Module 1 | INSTILL
Their behavior
An Excerpt from the book “The Magic of Thinking Big”
by Dr. David Schwartz (pp. 9-25)
Success means many wonderful, positive
things. Success means personal property: a fine home,
vacations, travel, new things, financial security, giving
your children maximum advantages. Success means
winning admiration, leadership, being looked up to by
people in your business, and social life. Success
means freedom: freedom from worries, fears,
frustrations, and failure. Success means self-respect,
continually finding more real happiness and
satisfaction from life, being able to do more for those
who depend on you.
Success means winning
Success—achievement—is the goal of life!
Every human being wants success. Everybody wants
the best this life can deliver. Nobody enjoys crawling,
living in mediocrity. No one likes feeling second-class
and feeling forced to go that way.
Some of the most practical success-building wisdom is
found in that Biblical quotation stating that faith can
move mountains.
Believe, really believe, you can move a mountain, and
you can. Not many people believe that they can move
mountains. So, as a result, not many people do.
On some occasion, you’ve probably heard someone say
something like “It’s nonsense to think you can make a
mountain move away just by saying, ‘Mountains, move
away.’ It’s simply impossible.”
People who think this way have belief confused with
wishful thinking. And true enough, you can’t wish away
a mountain. You can’t wish yourself into an executive
suite. Nor can you wish yourself into a five-bedroom,
three-bath house or the high-income brackets. You
can’t wish yourself into a position of leadership.
But you can move a mountain with belief. You can win
success by believing you can succeed.
There is nothing magical or mythical about the power
of belief.
Belief works this way. Belief, the “I’m-positive-I-can”
attitude, generates the power, skill, and energy needed
to do. When you believe I-can-do-it, the how-to-do
develops.Every day all over the nation, young people
start working in new jobs. Each of them “wishes” that
someday he could enjoy the success that goes with
reaching the top. But the majority of these young
people simply don’t have the belief that it takes to reach
the top rungs. And they don’t reach the top. Believing
it’s impossible to climb high, they do not discover the
steps that lead to great heights.
remains that of the “average” person.
But a small number of these young people believe they
will succeed. They approach their work with the “I’m-
going-to-the-top” attitude. And with substantial belief,
they reach the top. Believing they will succeed—and
that it is not impossible—these folks study and observe
the behavior of senior executives. They learn how
successful people approach problems and make
decisions. They observe the attitudes of successful
people.
The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who
believes he can do it.
A young woman I’m acquainted with decided two years
ago that she was going to establish a sales agency to
sell mobile homes. She was advised by many that she
shouldn’t—and couldn’t—do it.
She had less than $3,000 in savings and was advised
that the minimum capital investment required was
many times that.
“Look how competitive it is,” she was advised. “And
besides, what practical experience have you had in
selling mobile homes, let alone managing a business?”
her advisors asked.
But this young lad had belief in herself and her ability
to succeed. She quickly admitted that she lacked
capital, that the business was very competitive, and
that she lacked experience.
“But,” she said, “all evidence I can gather shows that the
mobile home industry is going to expand. On top of
that, I’ve studied my competition. I know I can do a
better job of merchandising trailers than anybody else
in this town. I expect to make some mistakes, but I’m
going to be on top in a hurry.”
And she was. She had little trouble getting capital. Her
unquestioned belief that she could succeed with this
business won her the confidence of two investors. And
armed with complete belief, she did the “impossible”—
she got a trailer manufacturer to advance her a limited
inventory with no money down.
Last year she sold over $1,000,000 worth of trailers.
“Next year,” she says, “I expect to gross over
$2,000,000.”
Belief, strong belief, triggers the mind to figure ways
and means and how-to. And believing you can succeed
makes others place confidence in you.
Most people do not put much stock into belief. But
some, the residents of Successfulville, USA do! Just a
few weeks ago, a friend who is an official with a state
highway department in a mid-western state related a
“mountain-moving” experience to me.
“Last month,” my friend began, “our department sent
notices to several engineering companies that we were
authorized to retain some firm to design eight bridges
as part of our highway-building program. The bridges
were to be built at $5,000,000. The engineering firm
selected would get a 4 percent commission, or
$200,000, for its design work.
“I talked with twenty-one engineering firms about
this. The four largest decided right away to submit
proposals. The other seventeen companies were
small, having only three to seven engineers each. The
size of the project scared off sixteen of these
seventeen. They went over the project, shook their
heads, and said, in effect, ‘it’s too big for us. I wish I
thought we could handle it, but it’s no use even trying.’
“But one of these small firms, a company with only
three engineers, studied the plans and said, “We can do
it. We’ll submit a proposal.’ They did, and they got the
job.”
Belief in success is the one basic, absolutely
essential ingredient of successful people.
Those who believe they can move mountains, do. Those
who believe they can’t, cannot. Belief triggers the
power to do.
Actually, in these modern times, belief is doing much
bigger things than moving mountains. The most
essential element—in fact, the essential element—in
our space explorations today is a belief that space can
be mastered. Without a firm, unwavering belief that
man can travel in space, our scientists would not have
the courage, interest, and enthusiasm to proceed. The
belief that cancer can be cured will ultimately produce
cures for cancer. Currently, there is some talk of
building a tunnel under the English Channel to connect
England with the Continent. Whether this tunnel is ever
built depends on whether responsible people believe it
can be built.
Belief in great results is the driving force, the power
behind all great books, plays, scientific
discoveries. Belief in success is behind every
successful business, church, and political
organization. Belief in success is the one basic,
absolutely essential ingredient of successful people.
Believe, really believe, you can succeed, and you will.
Over the years I’ve talked with many people who have
failed in business ventures and in various careers. I’ve
heard a lot of reasons and excuses for
failure. Something especially significant unfolds as
conversations with failures develop. In a casual sort of
way the failure drops a remark like “To tell the truth, I
didn’t think it would work” or “I had my misgivings
before I even started” or “Actually, I wasn’t too
surprised that it didn’t work out.”
The “Okay-I’ll-give-it-a-try-but-I-don’t-think-it–will-
work” attitude produces failures.
Disbelief is a negative power. When the mind
disbelieves or doubts, the mind attracts ‘reasons” to
support the disbelief. Doubt, disbelief,
the subconscious will to fail, the not really wanting to
succeed, is responsible for most failures.
Think doubt and fail.
Think victory and succeed.
A young fiction writer talked with me recently about her
writing ambitions. The name of one of the top writers
in her field came up.
“Oh,” she said, “Mr. X is a wonderful writer, but of
course, I can’t be nearly successful as he is.”
Her attitude disappointed me very much because I
know what the writer mentioned. He is not
superintelligent nor super-perceptive, nor super-
anything else except superconfident. He believes he is
among the best, and so he acts and performs the best.
It is well to respect the leader. Learn from
him. Observe him. Study him. But don’t worship
him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go
beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude
are invariably second-best doers.
