After reading Ayn Rand's novels, most of us become keenly interested in our own thoughts and behavior. We admire Hank Rearden's and Dagny Taggart's radiant sense of life and we want to understand and emulate them. This course focuses on the process of self-change––on how to identify problem areas in ourselves. on what realistically to expect in terms of uprooting self-defeating thoughts and habits, and on how to catalyze healthy self-change. This course also focuses on recognizing virtues in ourselves and nurturing them. Topics include: maintaining independent judgement. tuning into uncomfortable emotions, translating these emotions into underlying thoughts, gaining and holding full context. recognizing choice points, making a commitment to action, acting effectively in the face of "failure," and increasing one's desire for value experiences.

Exercises and demonstrations will be used which emphasize the need for benevolence towards oneself in the face of change, e.g., the need to avoid unearned self-blame in the face of error.