One note. one step, one day at a time

I mentioned how in my last therapy session of the semester, my therapist said that things will change slowly. That I just have to take things one day at a time. Change is slow and difficult but you just have to keep going.

 I seem to have taken that advice and applied it to other things in my life. Or so it seems that way.

For instance, I've noticed recently that I've applied it to my coursework. Particularly for my cataloging class. I've had some rough assignments that have been frustrating behind belief.  The good thing is that at least this semester, I've understood more of what's going on in my cataloging class than I did in my School Library one.

Of course, I was dealing with a lot at the same time I was taking my School Library course that added to my frustration level I'm sure. I'm sure that the fact I've been in therapy this semester has helped with my frustration for this semester.

However, I'm also only took this course in addition to my Practicum. Last semester I had 2 more classes to deal with in addition to my school library class.

Anyways, I've noticed that at least with the last couple of big assignments, I've taken the "one step at a time" thing to heart. Because I'm a musician I like the term "one note at a time". It makes me relate things to learning a new song.  Regardless though, I've applied such advice to my assignments.

Take my Final Project. It's quite involved and requires that I apply everything I learned over the course of the semester. I have to take 3 books and create records in MARC coding and everything. I even have to create a call number for Library of Congress Classification for each of the books.

I've managed to do well on the two exams that have involved such things. For instance, in our Midterm Exam, it focused on MARC coding. I ended up with a 97 out of 100. For the Subject Cataloging Exam, it involved a little bit of MARC coding but mostly Library of Congress Classification and stuff like Subject Headings.  I even had to come up with a LCC call number for each of the 6 items. It was tricky but I ended up with a grade of 119 out of 100 because I attempted all 6 items and got some extra credit. We only had to do 5 of the 6 items.

Although my assessments haven't been perfect either, I seem to have a bit of understanding of what's going on.  At least enough to be getting reasonably decent grades.

What I've been doing is going back through each lesson and creating the MARC subfield that was discussed in each lesson. I'm doing this for each of the 3 items I've been given.  I'm doing it on paper because for this final project we actually have to use a different program. I think it'll be easier if I do it myself first before putting it into the program. Plus it helps me to keep track and organized.

I'm just taking things one lesson at a time and it's working for me. Less stressful it seems. Yet I don't know why I've never really done this before. Has something changed for me? Has therapy helped me do this?

It seems to have happened a few times by now.  I just seem to being doing more of it.Taking things a step at a time; one day at a time.

That's really all I can do. I can only hope it continues.