Look at it this way. Belief is the thermostat that
regulates what we accomplish in life. Study the fellow
who is shuffling down there in mediocrity. He believes
he is worth little, so he receives little. He believes he
can’t do big things, and he doesn’t. He believes he is
unimportant, so everything he does has an unimportant
mark. As time goes by, lack of belief in himself shows
through in the way the fellow talks, walks, acts. Unless
he readjusts his thermostat forward, he shrinks, grows
smaller and smaller, in his estimation. And, since
others see in us what we see in ourselves, he grows
smaller in the estimation of the people around him.
Now, look across the way at the person who is
advancing. He believes he is worth much, and he
receives much. He believes he can handle big, difficult
assignments—and he does. Everything he does, the
way he handles himself with people, his character, his
thoughts, his viewpoints, all say, “Here is a
professional. He is an important person.”
A person is a product of his thoughts. Believe
Big. Adjust your thermostat forward. Launch your
success offensive with an honest, sincere belief that
you can succeed. Believe big and grow big.
Several years ago after addressing a group of
businessmen in Detroit, I talked with one of the
gentlemen who approached me, introduced himself,
and said, “I enjoyed your talk. Can you spare a few
minutes? I’d like very much to discuss a personal
experience with you.”
In a few minutes, we were comfortably seated in a
coffee shop, waiting for some refreshments.
“I have a personal experience,” he began, “that ties in
perfectly with what you said this evening about making
your mind work for you instead of letting it work against
you. I’ve never explained to anyone how I lifted myself
out of the world of mediocrity, but I’d like to tell you
about it.”
“And I’d like to hear it,” I said.
“Well, just five years ago, I was plodding along, just
another guy working in the tool-and-die trade. I made
a decent living by average standards. But it was far
from ideal. Our home was much too small, and there
was no money for those many things we wanted. My
wife, bless her, didn’t complain much, but it was written
all over her that she was more resigned to her fate than
she was happy. Inside, I grew more and more
dissatisfied. When I let myself see how I was failing my
good wife and two children, I hurt inside.
“But today things are different,” my friend
continued. “Today, we have a beautiful new home on a
two-acre lot and a year-round cabin a couple of
hundred miles north of here. There’s no more worry
about whether we can send the kids to a good college,
and my wife no longer has to feel guilty every time she
spends money on some new clothes. Next summer, the
whole family is flying to Europe to spend a month’s
holiday. We’re living.”
“How did this all happen?” I asked.
“It all happened,” he continued, “when to use the phrase
you used tonight, ‘I harnessed the power of belief.’ Five
years ago, I learned about a job with a tool-and-die
company here in Detroit. We were living in Cleveland
at the time. I decided to look into it, hoping I could make
a little more money. I got here early on Sunday evening
but the interview was not until Monday.
“After dinner, I sat down in my hotel room, and for some
reason, I got disgusted with myself. ‘Why,’ I asked
myself, ‘am I just a middle-class failure? Why am I
trying to get a job that represents such a small step
forward?’
“I don’t know to this day what prompted me to do it, but
I took a sheet of hotel stationery and wrote down the
names of five people. I’ve known well for several years
who had far surpassed me in earning power and job
responsibility. Two were former neighbors who had
moved away to fine subdivisions. Two others were
fellows I had worked for, and the third was a brother-
in-law.
“Next—again I don’t know what made me do this—I
asked myself, what do my five friends have that I don’t
have, besides better jobs? I compared myself with
them on intelligence, but I honestly couldn’t see that
they excelled in the brains department. Nor could I
truthfully say they had me beat on education, integrity,
or personal habits.
“Finally, I got down to another success quality one
hears a lot about: initiative. Here I hated to admit it, but
I had to. On this point, my record showed I was far
below that of my successful friends.
“It was now about 3 AM, but my mind was astonishingly
clear. I was seeing my weak point for the first time. I
discovered that I had held back. I had always carried a
little sick. I dug into myself deeper and deeper and
found the reason I lacked initiative was that I didn’t
believe that I was worth very much.
“I sat there the rest of the night just reviewing how lack
of faith in myself had dominated me ever since I could
remember, how I had used my mind to work against
myself. I found I had been preaching to myself why I
couldn't get ahead instead of why I could. I had been
selling myself short. I found this streak of self-
depreciation showed through in everything I did. Then
it dawned on me that no one else was going to believe
in me until I believed in myself.
“Right then I decided, ‘I’m through feeling second-
class. From here on, I’m not going to sell myself short.’
“Next morning, I still had that confidence. During the
job interview, I gave my newfound confidence in its first
test. Before coming for the interview, I’d hoped I would
have the courage to ask for $750 or maybe even $1,000
more than my present job was paying. But now, after
realizing I was a valuable man, IK upped it to
$3,500. And I got it. I sold myself because, after that
one long night of self-analysis, I found things in myself
that made me a lot more salable.
“Within two years after I took that job, I had established
a reputation as the fellow who can get business. Then
we went into a recession. This made me still more
valuable because I was one of the best business-
getters in the industry. The company was reorganized
and I was given a substantial amount of stock plus a lot
more pay.”
Believe in yourself, and good things do start
happening. Your mind is a “thought factory.” It is a busy
factory, producing countless thoughts in one day.
Believe in yourself, and good things do start
happening.
Production in your thought factory is under the charge
of two foremen, one of whom we will call Mr. Triumph;
and the other, Mr. Defeat. Mr. Triumph is in charge of
manufacturing positive thoughts. He specializes in
producing reasons why you can, why you’re qualified,
why you will.
The other foreman, Mr. Defeat, produces negative,
depreciating thoughts. He is your expert in developing
reasons why you can’t, why you’re weak, why you’re
inadequate. His specialty is the “why-you-will-fail”
chain of thoughts.
Both Mr. Triumph and Mr. Defeat are intensely
obedient. They snap to attention immediately. All you
need do to signal either foreman is to give the slightest
mental beck and call. If the signal is positive, Mr.
Triumph will step forward and go to work. Likewise, a
negative signal brings Mr. Defeat forward.
To see how these two foremen work for you, try this
example. Tell yourself, “Today is a lousy day.” This
signals Mr. Defeat into action, and he manufactures
some facts to prove you are right. He suggests to you
that it’s too hot or it’s too cold, business will be bad
today, sales will drop, other people will be on edge, you
may get sick, your wife will be in a fussy mood. Mr.
Defeat is tremendously efficient. In just a few
moments, he’s got you sold. It is a bad day. Before you
know, it is a heck of a bad day.
But tell yourself, “Today is a fine day,” and Mr. Triumph
is signaled forward to act. He tells you, “This is
a wonderful day. The weather is refreshing. It’s good
to be alive. Today you can catch up on some of your
work.” And then it is a good day.
In like fashion, Mr. Defeat can show you why you can’t
sell Mr. Smith; Mr. Triumph will show you that you
can. Mr. Defeat will convince you that you will fail, while
Mr. Triumph will demonstrate why you will
succeed. Mr. Defeat will prepare a brilliant case
against Tom, while Mr. Triumph will show you more
reasons why you like Tom.
