Figuring out a future for yourself!

Here is the exercise you might want to give a try to see if you can find something you want to do when you leave your current position. Something you will look forward to doing every day. It’s an exercise I do with businesses when they grow tired of selling the same things to the same clients or their product go out of vogue. I’ve used it a few times with some of the people I mentor to help them move roles both inside and out of a business.

The exercise takes a month or so to do so be patient with it. You will need to complete four lists, the longer the lists the better and there is no such thing as a wrong answer. Whatever come into your head needs to go onto the lists.

Take an A4 sheet of paper for each subject and pin them somewhere were they are visible, maybe kitchen doors or office wall.At the top of each page write each one of the following headings

Brilliant, Love, Have, Know

Let me explain each one

Brilliant – List all things that you are brilliant at. Your loved ones can help with this, as Brits we often struggle with this one as we have been brought up not to brag. List up everything not just work related. Get your loved ones to add to the list, especially the kids they have a gift for honesty.

Love – List all of the things you love doing, hobbies for example might be on the list. Things you are interested in, things the you have energy for. This is a list that you will complete without help. You should include absolutely everything you love doing.

Have – What do you have by way of qualifications, skills, experience, contacts etc. You would probably put lot of this on a CV but I would encourage you to once again not limit this to work related items. Give some thought to your book of contacts, at first glance it might not be long but let it work and add names. The general rule is if you can pick up the phone to them without worry then they get added to the list.

Know – What do you know about things happening in your world. By that I mean your area of operations, the space you occupy in the world. For example us leaving the EU as a nation, your kids going to Uni etc etc. Observe and try to understand the things in your world that are not only happening but about to happen as tis is the world you are moving into.

To reiterate again make the lists as long as you can and keep at it for at least a month. You will probably make a good initial stab at it, leaving it up means you will think of other things at the moment you least expect it, so be patient. For sure the one thing you have is time to get this right.

When you have completed the lists stand back with the other people on your life (partner, husband, wife etc) and look sideways across the list and start to put together something from each list that when coupled together might be something worth pursuing. You might be amazed what shows up.

Remember you only live life once and in the general scheme of things it is a very short period of times. Find something you like, something you have a passion for and only work with people you like. Leave the idiots and pain in the arse people to someone else.

Hope that helps, it is of course your choice if you choose to do it, I won’t be offended if you choose not to.