Life Track and life map

YOUR LIFE TRACK

Our life experience is made up of (i) the events that happened and (ii) how we processed them. The goal of this exercise is not to reminisce nor to gather facts and figures, but rather to gain a clearer picture of the main events that have marked your life and have made you the person you are today.

Place the main events or « landmarks » on this graph
What are your best memories?What made them so good?What do they tell you about yourself? Look at the challenges you have had to overcome; what internal resource enabled you to overcome them? What do they tell you about yourself? If you could « rewrite » your own story, what, if anything, would you do differently?What “roles” have you played in your life? Which ones do/did you particularly enjoy? Which ones were less comfortable? How come you got to play them? Using this graph as a starting point, write a short résumé of how life has made you the person you are, from childhood, through to adolescence, your professional roles, right up to today.How do you imagine other people saw you at each point in your life, how do you imagine they see you today and … if you’re up to it … how do you imagine they will see you in 10 yrs from now?


Sources: Performance Consultants

From CAI
Life Mapping (via a personal timeline)

I. What we mean by life mapping and timelines

A. A “life map” is your unique way of representing your personal journey to date with God.

It involves seeing key aspects of your life in reference to one another, kind of like seeing various cities and topographical features on a map. These help orient us and give us a better sense of direction toward our destination (i.e. life purpose). Your life map is essentially a visual depiction of your life topography, from birth until the present day.

B. Many people choose a linear, chronological approach to represent their personal journey.
This is known as a “timeline”. (There are other nonlinear ways to represent your life
history; but we will focus on timelines, as the principles remain the same regardless of method).

II. What a timeline can do for me

A. A timeline can help me ___FOCUS____ in on ___KEY ASPECTS___ of my development:

1. ____BOUNDARIES (MAJOR TRANSITIONS, PARADIGM SHIFTS)____ in my life

2. ____CRITICAL INCIDENTS (UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES THAT ARE FORMATIVE)_____

3. _____INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE (VALUES OFTEN ARE IMPRESSED UPON US IN THIS WAY_

4. _____KEY LESSONS LEARNED_______

Note: Making a visually explicit map of my life history also enables me to better explain myself to others – to help them understand me and my journey with God to date.

B. The timeline helps me ____LABEL______ developmental stages of my life.

(SEE ENCLOSED CLINTON’S EXAMPLES OF DEV. STAGES)

C. A timeline allows me to continue to __REFLECT__ on my life and to _LIFE-SCHEDULE__.



Gaining Perspective through Your Personal “Life-Map”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Each leader is unique. God shapes each of us over an entire lifetime for unique purposes. He has a plan (calling or purpose) for our lives. And He has created each of us in the hope that we will seek to discover and live-out that special life-course which He Himself has prepared in advance for us.

Coming to understand the way God is attempting to orchestrate our lives involves a process of self- discovery. This process is aided by personal reflection, prayer and processing with other mature leaders. It is also helped along by comparing how God generally works in developing Christian leaders over a lifetime.

Some leaders, through personal journaling or recording of a “spiritual autobiography” (please read and interact over the article by Richard Peace, which we will use at a later stage in Leading Edge), make good progress toward understanding their life purpose. These types of exercises help them articulate and, hence, better align their lives with, the special journey God has intended for them. While these are very useful, an even simpler way to begin to get a grasp on God’s hand at work in our lives is via a “life map”. This is a visual representation of our journey, with key phases, people, events, key lessons learned, and so forth highlighted in a linear or mosaic fashion (whatever makes most sense for us, individually, as the designer).

The Life Map when completed provides a snapshot view of our lives, which can:
1. Encourage us by allowing us to see God’s hand operating in our lives;
2. Help us identify various developmental stages in our growth as leaders;
3. Be an effective way to communicate our personal journey to others;
4. Serve as a tool to help us evaluate and plan our leadership future;

The next page describes how we can get started with our personal life map. It will look messy and, perhaps, uncomfortably chaotic after the first round. But, give it a shot! When we come together in our first small group session, we will review the life-map concept and look at how to take it further.
III. Getting Started with Your Life-Map, the “Post-it Note” Way





Bet you never imagined “post-it notes” could aid the diagramming of your spiritual history! Well, they can and here is how:

STEP 1:
Brainstorm the significant people, events and circumstances that have shaped your life.

* Think back to your earliest memories and work your way to the present.
* As images and thoughts come to mind, record these on YELLOW post- it notes
* Only one item per note, using one word or a short phrase to describe the actual event
* Place the notes on the table in front of you, in no particular order
* This is simply BRAINSTORMING, so don’t explain, feel guilty, or get hung up on details

STEP 2:
Pink is for PAIN.

* Notice that not all post-it notes are positive (i.e. they were painful at the time)
* Re-write those painful items on pink post-it notes
* Some painful experiences are very personal and you won’t want them on a post-it note for
the world to see. In those cases, use symbols or code-words which you understand.

STEP 3:
Arrange the notes in some kind of design, order or picture which makes sense to you (using an A3 sized page)

STEP 4:
Use larger post-it notes to label the main chapters or seasons of your journey.

STEP 5:
Green is for key people and mentors in your life. Re-write a person’s name on a green post-it note who was influential in your development at a specific time.

STEP 6:
Blue is for lessons learned. Take a blue post-it note and write a short phrase or sentence describing the lessons you learned in a specific time or season.