In The Power of Habit, author and Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Charles Duhigg harnesses operant conditioning theory to explain how to create new habits (and change old ones). According to his model, a habit loop is created by a cue that triggers a behavior and a reward that follows the behavior. You can break bad habits by interrupting the cycle at the cue stage or reward stage, and you can program new and better habits by pairing a cue with a behavior and ensuring some kind of reward follows the behavior.

This is all well and good in theory, but if you have ever tried to teach a pet a new trick, consistency is key. I don’t know about you, but I’m so bombarded by information and life obligations at this stage in my life that trying to add a new habit or change an old one is almost impossible without some kind of help.

This may sound silly, but adding this date to my smartphone calendar has greatly increased how often we communicate, and it has led to a lot of happiness and help in my life.

For instance, when my youngest sister and I found ourselves not talking for long periods of time due to our busy schedules, we decided to make a date for a weekly phone call. This may sound silly, but adding this date to my smartphone calendar has greatly increased how often we communicate, and it has led to a lot of happiness and help in my life. The cue is the calendar reminder and the reward is the great conversation we have.

So, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things that have helped me with cueing and rewarding new behaviors (and stopping unhelpful or outdated habits). Most of this help has come through apps as I find they are convenient and accessible via my smartphone and smartwatch.

First, my personal favorite is the Due app. I have been using this app for years to remind me of important habits and events that I don’t want cluttering my calendar. You can customize how often and when the task repeats, how often you want it to bug you till you mark it done, and whether you want sounds to accompany the reminder.

I’ve used it to remind me of my crazy gym schedule which varies each week, to remember to spend time playing board games with my kids, to remind me to start cooking dinner at a certain time. I think it’s a fantastic tool for teenagers too, as it is so easy to add tasks, and it discretely reminds them to turn in assignments or speak with their guidance counselor without disturbing the class or requiring one’s phone to be unlocked.

The cues are the reminders that are given and which keep popping up until you mark them complete. And to me, marking them complete is a reward in and of itself.

My next favorite habit app is Beeminder, a habit-building app that explicitly uses operant conditioning to encourage consistent behaviors. It rewards with a graph showing your achievements and punishes with a fine when you don’t meet your goals.

Calm聽is something I’ve just started using to help relax and literally calm down. It helps with mindfulness and even sleep. The cue is the backdrop of nature sounds, and the reward has been how incredibly good I feel after a session.

Other apps that I use now or have benefited from in the past are:

• Evernote: All of my notes, both work and personal, are synced across my devices through this app. In addition, it clips webpages, adds business cards, scans, audio files, handwritten notes, and PDF files. This is a powerhouse for keeping one鈥檚 life organized.
• Peace with Food: Used for tracking hunger and fullness, with a nice dial that serves as a cue.
• Focus@Will: An instrumental soundtrack for writing. You set a timer for a planned writing session, and the app cues with a bell sound, using a playlist set for your particular personality.
• Seconds Pro: For interval training. It cues with color and sounds.

And as for unhelpful behaviors, Hindsight聽has been useful in allowing me to monitor my actions, and I can envision it being used to track how often one engages in a negative behavior one is trying to eliminate (e.g., nail biting). Right now, I mostly use it to track when I need to take medications to make sure they are taken at the appropriate intervals.

Finally, for those really difficult to start (or unlearn) habits, I have found success with online coaching services. Since this can get pricey, I am not able to do this regularly. Even a few sessions can help, though, just like hiring a personal trainer at the gym can be useful to get a routine started.

There鈥檚 a ton of wonderful apps out there to help with new behaviors, so I encourage you to take a chance on trying to change one thing in your life using the habit cycle and perhaps a technological aid to start a new 鈥� or break an old 鈥� habit.

Wishing you a wonderful and productive 2025!

Michele Gill is program coordinator of 麻豆原创鈥檚 education doctorate in curriculum and instruction and is a professor of educational psychology in the Department of Learning Sciences and Educational Research. She can be reached at Michele.Gill@ucf.edu.

Now consider this: When was the last time you took a moment for you?

Dealing with the events happening across our nation and managing our own crises has not been easy. So, how are you doing? We check on everyone else, but seldom ask the question of ourselves. We push through, accepting the negatives of our situations until it becomes a normal thing. That’s just life, some would say. Things will be better tomorrow, others would agree.

I dispute that mindset.

You should be assessing yourself every day. “Checking in” is part of our mental preparation for the daily grind. If something is off, you need to identify it and address it. More often than not, when people continue to lie to themselves repeatedly about being “OK” they reach a breaking point. You can surmise what tends to happen at that juncture.

