My Personal Challenge: Focus and Humility
1. My challenge
At the start of this project, I wanted
to improve two traits in myself:
focusing on one task at a time
accepting feedback with
humility
To work on them in a meaningful
way, I decided to create a practical
first-week survival guide for new IE
students in Madrid.
4. After attempt 1
The first feedback was hard to
accept.
Instead of taking it well, I felt
embarrassed, defensive, and
discouraged. I had put effort into the
guide, so hearing that it was weak
made me want to distance myself
from it.
At that point, I did not react with
humility.
I reacted emotionally, decing to
fully give up on the guide.
That showed me that accepting
feedback was going to be much
harder than I expected.
7. Attempt 3
2. My plan
I thought this project would help
me practise two things at once:
sustained concentration
while building something
useful
openness to feedback
while improving it
My goal was not just to make a
guide, but to use the process to
challenge how I work.
5. Attempt 2
3. First attempt
what went wrong:
My first attempt was a basic written
guide. I worked without much
structure, got distracted easily, and
did not stay focused on one task at
a time. The result was rushed and too
text-heavy. When I sent it to friends,
the feedback was harsh: they said it
felt generic, messy, too obvious, and
not especially useful for new students.
This was my first real failure in the
challenge. I immediately felt the urge
to counter these feedbacks and
explain why I did certain things.
6. Attempt 2 taught me:
After some time, I decided to try
again and created a second version. I
tried to stay focused using the
Pomodoro technique, but I found it
frustrating to follow set times to work
and rest.
This version was clearer and more
structured than the first one, so I
thought I had improved a lot. But I still
got quite negative reviews.
They said it was better, but not good
enough.
This was frustrating because even
after trying again, I still had not solved
the real problem. I felt disappointed
because I had improved, but not
enough.
The second attempt was the turning
point.
It made me realize that the issue was
not just the guide, it was also my
mindset and my working process.
I was still struggling to focus properly,
and I was still hoping improvement
would come without fully changing my
approach.
I was still holding on too much to my
own idea instead of completely
listening to what people were telling
me. On top of this, I had not mastered a
way in which I could stay focused for
hours at a time without getting
distracted.
8. Final result
9. What I learned
For the third attempt, I changed both The third attempt was the strongest
version by far.
the project and the way I worked.
The guide became:
I decided to take all the advice
more visual
seriously and stop resisting the
easier to skim
feedback. I researched methods to
more practical
improve concentration, so before
more useful for stressed first-week
starting, I meditated for 10 minutes
students
and then put on a focused study
playlist on YouTube, and I managed to More importantly, it reflected growth
in me.
stay focused for more than 2
I did not succeed because the project
uninterrupted hours and finally
suddenly became easy. I succeeded
worked with real clarity.
because I changed the way I
I felt calmer, more in control, and
proud that I had finally worked with a responded to failure, feedback, and
uncertainty.
clear mind.
This challenge taught me two main
lessons:
Focus: I learned that concentrating on
one task is not just about forcing myself
to work longer. It is about finding the
right conditions and method to stay
fully present in what I am doing.
Humility:I learned that accepting
feedback well means putting my ego
aside and recognizing that criticism
can help me improve, even when it
feels uncomfortable.
What I am most proud of is the fact that
I stayed with the process long enough
to improve both my work and the way I
approached it.
Appendix
Attempt 1:
All the little breaks I took, totalling 13 min
on the total 45 min it took me to make
the guide.
Attempt 1 feedback:
Attempt 2:
The time I spent on it using the Pomodoro technique
Third working block
Second rest block
Second working block
First rest block
First working block
Attempt 2 feedback:
Attempt 3:
Over two hours of
uninterrupted work
The 10 min meditation video I followed
The background music I used to block
outside noise and stay focused
AI Acknowledgment:
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT to help me
structure, refine, and proofread the wording of this
poster and appendix. Representative prompts
included asking for help organizing the 3 attempts,
aligning the content with the assignment instructions,
and improving clarity. I used the outputs as support
for presentation and editing, while all reflections,
evidence, experiences, and final decisions remain my
own.