Week 1: Your future in the world of work

Start date:
1.

Introduction

Lets meet the people in your course, find out what its all about and what you need to
know.

1.

1.1

Welcome to the course article

2.

1.2

First-year friends article

2.

Our future

What does the future hold for us? Learn about the megatrends that are shaping our world
and the way we live. Prepare to look now for the opportunities ahead.

1.

1.3

Our future video (01:35)

2.
 1.4

The future of work discussion

3.

1.5

Skills for the future article

3.

Future you

Lets harness the power of your imagination and visualise your desired future so you can
begin working towards it.

1.

1.6

Future you article

2.

1.7

Your vision article

3.

1.8

Building insight discussion

4.
The real you

Knowing what is important to you is critical when it comes to making career decisions. In
this activity you find out more about yourself so you can plan how to meet your needs
and identify opportunities for learning.

1.

1.9

The real you article

2.

1.10

Self-awareness article

3.

1.11

What are your values? article

4.

1.12

Sustainability and wellbeing resources article

5.

1.13

What are your strengths? article

6.

1.14

Understanding your strengths article

7.

1.15
 Managing multiple aspects of life exercise

8.

1.16

Have you got everything covered? discussion

9.

1.17

Goals article

10.

1.18

What have you discovered? discussion

11.

1.19

The benefits of failing video (01:30)

Welcome to the course

Hello to everyone who has just joined us and everyone who has been using the welcome area to
meet and make new friends.

Im Bradley, your educator for the course. Im a student and Peer Career Ambassador at
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia so think of me as one of your fellow
learners. On campus I help first-year students connect their career aspirations to their university
experience by sharing my own stories and showing them where to go for more information. This
course uses the same approach. Well share stories and Ill guide you through five activities
designed by professional career practitioners at QUT that will help you explore your options and
give you tips on where to go next for advice.

Together were going to cover:

creating your vision of the future

building your sense of who you are and how that affects your career choices

exploring and generating a range of career options for you

 decision-making and pathway planning.

You might like to look at the To do tab to see the activities in each week. If there is something in
particular youre interested in exploring, feel free to jump straight to that activity.

Get started and join in

Many of you are planning on taking your first step into the university environment and may be
wondering about choosing courses, job opportunities and university life. One of the best parts of
learning online is the opportunity to connect with others who are in a similar situation.

Every step of the way youll have the opportunity to connect, comment and join the discussion. I
encourage you to start by introducing yourself if you havent already. There will be thousands of
learners just like you doing the same thing, so please dont try to read everyones contributions to
the conversation. Instead, Id suggest you read FutureLearns Six tips for social learning and
follow learners who make comments you enjoy.

Certificates and statements

You might like to consider buying a record of your study with FutureLearn. There is a Statement
of Participation to celebrate taking part in the course and a Certificate of Achievement you can
use as evidence of what you have learned. You can show youve met the necessary requirements
by marking steps complete to show your Progress through the course. Check out the Certificates
and Statements FAQs to find out more.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Our future
Well start our exploration of careers by going global and looking at what the future holds for us.

The global trends shaping our world and the way we live are providing many new career
opportunities. Our population is growing, were living longer, technology is advancing, our cities
are expanding, our resources are shrinking and economic power is shifting. The changes were
seeing in the world mean that the way we live, work, travel, connect and communicate are all
being influenced by:

breakthroughs in technology and digital communication

climate change and pressure on our natural resources and food sources

shifts in economic power, trade relations, export markets and business models

population growth and rapid urbanisation

our aging population, increasing demand on services and our expectations as consumers.
These changes are so big that they can be scary. Keep in mind that with unimaginable change
comes unlimited possibilities.

So what?

Career options have always been impacted by global trends. Consider the way steam power
revolutionised the way people lived and worked in the 18th century. Todays advances in
technology will continue to revolutionise our world. Klaus Schwab, of the World Economic
Forum, describes this as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Millions of jobs will be transformed
and new ones created as industries are disrupted. Career sustainability in this changing world
depends on our ability to recognise and capitalise on emerging trends.

