So—What Are You Going To Do About It?

You’ve read about the future, heard people speak about the future, watched videos about the future, and more.

So what?

What have you done about the future? Particularly, what have you done about your own future?

This is a challenge. Take a little time and think about your future, then do something about it. Now. Whether you are a big-company CEO or looking for work, there is a lot you can know about your future. There is a lot you should know.  Most important, there is a lot you can do about your future.

How do you do that? Here’s a start— go to www.personalfutures.net, then go to the “Free Downloads” page. Download The Personal Futures Workbook, then download the spreadsheet near the bottom of the “Free Downloads” page. If you have a small business, you may be interested in the Small Business Foresight download as well. Now, look at some of the pages on this site that explain a little about planning your own future. If you want more detailed information, my book It’s Your Future… Make it a Good One! is available in paperback or eBook on this site, as well as at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple sites. But you don't have to buy the book( Sure, I hope you do, but you can do this with the free workbook and the materials on the web site). The book simply provides more information and examples that will help you think about your future.

Fill out the workbook. This will require you to actually think about your future— what it may be and what it can be. In the process, you will be using exactly the same methods used around the world by professional futurists and large organizations. The only difference is that the methods are scaled down to fit your life. If you’re skeptical, this approach has been published widely in journals and in the Futurist. The book and workbooks are used as textbooks at several colleges and universities. The book and the workbooks have gone all over the world.

But the book and the workbook simply provide a system; a system for thinking about and taking action toward your future. This is not a book to simply read and feel good about. This is a book and workbook system that requires thought and action.

Does it work? The emails I have received are pretty emphatic that it does. I have been told several times that a workbook or workshop “…changed my life!” I’ve seen the results in the lives of several people. So I would say yes.

Try this system. It may change your future. It will teach you about futures tools and methods. It may give you a long term perspective (very important!). If you have questions as you go through the personal futuring process, send me an email. verne@personalfutures.net. I’ll answer.

Email me: verne@personalfutures.net.

Follow me on Twitter: @urfuturist

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Personal-Futures-Network/155105317867526

The First Step Toward Your Future

Personal Futures is simply a system for applying futures (or futurist’s) methods to individual lives. These methods have been used (quite successfully) by corporations and governments around the world for decades. It’s just a matter of scale. And simplicity.

When I started my research, scaling down was THE challenge. Not so much for the futures methods, they scale easily. The problem was the research. The basic information about each individual’s life. Where does an individual (you)start? What are the driving forces? What are plausible and probable events in your future?

In building a systematic approach to personal futures, I arrived at three major steps:

                1-Understanding your life (research).

                2-Exploring alternate futures (personal scenario s).

                3- Creating a vision, strategies and plans for the future (personal strategic planning).

Which brings us to that first step, “Understanding your life”. Where are you in life now (age, health, education, family, etc.)? What are the forces of change in your life? What are the high probability events in your future? What are the patterns? What are the universals? What are your values?

One “universal” is biology, the human life cycle, which breaks down into stages. Life stages were identified centuries ago and can be found in the writings of the ancient Greeks. Psychologists today still recognize life stages. For an individual, each life stage can represent a planning period, and each change from one life stage to another represents important change in any individual’s life. If one understands  or has mental images of the future stages of life, they provide a frame upon which planning can begin.

Another universal lies in six personal domains. Each domain represents a category of forces that exist in every person’s life from birth to death. Recognizing these domains and the forces within them is an important part of understanding your future, because these are the forces that bring about change in your life. The six personal domains include:

                Activities- the things we do, including education, career, sports, religion, hobbies, etc.

                Finances- everything to do with money, assets, liabilities, and risk.

                Health- your health, both physical and mental and any care or medications you receive.

                Housing- your home, community, country, climate. All about where you live.

                Social- family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. All the people in your life.

Transportation- relates to all modes and aspects of transportation including walking and distance. 

Generally, during any life stage, forces from at least two domains will be dominant during that stage. So, understanding the domains and the forces can help you understand how changes in the forces can produce changes in your life. By projecting how each of the domains, and particularly the dominant domains might behave in the future, it is possible to anticipate changes in your future. For example, if you think of your career as a force of change, how will your career change over the next ten years? How will those changes impact your life?

