3 ECTS. Teaching period: 20.09.2023 – 13.12.2023

Grading: pass-fail
Language: English

Overview

Good Life Engine is a hands-on self-leadership course that creates a framework for personal growth by providing a toolkit for connecting with the inner self and community.

It is natural to question whether the typical person possesses the emotional endurance required to navigate a life filled with constant turmoil. Change can be an arduous process, and the frenzied nature of present-day society has resulted in a widespread epidemic of stress and anxiety. With the mounting unpredictability of the job market and individual career trajectories, global political crisis, economic crisis, and finally, the rise of AI, it begs the question: will individuals have the capacity to manage such challenges? The question on many people's minds is whether they can attain a sense of inner calm in a world that seems to be constantly shifting. Sadly, for numerous individuals in the modern era, feeling anxious and overwhelmed has become the norm. To attain peace and achieve success in this chaotic world, it is imperative to develop a resilient inner core that will allow you to navigate life with clarity and comfort. The Good Life Engine course will help you to accumulate a certain buffer of psychological capital, like insurance against small setbacks so that these will not make you give up or turn away from your personal goals and direction.

No man is an island. We can not thrive in a vacuum, we need to connect with the community. Thus, Good Life Engine will also introduce the approach to connect, reconnect and find your “tribe”, a place to be with other people.

The course is highly practical. Students get to discuss the topics and get assignments connected to them. The core of the course is to equip every student with a practical toolkit of self-development exercises that they will be able to execute on their own long after the course. The course offers a library of tools instead of one general concept. During the course, every student will find something that fits their personal circumstances and needs.

Main topics of the course:

·                    Self-awareness and connection to self;

·                    Long-term orientation and visioning;

·                    Presence: practicing living in the moment;

·                    Time-management;

·                    Mindset flexibility;

·                    Empathy and compassion (including self-compassion);

·                    Ways to connect with others;

·                    Psychological safety;

·                    Resilience.

The course is built in accordance with the Inner Development Goals framework (https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/framework ) and has a human sustainability model in its core (self, emotions, and body).

Students quote about Good Life Engine 2022-2023:

·        “Very interesting topics”;

·        “Important topics, inspiring teaching methods”;

·        “Great topics! Great variety and most of the topics felt meaningful and helped to give new perspective";

·        “Interesting topics that were new and novel to me. Really learned a lot”.

Learning outcomes

The course covers two learning outcomes from AVP curriculum mapping

1.     Develop leadership, self-leadership, and teamwork skills to recruit and manage diverse teams and collaborate with stakeholders;

2.     Develop an entrepreneurial mindset to be creative, brave, flexible, and good at working with others to create new ideas and succeed together.


During the Good Life Engine course, students:

Self-awareness and creating connections with oneself:

-        Learning to read and manage emotions,

-        Learning how to tackle anxiety,

-        Gain a study/work-life balance without sacrificing progress toward their strategic goals. Students will learn how to live, not to run a marathon;

-        Will learn one’s motivating factors;

-        Learning to have a dialogue with body and heart and maintaining this connection;

-        Learning and practicing living in the moment.

Vision and direction (self-leadership):

-        will define their strategic life goals, plan the journey towards them, and plan how to best manage time to progress on this journey;

-        will study how to create new healthy habits, do the twists in their life to tackle anxiety and procrastination, learn how to stay resilient, and be an empathic leader;

-        Fostering growth mindset and skills for life-long learning

Connecting with others:

-        Understanding and practicing empathy and compassion;

-        Co-creation skills;

-        Mindful Communication skills (Respectful dialogue);

-        Mobilization (entrepreneurship skills).


Assessment and assignments

The course is assessed as pass-fail. To pass the course, students need to complete the following assignments:

●       E.g. Final assignment “A work/life project”

●       Learning diary

●       In-class activity (participating in group discussions)


Course structure

Lecture weeks (20.9-13/12/2023)

·        Daily lectures and workshops on campus on Wednesdays from 13.15-15.00

· Individual assignments as homework

Course schedule: 20.09.23; 27.09.23; 11.10.23; 25.10.23; 1.11.23; 8.11.23; 15.11.23; 22.11.23; 29.11.23; 13.12.23

Teacher-in-Charge:

Lidia Rauramo, Anna Dementyeva

Course assistant: Rahim Ahsanullah

For all course organizational questions.



Last modified: Monday, 4 September 2023, 2:38 PM