The exercise
For this exercise you will need to think of a time in the future you want to focus on for your new future. So pick a timeframe that feels right for you.
If you decide you want to make some changes to your life it's important to turn your vision of the future into a short list of actions that will set you on the right path. So, at the end of the exercise write down the most important actions you need to take within the next week to kick-start your new future!
This exercise isn't for the faint-hearted. It is just as relevant for women as men (but the book that inspired this exercise is called The Dice Man1). This value of this exercise is that it takes the decision about your future out of your hands! Well, partly at least. You choose the six options but you let the dice choose which one you actually follow. Here's how to do it:
Spend some time thinking about six radically different futures. You don't need the detail of the "Perfect Days" exercise, but you do need the willingness to follow through on the option the dice throws up for you. The point of this one is that YOU have probably had a big hand in choosing your path through life so far - subject to your circumstances, of course. The fact that you want a change might mean that the YOU who has made the decisions is a bit too stuck in a rut. An ideal way out of this is to throw in an element of chance. Which is where the dice comes in!
All you do is think of six adventurous options that you find attractive, number them 1 to 6, take your courage in both hands and throw the dice! (Of course, you don't really have to follow through and do what the dice says - you can regard this as an interesting thought experiment!)
That's it! When the option is chosen (and if you choose to go through with it!) you start planning the detail. The challenge will come when the sensible stuck-in-a-rut YOU starts putting all kinds of obstacles in your way. But that's the YOU that has got you where you are today, so take your courage in both hands....
(This option might appeal especially to those lucky people who can take a sabbatical, take some unpaid leave or have a career break coming up. I used this technique for a three-month sabbatical and it totally changed my working life.)
1. Rhinehart, The Dice Man, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New Ed edition, 1999