To create a joyful life, imagine these 3 versions of your career
What would you do if the work you do right now ended tomorrow? I’ve been thinking about this question since I was at University of Cambridge / Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) in December for my Masters in Sustainability Leadership program. My wonderful friend, Karen, in my cohort found me one morning to show me a Stanford TEDx talk titled 5 Steps to Designing the Life You Want by Bill Burnett that she felt I needed to see. She was right.
The whole talk is worth watching and the part that affected me most is a future visioning exercise called 3 lives. You imagine the next 5 years of your career in these scenarios:
1. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing now and it’s going to turn out great. What does great look like? In your career and life?
2. What would you do if what you’re doing right now ends tomorrow? How would your career and life change? What would that look and feel like?
3. Now for your wildcard plan. You have enough money to pursue any career you want, and no one would laugh at you for it. What would you do? What would your life and career look like then?
Which of these lives feels like the best path? Put aside the inner critic. Which one makes you happier and more fulfilled? For various reasons, that one may not be the one you choose to pursue but having a sense of these different paths helps us get unstuck.
Futures visioning is a part of my Cambridge dissertation so doing this exercise was a part of practicing what I preach. I sat down and sketched out these 3 lives for myself. It helped me uncover hidden ideas, interests, and desires I didn’t even know I had. It also helped me realize a few things that Bill speaks to in his talk:
1. The really interesting opportunities present themselves in our periphery. They are the things we didn’t see coming and didn’t plan for. Realizing this encourages me to be open to new people, information, learnings, ideas, and opportunities.
2. Bill encourages us to look at these three lives with our head and our heart. Decisions made from your emotions are just as valid, if not more so, than those made from our logic and reasoning. Emotions have much more wisdom than we give them credit for.
3. There isn’t one way to build a life or career. We can and will grow into different lives, and that can happen at any and every age. There is no timeline that we must follow. We can trust the timing of our lives and career. Things unfold in ways we don’t always understand. That’s okay. Be open, and be prepared to be lucky.
Let me know how it goes for you if you try this exercise. I’d love to hear about what you discover and I’d also love to support your journey.
Bill’s TEDx talk in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SemHh0n19LA
He also has several books with Bill Evans on the topic of designing a joyful life and career: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bill-Burnett/author/B01KVOW2RS?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true