It’s not unusual for us to see co-workers self-sabotage their careers or their personal lives. Sometimes, those same individuals will then blame everyone else for their choices. Did they let things get too far? When does personal accountability come into effect?

“Loyalty to you” is one of the most important things we tend to overlook. You can have all the friends and supporters in the world, but if you don’t believe you can do it, then you won’t. If you don’t believe you can meet your goals, then they will be unachieved. The question becomes rather simple after a moment of pondering.

Are you in your own corner?

I had a friend once who was a hard worker and loved his family. He was a pleasure to be around and he was highly dependable. Then, I began to watch as he did some questionable actions. A shortcut here, an eyebrow raising comment there. Asking him if he was alright was moot, because everything was always 鈥渇ine.鈥� But it wasn’t. I watched my friend eventually make a horrible decision that had costly consequences. In the end, it was all because he wasn’t in his own corner.

Folks, take the time you need to relax, reset and refocus. It is just as important as setting goals and achieving them. You need to slow down every so often and do a self check. Ask yourself those uncomfortable questions that we think we know the answer to. There is no one in this world who knows you better than you do.

Being loyal to yourself is as simple as taking five to 10 minutes of quiet time (when you can get it). Or practicing meditation on your day off. Are you getting enough sleep or are you constantly charging full steam ahead? Have you eaten a healthy meal today or is it always junk food?

The decisions and choices we make today have an incredible impact on our tomorrow. Don’t be so quick to dismiss the warning signs of self-sabotage. It’s OK to not be OK. There are many services and confidential ways you can gain assistance. We can’t do everything alone! For some of us, we have ultimately seen the end point of missed warning signs. Having experienced losing someone to suicide personally, there are so many regrets I’ve thought about in my mind.

The “what ifs” and the “could’ve, should’ve” never abate. We will always ask, “could I have done more?” In my profession of law enforcement, we seem to lose more officers to suicide than to violent encounters on the streets every year. In probably the best example of this idea, we are a group of people who strive to help others and don’t reach out when we need it ourselves. It’s a hard mindset to change because being perceived as “weak” is worse than admitting you need help.

Maybe there is someone out there reading this and you’ve been afraid to confront the truth. Maybe everything isn’t fine like you’ve led yourself to believe. There are people around you right now who love and care about you. Take the time you need to recharge your batteries. Get the must deserved rest you crave when you can and treat yourself to something new.

If you start making time for yourself, you’ll see a notable change in your life. You deserve to be happy in 2022, and it’s something being loyal to yourself will bring.

What followed was the development of unique 鈥榅-planes鈥�, denoting their experimental research status, each successively breaking airspeed records of the former for what can be achieved in human-controlled flight. The Concorde offered civilian travelers the opportunity to experience high-speed flight, if only in a brief and exclusive way, before bowing out, limited not by technology but cost.

Fast forward two decades later and fast commercial airplanes are making a comeback with the race to build supersonic airliners underway. Meanwhile, various designs for the first hypersonic passenger airplanes, at nearly five times the speed of sound, tease us to dream of a future where time slows down just a little for us to accomplish more and the space between us gets smaller to connect more.

In fact, the small edge we gain over time and space is likely the biggest driver behind this need for speed, along with perhaps the thrill of achieving daredevil status.

Hypersonic flight that gets us halfway across the world in just two hours is a game-changer in mobility with the potential to alter life as we know it. Exploration and the education that comes with it will get a boost. Social, cultural and language exchange will be vibrant. Response in support of disasters around the world can be vastly improved. Yet the caveat that comes with most technological advances applies here as well, as the benefits of access leave an open path for threats. This in itself has slowed progress in the vast and interdisciplinary scientific fields that govern hypersonic flight.

The race to achieve hypersonic travel is riddled with technological challenges to which some of the answers lie disparate among researchers working in isolation in various regions of the world.

The seemingly easy transition over the last decades to achieving high speed flight is not to be taken lightly. Supersonic flight faced major challenges in noise from the sonic boom as the aircraft transitions to reach speeds faster than the speed of sound.

Current technologies to counter these include designs of jet mixers and nozzles, new materials that absorb sound and operational strategies that reduce the impact flight profiles over land. However, the innovation needed to overcome challenges in achieving sustained hypersonic flight, at more than five times the speed of sound, are vastly more complex.

Air breathing engines or scramjets, named such for their use of oxygen from the atmosphere for propulsion, show promise in achieving efficiency to meet these speeds. Still, innovation in new fuels is needed for sustainability.

