Tale 003 - Design your life
The recent years I’ve regularly been running a 4-day session helping graduating students design their future careers. Ironically this has coincided with my own deep mid-career crises - burdened by a loss of heroes, direction and lack of goals worth pursuing.
Speaking open-heartily with both close friends and colleges, I’ve discovered this to be a surprisingly common challenge. As a result, I’ve decided to share these very same tools as 5 modules here on Fable. Each can be done on your own time and from anywhere. (I recommend leaving some reflection time between each module)
Whether you’re on your way into your first job or considering a new direction in life, I believe these simple & proven design tools can help you discover and define a meaningful route ahead.
Enjoy!
// Module overview
01. Role model - create a vision that inspires you
02. Letter from the future - give yourself an A
03. Seven-year roadmap - identify barriers & required skills
04. Baby steps - six actionable months
05. Anchoring - embedding new habits
01. Design a role model
// How to use
1. Go onto Linkedin (or other CV networks) & find five people who have inspiring careers.
2. Use this template to create a fictive role model placed 7 years in the future - living your dream career. (give it a fictive name)
3. Explore your role model by answering the questions beneath on its behalf.
4. Reflect on what you’ve learned by answering the questions, and iterate the role model as needed.
// Tips
Choose people who actually inspire you.
Don’t be afraid to pick profiles that are 1000 miles off your current ambition or skill level.
As an alternative, ask a friend/colleague/partner to take on the interviewer role for you.
Interview questions*
Which of your talents is the world in danger of overlooking?
What would you want to correct about your school or university education?
You are given the opportunity to give your 20-year-old self some career advice:
what would you say?How many times a week do you feel dissatisfied with your work? What tends to trigger dissatisfaction?
In so far as I have been the victim of injustice in my career, it’s because…
Ideally, my colleagues would be more like me. Discuss.
*Questions are cheekily borrowed from ‘the school of life’, buy your full deck here.
So you’ve completed the first module? I’d love to hear about your experiences with it, and your interest in being notified about the next module?