Future Thinking Made Easy

Before or just after graduation, most college students begin to look for a job. A better way to insure the kind of career and life you will be living would be to do a “future in reverse scenario” exercise. What I am referring to is taking the time to imagine yourself living forty years into the future. If you can create a clear picture of who you are and what you will be doing, it will guide you to do the things that will eventually allow you to become that kind of person. What would that be like? What could it be like? To live a truly self actualized life, you must take the time to paint as clear of a picture as you can of how your future scenario will be. In order to do this exercise properly block out a couple of hours to sit down at your computer and answer these thought provoking questions. Imagine if you will, that you are in your early sixties and you are living and working in the job of your dreams. The year is 2051. Here are a list of some questions you must ask yourself to get a crystal clear picture of what your life and career will be like. Feel free to add your own questions. Do I want to be married? If so, what kind of a person to whom do I want to be married? Will we have children? If so, how many children will we have? Where will we be living? What part of the country? Which country will we be living in? What kind of a career will I be in? What jobs and careers did I have before I finally made it to the career I am in now? Where are some of the places I visited over the last forty years? What kind of education have I been acquiring since college? Who are some of my friends? What type of clubs or associations do I belong? How is my health? How much do I weigh? How much do I exercise? Where do I go on vacation? What are some of my hobbies? Do we have any pets? If so what kind of pets and how many? What kind of organizations do I volunteer my time? To what age do I want to live? One hundred years or more or less? The main thing you want to do with this exercise is to create a proposed path that you will travel over the next forty years of your life. Will it be exactly the way you are depicting it. Probably not, but it will be close. By answering these questions, you will allow yourself to be prepared to identify whether or not you are doing the kind of things that will allow you to live a self actualized life. The kind of life that will allow you to say that you have lived the life you dreamed of living. Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. Please see more of his blogs at collegejobbankblog.com. If you are looking for additional job listings, career advice or just help with your job search, then visit Nexxt.