Past Authoring / Autobiography [PDF]

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Past Authoring / Autobiography

Introduction: Welcome to the Past Authoring / Autobiography component of the Self-Authoring suite. This exercise is designed to help you develop a clearer sense of your past, by writing your own story.

The exercise may take up to four hours to complete.

Completing the Exercise 1

Welcome to the Past Authoring (Autobiography) component of the self-authoring suite. This exercise is designed to help you develop a clearer sense of your past, by writing your own story. Understanding the defining moments of your life can help to illuminate your present situation, and make it easier to plan and determine your future direction.

During this exercise, you will be presented with a series of pages, providing information, or asking you to define and describe different periods or epochs of your life, and the experiences you had during those epochs.

You can come back to the exercise later, and resume your work. All your previous work will be waiting for you, and will be taken to the last point in the exercise that you had completed.

Completing the Exercise 2

On many pages, you will not be able to successfully click Next or Previous unless you have provided a minimum of necessary text. If you do not, you will receive an error message, and the text box in question will be highlighted in red.

Text boxes also have a maximum length. Pay attention, as you write, to the numbers above the text boxes. Numbers like [180 / 1000] indicate that you have typed 180 characters out of a maximum allowable of 1000. When you go over the maximum, the numbers above the text box become red. Clicking Next, Previous, or Save will result in an error message and you will not be able to proceed to the Next or Previous page. To resolve this, edit your text until the number of characters is less than or equal to the maximum. These limitations have been established so that you do not get stalled at any point in the process.

We do encourage you to write in some detail, however, subject to those limitations. Our research indicates that better results are obtained as the amount written by participants increases.

There is a progress bar in the top right portion of the screen, which displays the percentage of the exercise that you have already completed. If you hover over the bar with the mouse, you can see approximately how much time it will still take to complete the exercise.

You may use the Index to jump to any page you have already completed. Clicking the [Index] link will open the index. Clicking it again will close it. Remember to click Save to save any work on the current page before using the index to jump to another page.

After you have completed the exercise, you will be taken to a Summary page. You can use that page to email yourself a copy of your writing.

Before proceeding with the writing, you will be asked to read about 1) memory, emotion and stress, 2) the benefits of writing (and of sleeping in between writing sessions), and 3) adopting the correct attitude for beneficial writing.

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Part I: Memory, Emotion and Stress:

Your mind is always trying to determine the level of danger presented by your environment. When bad things happen to you, your mind and your body react by treating the environment as if it is dangerous, and preparing for emergency action. This preparation is stressful, and depletes you, mentally and physically.

If something bad has happened to you, in the past, your mind cannot be at peace until you have figured out how to avoid having the same thing happen to you again in the future. You can tell how well you have managed this by remembering different important events from the past. If you recall memories that make you feel ashamed, or guilty, or angry, or hurt, and these memories are more than a year and a half old, then your mind is not at peace, and you are still carrying the weight of your past.

Unresolved past issues make your mind and body react as if the day-to-day environment that you inhabit is permanently dangerous. Under such conditions, your body reacts to stress with more preparation for action: for fight or flight, which you may feel, respectively, as anger or fear and emotional pain. If this preparation becomes chronic, your mental and physical health can be damaged. This happens in part because your body produces more cortisol, a stress hormone, when you are endangered. Cortisol makes you ready to act, but your body gets the energy for such action by stealing from your future reserves. Cortisol shuts down your higher mental functions, inhibits your immune system, burns up your available energy and, over time, damages the brain areas responsible for memory and emotional control. Thus it is very important to keep your stress levels within reasonable boundaries.

Writing

Why write? Writing is a sophisticated form of thinking. Thinking prepares you to perceive properly and act intelligently. If you don't think things through, particularly difficult things, then you are likely to make serious mistakes and to hurt yourself and other people. When you write about personally important matters, you can start to identify the causes of events that might hurt and damage you. You can begin to understand how you might have to change the way you see and think to avoid unnecessary pain and suffering.

You have to mine the information that the past provides to ensure that the present and future emerge positively and productively.

It is best to do the writing that is associated with this exercise by entering into a reverie. A reverie is a state of contemplation, like a daydream. Normal focused goal-oriented thought tends to be narrow, precise and expressed in words. Image-laden thought - the movie that runs in your head - is more dream- or story-like. To complete this exercise properly, you have to daydream about the past, and let thoughts and images come to you, instead of controlling them. This can be frightening, if you start to remember unpleasant events from the past. However, it can be very useful to confront things that you are afraid of, voluntarily, particularly if your fears are stopping you from living properly in the present and the future.

Voluntarily facing the remembered things you fear or that you hate is the best way of dealing with them. Don't rush this exercise, or the ones that follow, if you decide to complete them, as well. They are not something to merely complete. You have to take your time. In a reverie, or a daydream, parts of your mind that haven't been able to speak because of your focused concentration or moral opinions have a chance to let themselves be known. These are parts of you that need a voice. If you take your time, then you can make contact with parts of yourself that have been shut away. You will need the abilities and

energies that are contained within these shut-away parts to deal with the challenges of the present and the future.

Sleeping

It may be best to do this exercise, as well as the present and future authoring exercises, over several days. The research done on the relationship between writing and mental and physical health has demonstrated that sleeping and, more particularly, dreaming, can help you participate more deeply in the writing exercise and consolidate your new ideas.

So take your time and let yourself get deeply into the exercise.

Attitude While Writing

If you are rushed, or distracted, or bored, then you are not doing the writing in a manner that will benefit you. If you are writing about important events, you may find the exercise difficult and emotionally challenging, but it should not be boring. If you are rushed or distracted, then you are trying too hard to finish, or have not put enough time aside to do the writing.

It is very important to negotiate with yourself properly when trying to write about important things. Try to think through the fact that spending some time dealing with your past can benefit you in many ways. It can help you escape from the ghosts of the past. It can lower your level of stress. It can help you think more clearly now and in the future. It can help you get to know who you really are and how your life has affected you, positively and negatively. It can help you become healthier, mentally and physically. It can help you enjoy your life in the present, eliminate your resentment and misery, and prepare you to plan for the future.

It is worth putting in the time to reap such benefits.

Many times when a person is writing, they are writing for some other person or for some outside reason. If you have done this writing exercise properly you will be working primarily for yourself. What you produce should be a deeply personal document.

General Description

First, you will first be asked to divide your life into seven different time periods or “epochs.” These epochs can be as short or as long as you want, depending on how much you want to write about. One epoch might be "Grade School", for example, while a later epoch could be "First Year University".

If you have many significant experiences from a particular period of time, that period deserves to have its own epoch.

Next, you will be asked to identify the significant experiences that characterized each of the seven epochs. You can write about as few or as many experiences as you like for each epoch. Finally, you will be asked to describe how each of these experiences has shaped who you are today.

You can write as much as you want. People have written thousands of words while completing this exercise. Other people have written less.