When something specific happens in your life, we call it an event. Each event in life is part of one of your six domains. Also, each event will occur during one of your life stages. During your lifetime many events occur, and they have two common characteristics that make them of interest to your future:

                Probability
                Impact

Although some events are highly probable in your life, many have very little impact on your life. Birthdays for example.  Very predictable, but not much impact. As you think about the future, your greatest consideration should be for those events that have both high probability and high impact. These are the events for which you will want to create strategies and plans for your future. These are events that you will have in your personal scenarios and your strategic plan.

Another factor to consider in your personal life is your values. What’s important in your life? Family? Ethics? Career? Money? Power? Which is most important of all? What’s next?

Why should you be concerned with your values? Because your values are your rudder, steering you through your life. If you understand what your values really are, you’ll be more likely to choose the right value when you’re under pressure.

These four areas, life stages, personal domains, life events and personal values contain enough information about your life to help you start looking at your future. Preparing for it. Planning for it. Going beyond wishing and starting to work toward the future you want.

There are some worksheets and workbooks (free downloads) on my web site that will help you with all this: www.personalfutures.net.  Details about my new book It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One! are on my personal web site, www.vernewheelwright.com. The first chapter is available as a free PDF download.

In my next blog, we’ll explore your alternate personal futures with personal scenarios. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter @urfuturist.

The Next Generation of Futurists

For the past three years, I’ve had the pleasure and opportunity to chair a committee for the Association of Professional Futurists the, Student Recognition Project. This project has given me the opportunity to correspond with futures educators around the world, and to read papers from the brightest and the best of the next generation of futurists. The quality level of some of these papers is amazing. I know that word is overused, but it’s the best description I can think of.

When I was a student in Studies of the Future at the University of Houston Clear Lake (1998-1999) I was impressed with the quality of students that I was competing/collaborating with at that time. Most of them are professional futurists now. But the quality level of the work being done today, all around the globe, should help elevate the entire profession.

One thing troubles me though. And that is that I’m only seeing a fraction of the work that is being done by students of Foresight and Futures Studies. We are only receiving the papers that are written or translated into English. That means that many of the schools that conduct foresight classes in another language are not participating; for which I take some responsibility. In our first year of the project, we paid for translations of student papers. Only one school submitted papers for translation, but the expense surprised me. It also surprised the Board of APF, because it represented an open-ended risk. One Board member, Stephen Aguilar-Milan, argued strongly for offering full translation, but, although I and most of the Board agreed with his point of view, the risk was too high.

So the second and third years, we asked for papers in English. I offered software translation, but no takers. So we will be looking for a solution that will make the Student program more inclusive.

We have received all the student entries from school year 2010 in mid-January, and our chief judge, Jim Mathews is getting ready to send the papers out to the judges who will read the papers and pick the best. Not an easy job, but it certainly gives perspective on the next generation of futurists!

As those papers are being read, we on the APF committee will start to think about the Student Recognition Project for 2011. What can we do to improve the Project? How can we make it more inclusive? How can we resolve the translation problem?

If you have suggestions or ideas for improving this project, please email me at verne@personalfutures.net.

In closing, I would like to invite you to visit my web sites, www.personalfutures.net (with free downloads including the Personal Futures Workbook, 4th edition) www.vernewheelwright.com (my books and other writing—read the first chapter of It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One!) The Personal Futures Network has a page on Facebook (new). Come be a fan! Finally you can follow me on Twitter @urfuturist . I’ll be sending updates from Mumbai during February.

Verne

A New Edition of The Personal Futures Workbook

It was something of a surprise to me to realize that the new version of the Personal Futures Workbook that I’ve been working on is the Fourth Edition. The first was a 30 page workbook that was actually an appendix to my dissertation, which was formally approved in very early 2006. The next year, I expanded the Workbook to over 90 pages so it would be useful in workshops. It was well received.


