Designing Your Life: Creating Odyssey Plans (Summary)

Note: The full playlist of videos can be found below the summary.

Summary
– The idea is to create 3 completely different plans for your life. Your Odyssey years are between 20-35. (Paras note: I guess I should stop right here but I like sharing so this one is for you, the reader.)
– 6 Stages in a Person’s Life: Childhood, Adolescence, Odyssey Years, Adulthood, Encore Career, Retirement. People are living longer so the Encore Career is less about money and more about making meaning in life.
– The Odyssey Plan: Not really a plan but more of an idea of what your life would look 5-10 years from now. Coming up with the elements that would make it rich and fulfilling. What would your life look at each transition point.

The Plans
– Three 5-year plans which will have your personal and professional bucket lists. Make them as graphic as possible. The 3 plans should be very different e.g. the thing I think I’m going to do, the what if plan one doesn’t work and what if money/image were not a concern.
– They will all have a 6-word maximum title. (Comes from Hemmingway’s shortest story.)
– 3 questions (what do you want to learn). Will this fulfill you?
– Then take your preferred plan and blow it out to 10 years. That plan will have a dashboard on your level of excitement about the plan.
– You also thank yourself from the future for specific things that happened.
– You also create a graphic symbol that represents the journey. It could be motivational, your logo, reminder, talisman or superhero symbol.
– Then you make a 5-minute presentation to share all this with your group. This is narrative resonance – you get reinforcement and feedback.

The Gauges
– Resources: Do you have time, money, skills, contacts, etc. to make it happen?
– I Like It: How hot or cold are you on this plan?
– Confidence: Do you think you can pull it off?
– Coherence: What you’re thinking and doing matches with your big plan.

Prototype (Conversations and Experiences)
– Get curious, talk to people and find out about stuff. See how it feels to know if the prototype is right.
– Prototype Conversation: is finding someone doing what you’re interested in. They are living in your future. What resonates in you when talking to them. (Paras note: Alex Hormozi and Chris Williamson have great analogies of this explaining that everyone wants to be a hero but they don’t want to go into the battle for it… or something along those lines.)
– Prototype Experience: You dive in and go do the thing. Do the course, start having a felt experience. Set the bar low and jump it.

Extra Notes
– You make an odyssey plan when you have a big change coming or every 2-3 years to review it. You build new ones as you might see that they’re coming true faster.
– You’re going to learn how to value lots of ideas and unstuck in your thinking.
– Mindset: Curiosity, Reframe, Bias to Action (DO SOMETHING), Radical Collaboration, Mindful of Process (lots of ideas).