NOTE: You will see fractional number codes such as 0/100 throughout the exercise. The numerator of the fraction (0 in this case) refers to how many words you have written. It will change as you write. The denominator (100 in this case) refers to how many words you are allowed to write in total in that section.

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Part II: Epochs

(IIa)Division of Your Life into Epochs - Please divide your experiences into seven time periods that represent your life so far:

(IIb)Significant Experiences from each epoch (IIa) - Please describe in detail up to six significant experiences that happened to you during each period of your life. You can describe positive and negative experiences. We recommend describing at least four significant experiences from each time period.

For each experience, provide a title (which will be used to refer to this experience later on) and a description of the experience. Later you will explore the impact this experience has had on your life. Here, limit your description to the event itself (approximately 1,000 characters).

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Part III: Impact of Experiences

Analysis of Effects of Experiences

For each experience (Part IIb), please outline how this experience has shaped your life and contributed to making you who you are today. How has the experience changed your view of other people? Of the world? Write approximately 1,000 characters.

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Part IV: Select for Analysis

Ten Most Critical Life Experiences

You wrote about a number of experiences in the previous pages (in Part III). Choose the ten experiences that were most important in shaping your life. Each of these will be subjected to further analysis, to help you understand their significance. For each of these chosen experiences:

(a) How did the events of this epoch come about? Were the events primarily positive or negative? Were you helped or hurt by other people? What role did you play during this time period to shape the events that occurred? Were there things that you should have done differently? Were there important occurrences that were out of your control, or beyond your understanding at that time? Write approximately 1,000 characters.

(b) What effect did the experiences of this epoch have on your trust in people? On your hopes for the future? On your belief in your own value and the value of life? On your personality? Write approximately 1,000 characters.

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Conclusion

At this point you have completed the past authoring or autobiography exercise.

People are much healthier and more hopeful and less depressed and more productive if they have truly derived the most relevant information from their past experiences. You can tell if this has happened (1) if there are no longer past memories that haunt and bother you, or that make you feel resentful (2) if your story has been written in a manner that would allow you to tell it to another person so that they could understand it.

Some of the effects of such writing seem to take a while to fully manifest themselves. Often people feel worse, not better, in the aftermath of such detailed consideration of the past. The positive benefits seem to start occurring about two weeks after the exercises have been completed.

If you have found this exercise helpful, you might consider proceeding to the present and future authoring sections. The present authoring exercise helps you analyze your personality faults or virtues, according to standard personality models. The future authoring exercise will help you clarify your values, stabilize your identity, identify your goals, and formulate implementable plans, over a three to five year time horizon.

Present Authoring: Virtues

Introduction: Virtues Analysis

This exercise has been designed to allow you to do an in-depth analysis of some of the positive aspects or virtues of your personality. It is the partner exercise to the faults analysis section of the present authoring exercise. It is our hope that constructing a clearer picture of your virtues will help you understand the impact of your personality traits on your life in the past, present, and future.

You can complete this exercise whether you are in a good, bad or neutral mood (while the faults analysis should not be completed if you are feeling down). This exercise will take you 60-90 minutes, depending on your choices. You will be asked first to read some information about basic personality theory and then to select 2-10 virtues from each of five lists of virtues (one list per basic personality trait).

Then you will be presented with the virtues you have selected, and asked to choose a final list of the virtues you think have most impacted your life. You will be asked to write for about 10 minutes, later, for each virtue you choose, after you have rank-ordered them in importance. We recommend that you choose 6-9 virtues (for 60 to 90 minutes of work), but you can choose as many as you like. Just remember that you will be asked to write about each one. You will be asked to describe how this virtue has strengthened you in the past; what you might have done differently to have made things even better; and what you could do now and in the future to increase the power and effect of this virtue.

Completing the Exercise 1

During this exercise, you will be presented with a series of pages either providing you with information, or asking you to describe aspects of your personality and experiences.

You may proceed through the exercise by clicking the Next button.

You can go back to previous pages by clicking Previous.

Each time you click Next or Previous, the data you have entered on that page will be saved. You can also save your data while remaining on the same page by clicking Save. In addition, many of the pages where you are asked to write for longer periods of time will automatically save every minute or so.

You may quit the exercise any time by clicking Exit/Home or shutting down your browser. If the current page is a page you have been writing on, remember to click Save before exiting. The text that you entered on previous pages will have already been saved.

You can come back to the exercise later, and resume your work. All your previous work will be waiting for you, and will be taken to the last point in the exercise you had completed.

Completing the Exercise 2

On many pages, you will not be able to successfully click Next or Previous unless you have provided a minimum of necessary text. If you do not, you will receive an error message, and the text box in question will be highlighted in red.

Text boxes also have a maximum length. Pay attention, as you write, to the numbers above the text boxes. Numbers like [180 / 1000] indicate that you have typed 180 characters out of a maximum allowable of 1000. When you go over the maximum, the numbers above the text box become red. Clicking Next, Previous, or Save will result in an error message and you will not be able to proceed to the Next or Previous page. To resolve this, edit your text until the number of characters is less than or equal to the maximum. These limitations have been established so that you do not get stalled at any point in the process.

We do encourage you to write in some detail, however, subject to those limitations. Our research indicates that better results are obtained as the amount written by participants increases.

There is a progress bar in the top right portion of the screen, which displays the percentage of the exercise that you have already completed. If you hover over the bar with the mouse, you can see approximately how much time it will still take to complete the exercise.

You may use the Index to jump to any page you have already completed. Clicking the [Index] link will open the index. Clicking it again will close it. Remember to click Save to save any work on the current page before using the index to jump to another page.

After you have completed the exercise, you will be taken to a Summary page. You can use that page to email yourself a copy of your writing.

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Part I: Background Knowledge

To complete the following exercise, there are a number of things that are useful to know (you may have encountered this information previously if you have completed the faults analysis exercise, but it might be worthwhile to review it):

Everybody's personality is composed of two higher-order traits. The first higher-order trait is known as plasticity, and can be thought of as the tendency to be flexible, exploratory, curious and quick to adapt. The second higher-order trait is known as stability, and can be thought of as the tendency to be structured, organized, emotionally stable and focused.

Plasticity

Plasticity, the first higher-order trait, can be further broken down into two sub-traits: Extraversion (the tendency to be enthusiastic and dominant) and Openness (the tendency to be open-minded and intelligent).

Extraversion (Outgoing vs Reserved)

- Sociable - Active

- Adventurousness - Positive - Excitement-Seeking - Gregarious

Openness (Original vs Traditional)

- Fantasy-prone - Aesthetically-minded - Philosophical - Creative - Intuitive - Intellectual

Stability

Stability, the second higher-order trait, can be further broken down into three sub-traits: Conscientiousness (the tendency to be orderly and industrious), Emotional Stability (lack of negative emotional volatility and the tendency to withdraw), and Agreeableness (politeness and compassion, as opposed to belligerence or aggression).

