Psychology professor Dr. Frederick Elias spoke to students about the philosophy behind his book “I Can I Will: Dynamics for Personal Success” as part of Beat the Blues Week Monday.

The I Can I Will philosophy is motivational for increasing your self-esteem, managing your emotions and avoiding negativity said Elias.

One aspect covered during the speech was how to be calm as a way to change negative behaviors into positive ones. Elias broke down for students what C.A.L.M. stood for.

The C is for changing your situation, the A for accepting your realities and realizing that you have alternatives, the L for letting go of negativity, negative situations, people and emotions, and the M for managing your lifestyle and your communication, he said.

“The shortest path to becoming depressed is hanging out with negative people,” said Elias.

Elias spoke of the three elements needed to be driven.

He said a person needs motives or a reason to be motivated, positive emotions and motions.
Also covered was the importance of having goals, focusing on them and planning for personal success.

He said that they should identify a goal, make it specific and realistic, make sure that it is a goal they can work on and not one that people tell them to have, and to start with small steps.

“Everyone wants a million dollars but how about starting out with $2,000 in the bank first,” he said.

Elias told students to develop the sense of being in control of their life because self-esteem comes from being in control of themselves.

“You have to put your own internal key in your own ignition and start yourself up,” Elias said.
During the speech Elias had students get out of their seat to practice congruent communication.

Congruent communication is straight forward, honest, direct communication to not give other or yourself mixed messages because it can lead to sabotaging their relationships or success.

He had students pair up and speak to each other for a few minutes and then as a group they analyzed the interaction.

Kevin O’Neil, 20, sophomore chemistry major, found out about the speech from an in class presentation by the Blues Project.

“I enjoyed the audience participation. It kind of brings a different side to learning the material because you get more involved,” said O’Neil.

Flor Alfaro, 20, sophomore biology major, attended the speech to support her roommate and said that she found it helpful.

“I thought it was really interesting. I usually need more positivity in my life and this really helped me out a lot,” said Alfaro. “I liked the calm thing because it’s a really good step by step process to change yourself.”