Plan-Do: Part II ‑ What is my ideal future?

Part II ‑ What is my ideal future?

Exercise #5:  I am cards ‑ step II.

Look at the "I am cards" from exercise #3 and answer these questions:

1. What do these cards tell you about this person?

2. What things are most important to him/her?

3. What types of things would this person enjoy doing with his/her life that you are not doing?

4. How would you recommend that this person spend his/her life if there were only six months to live?

Exercise #6:  Ideal Future ‑ Heart Map

Now imagine that all resources are unlimited ‑ time, energy, money and that you can do anything that you wish. On another large sheet of blank paper, begin with an image in the center of the paper that pictures for you the essence of your ideal future. Then do the "mind" mapping process from your heart of hearts, again using colors, pictures and symbols to express your ideas. Include all hobbies and dreams; any and all secret desires.

Exercise #7:  Life Perspective Chart

The following chart shows a life span of 0 to 100 years. Old, for the sake of discussion, is 106. No matter what goals you might have, there is a lot of potential time to achieve them. This example shows a few of the key points in my life within certain categories. The average life expectancies, as of 1987, were for men and women, ages 70.11 and 77.62 years respectively, as shown. 

That has increased and your own, based on your year of birth can be found on-line https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm. Your goal may be to exceed the average. You might include the age lines for the longest‑lived person in your family.

Following this is a worksheet image which you can copy and enlarge to print and use to record key events and periods to map your own development. There may be pre-birth experiences that affected your life. 

Categories are up to you, so change any label that doesn’t fit. It may take a while to fill this out. Events may come to mind later and may be added. As you look at the sheet, what does it show you about the flow of your life?

 Exercise #8:  Pieces of the Whole

Take your three major information sources ‑ the to do list, the I am mind map and the ideal future mind map and categorize the things you find on each into no more than seven subject areas. Use the "I am cards" as a second source for the mind map column and the answers to exercise #5 with the ideal future mind map. To get everything to fit, you may need to combine some categories. Do so with whatever logic makes sense to you. Using your own terms is important.

 

Exercise #9 ‑ Integration

Now envision the wholeness of your life as a circle. Today it is a certain size encompassing your life. In the past it was smaller and in the future it will be bigger. We are going to divide that circle, your wholeness, into slices of your life, like a pie. You are limited, however, to no more than seven slices. Why?

Based on brain and management studies, the maximum span of control for issues has been determined to be seven. Seven in a biblical sense means "completion."  Working with fewer issues is often better. Look at the three lists of no more than seven categories above and consolidate across them for a single list of seven that covers the range of subjects you find there. You may use a word or a phrase to describe these divisions:

You are a whole person and these pieces then cover comprehensively the wholeness that your life is now and that for which you strive. Is there anything missing?  If so go back and work it into a category.

Plan-Do Part III