Unlocking the Path to a fulfilling life: Insights and Ressources from an Alumna's Introspective Journey

The best part of working at the Alumni Office of Ecolint is meeting with the incredible individuals who make our community. These individuals have captivating stories to share, both in their professional accomplishments and personal journeys. Recently, I had the privilege of meeting Lisbet Kugler (LGB, 1989), a distinguished Senior Environmental and Social Development Specialist at the World Bank Group.

During our meeting, Lisbet not only reminisced about her time at Ecolint but also delved into a profound exploration of self-discovery, centered around the fundamental question, "What fulfils me?" Her insights were guided by a deep-dive into this theme. Lisbet generously shared the valuable resources she had come across, catering to those undergoing a similar introspective journey or simply intrigued by the subject.

If you are curious about how Ecolint addresses such philosophical inquiries, explore the Universal Learning Program, which showcases the school's initiatives in this regard.

"Work/Life are pretty much one and the same thing these days. And while you need to do something/earn money, you also need to be happy. Every day. So it helps to know what actually does make you happy and even better if you can find elements of this in your day-to-day job. Something to factor into your career searching …

Needless to say, I have recently (past 2-3 years) spent a lot of time thinking about this, reading/learning, etc and come across many useful things. One of the things I did in 2020 was to take a free class on Coursera called the Happiness Class, also known as the Yale Happiness Course taught by Laurie Santos, a psychology professor. 

Early on in the class, I found out about identifying your “signature strengths” and that by intentionally putting these into practice every day, it boosts your happiness. To help you find out what these are, there is a free survey you can take:

I figured out that mine are:

1. Love of Learning
2. Honesty
3. Curiosity
4. Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

And some additional thoughts on the course:

Ted Talk, The new era of positive psychology

Living a happy life/having life satisfaction in 3 ways:

1. Pleasant life: experiencing positive emotions and learning skills to amplify being able to experience positive emotions. But eventually, we get bored/not sufficient …
2. Good life: engaging in various activities especially those in which you experience “flow”/time stops as you are so focused doing these—that’s another interesting Ted Talk: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness. So it helps to know your Signature Strengths and rearrange your life/work to incorporate the use of these as much as possible to derive more flow …
3. Meaningful life: using your strengths in the service of a larger purpose than yourself. This is the strongest contribution to life satisfaction.

 And two additional resources:

1) Designing your life: I really liked the approach of this book, nothing like anything else I have ever come across before in terms of self-help/career books

2)  Ikigai ('a reason for being') is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living. I really like the idea behind this and there are multiple books around this. Personally, I used  My Little Ikigai Journal: A Journey into the Japanese Secret to Living a Long, Happy, Purpose-Filled Life Paperback.  I liked the simplicity behind the book and the thinking it was trying to get you to do.

And my most recent “gem of wisdom”:

I read The Cafe on the Edge of the World-A Story About the Meaning of Life by John Srelecky. It resonated with me so I went on to read, Life Safari and finally Big Five for Life. It brought together a whole bunch of ideas and helped me put together, with great clarity, a vision for life—this combines all aspects of life (career and living) as one thing:

1. Defining my purpose for existing
2. Defining my Big Five in Life: if I didn’t do these, I would regret it by the end of my life
3. The activities under each of the Big Five, and by being involved in these, I “fulfill” my purpose for existing

This helps guide what I do day to day and reminds me I am doing things in alignment with my purpose for existing. Of course, not every single thing I do (especially work-related) is aligned but wouldn’t it be great if it was? "