Start Here

Begin your exploration by envisioning your ideal life; this will serve as an interesting foundation to build upon.

Imagine that you had 3 separate lifetimes to live - what would you do with your time?

Don’t limit yourself to occupational titles or career fields; instead, provide detailed descriptions of what you’d like to be doing, where you’d like to live, who you’d like to spend time with, and what special skills, training or interests you would hope to explore and develop. If you can’t visualize a picture, focus on how your best life would feel. If you find it difficult to envision your life 20 or 30 years from now, start with five years—even a few years into the future will give you a place to start. What you see may surprise you. Set aside preconceived notions. This is your chance to dream and fantasize.

• Remember to ask why you want certain things
• Think about what you want, not on what you don’t want.
• Be creative. Consider ideas that you never thought possible.
• Focus on your wishes, not what others expect of you.

Some questions to start your exploration:

• What really matters to you in life? Not what should matter, what does matter.
• What would you like to have more of in your life?
• Set aside money for a moment; what do you want in your career?
• What are your secret passions and dreams?
• What would bring more joy and happiness into your life?
• What do you want your relationships to be like?
• What qualities would you like to develop?
• What are your values? What issues do you care about?
• What are your talents? What’s special about you?
• What would you most like to accomplish?
• What would legacy would you like to leave behind?

A few prompts to get you started:

• What will you have accomplished already?
• How will you feel about yourself?
• What kind of people are in your life? How do you feel about them?
• What does your ideal day look like?
• Where are you? Where do you live? Think specifics, what city, state, or country, type of community, house or an apartment, style and atmosphere.
• What would you be doing?
• Are you with another person, a group of people, or are you by yourself?
• How are you dressed?
• What’s your state of mind? Happy or sad? Contented or frustrated?
• What does your physical body look like? How do you feel about that?
• Does your best life make you smile and make your heart sing? If it doesn’t, dig deeper, dream bigger.

It’s important to focus on the result, or at least a way-point in your life. Don’t think about the process for getting there yet—that’s the next step. Give yourself permission to revisit this vision every day, even if only for a few minutes. Keep your vision alive and in the front of your mind.

Or... plan backwards

It may sound counter-intuitive to plan backwards rather than forwards, but when you’re planning your life from the end result, it’s often more useful to consider the last step and work your way back to the first. This is actually a valuable and practical strategy for making your vision a reality.

• What’s the last thing that would’ve had to happen to achieve your best life?
• What’s the most important choice you would’ve had to make?
• What would you have needed to learn along the way?
• What important actions would you have had to take?
• What beliefs would you have needed to change?
• What habits or behaviors would you have had to cultivate?
• What type of support would you have had to enlist?
• How long will it have taken you to realize your best life?
• What steps or milestones would you have needed to reach along the way?

Just by spending time thinking about how we envision our futures, we set ourselves on the right path. When we lay out what we want to do and put into the world and we open our minds to all of the possibilities.

It’s important to revisit this vision from time to time. Don’t be surprised if your answers to the questions and the resulting plans change. That can actually be a very good thing; as you change in unforeseeable ways, the best life you envision will change as well.

For now, it’s important to use the process, create your vision, and take the first step towards making that vision a reality. Where you are now and where you want to be in the future. It may seem impossible, but it’s quite achievable if you take it step-by-step.

If a block of text has a dark gray background, like this... it's an activity that is a required part of the unit.

Course Outline, Expectations and Student Contract