Conscientiousness (Conscientious vs Carefree)

- Competent - Orderly - Decisive - Achievement-oriented - Self-disciplined - Deliberate - Industrious

Emotional Stability (Calm vs Nervous)

- Anxious (reversed) - Angry (reversed - Hostile (reversed) - Depressed (reversed) - Self-Conscious (reversed) - Vulnerable (reversed)

Agreeableness (Agreeable vs Assertive/Aggressive)

- Warm - Trusting - Straightforward - Altruistic - Modest - Compliant - Tender-minded - Nice

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Part II: Impact of Personality Traits

There are advantages and disadvantages to each trait, particularly at the extremes. Extremely sociable, extraverted people can be dominant and impulsive, while introverted, quiet people can easily become isolated and depressed. Extremely open people can be scattered and overwhelmed by their own thoughts and ideas, while closed-minded people may become narrow and inflexible. Exceptionally

conscientious people can be obsessive about order, judgmental and rigid, while their more carefree counterparts may be messy, undisciplined and careless. People very high in emotional stability may engage in risky, dangerous behavior, while those who are more neurotic can become so preoccupied by anxiety and pain that they are unable to function. Finally, extremely agreeable people may never stand up for themselves, while those who are too assertive can be aggressive, callous and bullying.

Change

Personality is reasonably stable over the lifespan, and is also powerfully influenced by hereditary or genetic factors. Despite this, personality can broaden or even transform. As people age, for example, they tend to become more agreeable, conscientious and emotionally stable. Changing personality means changing habits of action, presumption and perception. Personality change requires the formulation of clear future goals, as well as discipline and practice. People who are too agreeable can learn to stand up for themselves. Disorderly people can become more conscientious. Introverted people can become socially skilled. People who experience paralyzing levels of negative emotion can learn to explore.

Extraversion/Introversion

Select Relevant Items

Please select the positive traits or virtues that apply to you. You can select up to 10 traits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the positive descriptions are less descriptive of you, as you will get to specify the most relevant positive attributes later, when you make your final selections, prior to writing.

+ Can be the life of the party + Feel comfortable around people + Easily start conversations + Talk to a lot of different people at social occasions + Don't mind being the center of attention

+ Make friends easily + Can take charge and lead + Know how to captivate people + Feel at ease with people + Am skilled in handling social situations + Am often happy + Make other people laugh and have fun + Am enthusiastic about new opportunities + Am fun to be around + Like to invite people out or at home to socialize + Can listen well + Do not dominate conversations + Am rarely or never too loud + Do not spend my money on a whim + Do not party or socialize excessively + Do not attract undue attention to myself + Do not always talk about myself + Am not grandiose or arrogant + Am comfortable alone + Enjoy time in natural surroundings + Do not always need to seek excitement or novelty + Am rarely impulsive + Do not always have to be the center of attention + Let other people have the spotlight + Think before I act

Openness/Traditionalism

Select Relevant Items

Please select the positive traits or virtues that apply to you. You can select up to 10 traits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the positive descriptions are less descriptive of you, as you will get to specify the most relevant positive attributes later, when you make your final selections, prior to writing.

+ Am full of ideas + Am quick to understand things + Can handle a lot of information + Carry the conversation to a higher level + Catch on to things quickly + Have a rich vocabulary + Am philosophically inclined + Have a vivid imagination + Am a creative person + Have excellent ideas + Am always learning new things + Spend time reflecting on things + Am entrepeneurial + Have a lot of insight into myself and others + Can always see new possibility in things + Believe that the tried and true way is the right way + Am a very sensible person + Never follow fads + Respect authority + See the value in tradition and custom + Do not believe in change for the sake of change + Am seldom or never bothered by strange thoughts or feelings + Am stable in my moral beliefs

+ Try not to introduce unnecessary change into my life + Am concerned that my parents or relatives approve of my decisions + Do not upset my parents or other cultural authorities with doubts and questions + Am a down-to-earth person + Am not flighty or unpredictable + Am seldom attracted by foolish, new-age ideas + Am resistant to radical, dangerous thoughts

Conscientiousness/Carelessness

Select Relevant Items

Please select the positive traits or virtues that apply to you. You can select up to 10 traits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the positive descriptions are less descriptive of you, as you will get to specify the most relevant positive attributes later, when you make your final selections, prior to writing.

+ Am always prepared + Have a very long attention span and can work without being distracted + Am exacting in my work + Continue until everything is perfect + Do things according to a plan + Strive for efficiency and economy + Get chores or tasks done right away + Have seen my tendency for hard work pay off + Love order and regularity + Make plans and stick to them + Pay attention to details + Am extremely reliable

+ Always arrive at appointments early or on time + Am very goal-oriented + Do what I say I am going to do + Have a relaxed, laid-back attitude + Can easily be spontaneous and enjoy the moment + Am not judgemental + Do not set my expectations too high + Am never perfectionistic + Do not feel that I always have to be in control + Do not impose a rigid set of standards on other people + Am not bothered when things don't go according to plan + Live in the moment + Don't get too caught up in my work + Am seldom bothered by disorder + Never do more work than is necessary + Am not too uptight + Know how to go with the flow + Don't waste my time thinking about little details

Emotional Stability/Low Stress Tolerance

Select Relevant Items

Please select the positive traits or virtues that apply to you. You can select up to 10 traits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the positive descriptions are less descriptive of you, as you will get to specify the most relevant positive attributes later, when you make your final selections, prior to writing.

+ Am content with my physical appearance, despite its flaws

+ Am difficult to offend + Am in control of my emotions + Am not afraid of new people or social situations + Am rarely or never stopped from doing what I want by my fears + Am relaxed most of the time + Calm down quickly when I do get upset + Don't get caught up in my problems or blow things out of proportion + Rarely complain or grumble about things + Rarely get irritated or angry + Rarely or never suffer extreme anxiety, even when stressed + Rarely self-conscious, ashamed or embarrassed + Seldom feel depressed or blue + Seldom feel hurt + Seldom get disturbed or upset + Seldom do anything dangerous + Am rarely incautious + Feel enough shame if I do something stupid so I won't do it again + Make safety a top priority + Watch what I eat carefully + Am aware of potential trouble even when other people appear confident + Am protective and careful with little children + Will go to the doctor's office if there seems to be something wrong with me + Am very careful with my sexual behavior + Am a cautious, careful person + Don't rush into things before I feel comfortable + My higher levels of anxiety have kept me safer than some people I know + Am good at identifying the risks in new situations + Stay out of places that might have dangerous people in them + Stick to what I know and am comfortable with

Agreeable/Assertive

Select Relevant Items

Please select the positive traits or virtues that apply to you. You can select up to 10 traits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the positive descriptions are less descriptive of you, as you will get to specify the most relevant positive attributes later, when you make your final selections, prior to writing.

