- Your vision (1x this week, spend at least an hour here). Make sure you spend sufficient time working through the steps outlined in the vision workflow from this week’s lesson to distill your vision. It’s okay if you read it through quickly your first time through the lesson; now schedule some time to return to the workflow this week to take stock and begin to form a sense of your vision. As you work through the questions posed, make sure to have your journal handy to keep track of your insights and reflections. There is no right or wrong answer.
- Create a narrative statement that captures your vision (1x this week, as long as you like). Craft a narrative statement that captures your professional vision and write it out in your journal. Be bold in how you describe yourself, and have a little fun! If you like, use the example below and the basic structure to get you started. If you like, craft a narrative statement for your vision for yourself today at your best, AND a narrative statement for your vision of yourself two years from now. Basic structure:”I
am a blank who does blank because blank.”
Example, written by a CELA lawyer:
“I’m a deep thinker who is passionate about developing and clarifying high-level strategy. I have an innate knack for pattern recognition and am skilled at connecting disparate ideas and opinions and creating substance from concept.”
- Making your vision part of your presence (daily). In Experiment #2, you crafted a narrative statement that reflects your vision of you at your best. This exercise is about working with your narrative statement to bring more focus, passion, and energy – and more of the you you want to be – into your work. Before your meetings for the next several weeks – you can do this quickly as you dial in to your next meeting or walk across campus – bring your narrative expression of your vision to mind before the meeting. Enter the meeting with the intent to live by that statement in all that you do during the meeting. At the end of the meeting, reflect on where and when you felt you were in alignment with it and where you might like to improve. Jot down a few notes in your journal about the experience, your insights and what you are learning.
- Extra credit – feedback (1x this week). Make a point to seek out informal feedback this week from at least one person you have never asked before. Don’t pick your toughest critic to start, but don’t pick your biggest cheerleader, either. To get a good response, be specific in your feedback request (i.e., “tell me one thing I did well in that meeting that you would like me to do again, and tell me one thing you think I should consider changing”).