The extreme heat generated from the friction of the fast-moving air over the aircraft leading edges create temperatures in the order of 3500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is beyond that which any given material can take without rapid deterioration. The formation of a plasma sheath around the surfaces of wings and leading edges due to the extreme speeds interferes with radio communication. Detection technologies for material integrity and behavior are vastly lacking. Navigating regulatory bodies for flight and meeting standards for operation in airspace will take significant time and effort.

As daunting as these challenges appear, they have not impeded the momentum of researchers and engineers, many of them working tirelessly in research laboratories and startups to creatively conceptualize and test new and original solutions.

One might mistake this rush to achieve hypersonic travel as a sign of our collective impatience to 鈥榞et there faster鈥�. Contrary to this, faster flight gives us the power to cheat time so we can take it slow and deepen our experience wherever our destination may be.

Going fast is truly the portal to chasing many sunsets in this single ride we call life.

Seetha Raghavan is a professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She can be reached at聽seetha.raghavan@ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on聽麻豆原创 Today聽and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

Stuck at home with kids in quarantine and stuck on what to write for this column.

I had a half-dozen half-baked ideas, but nothing had enough creative gas to get to the publishable finish line. The previous paragraphs would fall into literary limbo each time my attention turned to another potential topic.

Like many working parents, it seemed I was always doing something that needed immediate attention 鈥� snacks, crafts, emails, virtual meetings, timesheets, tidying up, etc. And when the dust would settle at the end of the day, I was always in the same spot staring at a mess of misfit words and a blank page to start again tomorrow.

Then it dawned on me. I鈥檓 living in a children鈥檚 book. One of my favorite children鈥檚 books, actually 鈥� If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Lauren Numeroff 鈥� which I鈥檝e read countless times as a child and now to my children.

So, I wrote this piece for all the people who accomplish a dizzying array of tasks and activities each day, only to feel like they鈥檙e right back where they started.

I hope it brings a smile to your face and the comfort of knowing that you鈥檙e not alone.

If You Give A Mom Some Laundry

If you give a mom some laundry,

She’ll take it right to the washing machine.

On the way, she’ll see an overturned sippy cup leaking on the floor.

So she’ll grab a paper towel to wipe it up.

Seeing the milk will remind her it’s snack time for her toddlers, so she’ll cut up some apples and spoon out some peanut butter.

When she opens the dishwasher to put the used utensils inside, she’ll realize the dishwasher is still full of clean dishes. So she’ll put them away.

Opening the cabinet, she’ll notice that the hinge is a bit wobbly. So she’ll rifle through the junk drawer to find the right-size Allen wrench.

Inside the junk drawer, she’ll see an old birthday card and remember she never sent out thank-you notes.

So she’ll grab a pen and paper.

When her kids see her writing, they’ll ask to draw something, too.

So she’ll get out stickers, crayons and construction paper.

While hanging up the artwork on the fridge, she’ll notice the sticky handprints covering the stainless-steel door.

So she’ll search for the chamois under the sink.

Unclipping the child lock, she’ll discover the dinosaur toy that’s been missing for a few days.

When she returns it to the toy box, she鈥檒l find a stray sock.

The sock reminds her that she was supposed to be doing a load of laundry, so she tracks down the abandoned basket and takes it to the laundry room.

When she opens the washing machine door, she’ll be hit with the scent of musty clothes.

She鈥檒l realize the last set of laundry never made it to the dryer.

So she鈥檒l pour in more detergent and run the wash cycle again.

And chances are, if you give a mom some laundry鈥�

She鈥檚 going to get sidetracked by life and forget to move the wet clothes over to the dryer until the very moment she settles into bed.

Bree Watson 鈥�04聽is senior copywriter with 麻豆原创鈥檚 Communications and Marketing team. She can be reached at聽bree@ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on聽麻豆原创 Today聽and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

For 21 months, 麻豆原创 fans waited for a chance to return to a full-capacity Bounce House. They counted down the days to the debut of new coach Gus Malzahn. They built up a ton of energy and waited to release it on a national stage against a brand 鈥� that like 麻豆原创 鈥� set it apart from others.

Tailgaters arrived early and students even earlier. The stadium was decked out in its finest colors and the buzz of college football鈥檚 true opening night was about the game in Orlando. Then it happened. The buildup. The lightning. The long delay. The 9:45 p.m. start. The 21-0 deficit. The big plays and comeback. The crowd who stuck around when the clock struck midnight. The celebration when the final play clinched a 麻豆原创 win at 1:26 a.m. in the morning.