+ Trust people + Am interested in people + Am on good terms with nearly everyone + Feel others' emotions + Have a soft heart + Work very well with other people on teams + Inquire genuinely about others' well-being + Know how to comfort others + Love children + Make people feel at ease + Sympathize with others' feelings + Am a good peacemaker + Take time out for others + Truly care about others + Am a very loyal friend + Will stand up for myself + Am not easily swayed by emotions that might be manipulative + Am good at seeing beneath the surface of false good intentions + Am sceptical

+ Am not a martyr + Will not forgive easily if betrayed or deceived + Can see when people are playing games + Am not naively innocent + Am aware that malevolence exists in the world + Do not always believe what people promise + Do not trust people too easily + Am very rarely taken advantage of + Will confront people if necessary + Can be demanding when the circumstances warrant + Am cautious of good intentions before proof is offered

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Part III: HABIT SELECTION

Here is a complete listing (from Part II) of the positive traits or virtues you selected:

Please look at this listing. Please select a smaller, focused set of traits that you would believe characterize you most accurately, and that you could continue to employ with positive results in the future. Imagine that you are trying to capitalize on your strengths. Click the traits that you think are most typical of you, or are most important to you. We recommend selecting 6 to 9 items, but you may select a greater or lesser number. Remember, however, that you will be asked to write for about 10 minutes for each virtue you select. When you have selected the most typical or important ones, click Next. After you have finished this section, you will be asked to write about how this virtue affected you positively in the past, what you might have done even better, and how you could improve more generally in the future.

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Part IV: Prioritize Your Selection

Here is a column containing your most typical or important positive traits or virtues (from Part III), in no particular order. Please rank order them from most to least relevant or important:

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Part V: In the order in which you ranked your most typical or important positive traits or virtues (Part IV). Please write a (a) short story, (b) alternative outcome, and (c) guidelines for general improvement

(a) Describe an Experience - Please write a short story (approximately 1,000 characters) about a time in your life when this positive trait or virtue contributed to or created a situation that had a positive impact on your life. (2000 characters max)

(b) Alternative Outcome - Write a short paragraph about what you might have done differently in that situation, so that it might have turned out even better. (2000 characters max)

(c) Guidelines for general improvement - Now that you've thought about how you might have improved things even more for yourself or others in that particular situation, please think about this virtue in more general terms. How could you work on capitalizing on this positive trait in general, so that you or others that you care about benefit as much as possible? (2000 characters max)

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Part VI: Conclusion

You have now completed the positive traits or virtues identification section of the self-authoring suite. Everything that you have written is available in the report. You may find it helpful to review the virtues you have identified, as well as the ways that you plan on improving or capitalizing on them.

You may also want to consider completing the faults analysis (the remainder of the present authoring section), the past authoring or autobiography exercise, or the future authoring exercise, which will help you understand what you want in the future (and how you might get it).

Present Authoring: Faults

Introduction: Welcome to the Present Authoring: Faults component of the Self-Authoring suite. This exercise has been designed to allow you to do an in-depth analysis of some of the negative aspects or faults of your personality.

The exercise may take up to three hours to complete. You may quit the exercise any time by clicking Exit/Home or shutting down your browser. If the current page is a page you have been writing on, remember to click Save before exiting. The text that you entered on previous pages will have already been saved.

You can come back to the exercise later, and resume your work. Just go to www.selfauthoring.com, click the Subscriber Login button (top right) and choose the Present Authoring: Faults exercise. When you return, all your previous work will be waiting for you, and you will be taken to the last point in the exercise you had completed

Faults Analysis

This program has been designed to allow you to do an in-depth analysis of some of the negative aspects or faults of your personality. It is the partner program to the virtues analysis section of the present authoring program. It is our hope that constructing a clearer picture of your faults will help you understand the impact of your personality traits on your life in the past, present, and future.

It is probably best to complete this exercise if you are in a normal to good mood, so that you can tolerate the self-criticism. If you are feeling sad, lonely, or depressed, you should probably do the virtues analysis instead. This exercise will take you 60-90 minutes, depending on your choices. You will be asked first to read some information about basic personality theory and then to select 2-10 faults from each of five lists of faults (one list per basic personality trait).

Then you will be presented with the faults you have selected, and asked to choose a final list of the faults you think have most interfered with your life. You will be asked to write for about 10 minutes, later, for each fault you choose, after you have rank-ordered them in importance. We recommend that you choose 6-9 faults (for 60 to 90 minutes of work), but you can choose as many as you like. Just

remember that you will be asked to write about each one. You will be asked to describe how this fault has impacted you negatively, in the past; what you might have done differently; and what you could do now and in the future to rectify or eliminate this fault.

Completing the Exercise 1

During this exercise, you will be presented with a series of pages either providing you with information, or asking you to describe aspects of your personality and experiences.

You may proceed through the exercise by clicking the Next button.

You can go back to previous pages by clicking Previous.

Each time you click Next or Previous, the data you have entered on that page will be saved. You can also save your data while remaining on the same page by clicking Save. In addition, many of the pages where you are asked to write for longer periods of time will automatically save every minute or so.

You may quit the exercise any time by clicking Exit/Home or shutting down your browser. If the current page is a page you have been writing on, remember to click Save before exiting. The text that you entered on previous pages will have already been saved.

You can come back to the exercise later, and resume your work. All your previous work will be waiting for you, and will be taken to the last point in the exercise you had completed.

Completing the Exercise 2

On many pages, you will not be able to successfully click Next or Previous unless you have provided a minimum of necessary text. If you do not, you will receive an error message, and the text box in question will be highlighted in red.

Text boxes also have a maximum length. Pay attention, as you write, to the numbers above the text boxes. Numbers like [180 / 1000] indicate that you have typed 180 characters out of a maximum allowable of 1000. When you go over the maximum, the numbers above the text box become red. Clicking Next, Previous, or Save will result in an error message and you will not be able to proceed to the Next or Previous page. To resolve this, edit your text until the number of characters is less than or equal to the maximum. These limitations have been established so that you do not get stalled at any point in the process.

We do encourage you to write in some detail, however, subject to those limitations. Our research indicates that better results are obtained as the amount written by participants increases.

There is a progress bar in the top right portion of the screen, which displays the percentage of the exercise that you have already completed. If you hover over the bar with the mouse, you can see approximately how much time it will still take to complete the exercise.

You may use the Index to jump to any page you have already completed. Clicking the [Index] link will open the index. Clicking it again will close it. Remember to click Save to save any work on the current page before using the index to jump to another page.

After you have completed the exercise, you will be taken to a Summary page. You can use that page to email yourself a copy of your writing.

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Part I: Background Knowledge

To complete the following exercise, there are a number of things that are useful to know. (you may have encountered this information previously if you have completed the virtues analysis program, but it might be worthwhile to review it):

Everybody's personality is composed of two higher-order traits. The first higher-order trait is known as plasticity, and can be thought of as the tendency to be flexible, exploratory, curious, and quick to adapt. The second higher-order trait is known as stability, and can be thought of as the tendency to be structured, organized, emotionally stable and focused.

