Personally, self-command has been a major topic of interest for the past three years of my life (starting from 1997). The interest developed from a desire to "better" myself in aspects of time management after an unsuccessful academic junior year in high school. I wanted to increase in productivity, self-discipline and rid myself of self-destructive habits. Obviously, I targeted my most significant problem: procrastination and began to research various methods to overcome the behavior.

My first step was to research the topic of "self-improvement." To my surprise, I found a plethora of this type of literature at my local bookstore ranging from increasing your reading speed to becoming a better husband. I looked for material that dealt with more common issues such as motivatio

I sought out more practical advice for overcoming procrastination and read about techniques on how to "force" yourself into doing something you feel unmotivated to do. For example, one method was to develop a reward system that allowed you to treat yourself to something enjoyable after completing a rather difficult or unpleasant task. Another technique entails training yourself like a Pavlov's dog, where a constant cycle of beneficial activity would form a new good habit that would replace the old bad habit. More advice suggests you find accountability with other people, make promises to yourself, using self-punishment and implementing various motivational techniques. After reading the promising advice (eloquently written of course), I was once again inspired to be more than I was and began try out the different techniques. And...to my great dismay, I always found that after the initial euphoria wore off, I found myself indulging in old destructive habits...even worse off than when I had begun because my failures reinforced the futility of my efforts to improve. Consequently, I suffered long periods of lethargy and disappointment and just could not understand why all my efforts to date proved in vain. I consulted high school counselors, friends, and family...all giving me the same useless advice on setting schedules and other techniques of self-command.

Having this new mission statement helped me to prioritize my activities in a way that ensured that in completing a task, I move closer toward the fulfillment of my mission statement. I now had a reason for doing things that I once thought were meaningless and have learned to even enjoy some of them because there was a reason for their completion.

Upon coming to the University of Maryland, I became involved in a professional leadership developm

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Approximate Word count = 1225
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)