And the real beauty of Sept. 2 (and 3), 2021 is that everyone has their own version of what happened.

Students will tell the stories of racing inside the Bounce House to find the best seat only to exit when the pop of lightning struck shortly after 6 p.m. They took selfies and posted memories while making new friends as they counted down when they were allowed back inside the stadium, not caring how late the game would end. They were in it to win it no matter how long it took.

There were Knights who scattered across the campus seeking cover from the electrical show in the skies. They became weather specialists and analyzed radars and forecasts all guessing when or if a game would be played.

Inside locker rooms, coaches and players who were perhaps more eager than anyone to get the game started found themselves waiting and waiting, passing the time by sharing stories and creating memories that will stick with them long after they鈥檝e hung up their uniforms.

The 鈥淏oise State game鈥� will forever be a part of 麻豆原创 history just like other iconic moments over the years.

Find a Knights fan who was there September 22, 1979, and they will have their version of that very first 麻豆原创 football game against St. Leo.

In 1988, 麻豆原创 beat the defending national champions of Division II, the Troy Trojans, in front of almost 32,000 at the Citrus Bowl. In what is known as the 鈥淣oise Penalty Game,鈥� the Knights fans were penalized for being too loud.

Two years later, in 1990, 麻豆原创 became the first school in FCS history to reach the playoffs in their first year of eligibility and then shocked unbeaten power Youngstown State. Daunte Culpepper鈥檚 debut in 1995 will forever be remembered as he completed his first 12 passes as a Knight.

Mention 鈥淭he Alabama Game鈥� and a 麻豆原创 fan will tell you about Javier Beorlegui鈥檚 game-winning 37-yard field goal.

The 2005 season saw 麻豆原创 play in its first ever conference title game in front of almost 52,000 and head to Hawaii for the program鈥檚 first bowl game.

In 2010 the Liberty Bowl is where the Knights took down Georgia.

There was the dream season in 2013 and the school鈥檚 first major bowl game and win over Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.

Mention 鈥淭he Hail Mary at ECU鈥� and every 麻豆原创 will remember Justin Holman鈥檚 pass and Breshad Perriman鈥檚 catch.

Perfection in 2017 and the many moments of that season which included Mike Hughes and 鈥渁 reservation for six鈥� against South Florida followed by a double-overtime thriller against Memphis in the conference title game and the sea of black and gold in Atlanta as 麻豆原创 beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl.

In 2018, there will always be 4th and one at Memphis in the rain where Taj McGowan raced 79-yards for a touchdown as 麻豆原创 roared back from down 16 points to extend their win streak to 19 on the way to 25.

And now there is 鈥淭he Boise State Game鈥� that has become part of our history. Years from now 100,000 may say they were there. Everyone will have a story, and everyone will know what you mean when someone says, 鈥淭he Boise State Game.鈥�

Those are the moments that make us fans.

We were there or we watched or listened as our history was made. The memories last forever and they remind us why we cheer and what makes us Knight Nation.

The only question now is, what is about to happen next?

Marc Daniels is the radio play-by-play voice for聽麻豆原创 Athletics聽and serves as director of broadcasting for the Knights. He can be reached at聽mdaniels@athletics.ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on聽麻豆原创 Today聽and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

I started to look around at the younger people walking around, and I found just as many people my age wearing clothes that you could find in your parents鈥� closet. Shorter shorts on men, bell-bottom and 鈥渕om-style鈥� jeans on the women. A lot of younger guys are even rocking mustaches and mullets for the first time in decades.

I truly believe that if a time traveler from the 1980s to the 1990s came to our world today, they could fit right in if you were judging them solely on appearance.

Retail companies are taking notice, releasing a large amount of retro themed products, ranging from selling cans and coolers with throwback designs to clothing brands marketing their apparel as 鈥渞etro鈥� for added value.

Other areas of pop culture are experiencing this as well. In the music industry, 18-year-old Olivia Rodrigo has exploded in popularity with her song 鈥淕ood 4 U鈥�. I have seen many comparisons online between this song and older punk-pop songs from the early 2000s. Perhaps this is a reason her music is doing so well. She reminds us of the past and it helps us escape the reality of our current lives.

It鈥檚 not unusual for trends and styles to cycle back into rotation over time and history does tend to repeat itself, but I feel like recently this has happened much faster than usual. Ever since the pandemic began, I have noticed that more and more people are hopping on the bandwagon of reverting to retro style.