Plasticity - the first higher-order trait, can be further broken down into two sub-traits: Extraversion (the tendency to be enthusiastic and dominant) and Openness (the tendency to be open-minded and intelligent).

Extraversion (Outgoing vs Reserved)

- Sociable - Active - Adventurousness - Positive - Excitement-Seeking - Gregarious

Openness (Original vs Traditional)

- Fantasy-prone - Aesthetically-minded - Philosophical - Creative - Intuitive - Intellectual

Stability - the second higher-order trait, can be further broken down into three sub-traits: Conscientiousness (the tendency to be orderly and industrious), Emotional Stability (lack of negative emotional volatility and the tendency to withdraw), and Agreeableness (politeness and compassion, as opposed to belligerence or aggression).

Conscientiousness (Conscientious vs Carefree)

- Competent - Orderly - Decisive - Achievement-oriented - Self-disciplined - Deliberate - Industrious

Emotional Stability (Calm vs Nervous)

- Anxious (reversed) - Angry (reversed - Hostile (reversed) - Depressed (reversed) - Self-Conscious (reversed) - Vulnerable (reversed)

Agreeableness (Agreeable vs Assertive/Aggressive)

- Warm - Trusting - Straightforward - Altruistic - Modest - Compliant - Tender-minded - Nice

Impact of Personality Traits

There are advantages and disadvantages to each trait, particularly at the extremes. Extremely sociable, extraverted people can be dominant and impulsive, while introverted, quiet people can easily become isolated and depressed. Extremely open people can be scattered and overwhelmed by their own thoughts and ideas, while closed-minded people may become narrow and inflexible. Exceptionally conscientious people can be obsessive about order, judgemental and rigid, while their more carefree counterparts may be messy, undisciplined and careless. People very high in emotional stability may engage in risky, dangerous behavior, while those who are more neurotic can become so preoccupied by anxiety and pain that they are unable to function. Finally, extremely agreeable people may never stand up for themselves, while those who are too assertive can be aggressive, callous and bullying.

Change

Personality is reasonably stable over the lifespan, and is also powerfully influenced by hereditary or genetic factors. Despite this, personality can broaden or even transform. As people age, for example, they tend to become more agreeable, conscientious and emotionally stable. Changing personality means changing habits of action, presumption and perception. Personality change requires the formulation of clear future goals, as well as discipline and practice. People who are too agreeable can learn to stand up for themselves. Disorderly people can become more conscientious. Introverted people can become socially skilled. People who experience paralyzing levels of negative emotion can learn to explore.

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Part II: Select Traits

Extraversion/Introversion

Select Relevant Items - Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not

really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

+ Sometimes act without thinking + Sometimes talk too loudly + Can spend too much money + May exaggerate the truth + May dominate the conversation excessively + Find it difficult to spend time alone + Could be a better listener + May spend too much time pursuing fun and excitement + May attract too much attention to myself + Do not let the quieter people have a chance to talk + Try too hard to be the center of attention + Can be too theatrical or dramatic + May be too dependent on the admiration or attention of others + Can be a little grandiose + Talk about myself a lot + Often feel uncomfortable around others + Keep in the background + Have too little to say + Lose opportunities because I am too isolated + Am too quiet around strangers + Find it difficult to approach others + Don't laugh much or have fun + Bottle up my feelings + Am a very private person + Wait for others to lead the way + Feel drained by social interactions

+ Am not very enthusiastic + Could be more socially skilled + Have a difficult time starting conversations + Have a social circle that is too small

Openness/Traditionalism

Select Relevant Items - Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

+ Pursue too many activities at the same time + Am interested in so many things that I don't know what to focus on + Have a hard time planning for the future because I am interested in everything + Am sometimes attracted by ideas that are radical but have not been thought through + Sometimes see meaning in things that probably isn't there + Jump around too much from topic to topic when I am talking to people + Have a hard time making up my mind because I can always see all the sides of an argument + Am so interested in creative activities that it is hard to concentrate on things that are practical + Can become possessed by an idea + Daydream too much + Sometimes every thought I have immediately suggests an overwhelming number of ideas + Have had experiences or thoughts that were strange enough to frighten me + Have had a hard time forming a clear identity + See connections between things too easily + Have done crazy things just because I was curious about what might happen + Am good at a too-narrow range of things

+ Am seldom interested in abstract, philosophical ideas + Avoid sophisticated fiction and stories + Do not attend movies or plays + Am unimaginative + Do not care for change + Do not involve myself in creative activities + Do not like to read challenging material + Do not really understand or value art + Seldom seek out new experiences + Try to avoid complex people + Will not probe deeply into a subject + Am unlikely to initiate a new project + Tend to think that creative people are strange + Always do things the same way once I have learned how to do them

Conscientiousness/Carelessness

Select Relevant Items - Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

+ Am too perfectionistic + Get obsessed with details and lose the big picture + Insist that everything be in perfect order + Dislike deviation from the rules, even when it is necessary + Have to plan everything + Seriously dislike having my routine or schedule upset + Cannot stand to be late for an appointment

+ Feel that I am being unproductive if I relax + Can be very judgemental + Get upset at myself when I misplace something + Will work on a project beyond what is useful and necessary + Believe that I have to be flawless + Always believe that failure is a consequence of insufficient personal effort + Cannot tolerate having to finish a task imperfectly or quickly + Can be contemptuous of other people and of myself + Do things in a half-way manner + Don't like to tidy up + Find it difficult to get down to work + Make a mess of things + Leave my belongings around + Surf the web or watch TV or waste time in other ways even if I have a project due + Am without real ambition + Neglect my duties + Frequently make excuses + Often procrastinate + Waste my time + Am sometimes willing to bend the truth to get out of an obligation + Feel unmotivated to complete my work + Have few clearly defined goals + Have no stable daily routine for sleeping or eating

Emotional Stability/Low Stress Tolerance

Select Relevant Items - Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not

really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

+ Am sometimes not afraid of things I should be afraid of + Have found myself in dangerous situations because I was not paying attention + Might have done fewer stupid things if I felt shame more often + Things that should bother me don't seem to + Am easy-going to a fault + Sometimes think if I was more worried about things I might do better in life + Don’t appear to learn as well from my mistakes as others do + Can do careless or inappropriate things without seeming to experience guilt + Don't worry about things that should bother me + Don't pay enough attention to costs and potential future dangers + Am sometimes too calm about things + Am often too optimistic + Criticism, even when warranted, does not seem to affect me + Often take counterproductive or unnecessary risks + Do not seem to benefit from negative feedback + Am easily disturbed and upset + Am frequently irritable or angry + Am too moody and emotionally unstable + Am too self-conscious for my own good + Blow little things out of proportion + Feel ashamed of my body + Feel hurt often, even by little things + Feel inadequate when introduced to new people + Feel too fearful, afraid and anxious + Compare myself unfavorably to other people + Get stressed out easily

+ Grumble and complain about things + Have a hard time calming down after becoming upset + Let my fears stop me from doing things I want to do + Often feel depressed and blue

