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subsequently shift focus from the fears to the importance.
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1: (slide 11) Tell the students how fear is often an indication of something important going on
2: (slide 12) Go back to Anna’s “cons” of learning Spanish and look at how they’re influenced by
learning Spanish feeling important for her. Ask students the questions attached.
3: (Slide 12) Tell students how focusing on fears makes Anna lose sight of the overarching goal
of learning Spanish
4: (Slide 13) Ask the students to analyse Luigi’s presented “cons” to see what conditions of
importance need to be fulfilled for these cons to be of value. Use attached examples to facilitate.
5: (Slide 14) Make the students think of “cons” they feel concerning important tasks, and how
the importance influenced their cons.
6: Summarize by reminding students of how Annas and Luigi’s fears only distort them from
reaching their real goal which causes their fears.

Activity no. 4 – Putting it all together (PowerPoint slide 15)
Total duration: approx. 15 minutes; Group size: <40

The last task of block 1 strives to integrate the three techniques into a package.

Tell students: Imagine that next semester you’ll begin a job which is perfect for you, that you
really want. However, the job is quite difficult. You get 3 months to prove yourself, if you do
well you get to keep the job, otherwise, you don’t. To begin with, take a minute to first think of
what kind of job that could be for you, then you’ll get some tasks. If you have difficulties
coming up with something, think of your last period of work or studies that challenged you.

A) The first week, you feel fear, stress and really don’t want to mess up. Why do you still
continue? Think of what’s the positives? Write them down.
B) Imagine the positive consequences of succeeding and getting to stay after the three
months, imagine how it would feel and what it’d change for you.
C) The fear, stress, and wish to not mess up you felt the first week, what did you care about
that made it so important and that made the fear and stress pop up?

Hopefully, these three tasks can help you focus more on the positive aspects and meaningful
parts of whatever you’re facing while understanding why it can also cause stress and negative
feelings. This is the end of block 1,
Open question: What do you bring with you from this exercise?

Block 2 - Not getting overwhelmed and solving problems (75min)