I think the reason for this is rooted in a desire to go back to times when our current issues didn鈥檛 exist yet. While there were just as many issues to deal with back in the day, bringing back the good things from the past is helping a lot of us feel like we are back in a better time when COVID wasn鈥檛 interfering with the stability of our lives.

Another reason why I think this happens is because it gives us the thrill of doing new things without actually having to do something new. The younger generation never really had the chance to get a mullet and fit in with the rest of their peers before. So we aren鈥檛 actually inventing new trends; we are just making old ones cool again.

Regardless of the reason or motivation of this trend, I encourage you to look around and see it happen for yourself, because trust me, once you see it you won鈥檛 be able to miss it.

Narvin Chhay is a 麻豆原创 junior majoring in sport and exercise science. He can be reached at聽narvinc@knights.ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on聽麻豆原创 Today聽and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Columns are archived in the campus library鈥檚聽聽collection and as聽W麻豆原创 podcasts. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

Fear not. TD-33348 of the Makaze Squad, Florida Garrison at your service to share my story in the hopes that you might become a volunteer in your community 鈥� because when we give back, everyone wins.

I joined the 501st Legion of professional Star Wars costumers in June 2020. The 501st is the largest Star Wars costume group in the world, with members in nearly every country. We have thousands of members in Florida alone.

The group鈥檚 webpage notes, 鈥淲hile the 501st was initially founded to unite costumers with a penchant for Star Wars villainy, one of our real-world missions is to bring good to our communities through volunteer charity work. The 501st is always looking for opportunities to brighten the lives of the less fortunate and to bring awareness to positive causes on both a local and global scale.鈥�

Why did I join this particular group? Because Star Wars is my passion.

I鈥檝e been a fan of the series ever since I sat on the steps of a standing-room-only movie theater to watch A New Hope in 1977. I have seen every film, studied the reviews, analyzed the characters and read dozens of books and blogs on the trilogies.聽I even at 麻豆原创.

To become a member of the 501st, you must first build a costume and have it approved by your local garrison. In my case I spent nearly six months ordering plastic armor from the UK and sourcing parts from all over the states to complete my sandtrooper build. A buddy remarked, 鈥淭his is the largest model kit I鈥檝e ever put together.鈥� That鈥檚 an apt description.

Once your costume is complete, you submit photos to the garrison for approval. Once approved, you can 鈥渢roop鈥� with your local squad, participating in all kinds of events. The cool thing about being a trooper is that it combines my love of Star Wars with the importance of giving back to my community.

Our group has participated in troops at schools, science fiction conventions, weddings, parties, animal rescues, charitable organizations, and most importantly at children鈥檚 hospitals, where we are able to bring fun and joy into the lives of families facing some of life鈥檚 most difficult challenges.

My first troop was at a comic book shop for a toy collectors convention. The owner of the shop made a sizable donation to help support our local Orlando charities. I had a great time meeting parents and children, and it was heartwarming to see their reactions to some of their favorite characters from the movies.

During the past year I鈥檝e completed nearly 30 troops, and I鈥檝e come away from every event with a deeper sense of gratitude. I鈥檝e learned that volunteering is as beneficial to the volunteer as it is to those in need.

The Mayo Clinic has done extensive research on this subject and shares the benefits of volunteering, from decreasing the risk of depression to developing new and meaningful relationships to even enabling people to live longer.

It鈥檚 a win-win, or as Obi-wan Kenobi might say, if you volunteer, you鈥檒l take 鈥測our first steps into a larger world.鈥� I never realized that putting on a 鈥渂ucket鈥� (stormtrooper helmet) would allow me to experience so many emotions and so many mental and physical benefits.

I also didn鈥檛 realize how rewarding it would be to put smiles on people鈥檚 faces and show my support for organizations like the Make A Wish Foundation and Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee that provide so much aid to children and their families.

Students who want to learn more about volunteering at 麻豆原创 can visit the .

The world has never needed us volunteers more than it does now. I urge you to get out there, donate just a few hours of your time to a worthy cause, and then reflect on that experience.

Being empathetic to the plight of others is a great step toward a kinder and more peaceful world鈥攁nd a more healthy you! These are the volunteer experiences you鈥檙e looking for.

Do or do not. There is no try.

Students who want to learn more about volunteering at 麻豆原创 can visit the Office of Student Involvement鈥檚 V麻豆原创 webpage:

V麻豆原创 Facebook page: facebook.com/volunteerucf/

May the volunteering be with you!