Think about it

To help make this real, identify examples of jobs that:

are now obsolete or rare

have only been around for the last ten years or less

could be in demand in the future.

Do a web search if you get stuck. Make some notes and well talk about what this means in the
next step.

QUT 2017 unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

The future of work

How are these global trends affecting the way we work?

The types of jobs people do and the way they do them are all evolving. We can use technology to
connect, work from anywhere and provide services from our home computers. We live and work
longer with people of all ages from around the world.

New industries and business models are emerging to take advantage of technology, new niche
markets and the need for creative solutions to shared global issues. Social and digital connections
make it possible for traditional services (like transport and accommodation) to be provided in
new ways.

People traditionally set out to find a secure full-time job. Now theres a trend towards combining
a number of different paid activities into a unique portfolio of work experiences. Many people
are working in project-based contracts or hold a number of different part-time roles at the same
time to meet personal, professional and financial needs. This means making constant career
decisions and evaluating opportunities whether we are self-employed or part of an organisation.
This style of working provides flexibility and enables people to select work opportunities that
align with their values and interests. Building a satisfying career in this environment requires us
to take personal responsibility and creatively build and maintain our networks. In Week 2 we
explore different types of careers.

Talk about it

Did you know that a drone ambulance exists that can fly to the scene of an emergency and rescue
people?

Ambulance drone takes to the skies

This could mean faster help in an emergency, but the paramedics will need to work differently!

Share the example of new or possible future jobs that you thought of on the last step and discuss
the impact these will have on the way people work.

Skills for the future

What are the key skills people will need to create meaningful, interesting, secure work for
themselves in this new world?

Its easy to focus on the jobs that might disappear when we look at how technology is changing
the way people work. Michael Osbornes amazing research, Will a robot take your job?, looks at
the chances that different jobs have of being automated. He identifies advantages humans will
have over machines for many years to come and argues these uniquely human skills will
continue to be in demand:

creativity and originality

social skills

ability to care for others

powers of negotiation and persuasion

dexterity and mobility.

To capitalise on these skills, we at QUT think the workers of the future will also need skills to be
able to make decisions and plan and build their careers. Those who are successful in the
workplace of the future will be great at:

understanding who they are and what they have to offer possible employers, projects or clients
setting career goals and working towards them as they build their portfolio of experience

connecting with others and recognising and capitalising on opportunities

thriving in uncertainty and responding with resilience to challenges and obstacles.

University graduates who have honed these skills and can communicate them effectively to
potential employers, clients or funding organisations, will have an edge over those who have
focused solely on their academic studies. This course aims to provide you with the opportunity to
begin working towards these skills now, even before you set foot on campus.

Ben found something surprising about his possible career directions

When I first considered business, I thought accounting would be a secure job. My parents
said it would always be needed, so I was shocked to find theres a 95% chance the job will be
automated in the future! Other majors in my degree like management are looking better and
better.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Future you
Harness the power of your imagination and visualise your desired future so you can begin
working towards it.

Having our own definition of success, for all that we want to achieve in life, helps us to weigh up
our options and ensure we achieve the goals that matter. Decisions relating to our career
studying, selecting job opportunities or taking on internships, travel or volunteering opportunities
can be complex. One of the best strategies for setting long-term goals is to start with the end in
mind what are the skills you want to build and the environments you want to work in and what
kind of person and professional do you want to become?

Although we can never know the future, we can develop what Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist,
calls identity capital and invest in who we want to be next. This way we can make every new
experience count, because were selecting the things that we assess are likely to help us get
closer to who we want to be or the skills we want to have. You might like to watch Megs TED
Talk listed in See Also if youre interested to know why she says, your 20s are the time to
educate yourself about your body and your options.

Fast forward ten years

Imagine you can jump into a time machine to travel forward about ten years. In this future time
you are enjoying a life that is fulfilling and meaningful. This activity can feel challenging,
especially when we know jobs are changing, but actually we can start by imagining what kind of
life, and work, would be satisfying for us and build up a picture, or sense, of what our life would
be like if it was fulfilling, meaningful and satisfying. Our imagination is the best tool for this as it
helps us connect with our underlying beliefs and expectations.

