To this point in the course, you have learned much about personal motivation, skills, and factors that lead to success. You have begun an exploration of wellness and its dimensions. You likely have considered how your success and happiness relate to your values and ethics. The first video and accompanying transcriipt provide an overview of this discussion. The second video offers a humorous yet essential take on how ethics impacts decision-making. The final video examines the idea of how cross-cultural experiences help us to understand what makes us happy.
Happiness and a High Standard of Living, pbs.org, 2011
How Ethics Can Help You Make Better Decisions, TEDTalk, Michael Schur, 2022
What Makes Us Truly Happy, TED, Kunai Sood, 2016,
To understand more about the role of ethics in success at work and the importance of understanding people with diverse experiences, we invite you to read Chapters 5 and 10 in the online textbook for this course, Human Relations, by Laura Portolese Dias.
As you read, look for places where you see a connection between ethics and a sense of purpose. Use the readings on diversity to better understand the significance of understanding the people around you and what they can teach you about well-being and happiness. We often think that everyone shares common values and understandings of success. As we come to know people with different experiences, we may find that others find happiness in unexpected ways and places.
Human Relations, Laura Portolese Dias, Saylor Academy, 2012
Your online text defines diversity as the differences between people. These differences include race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, background (which may have significant age gaps), socioeconomic status, and much more. The first step for your discussion assignment is to interview someone who is different from you and has had different life experiences from you. The person should also be someone you perceive to be generally happy and prosperous. Meeting with the person through a video call for at least one hour would be best.
You should use the following prompts and ask the following questions of the person:
Describe who you are and how you define yourself.
How do you define happiness? Describe something that makes you happy.
What motivates you in your personal and professional life?
What gives you a sense of purpose and calling in life?
How do you or have you overcome things that were difficult, painful, or stressful in your life? What have you learned from those experiences?
How do you see your ethics relating to your perception of success and happiness?
What do you want to be remembered for?
Over time, how have your definitions of happiness and success changed?
After completing the interview, submit the following to the discussion board:
Describe who you called and why.
Summarize what the person shared in their interview and what you learned from them.
Share what you learned about happiness, success, and ethics this week.
As with all of our discs, there isn’t a correct answer or wrong answer regarding what you share. You will get credit for the assignment if you make a reasonable faith effort to conduct the interview and interact meaningfully with your peers about their interviews.