ican…Do it

Making it happen.

You can have the greatest vision in the world but without action it will always remain just a dream.

Having created your Golden Ticket you have three choices:

  1. Throw it away
  2. Put it off to someday, sometime
  3. Make it real now

So you can decide if you want to throw your dream away (choice one), or delay your dream until someday sometime when you have more motivation, money, confidence or skills (choice two).

The problem is that someday may never happen. What if in twelve months’ time you are saying the same things? At this point it is easy to come up with a series of well-meaning excuses for why nothing has happened. “I haven’t got enough time, I don’t know where to start, I’m not confident, clever, rich or brave enough.”

Common obstacles

Take a look at the Common Obstacles that can stop you moving from I Can’t to I Can. Circle any that you feel could prevent you from making your Golden Ticket real. Identify what you personally need to do to overcome these and record your actions in the ‘Do It’ section of your iCan Poster.

The choice is now up to you. Identify your Plan A and Plan B using this tool and identify how you can start to take the first steps to making your Golden Ticket real now (choice three).

Keeping it going

Having identified some first steps to take to begin to make your Golden Ticket real, the following hints and tips may be useful to keep you going. Some of the iCan Phrases and Common Obstacles in this section may also be helpful to take a look at.

Check your direction

Keep your Golden Ticket in a prominent place and regularly review and update it. Check whether the actions you are taking are still moving you in the right direction.

One step at a time

Be prepared to put in some interim steps to get you to where you want to go – trying to take leaps may be too much – try baby steps instead.

Stop along the way

Enjoy the scenery, the new landscapes, views and experiences – take time to see the bigger picture and celebrate the journey.

Travel with others

Sometimes the journey will feel a little less scary if you share it with someone who believes in you, shares your values or can help along the way.

Tell others what you are doing

Share your Golden Ticket with others – the more people that know about it, the more people can help.

Think about what you have learned so far

Learn from the up’s and down’s of your journey. Create alternatives, find solutions and stay flexible.

Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try.

Nelson Mandela

Why this session is important

To help your group or individual to:

  • Highlight barriers or obstacles stopping them achieve their vision and what they may be able to do about these
  • Identify a clear Plan A and Plan B to make their Golden Ticket real
  • Explore who and what they could connect with to help them practically contribute and make their aspirations and vision for the future real now
  • Reflect on their journey through iCan Create

What you will need

  • Copy of Do It Activity for all individual(s)
  • Do It Resources
  • Case Study/Inspirational Role Model
  • Paper/pens
  • 30 minutes dependent on availability of time

How to do it

Introduce the Do It session and explain that having developed a Golden Ticket, Do It has been designed to help them develop a more robust set of actions to make their Golden Ticket real.

Explain that you can have the greatest vision in the world but without action it will always remain just a dream unless you do something about it. So now you have three choices:

1. Throw it away

2. Put it off to someday sometime

3. Make it real now

Ask if they decided to throw their dream away – choice one – or delay their dream until someday, sometime – choice two – when they have some more money, confidence, skills or time, what may be the danger of taking either of these two choices?

You may wish to explore this further with the individual(s) by using an inspirational role model to share their story. Ask the individuals what they think about the critical steps this person took to be who they are? You could share your own story, invite someone from the local community to tell theirs, or get a colleague etc. to tell theirs.

Acknowledge that sometimes it is easy to come up with a series of well-meaning excuses for why nothing happens and why they cannot take action on their Golden Ticket. Make reference to the Common Obstacles and ask them to take a look at what some people feel will prevent them taking action and moving ahead.

Open up the discussion, being sensitive to the group dynamics and recognising that some individuals may feel reluctant to share their own obstacles and barriers. Be prepared to share obstacles that you have come across and how you overcame these to help this discussion.

Encourage individuals to circle any of the obstacles that they feel could stop them and identify what they may need to do to overcome these. Record these in the Do It section of their iCan Poster.

Plan A & Plan B

Using the Plan A/Plan B Diagram encourage individuals to take a renewed look at their Golden Ticket and identify a goal that really excites them. Get them to pick a back-up one too and record both of these in the top Plan A, Plan B boxes.

Now encourage individuals to think who can help them to make this plan real? Who do they know that can help? Who do the rest of the group know that could help them? Think about your role here and how you could help. How could you connect with others to help them make their Plan A and/or B real? Also consider the wider community– who else can support them and is there anyone that could help?

Go through the same process for iCan Contribute. Encourage individuals to explore opportunities they may have now via school, work, home, social activities, clubs, societies, volunteering and the wider community that enable them to make their Plan A and/or B happen. Record who can help them in the iCan Contribute section of the diagram.

Refer to the suggestions in Keep It Going and explain that they are now in a process whereby they have their Golden Ticket and with the support of people and experiences in the iCan Connect and iCan Contribute they are now developing their own pathway to making this real. The ideas listed here can help them to keep the process going.

What other questions to ask/points to make

Again be prepared to share some of your story, or some of your Golden Ticket if appropriate, as you go through this session with individuals.

Make reference to the iCan Phrases which are some of the things that other people have said as they have begun to work on their Golden Tickets and move closer towards their aspirations. In particular highlight that this is all about having a go, being prepared to make mistakes and learn from them.

Additional activities may be helpful to explore in the iCan Connect and Contribute sections.

As the session draws to a close discuss:

  • What they may have learned, or what has surprised or puzzled them about doing these activities
  • How they are going to start making their vision a reality – the first steps of their Plan A and B

iCanDoIt Activity preview

ican…Do It Activity

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iCanDoIt Enablers preview

ican…Do It Enablers Notes

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iCanDoIt Resources preview

ican…Do It Resources

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