A recent Gallup survey showed that students who had high student debt are not doing as well as their peers with lower debt based on findings from the Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index. The Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index is designed to measure well-being in five areas(1), including:
- Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
- Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life
- Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
- Community: liking where you live, feeling safe, and having pride in your community
- Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily
At Happiness 1st Institute, we have studied what makes humans thrive for over two decades. What we know is that the debt is not what lowers the ability of individuals who have high student (or other) debt to thrive.
It is the way the individual thinks about their situation and prospects
that determines how well they do and how happy they can be.
While they may not be able to change their debt substantially in the next three months, they can change how they think about it. The reason we exist is that we love to help and this survey by Gallup, released today, has our wheels spinning. We want to put hope out there right now because news like this can lower thriving even more–because when a trusted organization like Gallup tells people that high debt makes them less likely to thrive they tend to believe it. Believing you won’t thrive makes it far more likely that you won’t thrive. As Henry Ford said so long ago, “Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, either way you’re right.” He understood the power of belief.
Change your dynamic – help is here
Our first thoughts are to help with our programs but our usual programs are not inexpensive and we don’t want to add to the debt burden. Off the cuff, we’re thinking we could provide a 40-hour course over 12 weeks for $39.99 per customer. That should cover our costs while remaining affordable. By providing the course online we will avoid travel costs for the participants and the cost of renting a large hotel room and be able to provide flexibility in when the student watches by recording the live classes.
The earliest we can begin class, based on our current schedule, is October 15th.
Stress, specifically unmanaged stress, is at the root of almost all physical, emotional, mental, and social problems. All of our programs address the root cause of stress, which is mindset. We understand and explain in easy to understand language things about the way our brains work that everyone should know but that are not taught in school. Those things are critical because they have a direct impact on whether or not an individual thrives in every area of life: their health, relationships, success, and more.
Essentially, we teach individuals how to reprogram their neural pathways so that their thought processes help them thrive instead of hindering their ability to thrive. We teach mental strength and resilience, enabling anyone to develop the type of mind all the great minds of the past used to create their achievements. Because this involves learning new habits–habits of thought–it takes time to make them automatic. Although we can and do help individuals make positive changes in their lives with 1-hour presentations, we believe that the best approach, whenever possible, is a 40-hour program over a minimum of a 12-week period. That is what we’re going to do with this course.
We’ll come up with an exact schedule and post it soon but for now know we’ll avoid scheduling class on major holidays so with a start date of October 15th, the program will run until about the end of January 2015. Forty hours of class time for $39.99 is less than $1.00 an hour.
We change lives for the better. We do it because we love it. We do it because it matters. We do it because we’ve developed leading edge techniques that work. Most stress reduction programs are dose dependent and do not address the root cause. The next best solution to what we have developed is individual one-on-one therapy where one hour can cost five times what we are offering our 40-hour program for.
You deserve to have the best possible life.
We want to help you do that. Now. You used student loans so you could have a better life. Our program helps you achieve that goal better and faster.
Send us a note if you want to register. We will let you know as soon as we have the registration process set-up.
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Citations:
(1) http://www.gallup.com/poll/174317/student-debt-linked-worse-health-less-wealth.aspx?version=print