Click the above link to view Word documents for all the handouts and the Instructor Manual for this chapter.
Eight Traits that Lead to Success
Richard St. John completed over 500 interviews gathering “words of wisdom” from successful people. He synthesized his findings into 8 traits to be great:
· Passion
· Work
· Focus
· Push
· Ideas
· Improve
· Serve
· Persist
Ask your students to brainstorm 8-10 traits that they would believe would make a person successful. Compare it to St. John’s list. Then view a three minute video clip on the subject at: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/70 This video is a good summary of many topics in the text.
Richard St. John has a new book titled, Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich, published by Train of Thought Arts, 2006.
The exercise, Thinking About Your Life Stage, helps students understand life stage theories and to think about their own stage in life. It is located at the end of the chapter in the printed text and integrated into the journal entries for both the printed and online texts.
Students sometimes have difficulty recognizing negative thoughts and turning them around to more positive ideas. Use the Positive Thinking exercise as a group activity to help students become more aware of the power of positive thinking.
Visualize Your Success
Students are more likely to be successful if they have a clear visual picture of their success. Use this mostly blank page (Visualize Your Success) to have students create a mind map, draw, outline, or make a list of words to describe their picture of success. Pass out packages of crayons or colored markers to encourage creativity.
Use this mostly blank page (Happiness Is . . ) to have students draw a picture of what happiness means to them. If students resist drawing a picture, have them make a list of what makes them happy. Challenge students to finish this activity in 5 minutes. They can share some items with the class.
Ask students to pretend that they are on the beach and find a bottle. A genie pops out and says that they can have three wishes. The only things they cannot ask for are more wishes and the wishes need to be used for the finder of the bottle only. Ask students to write down their three wishes. Then ask students to volunteer to share their wishes. Then tell the students that you would like them to change the wishes into affirmations.
Review the guidelines for writing an affirmation:
1. The statement should be positive.
2. The statement should be written in the present tense.
3. The statement should start with “I.”
4. It can be made stronger by adding an emotion (how you feel when it is accomplished).
As an example, mention some of your wishes and how you have changed them into affirmations. For example, change the wish:
I wish for good health
To this affirmation:
I enjoy having good health.
Ask students to share the positive affirmations they have written.
Happiness
This chapter includes some excerpts from the following excellent books on the subject of happiness:
The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, The Penguin Press, 2008
Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman, Free Press, 2002
Martin Seligman’s Signature Strengths Survey identifies personal strengths which can be used to achieve happiness in life.
As a finishing activity or in place of the last quiz, have students write a letter to themselves on the last day. The letter can include the following exercises:
Intentions for the
Future
My Wishes and
Affirmations
Mail this letter to students at the beginning of the next semester.
Letters of Advice: How to be Successful in This Class
As an ending activity, have students write letters of advice on how to be successful in the class. Get students’ permission to share letters. Choose the best letters and duplicate them. Put them in envelopes and pass them out to students on the first day of class the next semester. Have students get in groups and share ideas from the different letters. Share ideas with large group and write them on the board.
Also you can get students who successfully completed the course to come in as a guest speaker to share experiences and how to be successful in the course.
The following semester, at the end of class, pass out samples of student letters and then challenge students to improve on the letters for the next semester.
Five Things You Want to Do, Be and Have
Have students brainstorm five things they want to do, be and have. In small groups, have students share their ideas with others. This exercise could also be done as an introduction to the lifeline exercise which follows below.
Give students 11X14 sheets of paper. Have them turn it sideways and write their birth date to the far left and their date of death to the far right and connect the dates with a line. Students will be surprised that the instructor is asking for their date of death, but remind them that it all depends on factors discussed in the health chapter: good nutrition, exercise, avoiding drugs and alcohol and even wearing their seat belts. Remind them that we are supposed to live for 100 years. So I calculate my date of death as my birth date plus 100 years or beyond. Encourage students to do the same.
If you do not want to put in the date of death, just put in the birth date plus 100 years at the end of the line.
Next have them locate today’s date on the line. Since many students are around 20, have them put today’s date on the first fifth of the line. This helps them to see what a long life they still have to live. Then ask them to write in significant dates from the past such as graduating from high school or getting a driver’s license, etc. Next, ask them to write in the date they will graduate from college and enter their ideal occupation. Ask them to write in some activities after retirement. Sum up the exercise by asking students to write down at least 3 things they have learned. Usually they remark on how short their lives have been and how many opportunities are down the road of life.
There is one caution with this exercise. If any student has serious health problems, they may become upset by this exercise. By this time in the semester you will probably know about these students. Tell them in advance about the exercise or excuse them from it or choose not to do this exercise.
A week before the end of the class, put the name of each student in the class on the top of a sheet of paper. Pass out these papers and ask student to write the nicest thing they can say about the student listed on the sheet of paper. Ask the students not to put any negative comments on these papers. Read the comments to make sure that no negative comments are included. Collect these from the students. Give each student their own list with comments from each classmate on the last day of class.
Complete the “Measure Your Success” as a post test and compare it with their answers in the first chapter. This assessment is included in the printed text and integrated into the online text. Students are pleasantly surprised to see their own progress evaluation and the improvements they have made. Click here for a Success Wheel handout.
Don’t forget the
Course
Evaluation. A form is provided at the end of the printed text.
Take Home Final
Click this link for a take home final exam you can use for the final course evaluation. (Contributed by Paul Delys, Cuyamaca College.)
Online Classes
Discussion Question
Over the years of my working with students, one of the lifetime goals most mentioned is "happiness." I worry about happiness goals because I'm not sure if we know what happiness is or when we have accomplished this goal. I just read a book on the topic, Authentic Happiness, by Martin Seligman. He is a psychologist who actually teaches college courses on this topic. The following are some excerpts from his text. Please read these excerpts, think about them and add your comments.
Excerpts from Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman:
Real happiness comes from identifying, cultivating and using your personal strengths in work, love, play and parenting. Seligman contrasts happiness with hedonism. He says that a hedonist "wants as many good moments and as few bad moments as possible in life." He states that hedonism is a shortcut to happiness that leaves us feeling empty. For example, we often assume that more material possessions will make us happy. However, the more material possessions we have, the greater the expectations and we no longer appreciate what we have.
Seligman suggests some ideas to increase happiness. 1. Realize that the past does not determine your future. The future is open to possibilities. 2. Be grateful for the good events of the past and place less emphasis on the bad events. 3. Build positive emotions through forgiving and forgetting. 4. Work on increasing optimism and hope for the future. 5. Find out what activities make you happy and engage in them. Spread these activities out over time so that you will not get tired of them. 6. Take the time to savor the happy times. 7. Take time to enjoy the present moment. 8. Build more flow into your life. Flow is the state of gratification we feel when totally absorbed in an activity that matches our strengths.
Write your comments on these ideas. What does happiness mean to you?
