The article below builds upon insights taken from Burnett, Bill, & Evans, Dave (2016). Designing your life: How to build a well-lived, joyful life. Knopf. Image by Vector Toons.
Scenarios
The authors of ‘Designing your Life’ recommend creating three alternative versions of the next five years of your life. Sketch each scenario by writing down a (job) title, keywords, text and perhaps add some pictures. Include both work- and personal/non-career events. Nothing is off-limits so use your imagination!
Next, investigate these scenarios more in-depth in terms of feasibility. For example:
- Do you have the resources (time, money, skill, contacts) to pull off your plan?
- Does the plan make sense within itself: Do the different parts of the scenario (e.g. building a family and your work conditions) jell well together and is it a logical evolution of your life (i.e. you rearrange existing skills that you acquired over the years).
- What hurdles do you need to take to achieve the desired outcomes in each scenario? Maybe you find out that upon studying this question a particular scenario becomes less attractive than it initially seemed. By eliminating scenarios you slowly steer in the right direction.
During this exercise you will become aware of information that is missing in order to better judge a particular scenario/career avenue. What kind of things do you want to explore further in each alternative version of your life?
Revisit this exercise later on
This exercise is part of an iterative brainstorm process. Over time you will gain experiences which change and narrow down your answers to the questions above. So it could help to revisit this exercise 6 months later. I would recommend to initially fill out these exercises in a loose, relaxing, non-straining way, mainly building upon your past experiences, ideas and dreams, and to a much lesser extend on other peoples (narrow) opinion of you.
Go to article 2.4 ‘Where do you want to work?‘