Design three paths for the next five years
How to design three significantly different life paths for the next five years of your life, and select one.
In the previous life design phase, you determined where you want to go by setting a design goal for the life area you want to improve. If you have not yet completed the previous phase, you can find the instructions by clicking on this link: https://www.a3lifedesign.com/blog-english/determine-where-you-want-to-go.
If you encounter a major change in your life situation, or feel completely stuck, it may be a worthwhile exercise to design three significantly different life paths for the next five years of your life. For example, when completing school or studies, wanting or having to look for another job, retiring, getting married or divorced, becoming a parent, and so on.
For relatively small changes you can determine one life path that will take you from where you are now to where you want to go: https://www.a3lifedesign.com/blog-english/determine-a-path-to-where-you-want-to-go.
Why design three life paths?
By designing three significantly different life paths…
👉 You realise that there are many possible life paths through which you can achieve your design goal. There is not just one best life path, there are many good enough life paths. This makes you feel less pressure because you no longer have to look for the best life path.
👉 You emotionally detach from the life path that you already have in mind or that you are stuck on. Your first idea is rarely the best idea, so don't hold on to it.
👉 You become more open to new ideas, which allows you to make better choices. More is better. The more ideas, the greater the chance for a more productive life design. That’s why it is important that you design three significantly different life paths, and not three life paths that are essentially the same.
👉 You focus on what your life could be like. Designers create things by focusing on what could be possible. This way you can discover important things that you still want to experience or achieve.
Designing three life paths consists of the following steps.
1️⃣ Document the three life paths
Create a five-year timeline document for each of the three life paths, similar to the simple example below.
👉 Write down a title of about six words that captures the essence of the life path. For example: Making wine in Provence. Starting my own coaching business.
👉 Write down a short description of one or two sentences that summarises what you are going to do or want to achieve on the life path. For example: My partner and I are going to buy an old vineyard in Provence and make our own wine. I will be offering workshops and coaching to teach people how to design and build a meaningful and fulfilling life.
👉 Fill the 5-year timeline with texts and images that indicate what this life path will broadly look like. Be as creative as you want to be. Do what works well for you.
How to come up with three significantly different life paths
If you're having a hard time thinking of three significantly different life paths, here's a suggestion:
👉 Make life path 1 the life you already envision for the next five years. For example, continuing your current life path, or implementing an idea you have been thinking about for a while.
👉 Make life path 2 the life you would live for the next five years if life path 1 is no longer possible. Imagine that life path 1 is really no longer an option.
👉 Make life path 3 the life you would live if money and other circumstances were no object, and you didn’t care what others thought. Don't let limiting thoughts or beliefs about yourself or the world hold you back. Try to make it something wild. It can be as wild or crazy as you want. Just assume that you can do magic.
Focus on the most important aspects
When completing the timeline, focus on the aspects that are most important to achieving what you want to achieve. For each life path you can consider aspects such as:
👉 Where do I live? With whom? Do I move to a new place?
👉 What do I want to achieve in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years? What ambitions or dreams do I have?
👉 How do I earn my money? In what role? In which industry?
👉 What skills do I want or need to develop? What certifications do I want or need to obtain?
👉 Which people are most important to me? What activities will I do with them?
👉 How do I take care of my physical and emotional health? What are my personal development goals?
2️⃣ Clarify your own thinking by involving others
Clarify your own thinking by explaining your design goal and three life paths to others, for example to the members of your life design team, partner, family members or friends.
Explaining your design goal (what you want to achieve) and life paths (different ways to achieve your design goal) to others forces you to organise your thoughts and ideas in a clear and coherent manner. This can help you identify gaps and inconsistencies.
Others may ask important questions you haven’t thought about yet. They are not supposed to criticize or give unsolicited advice. Their only task is to ask clarifying questions such as ‘What do you mean by that?’, ‘Tell me more about that.’, or ‘How do you envision that?’ These external questions can lead to new ideas and insights to improve your three life paths.
If you can't or don’t want to share your life paths with others, make a video of yourself presenting your plans, watch this video with a curious beginner's mind, and jot down new ideas and insights.
Adjust the life paths where necessary based on your new ideas and insights.
3️⃣ Assess the life paths
Assess the life paths on four aspects:
👉 Feasibility: To what extent do you have enough time, money, and other resources to achieve this life path?
👉 Confidence: To what extent do you trust that you have (or can acquire) sufficient knowledge and skills to achieve this life path?
👉 Effectiveness: To what extent does this life path help you achieve your design goal?
👉 Coherence: To what extent is this life path in line with your life purpose and personal values?
Rate each of the life paths for each aspect on a scale from 1 (the life path does not meet this aspect at all) to 10 (the life path fully meets this aspect).
Based on your assessment, choose one of the three life paths. Will you choose the most feasible path? The most effective path? The path with the highest average score? The path that feels most comfortable to you? Or the path that gives you butterflies in your stomach?
The choice is entirely yours. It’s your life.
If you find the choice difficult, spend a few days for each life path imagining what your life would be like if you chose that life path.
🖊️ Write down the chosen life path in the format:
I'm going to <the idea you want to implement in the next five years>.
This is the life path you want to follow to achieve your design goal.
Some examples: I am going to study mathematics. I'm going to move to Croatia. We are going to buy an old vineyard in Provence and make our own wine. I am going to teach people how to design and build a meaningful and fulfilling life.
4️⃣ Save your results
Save the material you produced in this phase. If the life paths are written down on paper, take photos of your documents and save them. You may need these life paths documents again at some point, for example if you get stuck later in the process.
🎉👏🎈
You have designed three life paths and chosen one. In the next phase of the life design process you will test your idea to find out whether it could actually work for you:
https://www.a3lifedesign.com/blog-english/test-your-chosen-path.
References
Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
My blog posts about life design are available at this link:
https://www.a3lifedesign.com/blog-english/category/Life+Design
