Undergraduate / UNC Essay - The Power of Positivity (Applying Early Action) [2]

If you could design and teach your own course, what topic would you cover? What texts, assignments, projects, field trips, or other resources would you use in teaching this course?

If given the opportunity to design and teach my own course, it would be entitled "The Power of Positivity and Success". Edward Jones, a psychologist at Princeton writes, "Our expectancies not only affect how we see reality but also affect the reality itself". What the human mind is capable of doing is amazing; it allows us to think and feel. The mind makes a decision and the body follows. Because the mind has so much power over us, it is important to train the mind to be positive, so that the body follows along in the same manner. I've developed a rather resilient attitude as a result of being optimistic and positive, and have also seen the subsequent personal and inter-personal benefits of doing so. When we meet people, they can sense our aura and are in turn affected by it. This happens instinctively and on a subconscious level. Knowing that our explanatory style and how we view things affects both our own and other's mentalities, positive thinking seems to be a powerful impact on society for just being inside our heads. The affect of this quality can enrich relationships and for people interested in doing business, it is a very helpful tool to help make connections and promote innovation and teamwork.

While you can't practice being resilient or kind by reading a book, there are many great pieces of literature that teach and show examples and benefits of being positive, allowing the class to apply the lessons to their own lives. I would start off with the book entitled "The Greatest Salesman in the World" By O.G. Mandino. The ten scrolls that make up the second half of the book are quintessential good habits and a positive philosophy on life. The second scroll, for example, "I will greet this day with love in my heart" can be interpreted as taking each day on with a positive and kind mindset in your own endeavors and in your relationships. Plato's "The Republic" is another text that promotes positivity and teamwork within the community. Plato's Socratic dialogue discusses the definition of justice and concludes at the end of the first book that justice includes helping friends. The Jewish Legal Texts take Plato's principle a step further with their message of "loving the stranger". The framework for a positive mindset exemplified by the texts would now be ready to be applied.

In doing hands on community service by either helping underprivileged children academically or sick people by providing comfort, the class would learn and benefit greatly. Both of these activities, from my experience, has made me much more appreciative of life. To be healthy, to live comfortably, to be blessed with things I used to take for granted, remind me that life is good and in turn my mindset has become much more positive. The class would likewise benefit from similar activities. The benefits of being positive can help anyone in any profession, in relationships, or just in bettering his or herself.