Put your imagination to work by considering your answers to some of these questions. It will
help you picture your ideal future, and in the next step well get creative and capture that vision.
Getting in the mood
How old are you in ten years time?
Who is in your life? Are you in a long-term relationship? How are you connected to family and
friends?

Where are you living?

What is your lifestyle like?

What makes you happy?

What makes your life meaningful?

Finances
What is important to you financially?
What financial goals have you achieved?

What income did you need to achieve those goals?

Do you have further goals, perhaps related to saving or investment?

Who do you support?

Work
Do you work alone or as part of a team?
Where are you working? Are you in your home country or abroad?

What is your work environment like? Is it indoors, outdoors, at home or in an office?

Do you work in one location or do you travel for work?

What tasks do you enjoy doing: problem-solving? meeting with other people, persuading
people, leading others? creating, drawing or designing products? researching and coming up
with new ideas?

What do you wear to work? Is it formal or casual?

How do you get to work?

How many hours do you work each week?

Leisure
What do you do for fun?
Are you healthy and fit?

Do you have holidays? How often? What do you do? Where do you go?

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Your vision
Lets create a visual representation of your future meaningful, fulfilled life.

Your task is to select and display a collection of words, images, songs or videos that represent
what it would look and feel like for you to enjoy this meaningful life. You might like to make a
conventional vision board, which is a poster or something you can put on a wall where youll see
it often. You can cut out and collect images from any source, draw your own or use your photos.
You might like to add motivational notes, labels or decoration.

Gabbi has shared her vision board showing what is important to her in the future. QUT 2016

Alternatively, there are lots of tools you can use to create a digital vision board. Simple online
tools such as Padlet or Pinterest are easy to use and make it possible to add links to movies,
songs or your own videos. Alternatively you could use software youre comfortable with and
save the file on your computer. Any way of representing your ideal future is fine.

Try to connect to your imagination and creativity as that way you can engage more of the brain.
Its not about being a creative genius; this is about expressing your aspirations in a way that will
help you stay focused on goals.

Give this one a go! It definitely helped me see what really matters to me. Nature and
beautiful places really inspire me. Im keen to travel and see the world, getting involved in
protecting our planet. This motivated me to explore different job ideas related to science outside
of a lab.

This activity was a challenge until I tried telling a story of future me and recording it on my
phone. Having this as a story made more sense to me and then the pictures started to form.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Building insight
Creating your vision board is just the beginning. Now you need to put it to work, whether its
displayed for all to see or private for only you to view.

By creating a representation of your preferred future, you have built something tangible that you
can work towards. To make the most of the exercise, we need to dig a little deeper into what your
vision might mean for your actions, behaviour and decisions both now and in the future.
Think about it
What stands out in your vision board as the things that are most important to your sense of
fulfilment and satisfaction in life?
What needs to be in place for those things to be possible?

What kinds of tasks, environments or people are you working on or with?

Talk about it

Would you like to share what you have learned about future you with us?

Describe your future in 60 words or fewer even if you dont know what your preferred job or
career is called.
Help one of your peers clarify their vision by asking them a question.

Questions that help people to clarify their thoughts usually start with who, what, when, where or
how. We often want to ask why, but why questions can be hard to answer, and the answers arent
always helpful. Try one of the other starters first. If youre comfortable sharing your vision
board, you can take a photo, upload it to your favourite social media site and share the link with
us. Only do this if you have thought carefully about making your personal vision public for us all
to view.

This got me thinking. I want to work as a scientist to explore ways we can live without
having such a detrimental impact on the world. Im going to cycle to work and wear casual
clothes. No corporate life for me!

In my future Im still close to my family, going home to share my day with them. Ive got a
regular income and help them out. Theyre proud of me becoming a storyteller. Without family,
Im not much.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

The real you

Building your self-awareness allows you to identify what you can do to achieve your vision and
create a satisfying career in our changing world.