Now, the more work you give either of these two
foremen, the stronger he becomes. If Mr. Defeat is
given more work to do, he adds personnel and takes up
more space in your mind. Eventually, he will take over
the entire thought-manufacturing division, and virtually
all thought will be negative.
The only wise thing to do is fire Mr. Defeat. You don’t
need him. You don’t want him around telling you that
you can’t, you’re not up to it, you’ll fail, and so on. Mr.
Defeat won’t help you get where you want to go, so boot
him out.
Use Mr. Triumph 100 percent of the time. When any
thought enters your mind, ask Mr. Triumph to go to
work for you. He’ll show you how you can succeed.
Between now and tomorrow at this time, another 11,500
new consumers will have made their grand entry into
the USA.
The population is growing at a record rate. In the next
ten years, the increase is conservatively estimated at
35 million. That’s equal to the present combined
metropolitan population of our five biggest cities: New
York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and
Philadelphia. Imagine!
New industries, new scientific breakthroughs,
expanding markets—all spell opportunity. This is good
news. This is the most wonderful time to be alive!
All signs point to record demand for top-level people in
every field—people who have superior ability to
influence others, to direct their work, to serve them in
a leadership capacity. And the people who will fill
these leadership positions are all adults or near
adults right now. One of them is you.
The guarantee of a boom is not, of course, a guarantee
of personal success. Over the long pull, the United
States has always been booming. But just a fast glance
shows that millions and millions of people—in fact, a
majority of them—struggle but don’t succeed. The
majority of folks still plug along in mediocrity despite
the record opportunity of the last two decades. And in
the boom period ahead, most people will continue to
worry, to be afraid, to crawl through life feeling
unimportant, unappreciated, not able to do what they
want to do. As a result, their performance will earn
them petty rewards, petty happiness.
Those who convert opportunity into reward (and let me
say, I sincerely believe you are one of those, else you’d
rely on luck and not bother with this book) will be those
wise people who learn how to think themselves to
success.
Walk inside. The door to success is open wider than
ever before. Put yourself on record now that you are
going to join that select group that is getting what it
wants from life.
Here is the first step toward success. it’s a basic
step. It can’t be avoided. Step One: Believe in yourself,
believe you can succeed.
Success does not require a super-intellect. . .
Success is not based on luck.
How to Develop the Power of Belief
Here are the three guides to acquiring and
strengthening the power of belief:
1. Think success, don’t think failure. At work, in your
home, substitute success thinking for failure
thinking. When you face a difficult situation, think,
“I’ll win,” not “I’ll probably lose.” When you compete
with someone else, think, “I’m equal to the best,” not
“I’m outclassed.” When opportunity appears, think “I
can do it,” never “I can’t.” Let the master thought “I
will succeed” dominate your thinking
process. Thinking success conditions your mind to
create plans that produce success. Thinking failure
does the exact opposite. Failure thinking conditions
 the mind to think other thoughts that produce
failure.
2. Remind yourself regularly that you are better than
you think you are. Successful people are not
supermen. Success does not require a super-
intellect. Nor is there anything mystical about
success. And success isn’t based on
luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who
have developed a belief in themselves and what they
do. Never—yes, never—sell yourself short.
3. Believe Big. The size of your success is determined
by the size of your belief. Think little goals and
expect little achievements. Think big goals and win
big success. remember this, too! Big ideas and big
plans are often easier—certainly no more difficult—
than small ideas and small plans
Module 2 - Self-Acceptance | BRAINSTORM
Self-Acceptance
One important thing to consider so that we may be able
to learn to appreciate our own self is to understand
first the inevitable realities of life. From the situation
that we had just recently experienced, we were not
sure whether we would be able to survive during the
time of the pandemic. A lot of people had lost jobs. We
were not even sure whether we would still have food
on our table in a couple of days more. We were not also
sure whether we still would have the chance to go back
to school. Yet, here we are. We survived!
Elizabeth Anne Richards Shurg wrote a poem in 1968
entitled “I am Special.” And the poem goes this way:
I’m Special
I’m special.
In all the world there’s nobody like me.
Since the beginning of time, there has never been
another person like me.
Nobody has my smile. Nobody has my eyes, my nose,
my hair,
my hands, my voice.
I’m special.
No one can be found who has my handwriting.
Nobody anywhere has my tastes for food or music or
art.
No one else sees things just as I do.
In all of time there’s been no one who laughs like me,
no one who cries like me, and what makes me laugh
and cry will never provoke identical laughter and
tears from anybody else, ever.
No one reacts to my situation just as I would react.
I’m special.
I’m the only one in all of creation who has my set of
abilities.
Oh, there will always be somebody who is better at
one of the things I’m good at,
but no one in the universe can reach
the quality of my combinations of talents, ideas,
abilities, and feelings.
Like a room full of musical instruments, some may
excel alone,
but none can match the symphony sound
when all are played together.
I’m a symphony.
Through all of eternity no one will ever look, talk,
walk, think, or do like me.
I’m special.
I’m rare.
And, in all rarity there is great value.
Because of my great value, I need not attempt to
imitate others.
I will accept—yes, celebrate—my differences.
I’m special.
And I’m beginning to realize it’s no accident that I’m
special.
I’m beginning to see that God made me special for a
very special purpose.
He must have a job for me that no one else can do as
well as I.
Out of all the billions of applicants, only one is
qualified,
Only one has the right combination of what it takes.
That one is me.
Because. . .
I’m special!
The road to developing a more established personality
with genuine character demands a continuing self-
evaluation and assessment. To bring out this idea, we
have first to enumerate the inevitable realities found in
every individual journey that we have in our search for
meaning and true happiness in life.
Reality #1: A true normal person possesses
abnormalities within.
A normal person is endowed by nature with positive
and negative aspects. Everyone has her strengths and
weaknesses. A human person is born with
imperfections so that he will continuously aspire for
growth. Although the human person is naturally born
good, he, however, will not be able to escape the reality
of possessing unwanted flaws due to the aspects of
life’s outside factors that trigger and sometimes thwart
his capacity to maintain balance and calmness.
Reality #2: The world coerces everybody to forget the
truth of possessing the dragon within ourselves
through highly socially constructed human standards.
As an individual aspiring to prove one’s worth, a
human person neglects the normal swaying of the
pendulum of life from positive to negative and the other
way around. Due to the high standards of society, a
child is being bombarded by all the highest
achievements that he could acquire. Every man would
always aspire to be the best in any aspect of life,
starting from the minutest competition up to the grand
achievement that the world could offer. Because of this
great desire, a human person will always view the
world as a battlefield. Life here on earth, therefore,
becomes a survival of the fittest and the world
becomes a big battleground where everyone becomes
a competitor. Man does not anymore realize that the
world curtails a lot of potentialities from
within. Shackled by standards, title, and all the
achievements of the world, one would dare to stop
revisiting reality #1.
Reality #3: Focusing much on achieving something
digresses one’s attention towards cosmopolitanism;
i.e., communal equality and brotherhood.