Peter Telep 鈥�95 鈥�98MA聽is a senior instructor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of English. He can be reached at聽Peter.Telep@ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on聽麻豆原创 Today聽and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Columns are archived in the campus library鈥檚聽聽collection and as聽W麻豆原创 podcasts. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

2021 is flying by, even though it seems like the year had just begun. As the world is still uncertain on virtually every topic you could think of, I find myself clinging to the things I still love to do.

One of those things is my career as a police officer, despite the challenges the profession faces. I have found that being passionate about my career has helped me redouble my efforts to being the best I can be at it.

I have seen others lose that passion and leave the field altogether. Seeing this happen at multiple police departments across the U.S made me ask myself a question: How many of us are working at a job where we have grown passionless? Any job, any career, any profession 鈥� how many of us have stopped caring?

I鈥檝e heard many different reasons for this conveyed in a way where it is completely emotion based. I鈥檓 sure you鈥檝e heard the same things too.

鈥淚鈥檓 just not happy anymore.鈥�

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 challenge me any longer.鈥�

鈥淭here will come a point in your career where you will ask yourself the same question 鈥� am I happy with my job?鈥�

As I hear these sentiments, I find it heartbreaking. A person gets into a career to do something they love or to make a difference in a particular field. Hear me folks and mark my words; There will come a point in your career where you will ask yourself the same question 鈥� am I happy with my job? We鈥檝e all been there and if you haven鈥檛 reached that point yet, trust me鈥ou will.

As some of you shake your heads in agreement reading this, I want to ask you another question. How do we relight that spark in that passionless career? How do we get that love back for what we do?

I鈥檒l be honest, it鈥檚 a multi-layered question that will be different for so many people. We all come from different walks of life and no two people are the same. I too, have asked myself that question and I almost quit law enforcement because of it.

Yes, as much as I have written about positivity, love, overcoming fears and doubts, I had stopped loving what I signed up to do at the end of 2011. Some of the same complaints I鈥檝e listed here were being voiced by me at one time. Yet, here I am nearly nine years later鈥�still doing the job.

How did I do it? I realized my issues were never about the job 鈥� my issues were with me. Let me outline three things I realized about myself and hopefully, my journey can help someone else struggling with similar questions.

First, I realized I was allowing other people to dictate what I should be feeling instead of listening to myself on the matter. Being swayed by others made me eventually conclude a lot of my sentiment wasn鈥檛 even my own. This was the first lesson I learned in regaining passion: make sure your complaints are truly your own 鈥� especially if you work with a toxic co-worker. Listening to them vent and bemoan the work can drag you into a negative headspace. This is where your positivity comes in. Distance yourself from individuals who are constantly negative and complaining. You may find yourself changing your attitude when you do.

Second, change your perspective in the job. For me, this was when I was selected to become a detective at my agency and it seriously changed my professional life. All the questions I had previously asked myself in reference to passion were answered. My love for what I did and my work ethic were rekindled by simply changing the lens with which I viewed everything. Sometimes, that鈥檚 all it takes, as it makes you answer your doubts directly.

Third, and this was the hardest lesson for me to learn, your job is not responsible for your happiness. The sooner you discover this, the faster you are able to reacquire your passion for it.

I realized that putting that kind of pressure on the job or on co-workers will always result in disappointment. Coming to work with a positive attitude and a can-do spirit was on me to do. By putting effort into being the best employee I could be, my happiness derived from the incredible results I achieved.

At the end of the day, passion and happiness are subjective, but you determine these things. You are the key to regaining your career鈥檚 passion again.

For all of those out there struggling with these questions, search inward. Start with you first, and rekindling that passion for your job will follow.

Matthew Scott 鈥�07 鈥�11MS is a sergeant with the 麻豆原创 Police Department. He can be reached at Matthew.Scott@ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on聽麻豆原创 Today聽and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Columns are archived in the campus library鈥檚聽聽collection and as聽W麻豆原创 podcasts. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

Like other historians, I joined in the discussion on social media. My No. 1 would have been George Washington (No. 2 in the survey). I think both Thomas Jefferson (No. 7) and John F. Kennedy (No. 8) were too high. Warren Harding (No. 37) was too low. And how does William Henry Harrison (No. 40), who fell ill and died a month into his term, get rated at all? It鈥檚 not fair. He didn鈥檛 know what germs are!

It made for a fun afternoon conversation. Unfortunately, many in the public took the rankings seriously and viewed the results as major news. For people who like to talk about how 鈥渉istory will judge鈥� the people shaping current events, here was an example of historians judging our leaders.

It鈥檚 a mistake to take presidential rankings as anything other than entertainment.