In early 2008, I slimmed the workbook down to 50+ pages, produced it in Acrobat PDF, and posted it on my web site. This (3rd edition) was very well received, because people could bring their notebook computers to a workshop after downloading the Workbook. Especially well received, because the download was free! Soon the website was getting traffic from all over the world. Fifty or sixty different countries every month.

Then friends in different countries translated the workbook, and I added the Spanish and German versions to the web site, also as free downloads. In the meantime, I was writing It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One!

I knew I needed to update the workbook to match the chapters in It’s YOUR Future…, but writing, publishing and releasing the book just gobbled up all my time. Over the holidays I was able to catch up on a number of things, including updating my skills on Acrobat, so the new version of the Workbook is pretty much complete and in the hands of reviewers. It will be posted at www.personalfutures.net by January 15, and if I need to make corrections I can continue to do so.

What’s new or different? First, I realigned the chapters in the Workbook to match It’s YOUR Future…, adding a few worksheets as well. Then I added some color and more photos, making collages for each life stage and for each of the forces of change, the Personal Domains.

This edition of the Workbook will continue to be a free download with a Creative Commons license, so the Workbook will be available and shareable anywhere that people can access the Internet.

It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One! is now available at online bookstores in much of the world and on my web site, www.vernewheelwright.com . The list price is $17.50 for the paperback edition and $8.99 US for electronic versions. Amazon offers It’s YOUR Future… for Kindle, and Apple’s iBookstore should have it available for the iPad during January.

I have had inquiries from publishers in a number of countries that have expressed an interest in translating and publishing It’s YOUR Future… but no decisions have been made yet. So 2010 has been a busy but gratifying year. I even signed up for a Facebook fan page for the Personal Futures Network and am on Twitter (@urfuturist).

I’ll be traveling to Mumbai next month to speak to the World HRD Congress, and to receive an award. I will speak about Leadership and the Long Term Perspective.

That Image on the Cover

Yes. The one on the front of It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One! If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out at the Amazon or Barnes and Noble web sites or at www.vernewheelwright.com.

Several people have asked about the “compass” hanging above the globe. Actually, the designer used a “compass rose’, the outer design that shows the four directions, but the center is another instrument that is found in airplanes of all types and sizes. It is an “attitude indicator,” also called an “artificial horizon.” It shows the pilot the position of the airplane relative to the horizon: banking left or right, climbing or descending. A very useful device, especially in bad weather. A pilot who is not aware of his or her plane’s attitude can get into trouble very quickly.

I was surprised when I first saw this cover design, but quickly decided the designer had the right idea, because that is what this book is about, understanding where you are in life and in the world around you. The exercises with the personal domains help you recognize where you’ve been and where you are now in each domain. Studying the forces in the world around you also help you recognize your position in the larger world. There’s a reason why futurists use the term “horizon scanning.”

Just one more note about the book, I had a very short video made, a book trailer. If you’d like to see it on YouTube, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anKiQ_rJua4. If you would like to read the first chapter of It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One! you’ll find the download at www.vernewheelwright.com .

Practicing What I Preach

I realize that events going on in my life are far more important to me than they are to you, so I hope you’ll indulge me as I go on about achieving my own aspirational future. It may offer some guideposts as you think about your future.

When I was in graduate school at the University of Houston Clear Lake, it was the late nineties. In fact, I was awarded my Master’s degree in Studies of the Future in 2000. In my keystone class in the last semester, an important assignment for the class was to create a personal strategic plan. After two years of learning about futures methods and how to use them, I was ready! I thought.

This was not a cakewalk for me, because it was at this point that I realized that futures methods and techniques I had learned were designed for large organizations. Those methods worked very well in that setting, but there was some trouble scaling down to one person’s future—mine. Fortunately, I went on to create a personal strategic plan that has served me very well over the past ten years, because I have followed it very closely.

My vision included retirement from my business (exporting paper and other commodities) and writing a book. For me, writing a book was my aspiration. So I started reducing the size of my business and finally retired the company. At the same time, I enrolled in a PhD. program to do research with futurist Graham May at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. This was the aspirational part of my vision. I would conduct research to prove the scalabilty of futures methods while developing a system that individuals could use to learn about and plan for their own futures. I called the system Personal Futures.

