Professional and Personal Resilience: Exploring Your Potential

How to become and stay the balanced and resilient you, both on a professional and personal level? As you already might have noticed while living your life, expectations (e.g. with regards to your career, pressure to perform) and assumptions (e.g. of your family, partner, friends, yourself, manager and / or colleagues) are often transferred to you about who you are supposed to be. This may cause (feelings of) uncertainty and struggles in all kinds of ways, maybe even stronger in an increasingly complex society. How to deal with demanding expectations and presumptions? How to answer the questions ‘Who am I?’, ‘How to stay true to myself?’, ‘What does my resilient Self look like?’?

If you recognize yourself in these questions listed above, maybe even sometimes experience(d) moments of not knowing who you are, or why you are who you are and what you need, this free choice module is for you. Professional and Personal Resilience is an explorative and participative course, supporting your ability to live a resilient life and to be able to build more productive and beneficial habits on several areas of your life. Thus, participants are expected to take full ownership of their personal process. No external answers can be provided to the question how to live your resilient life; there does not exist a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
It’s the trainer’s team intention to inspire you during and beyond this shared moment within your studies: inviting you to take responsibility for and ownership of your current and (near) future resilient professional and personal life. To create and sustain a life you love living. Within this course’s learning community a palette of theories, exercises and tools will be offered to choose from to design your micro, meso and macro tailor-made strategy (TMS). Strategies to be you and to stay true to your own purpose, values, ambitions and qualities, especially in times of uneasiness, of change and challenge (e.g. being promoted, starting your own business, moving abroad, etc.).

This free choice course is setup as a kick-start to enable yourself in continuously endorsing your resilience. It is offered in a two-step approach. As a first step, and per micro, meso and macro layer, a diversity of models and potential focus points are addressed to support you in creating your individual TMS’s. The second step, and again per micro, meso and macro layer, guides you into deepening out profoundly your current habits by exploring and experiencing various theories / research. This in-depth self-analysis is performed to benefit your TMS’s in the best way possible at this moment in time. An interactive and co-creative training setting, inspired by individual guidance and plenary and small group (work) discussion is at the essence of this course's design.

Please note: This module as offered in this free choice format of 3 credits is open for both Bachelor and Master students. This course also exists in a shorter version, a MOS module of 1.5 credit, only for Master students. If you want to participate in the MOS module please register for Professional and Personal Resilience with the code ELS67800. This 3 credit version does not count as a MOS. Furthermore, your registration for this free choice course cannot be changed into a registration for its MOS version.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Assess their current professional and personal qualities and characteristics, to provide an overview of at least three aspects and in which way those contribute to their (near future) resilience
• Conceptualise what resilience means to them and define what their needs and desires are to be able to nurture and strengthen their micro, meso and macro resilience
• Create, perform and adapt a regular routine that increases their resilience and balances professional and personal life (micro-TMS)
• Create, perform and adapt at least once a routine to be used when self-identified possible stressors are present in everyday life (meso-TMS); at least once a routine to be used when self-identified possible stressors are present in everyday life (meso-TMS)
• Create, perform and adapt at least once a routine to be used when self-identified possible stressors are present in everyday life (meso-TMS); at least once a future-proof plan to always be able to find their way back to those three identified own values and qualities (macro-TMS)
• Assess how at least three different theoretical perspectives help them in building their TMS on the micro, meso, and macro-level (one perspective / level)
• Assume responsibility for (facilitated) in class peer discussions about their strategies, providing inspiration and feedback to at least three fellow students (collaborative learning journey) during all sessions

Assumed Knowledge:
This free choice module is relevant for BSc and MSc students who are interested in a hands-on approach to future-proof their own professional and personal resilience (and thus well-being). Within its open and welcoming educational environment this course provides ample opportunity to explore and deepen own strategies to live a balanced professional and personal life. All participants are asked to join with a curious and open mind to willingly take a close and sincere look at their own patterns, actions, reactions, desires, expectations, etc.

Please note: this course is the best match for students who have an intrinsic interest in and / or familiarity with guided visualization and movement practices and are open to combining self-exploration with group discussions while being taught in an interactive educational setting.