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144 Examples of Personal Experience

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Personal experience is the direct experience of an individual. This is a type of evidence and storytelling that is commonly used in public speaking, interviews and academic work such as essays and research. Personal experience is typically contrasted with professional experience that results from work. However, the two often overlap. The following are common examples of personal experience.
Academic Changes (e.g. switching majors)
Academic Failures
Academic Turnaround (e.g. dramatically improving grades)
Accidents
Accountability for Failure
Aesthetic Pursuits (e.g. street fashion)
Aging (e.g. adapting to new physical limitations)
Alienation
Apologies & Atonement
Artistic Projects
Auspicious Circumstances (i.e. Good Luck)
Awkward Social Moments & Embarrassment
Being Misunderstood
Being an Outsider
Biases & Discrimination
Building Trust
Career Changes
Caring for Family Member
Caring for a Pet
Challenging Groupthink
Challenging Mediocrity
Changing Someone's Mind (i.e. influencing)
Changing Your Mind
Civility
Coaching a Team
Community Life (e.g. helping a neighbor)
Competition
Concerts, Festivals & Events
Conflict Resolution
Craft (e.g. a woodworking project)
Culinary Adventure (e.g. seeking out challenging foods or interesting restaurants)
Cultural Participation (e.g. traditional performances)
Culture Shock
Dance
Dealing With Misinformation (e.g. rumors)
Dealing with Difficult People / Bullies
Debates
Decision Making
Defending Someone
Design Projects
Design Projects (e.g. architecting a city in a video game)
Destructive Events (e.g. witnessing a crime)
Difficult Conversations
Disasters
Divorce & Separation
Diy Projects
Doing Good / Doing The Right Thing
Empathy For Others
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Environmental Issues (e.g. experiencing an environmental emergency)
Establishing / Discontinuing a Routine
Exercise
Experiments
Extracurricular Activities
Failures
Family Outings / Trips
Family Traditions
Forgiveness
Founding Institutions & Clubs
Friendship
Getting Respect
Giving Up on a Failing Project / Routine / Situation
Goal Achievement
Grandparents / Relatives
Granting Others Freedom
Health Problems
Hobbies
Holidays & Celebrations
Honest Acts (e.g. telling a difficult truth)
Humorous Episodes
Imaginative Experiences (e.g. counterfactual thinking)
Immigration
Important Conversations
Injuries & Pain
Kind Acts
Leading Teams
Learning from Failures
Lifestyle Changes
Literary Adventures (i.e. experiences of writing and reading)
Loss & Grieving
Mastering an Art
Maturing (i.e. cultivating character strengths)
Media Projects (e.g. producing a documentary video)
Military Service
Mistakes
Moments of Spontaneity
Moral Failures
Moving / Relocating
Music Composition / Performance
Nature Experiences (e.g. a difficult hike with unexpected weather)
Negotiation
Nightlife
Office Politics
Overcoming Behavioural Problems (e.g. anger management)
Overcoming Biases
Overcoming Negative Emotions
Overcoming a Bad Habit
Overcoming a Constraint (e.g. little time or money)
Overcoming a Fear
Parenting
Performance Art
Personal Reflection
Philosophical Leaps (e.g. realizing something you value or believe)
Play
Political Participation & Protests
Poor Choices
Pregnancy & Birth
Problem Solving
Promotions
Public Speaking
Pursuing Freedom
Pushing for Change
Quality Time
Rational Thought (e.g. the process of understanding why you were wrong about something)
Recognition & Awards
Regrets
Rejection & Disappointments
Religion & Spirituality
Research Projects
Rest & Recovery
Reverse Culture Shock
Risk Taking
Rites of Passage
Romance
Science Projects
Showing Respect
Social Isolation
Social Issues (e.g. experiencing poverty)
Social Rejection & Acceptance
Sports
Storytelling
Strategy & Planning
Studying
Subculture Participation (e.g. cosplaying)
Taking Responsibility
Teamwork & Comradery
Technical Challenges
Technology Projects (e.g. robotics, coding ...)
Traditional Experiences
Travel
Unfortunate Circumstances (i.e. Bad Luck)
Video Games & Immersive Experiences
Volunteering
War, Conflict & Oppression

Adversity

Situations that are difficult that represent a temporary or sustained disadvantage in life. These can include systemic things such as discrimination and poverty. Adversity can also include individual life circumstances and events such as an injury.
  • Disadvantages in life and how you have coped with this.
  • Problems that you have managed or overcome.
  • Disappointments that you have faced.
  • Hardships or sudden changes that kinda derailed you for a while.

Personal Life

Things that you have done in your personal life that end up being a learning experience. This includes things that you regard as meaningful experiences that have defined your life and experiences that changed you.
  • Dealing with conflict and difficult people.
  • People who lifted you up and made you who you are today.
  • People who influenced you in one way or another.
  • Personal failures and how you tried to recover.
  • Successes and disappointments.
  • Goals that you achieved.
  • Mastery in your personal life such as getting good at influencing others.

Academic Experiences

Experiences related to learning, research and school life.
  • Academic successes and accomplishments.
  • Academic challenges and how you recovered.
  • Teachers and others who inspired or otherwise influenced you.
  • Participation in school culture and life.
  • Successes and challenges related to extracurricular activities.
  • Major decisions such as switching majors and how these may have changed the path of your life.

Professional Experiences

Work experiences and how these built you up as a professional or person.
  • Stepping into challenging roles and projects and how this felt at the time.
  • Things you have achieved in your career.
  • Times you worked very hard for an extended period and how this may have transformed you.
  • Career changes and how this influenced your life.
  • Recovering from career setbacks.
  • Professions and talents that you have truly mastered over time.

Meaningful & Transformative Experiences

Experiences that you have come to regard as defining your life thus far.
  • Moments of friendship or comradery.
  • Adventures and things you have explored.
  • Things that you realized.
  • Good things that you have done.
  • The process of redemption after doing something bad.
  • Moments of wonder.
  • Intensively difficult situations where you performed surprisingly well.
Next read: Life Experience
More about personal experience:
Alienation
Competition
Culture Shock
Decision Making
Hobbies
Personal Experience
Personal History
Play
Problem Solving
Public Speaking
Quality Time
Rites Of Passage
Sports
Storytelling
Studying
Travel
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Direct Experience

A definition of direct experience with examples.

Work Experience

An overview of common types of work experience.

Service Learning

An overview of service learning with examples.

Learning Experience

An overview of learning experience with examples.

Experiential Learning

An overview of experiential learning with examples.

Hands-on Experience

An overview of hand-on experience with examples.

Educational Background

A list of what can be considered educational background.

Things To Learn

A list of things to learn.

Learning Environment

The definition of learning environment with examples.

Professional Growth

A list of professional growth examples.

Words To Describe Experience

A vocabulary for describing experience.

Understanding

An overview of understanding with examples.

Background Knowledge

An overview of background knowledge with a list of examples.

Creativity

Examples of the creative process.

Art Opposite

A list of things that can be considered the opposite of art.

Ideation

The definition of ideation with examples.

Strengths

A useful list of strengths.

Creativity Examples

A list of creative pursuits.

Creative Hobbies

A list of creative hobbies.

Work Creativity

An overview of work creativity with examples.

Creative Expression

An overview of creative expression with a list of examples.

Worldbuilding

An overview of worldbuilding with examples.

Workplace Communication

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