The following lessons deal with finding your dream, SMART goal creation, developing and executing plans.

 

Lesson 1 – Live the life you imagine for yourself
(this title comes out of a poem from Henry David Thoreau)

The Dash by Linda Ellis

The following link contains a very powerful poem that focuses on what you and your life to represent. Read it and reflect on what your life has and what you want it to become then do the assignment after it.

https://www.linda-ellis.com/the-dash-the-dash-poem-by-linda-ellis-.html

 

Writing your own Obituary

I learned this lesson from an 80’s movie called “Cocktail.” In it, a young Tom Cruise was taking a college course and his professor gave them a variation of this assignment. It entails you creating an obituary for yourself. This lesson makes you reflect on your present, past and ultimately the future you want live.

 

In this assignment, you will take a journey into the future and reflect on your life by writing your own obituary. Imagine it is a couple of days after your death and a random person picks up a newspaper to read the obituaries and finds your name on it. It says you lived to be 90 years old. In the obituary, it lists the major accomplishments in your life from when you were born to your first love, job, child and eventual death.

It is your job to fill in the blanks.

 

  • When were you born and where?

 

  • What are the names of your parents and grandparents?

 

  • What are the names of your siblings?

 

  • What was your first job? What was your position and who did you work for?

 

  • Describe your first love.

 

  • When did you graduate High School and from what school?

 

  • Where did you go to college and what did you study? If you didn’t go to college, why?

 

  • What was your first career/job after college? If you didn’t go, what was your first career/job? Describe it.

Major Events (major events are events like marriage, children, graduation, jobs, promotions, retirement, etc.)

  • What major events occurred during your first 10 years of life?
  • What major events occurred during your teenage years?
  • What major events occurred in your twenties?
  • What major events occurred in your thirties?
  • What major events occurred in your fourties?
  • What major events occurred in your fifties?
  • What major events occurred in your sixties?
  • What major events occurred in your seventies?
  • What major events occurred in your eighties?
  • What major events occurred in your nineties?

Oh yeah, and did you have a smile on your face or a look of regret when the end happened?