Agreeable/Assertive

Select Relevant Items - Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

+ Avoid conflict even when it is necessary + Find myself making excuses for other's inappropriate behavior + Cannot negotiate for myself very well + Will sacrifice my own feelings for the comfort of others + Can bottle up my feelings until I become resentful + Can be overly sentimental + Am polite to a fault + Feel sorry for people who may not deserve it + Find myself too upset after I have a conflict with someone + Would probably help me if I could be more competitive + Am sometimes dominated by other people + Don't know how to deal with mean people + Trust people too easily + Find myself believing that people are basically good, even when there is evidence to the contrary + Am loyal to a fault + Have a hot temper

+ Can be indifferent to the feelings of others + Am not interested in other people's problems + Am too suspicious of other people's motives + Will charm people to get my way + Can be detached and cold when others are hurt and upset + Am quite critical of others + Don't generally show gratitude + Can be vengeful + Am willing to manipulate others for personal gain + Infrequently help others + Insult people + Can be aggressive and domineering + Tend to always put myself first + Could be better at cooperating

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Part III: Select for Analysis

HABIT SELECTION

Take a complete listing of your selected faults (from Part II) and select a set of faults that you would like to work on improving. Click the faults that you think are most typical of you, or are most important to you. We recommend selecting 6 to 9 items, but you may select a greater or lesser number. Remember, however, that you will be asked to write for about 10 minutes for each fault you select. When you have selected the most typical or important faults, click Next. After you have finished this section, you will be asked to write about how this fault affected you negatively in the past, what you could have done differently, and how you could address this in the future.

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Part IV: Rank Selection

Prioritize Your Selection

Take the list of your most typical or important faults (from Part III), and rank order them from most to least relevant or important:

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Part V: Analysis of Traits

In the order that you determined in Part IV, please do the following for each of your most typical or important faults:

(a) Describe an Experience - Please write a short story (approximately 1,000 characters) about a time in your life when this fault created a situation that had a negative impact on your life.

(b) Alternative Outcome - Write a short paragraph about what you might have done differently in that situation, to minimize the effect of this fault.

(c) Guidelines for general improvement - Now that you've thought about how you might have behaved differently in that particular situation, please think about this fault in more general terms. How could you work on improving this fault in general, so that such situations do not repeat themselves?

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Conclusion

You have now completed the habits identification section of the self-authoring suite. Everything that you have written is available in the report. You may find it helpful to review the faults you have identified, as well as the ways that you plan on improving them.

You may also want to consider completing the virtues analysis (the remainder of the present authoring section), the past authoring or autobiography exercise, or the future authoring exercise, which will help you understand what you want in the future (and how you might get it).

"Sort yourself out. Marshal your arguments. Put yourself in order, so when someone pushes you farther than you should go, you can say no" - Dr. Jordan Peterson on the Joe Rogan Podcast

FUTURE AUTHORING PROGRAM

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 1

The full future authoring exercise has 2 different stages, each with a number of steps. In Stage 1, you will write generally about your goals. In Stage 2, you will specify and clarify the nature of those goals, and begin to strategize. We recommend that you complete the process over two or more separate days. People who allow themselves some time to sleep when they are making important decisions appear to do a better job and to benefit more. The entire exercise will require approximately two and a half hours. On the first day, you might want to complete Stage 1. On the second day, you could complete Stage 2. You will need to concentrate and process what you are writing, so try to complete this exercise when you are feeling alert and relatively unrushed. Simply follow the on-screen instructions as you go along. Press the "Next" button to move onto the next screen. If you need to take a short break or two of 5-10 minutes to get up and walk around during the process, please feel free to do so. You will be asked to write down your private thoughts and feelings. Please type them directly into the box provided. At times, you may be asked to write non-stop, without regard for grammar or spelling. At other times, you may be asked to revise what you have written. This exercise is meant to benefit YOU personally. Everything you write will remain accessible only to you and those you designate as recipients. The report you produce will summarize your personal goals and strategies. You and your recipients, if any, will be emailed a copy of this report shortly after you complete the exercise. During some sections, you will be asked to write for specified amounts of time. Please try your best to write for the amount of time specified (so, if it asks you to write for 1-2 minutes, please write continuously for at least 60 seconds).

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 2

During this exercise, you will be presented with a series of pages either providing you with information, or asking you to describe aspects of your personality and experiences.

You may proceed through the exercise by clicking the Next button. You can go back to previous pages by clicking Previous. Each time you click Next or Previous, the data you have entered on that page will be saved. You can also save your data while remaining on the same page by clicking Save. In addition, many of the pages where you are asked to write for longer periods of time will automatically save every minute or so. You may quit the exercise any time by clicking Exit/Home or shutting down your browser. If the current page is a page you have been writing on, remember to click Save before exiting. The text that you entered on previous pages will have already been saved. You can come back to the exercise later, and resume your work. All your previous work will be waiting for you, and will be taken to the last point in the exercise you had completed.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 3

On many pages, you will not be able to successfully click Next or Previous unless you have provided a minimum of necessary text. If you do not, you will receive an error message, and the text box in question will be highlighted in red. Text boxes also have a maximum length. Pay attention, as you write, to the numbers above the text boxes. Numbers like [180 / 1000] indicate that you have typed 180 characters out of a maximum allowable of 1000. When you go over the maximum, the numbers above the text box become red. Clicking Next, Previous, or Save will result in an error message and you will not be able to proceed to the Next or Previous page. To resolve this, edit your text until the number of characters is less than or equal to the maximum. These limitations have been established so that you do not get stalled at any point in the process. We do encourage you to write in some detail, however, subject to those limitations. Our research indicates that better results are obtained as the amount written by participants increases. There is a progress bar in the top right portion of the screen, which displays the percentage of the exercise that you have already completed. If you hover over the bar with the mouse, you can see approximately how much time it will still take to complete the exercise. You may use the Index to jump to any page you have already completed. Clicking the [Index] link will open the index. Clicking it again will close it. Remember to click Save to save any work on the current page before using the index to jump to another page. After you have completed the exercise, you will be taken to a Summary page. You can use that page to email yourself a copy of your writing.

The Ideal Future: Preliminary Notes and Thoughts

In this exercise you will begin to create a version, in writing, of your ideal future. William James, the great American psychologist, once remarked that he did not know what he thought until he had written his thoughts down. When he didn't know what to write, he wrote about anything that came to mind. Eventually, his ideas became focused and clarified. Brainstorm. Write whatever comes to mind. Don't worry too much about sentence construction, spelling, or grammar. There will be plenty of time to write polished sentences later. Avoid criticizing what you write. Premature criticism interferes with the creative process.

