Personal TimelineGoal Setting (graphic, written, and pictorial representations of the same material)

This exercise is about you. Here is a personal timeline for you to fill in to help you with goal setting. What you specifically record on the timeline is as
private and personal as you want. What you do in Exercises One and Two are not intended to be shared.
Exercise One: Complete the timeline. On the left you will begin by recording the past significant events in your life by age, as you recall them. On the
right record future significant events as you imagine them for yourself. Use short phrases and write vertically above the timeline.
The point of this timeline is to graphically help you see where you have come and what you are thinking about for your future. Your significant events
might or might not include such things as where and when you were born, events from your early schooling, happenings at home, and accomplishments
in your employment or schooling, marriages/divorces/births. It is YOUR liferecord the big moments that have shaped you and that you hope will shape
you in the future.
Exercise Two: Using your timeline, number and write out three of your specific future goals. For example, you might write, In 2016 I will move to Los
Angeles to live near my brother, or In Fall 2015 I will take a class to learn to speak Spanish so that I can talk more easily with my husband. Because
you are writing goals for into your 70s, you could write goals such as, In the year 2063 I will retire from my work as a Practical Nurse, or By 2051 I will
be rocking in my chair on the deck of my home in the Lake Arenal retirement community with a Labrador retriever and my best friend, Jamie.
Exercise Three: Using your timeline and your three written future goals show your future life in a pictorial formdraw it and color it. What it looks like
doesnt really matter. The act of drawing is another way of communicatingand engages part of your brain that you dont use in writing. Use stick
figures or use your artistic abilities. You will share your future vision with a partner, andif you wishwith the larger group.
TIMELINE: Exercise One

/______/________/________/________/________/________/________/________/________/________/________/_________/________/__________/
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Written Goals: Exercise Two

Using the timeline for your future, write three specific goals for the futuregive such details as when, where, who you will be with, andof course
what you will be doing.

1. Future Goal 1:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Future Goal 2:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Future Goal 3:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pictorial Goals: Exercise 3

On a separate sheet of paper, draw a visual of your future. It does not have to be a picture of you, but should give a sense of what you will do
and how you feel about it. Plan to show and explain it to a partner (and to the larger group if you wish).