The negative aspects of one’s personality are always
heaping in our unconscious mind. Such negativity will
eventually burst out when we fail to achieve our
target. There is a subtle collection of small negativity
from within that we oftentimes would
neglect. However, without us noticing it, such
negativities would become monsters that would hunt
us when the sackcloth of negativity unintentionally gets
ripped.
These monsters are within each one of us. Every
human person possesses these monsters and the only
way for us to get rid of them is to tame them. To tame
them, there is a need for us to control them and
sometimes convert them into something
positive. These monsters should not put a person down
but to lift them and desire to work doubly harder to
achieve the desired goal.
INSTILL
Excerpt from Osho’s “Fear: Understanding and
Accepting the Insecurities of Life”
From Knowledge to Innocence (pp. 83-84)
Don’t become more knowledgeable, become more
innocent. Drop all that you know, forget all that you
know. Remain to wonder, but don’t transform your
wondering into questions, because once the wonder is
changed into a question, sooner or later the question
will bring knowledge. And knowledge is a false coin.
From the state of wonder, there are two paths. One is
of questioning—the wrong path—it leads you into more
and more knowledge. The other is not of questioning
but enjoying. Enjoy the wonder, the wonder that life is,
the wonder that existence is, the wonder of the sun and
the sunlight and the trees bathed in its golden
rays. Experience it. Don’t put in a question mark, let it
be as it is.
The reason why there is a need to experience life is that
it is similar to engaging ourselves in the
activity. Accepting that many of life's realities are
rooted in fear, we cannot but continue to deal with life
despite all the fears within us. Osho discusses the
acceptance of fear and still living because as love gives
an order to the universe, it tames fear within
man. After all, fear is the other side of love.
The Other Side of Life (pp. 120-126)
Fear is the other side of love. If you are in love, fear
disappears. If you are not in love, fear arises—
tremendous fear. Only lovers are fearless; only in a
deep moment of love is there no fear. In a deep
moment of love, existence becomes a home—you are
not a stranger, you are not an outsider, you are
accepted. Even by a single human being, you are
accepted, something in the depth opens—a flowerlike
phenomenon in the innermost being. You are accepted
by someone, you are valued; you are not futile. You
have a significance, a meaning.
If in your life there is no love, then you will become
afraid. Then there will be fear everywhere because
everywhere there are enemies, no friends, and the
whole existence seems to be alien; you seem to be
accidental, not rooted, not at home. Even a single
human being can give you such deep at-homeness in
love, what to say about being in love with the total, with
the whole?
In this case, fear is the absence of love. And if fear is
a problem for you that shows that you are looking at
the wrong side. Love should be the problem, not
fear. If fear is the problem, then that means you should
seek love. If fear is the problem, the problem is that
you should be more loving so somebody can be more
loving to you. You should be more open to love.
But this is the trouble: When you are in fear, you are
closed. You start feeling so fearful that you stop
moving toward another human being. You would like to
be alone. Whenever there is somebody, you feel
nervous; because the other looks like an enemy. And if
you are so fear-obsessed, it is a vicious circle. The
absence of love creates fear in you, and now, because
of fear, you become closed. You become like a closed
cell with no windows, because you are afraid anybody
can come through the windows, and there are enemies
all over. You are afraid to open the door because when
you open the door, anything is possible. So, even when
love knocks at your door, you don’t trust.
A man or a woman who is so deep-rooted in fear is
always afraid to fall in love, because then the doors of
the heart will be open and the other will enter you, and
the other is the enemy. Says Sartre, “The other is hell.”
Lovers have known another reality: The other is
heaven, the very paradise. Sartre must be living in a
deep-rooted fear, anguish, anxiety. And Sartre has
become very influential. He should be avoided like a
disease, a dangerous disease. But he appeals to
people because of what he is saying, many feel the
same about in their own life. That is his
appeal. Depression, sadness, anguish, fear—these are
Sartre’s themes, the themes of the whole movement of
existentialism, and people feel that these are their
problems. When I talk about love, of course, you feel
that it is not your problem; fear is your problem. But I
would like to tell you that love is your problem, not fear.
It is just like this: the house is dark and I talk about
light, and you say, “You go on talking about light. It will
be better if you talk about darkness because the
darkness is our problem. The house is filled with
darkness. Light is not our problem.” But do you
understand what you are saying? If darkness is your
problem, talking about darkness won’t help. If
darkness is your problem, nothing can be done about
darkness directly. You cannot throw it out, you cannot
push it out; you cannot switch it off. Darkness is an
absence. Nothing can be done about it directly. If you
have to do anything, you have to do something with the
light, not with darkness.
Pay more attention to light—how to find light, how to
create a light, how to enkindle a candle in the
house. And then, suddenly, there is no darkness.
Remember: Love is the problem, never fear. You are
looking at the wrong side. And you can look at the
wrong side for many lives and you will not be able to
solve anything. Always remember, the absence should
not be made a problem—because nothing can be done
about it. Only presence should be made a problem
because then, something can be done and it can be
solved.
If fear is felt, then love is the problem. Become more
loving. Take few steps toward the other . . . because
everybody is in fear, not only you. You wait for
somebody to come to you and love you—you can wait
forever because the other is also afraid. And people
who are afraid become afraid of one thing absolutely,
and that is being rejected.
If I go and knock at your door, the possibility is that you
may reject me. That rejection will become a wound, so
it is better not to go. It is better to remain alone. It is
better to move on your own, not to get involved with the
other because the other can reject you. The moment
you approach and take initiative toward love, the first
fear comes—whether the other will accept you or
reject you. The possibility is there—he may reject, or
she may reject.
That’s why women never take a step; they are more
fearful. They always wait for the man—he should come
to them. They always keep the possibility of rejection
or acceptance with themselves, they never give the
possibility to the other because they are more afraid
than men are. So many women simply wait for their
whole life! Nobody comes to knock at their door,
because a person who is afraid becomes, in a certain
way, so closed that she puts people off. Just reaching
near, and the afraid person throws, such vibrations all
around that anybody who is coming closer is put
off. Even in their movements, you can sense the fear.
Talk to a woman—if you are in a certain way feeling love
and affection for her, you would like to be close. You
would like to stand closer and talk. But watch the body,
because the body has its language. The woman will be
leaning backward, not knowingly, or she may simply
back away. You are coming closer and she is backing
away. Or if there is no possibility to retreat, there is a
wall, then she will lean against the wall. By not leaning
forward, she is telling you, “Go away.” She is saying,
“Don’t come near me.”
People sitting, people walking—watch. Some people
simply put off anybody; anybody who comes close, they
become afraid. And fear is energy, just like love;
negative energy. A man who is feeling love bubbles up
with positive energy. When you come closer, it is as if
a magnet is attracting you; you would like to be with this
person.
If fear is your problem, then think about your
personality, watch it. You must have closed your doors
to love, that’s all. Open those doors. Of course, there
is the possibility of being rejected; but why be
afraid? The others can only say no. A 50 percent
possibility of no is there, but just because of the 50
percent possibility of no, you choose a 100 percent life
of no love?