Imagining Your Ideal Future

You will start with some exercises of imagination that will help you warm up to the task of defining your future. These will include 8 questions such as "what could you do better?", "what would you like to learn about?", "what habits would you like to improve?". After briefly answering these 8 questions, you will be asked to write for 15 minutes about your ideal future, without editing or criticism. Let yourself daydream or fantasize. You are trying to put yourself into a state of reverie, which is a form of dream-like thinking that relies heavily on internal imagery. This kind of thinking allows all your different internal states of motivation and emotion to find their voice. It might be best to concentrate on your future three to five years down the road, although you may have reasons to concentrate on a shorter or longer timespan (eighteen months to ten years).

1.1 One Thing You Could Do Better If you could choose only one thing that you could do better, what would it be? Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.2. Things to Learn About What would you like to learn more about, in the next six months? Two years? Five years? Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.3. Improve Your Habits What habits would you like to improve? -At school?

-At work? -With friends and family? -For your health? -With regards to smoking/alcohol/drug use? Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.4. Your Social Life in the Future

Friends and associates are an important part of a meaningful, productive life. Take a moment to consider your social network. Think about the friends you might want to have, and the connections you might want to make. It is perfectly reasonable to choose friends and associates who are good for you. Describe your ideal social life. Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.5. Your Leisure Activity in the Future

Take a moment to consider the activities you would like to pursue outside of obligations such as work, family and school. The activities you choose should be worthwhile and personally meaningful. Without a plan, people often default to whatever is easiest, such as television watching, and waste their private time. If you waste 4 hours a day, which is not uncommon, then you are wasting 1400 hours a year. That is equivalent to 35 40-hour work weeks, which is almost as much as the typical individual spends at his or her job every year. If your time is worth $25 per hour, then you are wasting time worth $35,000 per year. Over a 50-year period, that is $1.8 million dollars, not counting interest or any increase in the value of your time as you develop. Describe what your leisure life would be like, if it was set up to be genuinely productive and enjoyable. Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.6. Your Family Life in the Future

Take a moment to consider your home and family life. Peaceful, harmonious family life provides people with a sense of belonging, support for their ambitions, and reciprocal purpose. Describe what your ideal family would be like. You can write about your parents and siblings, or about your plans for your own

partner, or about your children, if any – or about all of these. What kind of partner would be good for you? How could you improve your relationship with your parents or siblings? Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.7. Your Career in the Future

Much of what people find engaging in life is related to their careers. A good career provides security, status, interest, and the possibility of contributing to the community. Take a moment to consider your school or work careers, or both. Where do you want to be in six months? Two years? Five years? Why? What are you trying to accomplish? Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

1.8. Qualities You Admire

People you automatically admire have qualities that you would like to possess or imitate. Identifying those qualities can help you determine who it is that you want to be. Take a moment to think about the two or three people you most admire. Who are they? Which qualities do they possess that you wish you had? Think and write for at least two minutes, then move on.

The Ideal Future: Complete Summary

Now you have written briefly about your future, and have had some time to consider more specific issues. This step gives you the chance to integrate all the things that you have just thought and wrote about. Close your eyes. Daydream, if you can, and imagine your ideal future: -Who do you want to be? -What do you want to do? -Where do you want to end up? -Why do you want these things? -How do you plan to achieve your goals? -When will you put your plans into action?

-Write about the ideal future that you have just imagined for 15 minutes. Write continuously and try not to stop while you are writing. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. You will have an opportunity to fix your mistakes later. Dream while you write, and don't stop. Write at least until the 15 minutes have passed. Be ambitious. Imagine a life that you would regard as honourable, exciting, productive, creative and decent. Remember, you are writing only for yourself. Choose goals that you want to pursue for your own private reasons, not because someone else thinks that those goals are important. You don't want to live someone else's life. Include your deepest thoughts and feelings about all your personal goals.

A Future to Avoid: Complete Summary

You have now written about the future you would like to have. Clearly defining your future can help reduce the uncertainty in your life, and reduce the amount of negative emotion that you chronically experience, in consequence. This is good for your confidence and for your health. Having well-defined goals also increases your chances of experiencing positive emotion, as people experience most of their hope and joy and curiosity and engagement as a consequence of pursuing valued goals (and not, as people generally think, by attaining them). It can also be very useful to deeply imagine the future you would like to avoid. You probably know people who have made very bad decisions, and who end up with a life that nobody would want. You also likely have weaknesses yourself. If you let those get out of control, then you might also end up with a miserable, painful life. Most people know how their life could go downhill if they let it. Spend some time, now, thinking about what your life would be like if you failed to define or pursue your goals, if you let your bad habits get out of control, and if you ended up miserable, resentful and bitter. Imagine your life three to five years down the road, if you failed to stay on the path you know you should be on. Use your imagination. Draw on your knowledge of the anxiety and pain you have experienced in the path, when you have betrayed yourself. Think about the people you know who have made bad decisions or remained indecisive, or who chronically deceive themselves or other people, or who let cynicism and anger dominate their lives. Where do you not want to be? Dream while you write, and don't stop. Write at least until the 15 minutes have passed. Let yourself form a very clear picture of the undesirable future.

Stage 1: The Ideal Future: Preliminary Notes and Thoughts has been completed

Congratulations! You have now realized a vision of your ideal future, and outlined a future that is best avoided. You can use the summary of this vision to help you complete Stage 2 of the Ideal Future planning process.

Clicking the "Print Friendly Report" link will open an additional window with a printer friendly version of this report. You can either leave this new window open or print it out. This summary will help you with the next stages.

[The printable page shows the following headers, with your answers to previous questions below. I reccoment recreating it in a separate document]

User [your name, account, email]

One Thing You Could Do Better [your written answer to 1.1]

Things to Learn About [your written answer to 1.2]

Improve Your Habits [your written answer to 1.3]

Your Social Life in the Future [your written answer to 1.4]

Your Leisure Activity in the Future [your written answer to 1.5]

Your Family Life in the Future [your written answer to 1.6]

Your Career in the Future

[your written answer to 1.7]

Qualities You Admire [your written answer to 1.8]

The Ideal Future [your written answer to 'The Ideal Future: Complete Summary']

A Future to Avoid [your written answer to 'A Future to Avoid: Complete Summary']

Stage 2: Specific Goal Identification: Introduction

In this stage, you will first be asked to define and personally title your overall future plan. Then, you will be asked to take your general plans for the ideal future and break them up into more specific goals. Each of these separate goals will also be given its own title. This step will help you clarify your goals.

Please specify a title and brief description for your ideal future as a whole. This can be as simple as "My Ideal Future," in both fields, or, if you have something more personal in mind, you can specify that. Imagine that you are both specifying and summarizing your ambitions with this title. This will help you remember what you are aiming for. In later screens you can define, prioritize, and analyze specific goals.

Goal Title: Goal Description:

Please break down your ideal future into 8 goals. You can re-word, re-write and organize the relevant material from Step 1 for your goal summaries, if you wish, or you can rely on your memory. The exercise allows you to specify a minimum of 6 goals, but people who identify 8 have better results with this exercise.

