Creating a clear vision for your life can help you shape a future for yourself rather than being influenced by other people
In developing an exciting and compelling vision, first be honest about what you truly value and see as important. Secondly ensure your vision has realism, variety, detail and alternatives. Thirdly, keep re-evaluating your vision as it may evolve and change over time based on maturity and experiences.
What you prioritise on the early days of the Week of your Life may change by the weekend. Leaving things to chance can mean that you don’t fulfil your dreams in life, much like buying a ticket with the slimmest of chances of winning the lottery. To avoid this happening consider choosing priorities for your life from the Lottery Balls. There is even a bonus ball to use that can represent anything you want it to. Circle those that mean the most to you and that you want to have in your life.
Now think again about your future (perhaps 10 years from where you are now) and out of those priorities you have already circled, identify the top six (they can be from any section) and list them in order of importance. Pick the ones that you have either not got at all, or not got enough of now, that will play a big part in helping you to be happy, fulfilled and able to realise your true potential as you go through the week of your life.
Your next chapter
As you begin to consider the rest of the week of your life you are about to start a new chapter, so what do you want the SCRIPT of your next chapter to be?
Realising our full potential relies on us first having the basic foundations of life to survive, we can then begin to grow in confidence and develop our relationships. Continuing to improve can lead to a greater sense of purpose and the opportunity to create time to make a difference using our unique combination of skills and talents. Using the colour coding below can help you to identify where your priorities lie in your future script.
Make a note of the six lottery balls you have chosen in the ‘See It’ section of your iCan Poster.
By each highlight:
Why is this a priority for you?
What this priority will look like when you have got it?
How can you make this priority happen?
Why this session is important
To help your group or individual to:
- Identify the key parts of their vision that are important, they value and want as part of their life
- Prioritise the elements of this vision that are current now and those that are as yet unfulfilled, and identify steps to make them real
- Reflect on their learning and set a small action to work on
What you will need
- Copies of the See It Activity for each individual
- See It Resources
- Paper/pens
- If working with a group then split the group into teams of 4-5 people
- 30 minutes dependent on time availability
How to do it
Introduce this session by asking them to think about what dreams they had as a child.
Prompt this by asking: What did they want to be? What did they want to achieve? Where did they want to travel, live? Who did they want to be with?
Keep the discussion quite relaxed and ask how many of them have achieved these dreams or perhaps are closer to them now? Encourage the group or individual to discuss and reflect on the responses.
Explain that dreams are important but that they have to be supported by honesty and action. This activity is going to look at what they truly value and see as important. Once they have a vision it is important to keep checking its realism, clarity and detail and develop alternatives to maximise the chances of making it. Visions change over time (just as aspirations may have done) and they can mature based on experiences and changing life circumstances. What they dreamt for themselves on Monday morning in the Week of the Life may not be what they see for themselves now.
If something is important, then leaving things to chance is not an option. It is the same as buying a lottery ticket in the hope that you will be the one to beat the odds of 1 in 13,983,816 to win on Saturday night when it is drawn.
Instead, they can choose from the ‘Lottery’ of life – these Lottery Ball Images representing what is most important to them and what they may want in their lives. Ask individuals to circle all the relevant images. They can be from any section and there is even a bonus ball to choose which could represent anything that is not already in the selection.
Now get them to think about their future and out of those images circled, identify the top six (again they can be from any section), but make their selection based on the things they perhaps have not got yet or not got enough of yet. These are the ones that will play a big part in helping them to be happy, fulfilled and able to realise their true potential as they go through the week of their life.
Encourage individuals to make a note of the six lottery balls they have chosen in the See It section of the iCan Poster. Ensure they are listed in order of importance. At the side of each of these ask them to note:
- Why this is a priority for them?
- What this priority would look like when they have got it?
- How can they make this priority happen?
Explain to the individual/small group you are working with that they are about to start a new chapter in the week of their lives. They are going to be making decisions that will influence the day they are on (probably Tuesday) and their Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and onwards. Ask what they want the SCRIPT for this new chapter to look like?
Each of the lottery ball images are colour coded and categorised under one component of SCRIPT.
Encourage the individual/small group you are working with to take a look at the six lottery balls they have chosen and identify where each of these lie within their future SCRIPT i.e. which component of SCRIPT they are in.
There are no rights or wrongs here but sometimes it is about getting the strong foundations in place before individuals are able to move ahead to create a meaningful vision for the future.
What other questions to ask/points to make
Be prepared to share some of your story, if it is appropriate. Perhaps identifying the lottery ball images that are important for you just now. Perhaps those that have been important in the past and how they are different now. Where in your SCRIPT are you up to?
Consider using the Common Obstacles to perhaps identify any barriers that could be an issue and open up the discussion about these.
As the session draws to a close discuss:
- What they may have learned, or what has surprised or puzzled them about doing these activities
- Help them to identify one key action they may wish to take as a result of doing these activities