It鈥檚 a mistake to take presidential rankings as anything other than entertainment, however. They鈥檙e the presidential history buff鈥檚 version of sports debates such as who is the greatest NBA star, Michael Jordan or LeBron James, and whether Tom Brady is the greatest football player of all time. When taken lightly, they鈥檙e a way to connect with people who share a passion. But when taken seriously, presidential rankings mislead more than they enlighten.

The systematic ranking of presidents was invented by Harvard historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. in 1948. He asked various experts to place the presidents in categories such as 鈥済reat,鈥� 鈥渘ear great,鈥� 鈥渁verage,鈥� 鈥渂elow average鈥� and 鈥渇ailure.鈥�

The C-SPAN survey asked experts to assess each president on a scale from 1鈥�10 in areas such as 鈥減ublic persuasion,鈥� 鈥渃risis leadership,鈥� 鈥渆conomic management,鈥� 鈥渋nternational relations鈥� and 鈥渁dministrative skills.鈥� The methodology seems more precise than Schlesinger鈥檚 original survey, but it is just as impressionistic. C-SPAN offered no guidance on what each term was supposed to mean. Participants were, the survey reports, left to 鈥渋nterpret them as they see fit to determine their rankings.鈥�

Beyond the methodological issues, the criteria themselves are suspect because of their inherent presentism. They reflect a modern understanding of what the presidency should be. Take, for example, 鈥渆conomic management.鈥� When Bill Clinton鈥檚 1992 campaign said 鈥淚t鈥檚 the economy, stupid!,鈥� the line stuck because by then people expected a president to manage the economy.

For 19th-century presidents, though, suggesting the president ought to 鈥渕anage鈥� the economy would have made no sense. Yes, every candidate for office has always wanted prosperity, and like all politicians everywhere, early presidents liked to take credit for good times and blame their opponents for bad times. But the kind of day-to-day intervention implied by 鈥渆conomic management鈥� is a 20th century invention. Early presidents will always fair poorly as a result.

The survey鈥檚 categories also lead people to focus on small differences between presidents rather than the major challenges of their times. The criteria called 鈥減ursued equal justice for all鈥� is especially problematic. If taken literally, presidents who served before the 13^th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery all failed. True, some presidents opposed slavery, such as John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, but many more were slave owners. More to the point, voters accepted slavery so widely鈥攁nd viewed abolition so suspiciously鈥攖hat no one running for president before the Civil War could have won election if they had truly pursued equal justice for the country鈥檚 millions of enslaved men and women. Giving John Quincy Adams a few more points than, say, James Monroe in this category masks the larger reality of slavery鈥檚 place in the nation. Sometimes, presidents don鈥檛 make that much of a difference.

Schlesinger began presidential rankings in the hope that history could teach lessons about what makes a good leader, but his creation turned out to be more about memorialization than history. The rankings are a kind of monument to great leaders on paper or in pixels rather than in stone. Memorialization often relies on history, but it鈥檚 not the same thing. History is the study of the past, seeking to understand people on their own terms. Memorialization is a statement made by people in the present, about what they value in the present.

There鈥檚 nothing wrong with memorialization per se. Everyone wants to be remembered well, and we need role models to inspire us. Yet, it鈥檚 important not to confuse the two because a high score in the rankings doesn鈥檛 tell us much about what we really want to know: how a president led given the enormous complexity of his time.

Presidential rankings can be fun. They encourage discussion and can inspire people to learn more. They should not be seen as anything else 鈥� certainly not a definitive judgment on any president鈥檚 leadership.

David Head is an associate lecturer of history at 麻豆原创. He can be reached at David.Head@ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Columns are archived in the campus library鈥檚 collection and as W麻豆原创 podcasts. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.

When I鈥檓 downtown in Orlando, there are any number of excellent independent shops I like to support, but where I live, miles from the city, one neighbor has a horse and another keeps chickens. On cold nights, I hear the chickens clucking. On colder nights, my neighbor brings the chickens in.

Not much, then, in the way of coffee, except for the place by my house. That鈥檚 where I write鈥攐r wrote鈥攆ive days a week. Before the arrival of COVID-19, I dropped my daughters off at school, then arrived at my coffeehouse by 9 a.m.

Kevin, the man who most days works the morning shift, would greet me. Kevin plays in a band. I鈥檝e never heard his music, and he鈥檚 never read my books. It鈥檚 not that kind of friendship. Which isn鈥檛 to say that it鈥檚 a lesser friendship. It鈥檚 a friendship that doesn鈥檛 require admiration for one another鈥檚 art. Kevin makes my coffee. Sometimes I tip him extra. Sometimes my coffee is free, a perk that comes along with being a regular.

