cultivating my strengths of curiosity and love of learning.
For me, my core goals are to create art that helps tell stories while constantly learning new skills and growing as an individual. Creating art that helps tell stories will allow me to provide value to others. Learning new skills will allow me to grow, gain new perspectives, and identify new stories to tell or new ways to tell previous stories in my artwork. When I can identify stories to tell with my art, I am able to have a sense of direction for what to create, why it needs to be created, and why the story along with the art creation needs to be shared with the world.
A (Accomplishments)
In week 1, we identified an academic and professional goal. We identified our objectives in obtaining these goals, and then laid out different steps we could take to achieve these goals throughout a 5 week period.
Goals and Achievements Assignment from Week 1
- Academic Goal: Identify a capstone project and timeline for completion. This will allow me to gain experience in my future career and create a clear path to entering my career field while I complete my degree at Unity College.
- Objective 1: Gain experience in my career field while completing my degree.
- Objective 2: Create a path to entering my chosen career field upon graduation.
- Objective 3: Have a plan to follow for completing my college degree.
- Week 1 Action Item: Find out the requirements for capstone projects.
- Week 2 Action Item: Look up capstone projects completed by former students for ideas.
- Week 3 Action Item: List out possible ideas for my own capstone project.
- Week 4 Action Item: Identify my capstone project.
- Week 5 Action Item: Create a timeline for completing my capstone project.
Goals and Achievements Assignment from Week 1 (Continued)
- Professional Goal: Identify and connect with a professional association for my field of interest. This will allow me to identify opportunities within my field of interest and discern what career opportunities exist within my chosen career field.
- Objective 1: Find new opportunities to explore different careers within my field of interest.
- Objective 2: Refer to established requirements and guidelines for those in my chosen career path.
- Objective 3: Gain networking opportunities by staying connected to professional associations within my field of interest.
- Week 1 Action Item: Look up professional associations for marine biology and art exhibitions/residencies.
- Week 2 Action Item: Explore different career opportunities that might bridge the gap between marine biology and art.
- Week 3 Action Item: Find out the requirements to apply for art residencies such as Schmidt's Artist at Sea Program.
- Week 4 Action Item: Plan a portfolio of artowrk that could be submitted for consideration to art exhibitions and residency opportunities.
- Week 5 Action Item: Begin working on creating a portfolio of artwork highlighting the improtance of marine research.
Finally, in week 5 we wrote a reflection on one of our proudest achievements in life and analyzed how we were able to accomplish the achievement. This analysis provided us with an opportunity to reflect on what worked and create a formula for future success in achieving other goals we may have.
Achievement Reflection Assignment from Week 5
One of my proudest achievements in life was setting up an e-commerce website for my artwork. This was important for me because running my own business allows me to earn an income without relying on outside employment due to the different disabilities that I live with. I did not find setting up my e-commerce website difficult at all, but it was overwhelming at time to try and figure out how all the pieces went together.
The first thing I did was read many tutorials on how to set up an e-commerce website while saving a little bit of money for startup costs. From there, I began applying what I learned by purchasing web hosting and a domain name. After making those purchases, I was able to install WordPress on my domain and connect it to my own WooCommerce account. After the initial set up of everything, I took photos of my artwork and uploaded them to print on demand services that I then connected back to my website on my own domain name. To do all of this, I utilized my strengths of curiosity, creativity, and love of learning to accomplish the goal of setting up my own e-commerce website for my artwork. My mom supported me in this goal by helping me with taking photos of my artwork. My close friends and family also supported me in this goal by sharing my website on social media.
Accomplishing this goal has impacted by wellbeing by relieving me of the stress of full-time employment outside the home. I can relax more by following my own schedule and getting work done when it is most convenient for me without having to worry about inconveniencing others such as managers or supervisors that may not always understand what it is like to live with a chronic illness like migraines or PTSD.
1. I learned from other entrepreneur’s successes and failures in creating their own e-commerce websites by reading, watching, and observing their methods.
2. I took note of what worked for them and the reasons why it likely worked in their favor. I also took note of what seemed most applicable to my own needs for my own personal e-commerce store.
3. The last takeaway is that I applied what I learned and put it into practice with my own spin on it.
My formula for future goals would be to read, watch, and observe what others who’ve accomplished a similar goal have done to achieve it. It utilizes my love of learning strength, which is something I value greatly as I believe there is always something we can be learning in everything we do. I find support for these goals come from not just myself, but also from my closest friends and family members who are most familiar with my strengths. My biggest obstacles would be my chronic health issues, but I can deal with them by keeping on top of my appointments with doctors and therapists to learn and adjust the accommodations that work for me as they are needed.
As an example, another goal of mine is to create a YouTube channel with videos for my artwork. It connects with my values of cultivating my strengths in curiosity, creativity, love of learning, and appreciation of beauty and nature. It does this by allowing me to explore different art mediums and styles in each video I create. My family and friends can continue to support me in my artistic goals by watching and sharing my videos. My obstacles would be maintaining perseverance and consistency, but I can deal with the consistency by creating and following a schedule for filming, editing, and publishing my YouTube videos on my YouTube channel. I can also deal with the perseverance by getting an accountability buddy to keep me on track with my goals for the YouTube channel as it grows.
In its simplest form, my formula would be: If I continue learning from others, then I will gain wisdom and clarity.
Our final assignment was to create a portfolio of all of the assignments from the previous 5 weeks and find how each assignment relates to a different part of PERMA.
Credits:
Artwork and Photography by Laura Welch