The possibility is there, but why worry? There are so
many people. If one says no, don’t be hurt, don’t take it
as a wound. Simply take it—it didn’t happen. Simply
take it—the other person didn’t feel like moving with
you; you didn’t suit each other. You are different
types. He has or she has not said no to you really; it is
not personal. You didn’t fit, so move ahead. And it is
good that the person has said no, because if you don’t
fit with a person and they say yes, then you will be in
real trouble. You don’t realize—the other has saved you
a whole life of trouble! Thank him or her and move
ahead, because anybody cannot suit everybody. Every
individual is so unique that in fact, it is very difficult to
find the right person to fit with you. In a better world,
sometime in the future, people will be able to move
around more, so they can go and find the right woman
or the right man for themselves.
Don’t be afraid of making errors, because if you are
afraid of making errors, you will not move at all, and
you will miss the whole of life. It is better to err than
not to do anything. It is better to be rejected than
simply remaining with yourself, afraid, and not taking
any initiative—because the rejection reveals the
possibility of acceptance; it is the other side of
acceptance. If somebody rejects, somebody else will
accept. One has to go on moving and finding the right
person. When the right persons meet, something
clicks. They are made for each other, they fit
together. Not that there will not be conflicts, not that
there will not be moments of anger and fight, no. If love
is alive, there will be conflict also. Sometimes there
will be moments of anger also. That simply shows that
love is an alive phenomenon. Sometimes sadness. . . .
because whenever happiness exists, sadness is bound
to be there.
Only in a marriage is there no sadness, because there
is no happiness either. One simply tolerates the
other—it is an arrangement, it is a managed
phenomenon. When you move into life, then anger is
also there—but when you love a person you accept the
anger. When you love a person, you accept his or her
sadness also. Sometimes you go apart just to come
closer again. There is a deep mechanism behind
it: Lovers fight to fall in love again and again, so they
can have small honeymoons again and again and
again.
Don’t be afraid of love. There is only one thing one
should be afraid of, and that is fear. Be afraid of fear
and never be afraid of anything else, because fear
cripples. It is poisonous, it is suicidal. Move, jump out
of it! Do whatever you like, but don’t get settled with the
fear because that is a negative situation.
To me, love is not a great problem because I look
farther ahead than you. If you miss love you will miss
meditation, and that is the real problem for me. To you
it may not yet be a problem, because if fear is the
problem—then to you, even love is not yet a problem,
how can you think about meditation? But I see the
whole sequence of life and how it moves. If love is
missed you can never be in meditation, because being
in meditation is cosmic love. You cannot bypass
love. Many people have tried, and they are dead in the
monasteries. All over the world, many people have
tried. Because of the fear, they have tried to avoid love
completely, and they have been trying to find a shortcut
directly from their fear of meditativeness.
This is my observation: You cannot bypass love; you
will be committing suicide. But love can bypass you if
you are simply waiting. Move! Love should be
passionate, alive, vital. Only then will you attract
somebody to come toward you. Dead, who bothers with
you? Dead, people would like to get rid of you. Dead,
you become a boring phenomenon, boredom. All
around you, you carry such dirt of boredom that
anybody who comes across you will feel that it is a
misfortune to have met you.
Be loving, vital, unafraid—and move. Life has much to
give to you if you are unafraid. And love has more to
give you than life can give because love is the very
center of this life. And from that very center, you can
pass to the other shore.
I call these three steps: life, love, and light. Life is
already there. Love, you have to attain. You can miss it
because it is not given; one has to create it. Life is a
given phenomenon; you are already alive. There,
natural evolution stops. Love you have to find. Of
course, there are dangers, hazards. But they all make
it beautiful. You have to find love, and when you find
love, only then can you find the light. Then
prayerfulness and meditativeness arise. It has
happened to many lovers—but lovers are very rare—
that while they are deep in love, suddenly they have
fallen into a meditative state. Just sitting by each
other’s side in silence, holding each other’s hand, or
lying together on a beach, suddenly they have felt an
urge, an urge to move beyond.
So don’t pay much attention to fear, because that is
dangerous. If you pay much attention to fear, you are
feeding it, and it will grow. Turn your back to the fear
and move toward love.

That is what the monks have been doing all over the
centuries, Christian and Hindu and Buddhist—all
monks have been doing that. They have been trying to
bypass love completely. Their prayer will be heard
anywhere, and the cosmos is not going to answer their
prayer. They are trying to deceive the whole cosmos.

No, one has to pass through love. From fear, move into
love. From love, you will move into prayerfulness,
meditativeness, and from meditativeness arise
fearlessness. Without love fear; without love,
fearlessness; and the final fearlessness is in
meditation because then, even death is not fear at all,
then there is no death. You are so deeply in tune with
existence—how can fear exist?

So please don’t get obsessed with fear. Just jump out

of it and make a move toward love. And don’t wait,
because nobody is interested in you; if you are waiting,
you can go on waiting.
Module 3 - UB Core Values as lens of strengthening the
Global living
Max Roser held that he conducted the study to determine the
status of the world and the kind of problems that the world is
currently facing. All over the world, only a few people are thinking
that the world is making progress. To determine whether the
world is making progress, Roser gave considerations to the
history of global living conditions. Here, he considered the five
areas: (1) extreme poverty; (2) education; (3) health; (4)
freedom; and (5) population.
1. Extreme Poverty.
To assess the progress of the world, Roser went back to about
30 to 50 years ago. During those times, there were countries in
the world that were living in dire poverty; but they have improved
a lot and are now belonging to the list of the richest countries of
the world. Fifty years ago, China was living in great poverty. It
was considered a “sleeping giant.” To this day, it was said that
the giant has finally awakened. It now belongs to one of the most
powerful countries economically and politically speaking
According to the United Nations, the countries whose people are
living with less than $1.90 per day are those that can be
considered living in extreme poverty. This means that a person
is living only about P100 per day, which is not enough even if a
person is living alone. In the Philippines, there is a great
discrepancy between the rich people and the poor ones in terms
of the food they eat. In other words, the poor people in the
Philippines can be living a more miserable life than the poor
people in Japan, the USA, and Europe.
During the early 1900s, only a tiny number of elite enjoyed a
higher standard of living, while the vast majority of people lived
in conditions that we would call extreme poverty
today. Economists are blaming population growth. But this only
shows that the standard of living of the people is becoming
dynamic. However, it is not moving progressively but
retrogressively. In the Post-war period, the Filipinos were able
to gain momentum and obtained a slightly better life. But
because of the rise in population, coupled with corruption in the
government, and during these days, the natural calamities and
the pandemic, people who are living in extreme poverty are
rowing in number.
This is not the case in the other parts of the world or the other
parts of the region. More and more world regions are becoming
industrialized and therefore, are having an increase in
productivity. This made it possible for them to lift more people
out of poverty. The $1.90 poverty line in the world is decreasing
in number as it only focuses on the very poorest in the world. The
world is also making progress against poverty relative to higher
poverty lines. No matter what extreme poverty line we choose,
the share of people below that poverty line has declined globally.