The US Department of Labor estimates that todays students will have ten to 14 jobs by the age
of 38. This example of the impact of global trends is likely to be true around the world. So, when
you start your university degree, you dont need to have a crystal-clear goal like, Im going to be
a [doctor/teacher/scientist/artist]. But it is helpful to identify a field of study that interests you
and degree outcomes, occupations or industries that you think are possibilities for you. This way
you are able to flex and adapt as you learn more about your field and see opportunities that arise.
The undergraduate degree that you do is just the beginning of your career and the lifelong
learning that supports it.

People who build successful careers over a lifetime are resilient and adaptive to change. Their
secret is that they regularly build and constantly review their knowledge in two key areas:

1. Self-awareness This establishes their criteria to help them make decisions.

2. Opportunity awareness This involves understanding what work opportunities exist now, how
jobs are related to each other and ultimately how the working world operates, so they can find
and fill gaps with their unique skill sets.

This enables them to look for and compare the opportunities they find against their own criteria
for success and to make intentional decisions that lead them towards their goals.

Conducting a regular review of our self-knowledge or awareness and what opportunities exist, or
are emerging, helps us to gradually hone the skills we want to use. Then we can set goals by
considering the environments we want to work in and the problems were interested in working
on, while remaining open to new ideas and emerging opportunities.

Self-awareness
Knowing what is important to you is critical when it comes to making career decisions. In this
activity you find out more about yourself so you can plan how to meet your needs and identify
opportunities for learning.

Self-reflection and its reward of self-awareness cannot be thought of as passive exercises, new
era meditation, or soft science. Theyre absolutely essential.

Anthony Tjan, CEO, Cue Ball.

Lets consider the aspects of you as an individual that influence your career decision-making.
Throughout our lives, making effective decisions when we are weighing up options in our
careers relies on the understanding we have of our personal resources and the areas in which we
would like to further develop. Successful leaders, business people or professionals have
developed the skill of regularly reviewing and building on their understanding of themselves and
what their broader goals in life and work are. This enables them to not only achieve their career
and business goals, but also manage the different roles they play in life. Responding to
challenges and tough times with resilience, being willing to learn from feedback and the ability
to adjust, adapt and move forward are founded on the skills of self-knowledge.

Being self-aware is not the absence of mistakes, but the ability to learn and correct them.

Daniel Chidiac, Author

In the steps ahead we explore each of these areas of self-awareness:

 Values What really matters to you in life your non-negotiables?
Sustainability and wellbeing resources What are the things that help you to be well, healthy
and resilient?

Strengths What aspects of being a good person do you most identify with?

Life roles What aspects of your life are most important for you to balance and prioritise?

Interests What do you enjoy and find yourself fascinated by?

Goals What is important for you to feel you have achieved or can achieve?

A review of you

Lets start by using a simple review to determine how well you know you before we start.
Download our Review of you template. Then rate your self-awareness in each area on a scale of
1 to 10, with 10 being perfectly clear to me and 1 being completely unclear or fuzzy. You can
save your review and use it in the steps ahead to summarise what you learn along the way.

Think about it

Did the review help you step back and look at yourself as a whole? Can you see patterns or
opportunities? If you are clear on a particular area and rate it highly, then youre ready to shift
your focus to any areas that you are less sure of at the moment.

We did lots of this stuff at school but I thought strengths and skills were the same thing
this is a different version of strengths I know nothing about. Plus, I havent thought much about
what I value.

Balancing all the different aspects of my life is really important to me and Im not good at it
yet.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

What are your values?

What are the things that matter most to you in life?

Our values are the deeply held beliefs that we use to determine what matters most to us in life.
They act as our decision-making criteria and our sense of right and wrong and influence our
decisions whether we realise it or not. Sometimes we have values that were incorporated from
our family or spiritual tradition but often they have been created through our own experiences.
If youre not sure if you can articulate your values clearly, youre not alone. Many people have a
sense of what their values are but struggle to find the right words to explain them. Life values
inventory is a great website that will take you through a process of identifying the values that
matter most to you. These will develop and grow with experience but for now, how do these
values connect with what you included in your vision of future you? What do they mean for the
kinds of companies you might be willing to work for?

