Liu

Introduction

Skills

Playing to your strengths

Using your subject

Interests and passions

Personality

Identity

Values

Motivations

Personal circumstances and needs

A vision of the future

- Your retirement speech

- Live the dream

- Create a picture of the future

Finding the balance

Environment

Summary

Create a picture of the future

If you are finding it hard to put into words what you aspire for, and if you fancy getting the glue stick and scissors out and doing something creative, this can be a fun way to visualise and imagine your future aspirations. You may even want to make a fun evening of doing this - invite friends round and they can have a go at this task too.

Resources required

Gather a selection of publications such as magazines, newspapers, Sunday supplements, professional journals, travel brochures, newsletters, promotional information etc.

Get a variety of different materials covering a broad spectrum of interests if possible and:

  • A sheet of plain paper/card (A3 or larger if possible)
  • Pritt stick
  • Scissors

Instructions

Your goal is to create a vision of where you want to be or what you want from your life and career. Look at the materials and select pictures, images and words that are important to your vision of the future. Cut them out and stick them to the sheet of blank paper.

 

Next

Consider some of these prompts. If you are doing this task with friends, ask each other the following questions

  • Tell me the story of what you have created
  • What do the individual aspects of the picture mean to you?
  • Which aspects of the picture are most important to you and why?
  • Do some aspects of the picture depend on other parts?
  • Is anything on here a more short term aspiration… or medium term… or longer term vision?
  • How much of your picture is within your control?
  • How does paid/unpaid work relate to this vision?
  • Do any of your career or life goals become clear within this picture?

Rest assured, you are not being judged on your creative abilities or being asked to justify your selections. The task is simply to help you approach thinking about the future in a different or more creative way.

Hopefully, however, it will help you to articulate some of the things that are important to you in the future and help you to understand that everyone’s requirements are different. Your goals and vision of the future is unique to you, and obviously this might change so you may need to review this vision of the future over time.

(Based on task from The Windmills Programme – Career Tactics for the 21st Century)

Review of interests

Having done the exercise, what are the main features of your vision for the future?