These specific goals can be from a number of different domains. -A personal goal might be "I would like to be healthier." -A career goal might be "I would like to be more interested in my job" -A social goal might be "I would like to meet more people". The summaries you write about each goal should be reasonably brief and memorable. Make sure that each goal summary includes nothing but the most important information. You will have 10-15 minutes for this part of the exercise. Feel free to revise and edit.

Goal 1 Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 2 Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 3 Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 4 Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 5 Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 6

Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 7 Goal Title: Goal Description:

Goal 8 Goal Title: Goal Description:

2.3. Prioritizing Your Goals

Please organize your goals. Give your most important goal a rank of 1, your next most important goal a rank of 2, and so on. You can use the update button at any time to to re-order the list. [List them in order of importance] [[1] Goal 1: Goal Title] [[2] Goal 2: Goal Title] [[3] Goal 3: Goal Title] [[4] Goal 4: Goal Title] [[5] Goal 5: Goal Title] [[6] Goal 6: Goal Title] [[7] Goal 7: Goal Title] [[8] Goal 8: Goal Title]

2.4. Strategizing About Your Goals

Now you will be asked about the following elements or feature for each of the specific goals you have identified:

Evaluating Your Motives -Considering the Broad Personal and Social Impact of Goals -Considering the Detailed Strategies for Goal Attainment -Identifying Potential Obstacles and their Solutions -Monitoring Progress towards Desired Goals Thus, the five pages that contain these elements or features will repeat until all your goals have been assessed.

[This section asks questions about each your goals (1-8) in the order you decided on in 2.3. Answer questions 2.4.1-2.4.5 for goal 1, then repeat for each goal] 2.4.1. Evaluating Your Motives

For this goal, you might want to consider issues such as the following: -Do you truly believe that pursuing this goal is important? -Would you feel ashamed, guilty or anxious if you didn't? -Do you want to achieve this goal personally, or are you doing it to please someone else? (It is often a good thing to do something for someone else, but you should know when you are doing that.) -Are you pursuing this goal because the situation that you find yourself in in seems to demand it? -Is the pursuit of this goal enjoyable, stimulating or satisfying? -Is this goal part of a deeply felt personal dream? Please spend a minute or two writing down your reasons for pursuing this goal:

2.4.2. Considering the Broad Personal and Social Impact of Goals

Goals can have an impact beyond the obvious. Our specific personal goals are connected to larger, more important life goals. These higher-order goals reflect our most important ideals. The specific goal of spending more time studying or reading, for example, is a specific element of the more important goal of being a well-educated person. Achieving other specific goals, such as becoming more assertive, help us to move closer to our ideal self.

You will now be asked to write about what more globally important things might be affected by your attainment the goal listed below: -How would disciplined success change the way that you see yourself? -How would other parts of your personal life change, in consequence? -How would this affect the way that others perceive you? (You might also consider fears of being successful. Sometimes people are afraid to succeed because of the responsibility this would entail. Sometimes they are afraid of even becoming conscious of their true goals, because then they would be aware when they fail. These are not good strategies.) -How would attaining this goal affect the lives of the people around you? -What broader beneficial social impact might your success have? Please write a short description of how attaining this goal would change additional important aspects of your life, and the lives of others.

2.4.3. Considering the Detailed Strategies for Goal Attainment

Goals are related to lesser, smaller sub-goals and behaviors, as well as connected to higher-order, more important abstract goals. Sub-goals are easier to achieve, but are still fundamental to reaching our greater aspirations. Sub-goals can thus be thought of as strategies for greater goal achievement. Thinking about what specific things need to be done in order to achieve your goals allows you to create practical strategies for realizing your dreams. Please take some time to write about the concrete daily or weekly things you might do to further your goal. Deeply consider what particular behaviors this goal is built upon. -Should you spend more time planning at school or at work? -Do you need to spend more time with your friends, or your children? -Do you need to discuss household chores with your roommates, partner or spouse? -Specify when you are going to work on your goal. Specify how often. Specify where. Think hard about how you are going to implement your plans. Make your plans concrete. Write down those concrete weekly or daily things you might do to further this goal.

2.4.4. Identifying Potential Obstacles and their Solutions

Thinking about achieving a goal is obviously easier than going out and getting it done. Many things related to the natural environment, the social group and the self can stand in your way. It is useful to anticipate these difficulties, so that you can plan to overcome them. Consider your goal, once again. Write down all the potential obstacles you can think up. Write down ways to overcome these obstacles. How might you interfere with your own plans? How can you ensure this won't happen? Sometimes change is threatening to people we know and love. Will the people you know help you, or interfere? How can you communicate with them, so that they will support you? Think of realistic and worst-case scenarios. What are your options? What are your alternative plans? Write down potential obstacles to this goal, and specify the ways you might overcome them.

2.4.5. Monitoring Progress towards Desired Goals

We need to know, concretely, whether or not we are progressing towards the attainment of valued goals. Of course, this is not an easy task. When we want to complete very specific tasks, feedback on our performance is relatively easy to monitor. However, if our goals are less short-term, this becomes a little more difficult. You are now being asked to identify personal benchmarks that will allow you to evaluate your own performance. -When would you like to achieve this goal? Be specific. Even if you have to revise a deadline later, it is still better to set one. -What sorts of things will you accept as evidence that you are progressing towards your stated goal? -How often are you going to monitor your own behavior? -How will things in your life have to change, measurably, for you to feel satisfied in your progress? -How can you ensure that you are neither pushing yourself too hard, and ensuring failure, or being too easy on yourself, and risking boredom and cynicism? -Your benchmarks should be personal indicators of success. It doesn't matter what others may think defines progress towards your goal. Write down those accomplishments would truly indicate positive movement on your part. Feel free to write as much as you feel is necessary. Write down how you might monitor your progress with regards to this goal.

2.5. Future Steps

People often worry themselves unproductively by constantly revisiting their goals, instead of concentrating on their attainment. It is easy to undermine yourself, by always questioning your aims and intentions. Am I doing the right thing? Have I chosen the correct goals? This leads to chronic worry, unproductive behavior, and lack of opportunity to learn. -Now that you have set goals, it is best to concentrate on a daily or weekly basis on implementing the strategies you have devised for their attainment, instead of worrying about the goals themselves. It is just as important to stick to a plan, as it is to make a plan. -If you implement your goals, even if they are not perfect, you will learn enough during the implementation phase to make better goals next time. As you continue to repeat the process, you will get wiser and wiser. -Set aside some time every week or two - no more than ten or twenty minutes - to mentally review your performance. You will gather all sorts of useful information that you can use to reconsider your plans, down the road. Researchers have found that if someone performs goal-setting tasks multiple times over a long period, there is a greater chance of health and productivity improvements. As a result, you might wish to engage in this sort of exercise on a regular basis, every four, six, or twelve months, as your situation changes.

Your Ideal Future Below is a copy of your Ideal Future including the essays you wrote during Stage 1 and the goal setting and analysis you performed during Stage 2. [This is another printable page, with every single question as a header, and what you wrote as an answer]

Project Complete

You have completed the Future Authoring project. Thank you.