Globally, this is a huge achievement. But this is not the case in
our country. In other words, we are all the more being left behind
by the majority of countries all over the world. Max Roser
considered that there is a great achievement globally in terms of
the reduction of poverty. He held that growth is remarkable if we
consider that the world population has increased 7-fold over the
last two centuries. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the
Philippines. In a country without economic growth, such an
increase in the population would have resulted in less and less
income for everyone. A 7-fold increase in the world population
would have been enough to drive everyone into extreme
poverty. Yet, the exact opposite happened globally. In a time of
unprecedented population growth, the world managed to give
more prosperity to more people and to continuously lift more
people out of poverty
The world has grown because of the increase in the productivity
of vital goods and services. This includes more food, better
clothing, and less cramped housing. Productivity is the ratio
between the output of our work and the input that we placed in
our work; as productivity increased, we benefitted from more
output, but also less input—weekly working hours fell very
substantially.
Economic growth was also important because it changed the
relationship between people. In the long time in which the world
lived in a non-growth world, the only way to become better off is
if someone else got worse off. One’s good luck is the neighbor’s
bad luck. Because of economic growth, this trend has
changed. Growth made it possible that we will become better off
when others become better off. Because of the development of
technology, productivity increased—cars, more effective
machinery, better communication technology. Due to better
technology, production went higher, and job opportunities
became better.
Again, this is not the case in the Philippines. Philippine media is
overly obsessed with reporting single and small events that are
negatively happening. Instead of focusing their attention on the
slow developments that are reshaping the world, the media has
enjoyed reporting the decline of the economy and the increase in
poverty.
The media would focus their report on the cause of poverty and
starvation. However, they would not report about the possibility
that there can be progress against poverty. This is important to
consider because even after two centuries of global progress,
poverty remains one of the very largest problems in the
world. After two centuries, the majority of people are still living in
poverty. Ten out of one hundred people all over the world still
live on less than $1.90 (approximately less than P100 pesos) per
day and two-thirds of the world population live on less than $10
(approximately P500) per day. In this regard, greater progress is
very much needed
2. Education
Max Roser also assessed how the education of the world
population had changed over this period. He assessed that in
the past, only a tiny elite was able to read and write. The same
goes for the Philippines. During the colonial and the post-
colonial period, only the rich people are capable of sending their
children to college. Today, education even in the richest
countries has a very recent achievement. It is, according to him,
becoming a norm for the entire global population
During the colonial period, only 10% of people older than 15
years were literate. Before World War II, two-thirds of the
population in the Philippines was able to go to school. Now, over
90% of Filipinos can go to school. In other words, if you were
alive during the Spanish colonial period, you were most probably
be illiterate; or, you might have reached only up to Grade
3. Today, at least a little over 90% can reach high school.
A lot of people would think that science, technology,
mathematics, and political freedom are important to solve the
problem of the world. People also believed that reading helps a
lot in solving these problems in the world. However, let us first
make an assessment. Roser held that today, there are 5.4 billion
people older than 15 years of which 85% are literate. In other
words, 4.6 billion people in the world are literate. In 1800, only
about 100 million people are literate
3. Health
One of the main reasons why we could not realize the progress
is because we were unaware of how bad the past was. In 1800,
the health conditions of the world were such that around 43% of
the world’s newborns died before their 5th birthday. The
historical estimates suggest that the entire world lived in poor
conditions; there was relatively little variation between different
regions. In all countries of the world, more than every third child
died before it was 5 years old.
What was the cause of improvement in the world’s health
condition? Was it because of modern medicine? According to
Roser, modern medicine was not the only reason for improved
health. Initially, rising prosperity, public health interventions, and
the changing nature of social life mattered more than
medicine. Health conditions improved because of improvements
in housing and sanitation that improved our chances in age-old
war against infectious disease. A healthier diet—made possible
through higher productivity in the agricultural sector and
overseas trade—made us more resilient against
disease. Surprisingly, improving nutrition and also made people
more intelligent, stronger, and taller
Of course, science and medicine mattered also. Improvements
in medical science and technology reduced mortality
tremendously and diseases were eradicated, if not, given the
cure. Particularly important was the discovery of the germ theory
of disease in the second half of the 19th century. Before, a lot of
people were having difficulty understanding why this theory is
important. But during that time when doctors were not washing
their hands when switching from post-mortem to midwifery, the
theory finally convinced the people of those times that hygiene
and public sanitation are very much necessary for health
The germ theory of disease laid the foundation for the
development of antibiotics and vaccines and it made the world
realize why public health should be given great
emphasis. Everybody benefits from everybody else being
vaccinated and everyone else will be benefited if everyone is
obeying the rules of hygiene.
With these changes, global health improved unimaginably from
the point of view of our ancestors. In 2015, child mortality was
down to 4.3%. This is tenfold lower than two centuries ago. It is
important to consider the past to understand where we are now
and what we have done so far. Nevertheless, the progress that
has been made in terms of health is not equal globally. There
are still countries that are being left behind. But by the fact that
some made great progress suggests that global growth in
medical health and technology can be made possible
4. Freedo
Max Roser believed that political freedom and civil liberties are
at the very heart of development. Both are considered as great
means for development and at the same time, an end of
development. Meanwhile, journalism and public discourse are
considered as the pillars on which this freedom rests. Based on
the modern-days’ assessment, it seemed that freedom is
declining over the years. But Roser held that this is a mistake
because if we are to analyze and assess our situation now, we
can say that people all over the world have more voice now than
the people before. In this regard, quantitative assessments can
be very useful if they will be used in analyzing our freedom in
comparison to the kind of freedom countries had over time
There have been various attempts to measure the types of
political regimes that govern the world’s countries. There have
been various countries that were ruled by other countries as part
of a colonial empire. Throughout the 19th century, more than a
third of the world’s population lived in colonial regimes. The first
expansion of political freedom from the late 19th century onward
was crushed by the rise of authoritarian regimes that in many
countries took their place in the time leading up to the Second
World War.
In the second half of the 20th century, the world has changed
significantly. Colonial empires ended and more and more
countries turned democratic. People all over the world started to
fight for their political freedom. The share of the world population
living in democracies increased continuously. The people in
Communist countries like China and Russia are also starting to
desire democracy. The share of the world population living in
democracies increased—particularly important was the
breakdown of the Soviet Union, which allowed more countries to
democratize. The glasnost (which means, “openness”)
and perestroika (which means, “restructuring”) philosophy of
their former leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, paved the way for the
other socialist states of the USSR to aspire for independence,
which they eventually obtained. Because of the several attempts
to fight for democracy, now, more than every second person in
the world lives in a democracy. Meanwhile, the huge majority of
those living in autocracy—4 out of 5—live in one autocratic
country: China
5. Population
In the year 1800, the world population was around 1
billion. Since then, it has increased seven-fold. Max Roser
believed that the increase in the world population should evoke
more than doom and gloom. First of all, this increase shows a
tremendous achievement for him because it shows that humans
stopped dying at the rate at which our ancestors died for the
many millennia before.
