I often find myself sitting in my office with my intolerably delicious sugar-free, gluten-free, antibiotic-free, and taste-free diet shake with more unpronounceable ingredients than you can imagine. I am sure I am going to get deathly ill someday for all my effort to be skinny and healthy. Anyway, after I shake up the drink and get busy “eating lunch” I hear a knock on the door from a student who has a question. Should they take that call or this class – spend their time doing this or that – read plays or lounge out in the sun with friends? These questions are hard to give simple answers. There is a TEMPTATION to tell them to the pick the hardest, most demanding of the options – but I am not sure if that is always the answer.
One game that I have found helpful is to ask the student to imagine themselves 10 years from now. Realistically, where do they see themselves real – who do they imagine they will be living with – – what do they imagine they will be doing during the morning hours – during the evening hours. I continue, “What will you look like?” “What kind of food will you be eating?” “What will you be doing for your free time and free money?”
We play a hundred questions. Then, I ask them to imagine that they could reach back in time to their high school self and offer that child some advice. If I could do it over what would I being doing? Surely that is the best gauge to make decisions of the present. I know that this is far from a new or revolutionary “game” to play – but it does seem to ring a few bells for the student. It seems a bit easier for them to make choices about what they should do during lunch and during the afternoon, and next week, next month, and next year.
You would think the advice would always to be doing the “right” thing or the “on-task” thing. But I know if I could give my younger self advice it would be to leave a few books in the locker, risk a few B’s and spend time laughing and loving my peers. I grew up way too fast. If only we could make SOME of our decisions based on our predicted future – perhaps we would find much more peace in our present.
3 comments on “Ten Years from Now”
This is sweet. There is such wisdom in the advice you’re giving these kids. If someone had asked me in high school where I saw myself in ten years, I literally would have had no idea. It would have been great to give some thought to that, as I think my life has basically turned into one huge side trip. (LOL)
By putting the decision back in their hands but by including some forethought, you’re teaching them a really great life skill and some real appreciation of enjoying the moment without spending 100% of your time sweating your goals. Good for you! No wonder it’s you they ask. 🙂
I had a friend once tell me to make decisions that the “later me” would be grateful for and benefit from.
It was sound advice, even if it took me a while to actually start following it.
This, to me, is a way to use visualization. Everything first happens in our imagination, so by doing this, we do create our lives.
I’m a fan of balance. There’s a time to do and a time to be.
Wisdom is knowing the difference and then acting that out. But sometimes, we have to feel the pain of imbalance to appreciate it.
Either way, I love reading about your interactions with your students. If only more of this took place in the school system. Maybe someday it will.
This is a great drill. I never thought of it in school, and neither did anyone else that I know of.
Now, later, as we get out into the workforce, it’s still pretty uncommon to have a ten-year plan, five-year plan (or even a 3-month plan), but it happens.
I think it’s an awesome tool to give a young person.