Three Lives Sketch

Introduction

The “Three Lives Exercise” serves as a life design prototype, allowing you to quickly experiment with different future scenarios, evaluate how cohesive they are with your values,

skills, and experiences, and refine your life choices accordingly. This creative exercise is a critical component of the life design process, offering a multitude of benefits, such as:

Get “Unstuck:” There will likely be a time in your life when you need to make a change but are not sure where to begin. Imagining possible alternative lives broadens our

perspective helping us see beyond your current situation or assumed destination.

Gain Core Clarity: By considering multiple pathways, you can more clearly see the integration points, the parts that feel core or central to who you are as a person and what

drives you.

Recognize Opportunities: When you have a better sense of your interests, you are more likely to recognize an opportunity to develop and grow in that area when it presents

itself, especially if that interest is beyond our current pathway. In doing so, you open the potential for innovation and distinguish yourself as a candidate with unique

perspectives and skillsets to offer any role.

Instructions

The next page is a place for your to write or sketch the distinct components a holistic roadmap for the next five years. Document what you will be doing during each of those years

to actualize your life sketch. There is space for one life per page. Make copies of pages 2-3 to sketch out each of your three possible lives.

(1) Design Your Current Path

Begin by outlining your current trajectory over the next five to ten years. This plan shows what you are doing now and what you envision continuing in the same direction. When

thinking through this life, think like you are 5-10 years in the future. Who is the person you have become? What did your journey at Hopkins look like? Utilize these questions to

guide your answers.

(2) Design Your Curiosity Path

This path represents a future self if you pursue the acitivities you find intriguing, the careers and experiences you’ve at some point considered even momentarily. Try your best not

to talk yourself out of this path. Give yourself permission to explore the possibilities before listing the barriers. For some, the curiosity sketch envisions an entirely different path if

their current option was no longer available.

(3) Design Your Constraint Free Path

The third explores a “wildcard” scenario, representing a dream or a bold, unconventional choice you’ve always considered. In this scenario, you will have unconditional support from

everyone around you and abundant resources. Think unlimited time and resources! Be free, be wild, be…authentic!

For each life, think holistically, including career, physical health, spirituality, mental health, community, finances, etc. Consider the following questions:

What did you study and learn? What skills did you gain?

What extracurricular activities did you participate in?

How did you spend your summers?

What did you do for fun?

What is the accomplishment you’re most proud of?

What is your next step in your journey?

What hobbies did you pursue? How did you treat yourself? Where did you travel?

Think holistically about this imagined experience!