In pre-modern times, fertility was high. The norm, then, was that
each woman would have 5 or 6 children. What kept the
population growth low was the very high rate with which people
died and that meant that many children were dead before they
reached their reproductive age. The increase in the world
population followed when humanity started to win the fight
against death. Life expectancy doubled in all the world regions.
Population growth is a consequence of fertility and mortality not
declining simultaneously. The fast population growth happened
when fertility was still as high as it was in the unhealthy
environment of the past, but mortality has already declined to the
low levels of our time. It can be realized that in country after
country over the last 200 years, when women gain more
independence, education, and prosperity, and when they realize
that the chances of their children dying declined, they began
choosing to have fewer children. Rapid population growth, then,
comes to an end. This transition from high mortality and high
fertility to low mortality and low fertility is, according to Max
Roser, to be called the demographic transition. In those
countries that industrialized first, it lasted at least from the mid-
19th century to the mid-20th century. In other words, it took 95
years for fertility to decline from above 6 children to less than 3
children per woman in the United Kingdom. Countries that
followed later sometimes achieved this transition much
faster: South Korea went from more than 6 children per woman
to less than 3 in just 18 years. Iran even achieved it in just 10
years.
Just as countries went through this transition, so is the world
going through this transition as well. Global fertility has more
than halved in the last 50 years, from more than 5 children per
woman in the early 1960s to below 2.5 today. This means that
the world is well into the demographic transition and the global
population growth rate has grown tremendously even half a
century ago.
To this day, it seems that fertility is declining everywhere,
although not in all countries. With the idea that population growth
impedes the economic growth of a country, a lot of people,
especially in the first world countries, now thinks that having more
children would mean poverty and starvation, fertility started to
decline. The global population has quadrupled over the
20th century. Nevertheless, for this century, it will surely not
double since more and more countries are becoming aware that
population growth is the root cause of all the global
problems. Hence, the solution would be to impede population
growth
Knowledge and Education as the Way to Solve Global
Problems
Max Roser again believed that none of the achievements over
the last 2 centuries could have been made without the expansion
of knowledge and education. The revolution in how we live was
not only driven by education. It also made education more
important than ever. Through education, people are now
capable of making some useful projections into the future. The
number of people being educated today assures that there will
be an improvement in the life of the people today. More and
more poor people can realize that the only way to get rid of
poverty is by being educated to land a good job. Hence, schools
will now be capable of providing better education for the next
generation as it is providing already good education today.
Focusing on the educational breakdown, the projection of the
world population in the future suggests that by 2100, there will be
almost no one without formal education. And there will be more
than 7 billion minds who will have received at least secondary
education. Better education would be of great help in improving
health, increasing political freedom, and ending poverty. Hence,
since there is development in the system of education, it is also
projected that there will be great improvements in health, an
increase in political freedom, and poverty is expected to end.
Hindrance to the World’s Improvement
Max Roser asked: “Why do we not know how our
world is changing?” More than 9 out of 10 people believed that
life is not getting better. With the ideas presented above, why is
it that people still would not believe that the world is getting
better? Is it really because of the media? Is it because the media
does not tell us how the world is changing but rather makes the
people ask what goes wrong in the world.
Accordingly, the media focuses only on single events
and such single events are often bad. Hence, the media will
focus on terrorism, accidents, natural disasters, and the
likes. On the other hand, positive developments often happen
very slowly and will not make it into the headline. This is the
reason why the majority of people around the world are
completely ignorant about the global situation. With the people
not well-educated, they will also be uninformed or misinformed
about the long-run development of the world and they would only
be able to know the growing problems in their locality. Because
of this, people would eventually think that there is little hope to
progress and that serious problems are becoming all the more
possible.
Even the decline of global extreme poverty—by any
standard one of the most important developments in our
lifetime—is only known by a small fraction of the population of
the UK (10%) or the US (5%). Max Roser believed that in the
two countries mentioned, the majority of people think that the
share of people living in extreme poverty has increased. Two-
thirds in the US even think the share in extreme poverty has
almost doubled. In this regard, when we are ignorant about
global development, it is not surprising that only a few people
would think that the world can get better.
To understand what happened in history, it is important
to use statistics. This is used to get an overview of the lives of
the 22 billion people that lived in the last 200 years. The
development that these statistics reveal transform our global
living conditions—slowly but steadily. The statistics would show
that there are these long-term developments. But it is difficult to
tell the history that the lives of everyone had somehow improved
is because it would be difficult for us to pick a single story.
 Stories about individual people are much more
interesting. However, Roser held that they cannot be
representative of how the world has changed. To achieve a
representation of how the world has changed holistically, we
have to tell many, many stories all at once. This is statistics. In
the article of Mike Gorlon (2018), he also agreed with Hans
Rosling’s main premise of his book Factfulness: Ten Reasons
We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than
You Think. He held that the world is getting better despite so
many people believing that it has gotten worse.
Roser believed that transformation in the world
became possible because of collaboration. Life improvement
would not be made possible if a person is living alone. It was the
people’s collective brains and the collaborative effort of every
player that made it possible to have a revolution.
Although there was an improvement in the life of
people all over the world, it is necessary to realize that we need
not be complacent because not everybody is already living a
good life. Although there was an improvement, it is still important
to notice that there are still a lot of things to be done to obtain the
complete happiness that we deserve. Indeed, obtaining the
fastest reduction of poverty is a great achievement. However,
we still have to understand that 1 out of 10 people in the world is
still living in extreme poverty. There are still people in the world
who do not have the necessary freedom. At the same time,
humanity’s impact on the environment is still at a level that is not
sustainable and is endangering the climate on which we
depend. In other words, we still very much needed to reduce our
impact.
Giving solutions to the problems of the world needs
great effort and collaboration. However, we have to know that
the people who can be working to solve the problems are very
much more competent, more intelligent, and more educated as
compared to the people 50 years ago. We have seen that the
world has changed for the better. Our world today is healthier
and richer than it was 50 years ago and the people now are better
educated.
We have to look back to our history and compare the
life of the people to our life now. It is important to know that to
build our own better future, we have to link ourselves with our
past and communicate the global development up to now. By
knowing that we have come a long way in improving living
conditions and the notion that our work is worthwhile is going to
give us self-respect and a greater sense of hope. It is necessary
to have faith in people. If we are not aware of our history and
falsely believe the opposite of what is true, we risk losing faith in
each other. And then, we will live in doom.
This is the reason why we have to go back and study
the history of the University of Batangas. Our study of UB history
made us realize that the success that we are experiencing today
is all a product of the hardships of the founders of UB. We can
also say that our life in UB now is much better than it was twenty
to thirty years ago. This is something that we have to thank
for. At the same time, this should also help us realize that, given
the necessary efforts and cooperation coming from all of us, we
can hope for a better UB and a better future for each one of
us. The growth of UB is already given. The rest is up to us.
