Drafting a Contract

The "Achieving Excellence in ESL" Contract

IELTS materials

When I was asked to draft a contract for myself, I was wary of its effect. Many weeks later, I would say the contract was helpful. I used a hand drawn, well illustrated contract (that was unfortuantely destroyed by the moving company during my recent move) stuck right above my computer as a reminder, and it worked magic on me. I was able to stick to the plan more often than not, and ended up doing more "boring, remote, assembly-line" exercise than I thought I could. Since it works, I think it is a method I will use now to ensure that I will not just reject new and unfamiliar ideas in the future.


Contract
-Accepting different ideas and opinions-
Vision: I should be open-minded and humble. One thing I always do is "NO". By "NO", I mean responding in a way that clearly says "you are wrong, I am right". When I hear something that is different, I tend to start a sentence with no that procceed to "correct" them. I would love to be a person that says "YES" and gives a warm welcome to different opinions. In other words, I am trying to be more post-modern.
Goal:  Accept different ideas when they are presented to me.
Challenge: Replace all the "NO"s with "YES"s.
Plan:
Methods: Put a record sheet above my computer. Everytime I make a "NO" response, put a red mark on it. A "YES" response will result in a blue mark.
Activities: I will bring friends to my place instead of going out. I will have social activities with them normally. They will be marking me when I pitch a "NO" or a "YES" to them.
Strategies: Look up. As the course reader suggests, looking up actually somehow makes you feel relax and buy you time to regroup. I can use that time to draft a "YES" response.
Timetable:
Before school starts.
Problems:
I just love to say no. I have tried to fix this before but it did not work. My loved one has been complaining about it for years and little has changed. Perhaps the real problem is that I barely think before I speak.
Preventions:
Look up again! Relax and think before I speak. Speaking less may help too. Sometimes even I find myself a little too talkative. Some doses of silence can actually be gold for me.
Baseline:
More "YES" than "NO" recorded.
Evaluation:
Minimum: A 2:1 "YES" to "NO" ratio.
Satisfactory: Less than 3 "NO"s per week.
Excellent: A week without "NO"!
Demonstration:
A weekly record without any red mark will be great. Even better is that when I go into another course that involves peer evaluating, "accepting" will finally be one adjective that accurately describes me. Right now it is "effective", but "tyrant".
Celebration:
A big shout of "YES!!!!!!!!!" (and a new game I really want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)