When I was 13, my dad made me spend the entire summer reading Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People” (please feel bad for me). I don’t know if many of you are familiar with it, but the book covers how to establish a strong relationship with people and how to make yourself a better, more effective and overall more influential person in society. Additionally, I took a Health Science and Psychology course in high school that focused on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Both of those experiences combined basically encompass everything she touched on about self-actualization and social relationships. That being said, I still really enjoyed the workshop. I’m borderline obsessed with social psych and introspection in psychology and it’s always interesting to see how others react to different experiences, and I thought this this was a good bonding activity for us as a class because I learned a little bit more about everyone on a more personal and sincere level. So even though I wasn't challenged to think in a way that I haven’t before, I liked how I got to observe others and discuss personal details.
(Edit: After thinking about this for a few minutes, I realized that I am glad that my dad made me read that book. As an eighth grader, I didn't see why finding a passion was necessary for a fulfilling life. I was just into skinny jeans and eyeliner and didn't think that I needed to worry about how my social relationships affected my lifestyle or whether or not I was happy going along with my daily routine. I now see that ever since reading that book, everything I do impacts my life in some way even if it isn't immediately noticeable. My pre-med class only furthered that mindset, and Sarah Jilling's workshop made it more realistic because now, more than ever, I have ultimate control over what I really want to spend my time doing, and how I want it to affect my lifestyle. So I retract what I said earlier about not getting anything out of the workshop, that was stupid.)
I also heard many of the points Sarah Jillings brought up before through presentations and from my high school psychology class. Even though I knew about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and a lot of the social trends she mentioned, I always find it interesting even after hearing the same information repeated several times. I find it interesting how different people present the same material, and how it continues to grab my interest every time. I think the reason that it interests me so much is because I really haven't found my true passion and also because even though I know all these social experiments I continue to forget them when I am going through my daily routine. Sometimes it is nice to have workshops like these to remind ourselves what we are doing in that point in our lives. I agree that it is interesting to see other people's reactions and it is also interesting to see if my view has changed from last hearing the same type of material!! I was definitely much different than my awkward middle school years or at least I hope!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard much about this study prior to Sarah Jillings but I am definitely interested into what else there is to say. Although what she said was incredibly interesting, It was also incredibly simplified (which it must be if learning your purpose in life in one hour). I'd be really interested into learning deeper into the origins of human "happiness" and what it really means to be happy.
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