Before the pandemic, my office was the coffeehouse.

Then, most days, I get to work鈥攐r got to work鈥攆inding a quiet corner, facing away from the windows and the rest of the customers, firing up my laptop, securing my noise-canceling headphones over my ears, and navigating to one of three audio recordings I keep bookmarked: bathroom fan, airplane hum, summer storm. The white noise blocks out coffee orders, background conversations, and the chug and hiss of the espresso machines. Within minutes, I鈥檓 in a trance, the world falls away, and I can dream my way into fiction.

Most of my novel, Lake Life (published in paperback by Simon & Schuster last week), was written at this coffeehouse between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., before I returned to my daughters鈥� school to bring them home for the day. Now, our home is their school, and my bedroom doubles as my office.

But before the pandemic, my office was the coffeehouse. There, I would drink two cups of coffee, maybe three, dark roast, with cream and a dash of sugar. I like bitter, and I鈥檝e always preferred strong coffee to lattes or cappuccinos that tend to be mostly milk.

After weeks spent on a 2016 book tour across Europe, I returned to Florida and, for a month, drank straight espresso. But I never found anything in Florida approaching the strength of the ristretto shots I grew fond of in Venice and Milan and Palermo. (This, I recognize, is a pretentious-sounding sentence. In truth, I haven鈥檛 traveled particularly widely, I just got lucky with my last book. And I don鈥檛 drink dark, strong coffee to feel cool. I鈥檓 decidedly un-cool. I rarely drink alcohol. I don鈥檛 smoke. And, as a matter of fact, the darker the roast, the less caffeine the coffee has. I just happen to have a palate that favors bitter. I鈥檒l take dark chocolate over milk chocolate any day.)

When asked why I don鈥檛 prefer writing at home or in the office that 麻豆原创 provides, I have several answers. First, I鈥檓 undisciplined. If I鈥檓 home, there is the TV. There are walls of books. There鈥檚 the bed. Any number of things are more tempting than sitting down to write for hours. Once I鈥檝e started, found my way into a story, I鈥檓 good, on task鈥攂ut resolving to sit down and write for the day, that鈥檚 the hard part. At the coffeehouse, there鈥檚 no TV, and I bring no books. I don鈥檛 even activate the Wi-Fi, so as not to be distracted by Twitter or Facebook鈥檚 endless scroll. No, if I鈥檓 at the coffeehouse, I have one job, and I do it. After all, my afternoons and evenings are occupied by teaching, so if I don鈥檛 write in the mornings, I don鈥檛 write.

Then there鈥檚 the coffee. It鈥檚 always a little better at the coffeehouse than the coffee I make at home. I have a coffeemaker, a French press, and an overpriced espresso machine. I order the best beans. I grind them fresh. Still, I can never match what they do there.

What I miss most about my coffeehouse, though, isn鈥檛 the coffee or the gift of a place to write. What I miss most, I鈥檝e discovered, is being with people. If it鈥檚 true that you can be lonely at a party thrown by friends just for you, it鈥檚 also true that you can feel loved surrounded by people you don鈥檛 even know.

At the coffeehouse, once I鈥檝e finished talking to Kevin, even after I鈥檝e plugged in my laptop and turned my back to the crowd, there鈥檚 a feeling that rises from the floor and tangles up in the rafters, a security that comes from being among others, as in church, each of us struggling in a job or a marriage or just trying to finish a novel, everyone alone, but together, a body of humans, breathing as one, warm, at once, all in one place.

It鈥檚 been more than a year since I stopped going to the coffeehouse, and I have yet to return. The coffeehouse is open. Everything, where I live, opened up almost a year ago. But I鈥檓 wary. Even masked and vaccinated, it will be some time before I鈥檓 comfortable writing among others, breathing the same air. And this is a loss.

I miss Kevin. I miss the taste of coffee made the right way by pros who know what they鈥檙e doing. Over a year in quarantine, and my home brew still pales in comparison. Though, if nothing else, I鈥檝e proven to myself that I can write anywhere. A new book is finished, and another is underway, so all is not lost.

But I鈥檇 trade this, the books and my newfound productivity, trade it in a second to return to a world pre-pandemic. To sit among strangers and friends, and strangers as friends, and feel safe. To not be afraid of my fellow humans.

David James Poissant is an associate professor at the 麻豆原创 where he teaches in the MFA program in creative writing.聽 He can be reached at David.Poissant@ucf.edu.

The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Columns also are archived in the campus library鈥檚 collection and as W麻豆原创 podcasts. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.