Catch the Fire by Peggy Taylor & Charlie Murphy

Author:Peggy Taylor & Charlie Murphy [Taylor, Peggy; Murphy, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Society Publishers

The bull’s eye action plan.

Credit: Brightspark Creative

Multiple objectives: In the next circle, surrounding the goal, write your objectives — the small and big things you can do to achieve your goal. For example, practice for at least 15 minutes every day; play music with a friend; find a music teacher; take a music theory class at school; play for my family.

Forces for and against: The larger circle surrounding the objectives is divided into four quadrants.

Quadrant #1: The skills and resources I already have that will help me achieve the goal. This is a great place to start, because when we fill in this quadrant we often realize that we are already well on our way to achieving our goal. This recognition helps build momentum for change.

Quadrant #2: The skills and resources I still need to develop. This quadrant helps us get specific and practical.

Quadrant #3: The kind of support I need from my family, friends and peers. Reflecting on this enables us to see that we do not create change in a vacuum. This helps us determine what we can ask other people for.

Quadrant #4: The habits of thought or action that I need to change. The lifestyle changes I need to make. This quadrant brings us back to ourselves and helps us to recognize there are steps that only we can take in support of what we really want in life.

We used to give participants a handout to fill in with pencil, but eventually we moved to asking people to draw the chart for themselves. The results were beautiful, motivational art pieces they could post on their walls at home. This activity can go very deep. We remember one young woman, for example, who identified her goal of joining the police force. Upon reflection, she realized she could not do this without going into drug rehab. Just after camp, she explored options for treatment and committed to a program a week later.

Letter from the Future

Here is a common writing activity that engages the unconscious to imagine a possible future. We use this with youth and adults with equal success. Sometimes the results are quite surprising and can even motivate significant change. A man in one of our short training programs actually quit his job after doing this activity. “I realized that the future I thought I was headed for was not what I really wanted, so I quit my job and followed my dream of becoming a metal sculptor,” he told us. Youth often report that their futures unfold seamlessly after doing this activity. “I saw myself three years from now entering college. I’m now doing all of the things I need to do to get there,” a 15-year-old girl said.

Ask people to imagine a time in the future. It could be at the end of a current project, the close of the school year, two years in the future, or even more. Their hopes for the future have unfolded perfectly — in fact things have gone even better than they expected.

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