My dissertation was titled Personal Futures: Foresight and Futures Studies for Individuals. It’s offered as a free download on my web site (www.personalfutures.net), and I’m amazed how many people actually download it.

The research led to the Personal Futures Workbook, which I have used in workshops and presentations about Personal Futures. Since 2008, the workbook has also been available as a free PDF download. Recently, the workbook has been joined by a Spanish translation and a German translation, also free downloads. I’ve been updating the workbook this year, adding a little color and a few more worksheets. It will parallel the book I’ve been writing; It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One!

The book is at the printer and should be available by September 1. I’m told that an advance shipment will be on the way to me this week. This very symbolic for me, because writing this book was the aspirational part of my plan.

So my strategic plan worked. In the process of achieving my vision and plan (and this book), I’ve been able to help thousands of people all over the world who downloaded the workbook. I’m hoping to reach more people with this book, which will provide a lot more explanation and detail (and over 100 diagrams and tables) than the workbook can.

Now I’ve achieved my plan, just like I tell people they can, and I did it just like I describe the system in the book and the workbook. The Personal Futures system works, and now I’m working on my own personal strategic plan for the next ten years. Part of that plan will be involved with getting this book to people around the world and starting on the next book. If you want more details, I’ve started another web site, www.vernewheelwright.com. This site is mostly about my writing, with most of the emphasis on It’s YOUR Future…Make it a Good One!

In my last post, I mentioned an article I had written for the World Future Society, “Strategies for Living a Long Life.” Thanks to the generosity of WFS, a PDF file of that article is posted as a free download at www.personalfutures.net. There is also a link to WFS, where you can order the whole conference volume if you wish.

Finally, I’ve joined the twenty-first century and can now be found on Twitter @urfuturist. I hope you will follow me into the future!

After a Little Time Off!

This blog has been neglected recently, and for that I apologize.

So I’ll try to explain (justify!?) my absence and offer an update.

In short, I’ve been writing a book, and it has consumed my time. The working title of the book is It’s YOUR Future…Make it a good one! The book will be a step-by-step guide to the futuring process.

I’ve finally sent the manuscript off to my editors, and now I’m polishing all the illustrations, tables, charts, examples, etc. that help explain how to explore and prepare for the future. If all goes smoothly, the book should be in print by August or September and will be offered immediately on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other on-line stores. Getting into brick and mortar stores will take a little longer.

At the same time that I’m finishing It’s YOUR Future…, I’m updating the Personal Futures Workbook (a free download at www.personalfutures.net). The updating of the Workbook will add several new worksheets, and the steps in the Workbook will follow the same sequence as the book. That will make it easy to use the book and the workbook together. (Note: The Personal Futures Workbook will continue to be available as a free download).

I have no illusions about selling enough books to change my life style, but I think this is a book that needed to be written. My workshops have demonstrated that personal futures concepts can change people’s lives at all ages, and I get emails from people at every age level who have used the Workbook, nearly all of them saying “Thank you!” and telling me that the workbook has helped them.

When I start marketing the book, I will try in particular to reach young people, who are making such big decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. I hope to speak about Personal Futures at colleges and universities, possibly to students taking “college success” classes. I’ll also focus on people who are thinking about retirement, because they also are also making big decisions that will change their lives.

It’s YOUR Future… is intended to be more than a guide to preparing for your personal future. The book is intended to teach people how to think differently. How to think long term. Something that I feel is missing in business and executive education.

In short, I think that a lot of people will benefit from Personal Futures in different ways and over time.

Despite neglecting this space, I have continued to write articles while working on It’s YOUR future… One article was for the Journal of Futures Studies, titled the “Next Wave,” due to be published in May. The subject is the apparent growing interest in the future by individuals. There is also an article in the Conference Volume for the World Future Society meetings in July titled “Strategies for Living a Long Life.”

That about catches me up for the moment! If you haven’t been to the web site lately, updating is just starting there: www.personalfutures.net.