Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fall, 2018
Tuesday and Thursday 4:20-7:00
II. RATIONALE
Commitment is a skill central to your entire life. Not only your schoolwork and your
careers need commitment, but every personal relationship you have, your sports,
everything that you do in your life will require some level of commitment. Despite its
importance, commitment seems to be a skill that few have mastered. The “New Year’s
Resolution” effect, when resolutions are inevitably abandoned the second week of
January, occurs because many lack the commitment necessary to keep working on their
goals past the surge of motivation on the first few days.
V. REQUIRED MATERIALS
● The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
● The Beauty of Discomfort: How What We Avoid is What We Need by Amanda Lang
● Notebook to log activity
VI. OVERVIEW
Introduction (1 week)
A. Introductory Activity: Study Circles
a. Take a Seat, Make a Friend: Students will find partners who they do not
know and discuss each question with them in depth. Try to make your
answers as personal as possible. After speaking with your partner, we will
share in a larger group.
i. Who is someone who inspires you? Why?
ii. What do you think is your greatest flaw?
iii. What are you hoping to gain from this course?
b. Discussion
i. What is the purpose of this course?
ii. What is important about commitment?
iii. What is the secret to commitment?
iv. Why is discomfort so difficult to master?
v. What has been the point of this Study Circle?
(Participation points will be given for both activities.)
B. Course Pre-test
C. Introductory Lecture
a. Questions to think about:
vi. What bad habits would you like to drop?
vii. What habits would you like to form?
viii. Why have you not made this change yet?
ix. Why do people have such a hard time making positive lifestyle
changes and sticking to them?