The Retiring Carpenter—A Story About
the Life We Build for Ourselves
An elderly carpenter was due to retire.
He told his employer of his plans to leave the business and start
a life of leisure with his wife and extended family.
He would miss the money, but the time was right and he was
ready to hang up his hammer.
His boss was disappointed as the carpenter had been a loyal and
diligent worker for many years, so he was sad to see him go.
He asked for one last favor, requesting that the carpenter could
build one last house before retiring.
The tradesman agreed, but it was soon clear that his heart wasn’t
in it.
He took shortcuts, used inferior materials, and put in a half-
hearted effort.
In the end, the final product was well short of his usual standards,
a disappointing way to end his career.
When the job was finished, the employer came to inspect the
work. After taking a look around, he handed the keys to the
carpenter and said, “This is your house, it’s my gift to you.”
The carpenter was shocked and embarrassed.
If only he had known, he would have made sure that everything
was perfect.
If he had known the consequences, he would have demanded
excellence from himself.
We’re not that different.
We go about our business, working as we see fit.
Some with passion, some without caring.
Some with excellence, some with low standards.
Some with diligence, some without effort.
We are all in the process of building our own lives.
If you are not happy with what you see, perhaps it is a direct
consequence of what you have been building over the years.
Build wisely
Module 4 - Understanding and Accepting One’s Self
The Johari Window
As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to learn to know one’s own Every person has high skills and low skills. These two will be met
self and the others in order to have good communication with the in time by challenges. When our high skills meet low challenges,
other people. For better communication, it is necessary to we feel bored. When our low skills meet low challenges, we feel
improve self-awareness and personal development among apathetic. When our low skills meet high challenges in life, we
individuals whenever they are with the other people in the feel fear.
community or in a group. To become fully aware of the self and
the others, the best method that can be used is the Johari
Window.
The Johari window model is the method developed by the
American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in
1955. The idea was derived as the upshot of the group dynamics
in University of California and was later improved by Joseph
Luft. The name ‘Johari” came from joining their first two
names. This model is also denoted as feedback of self-
awareness

The last quadrant dictates our Flow. When our high skills meet
challenges, we are being brought to another level of
ourselves. This leads to another level of maturity as well as
productivity.

SQ3R is the acronym for Survey, Question, Read, Recite,

and Review, which are the five steps proposed by
Robinson when actively and effectively reading one specific
text. Through this sequence, the readers are expected
to increase their understanding of the text by engaging in the
reading process, both before, during, and after, intentionally.
Being in Flow
§ Survey (S): initially, the readers start by reviewing the
(excerpt from “The Book of Coaching”) assigned text in order to gain an initial understanding of
it by paying attention to its most obvious elements, such
Studies have found that when you love doing something, you as headings, bolded text, or available charts. This first
welcome challenges. This is because you are happy to build the skim provides readers a framework for what will be
skills you need, to overcome those challenges. presented in the text.
When your skills match the love you have for the task at hand, § Question (Q), also called Query: from this initial
you enjoy challenges. preview, the readers are in the disposition to start
That’s when true magic happens. That’s when you create your generating questions about the content of the text. For
best work. That’s when flow happens. example, they could convert the titles into questions, or
they could create more general questions such as
When you enter a state of flow, you achieve the perfect balance “what is this text about?” or “how could the content of
between challenge and skill. If what you’re doing is too easy, this text be beneficial for me?”.
you’ll get bored. If it’s too hard, you’ll feel anxious. It’s got to be
just right. The perfect balance between challenge and skill. § Read (R1): as the readers engage in the reading of the
text itself, they do it actively, having as a background
Having a worthy challenge and intrinsic motivators will keep you the work done in the two previous steps. Thus, the
on the field of play long after everyone else has given up and questions which were generated during the preview of
gone home. It will create flow, and joy, and fulfillment. It’s the the text help readers to focus.
secret to lasting motivation. . . .
§ Recite (R2), also called Retrieve or Recall: as
And endless drive. readers move through the text, they recite or rehearse
the answers to their initial questions, using their own
Ask yourself
words. This can be done either in an oral or written
What motivates me? What holds me back? Why do I lose my form, and it is aimed to support the personal formulation
drive? and conceptualization of the content of the text.

What keeps me going no matter what? § Review (R3): after the reading is completed, readers
review the content of the text by repeating back to
 themselves what the main ideas of the text were, by
using their own words.
STRATEGIES TO USE TO PREPARE FOR READING,
ENGAGE IN READING, AND REVIEW READING
HOW TO SURVEY
• Look over the material: title, preview, headings, visuals,
bolded words, summary
• Read the summary if possible
• Think about background knowledge or information
WHY SURVEY?
• It gives you the big. picture
• It helps you decide what's important.
• You can connect information to what you already know
• It prepares you to read
HOW TO QUESTION
• Turns headings into questions
• Ask what, who? Why? And how?
WHY QUESTION?
• It helps you stay focused on the reading
• It gives you a purpose (looking for the answer) and
creates interest
• It's good practice for quizzing yourself on topics
HOW TO READ
• Look for answers to questions
your questions Write in the margins
• Underline or highlight important concepts
• Break up the reading into chunks.
• Take breaks when needed
WHY READ?
• It's how to get information from the textbook
• It's good preparation for your lectures & discussions
• It's an essential part of test preparation
HOW TO RECITE
• Say it out loud in your own words
• Write a summary of the paragraph or section
• Write notes or notecards for information
• Create a mind map or graphic organizer of the ideas
and how they relate
WHY RECITE?
• It helps you retain information after you read it
• It checks for your level of understanding
• It's a way to interact with the reading and stay awake
HOW TO REVIEW
• Look over your reading notes and quiz yourself on the
information
• Make connections between readings and notes from
class
• Revisit it weekly and test yourself on new and old
material each week
WHY REVIEW?
• It helps you retain information from week to week
• It helps you prepare for exams, papers, and
assignments
The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time-management
method invented by Italian Francesco Cirillo. He wrote, “I
discovered that you could learn how to improve your
effectiveness and be better able to estimate how long a task will
take to complete by recording how you utilizs your time.”
The technique is popular, perhaps because it’s portable and easy
to learn.
• Pick one project or task you want to focus on.
• Set a timer for 25-30 minutes, and get to work.
• When the buzzer sounds, take a two-to-three-minute
break.
• Repeat.
• After four sessions, take a longer break.
• Record each session with a tick or X in your notebook
The Pomodoro Technique is useful if you get distracted while
working on a project or want to understand how long a task takes.
It’s ideal for many types of work including writing, coding, design,
and study. The technique also works if you have a lot of repetitive
work to get through, such as wading through a busy inbox.
A 25-minute Pomodoro session is long enough to get a little work
done but not so long that it feels painful or overwhelming. Unlike
trying to work without a break for hours, it’s relatively easy to
stack small sessions on top of each other. Four Pomodoro
sessions can represent a productive morning. It’s surprising how
much you can accomplish in short bursts of focused work. After
that, it’s time for lunch or even a nap.