Tip

Organisations often state their values as well as their mission statement. These reflect their
expectations of the way that the organisation operates, the way staff interact with each other and
what the organisation stands for. Making career decisions can at times be about deciding whether
or not youll fit into an organisation, or if they believe you are a good fit with them. Were in a
better position to assess our values compatibility with potential employers if we have identified
and worked with our values throughout our university experiences, using them to guide and
shape our behaviour.

Think about it

What did the Life values inventory help you learn about yourself? What are the values you most
want to focus on, incorporating into your life and decisions?

Add this new information to your review of you.

Focusing on the financial prosperity value was blocking me from seeing that I also value
belonging, creativity and objective analysis.

Concern for the environment came out as my number one value. I dont think I could ever
work for a mining or oil company even though they employ lots of earth scientists and
geologists.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Sustainability and wellbeing resources

What else helps you to be well and happy?

Our ability to sustain our energy and wellbeing is key to setting and achieving long-term goals.
In Australia for example, an undergraduate degree takes a minimum of three years of full-time
study. However, studying is often not our sole focus. We usually also work part-time, commute
and have family and other responsibilities. At the same time we aim to get as much as we can
from university by engaging in activities, clubs and groups that build our experience and
networks. And then we join the professional workforce and the marathon continues.
So, what keeps us going? Humans all need food, water, sleep, exercise and social connection.
But what are your best fuels and resources? What kind of food makes your energy sustainable?
Who are the people you need to connect with to feel supported? What exercise or movement
activities leave you energised versus bored and frustrated? What must exist in your world for you
to be well and have sustainable energy?

Think about it
1. Take a look at your vision board and future you what does that suggest about the things that
you need and want in your life to be well?
2. Think about a time when you felt like you were achieving well, feeling healthy and living
contently with those around you. What did you have in place at that time in your life? Compare
that to a time when you were feeling more overwhelmed. What makes the difference for you in
your ability to deal with challenges?

3. Note down the key things that you have identified for your sustainability resources in the
appropriate section of your Review of You.

Tip

Research tells us that students who successfully continue on and complete their degrees build
connections with other students and the universitys staff and support services early in their
degree. It may have been a long time since you have needed to make new friends. How can you
connect with people quickly once you start university?

Many universities have programs designed to connect newer students to those who have been at
the university for a while. These are called peer programs and are a great way to find out how
things work at your university. Look for them at your orientation program or on your universitys
student life web pages.

When Im busy, Im away from my family a lot, but our history is where my stories come
from. When Im doing well, I hang out with the kids, tell them stories. We listen to the Aunties
and Uncles. I need to make sure I connect to our mob as well as do my thing.

Spending time outside in nature makes all the difference for me. I need to make time, even
if it means studying outside under a tree, to be outdoors and notice the natural environment.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

What are your strengths?

Lets explore which of the human character strengths are your super powers.

When we recognise the aspects of being human that come most naturally and easily to us, we can
choose to use those in every aspect of our lives. Cool research shows that people are actually
much more likely to enjoy their work and have satisfied and fulfilled lives when they are using
their strengths (rather than trying to build up their weaknesses). So, it makes sense to make
decisions about our future pathways with our strengths in mind.

Discover your character strengths using a scientific survey

Go to VIA Institute on Character and take the free VIA Survey. Plan to do the survey when you
wont be interrupted. It will take about ten minutes. You need to register to get started and choose
the survey for your age group.

The survey is a list of statements that reflect character strengths. You are asked to rate how much
each statement describes you. Its best to go with your initial response and not to think too deeply
about each one. When you finish, VIA will ask you for a little information about yourself and
why you did the survey. Your data is securely stored at the University of Pennsylvania, de-
identified and used for research purposes.

Your results

VIA ranks all 24 of the human character strengths in your own personal order of preference and
gives you a free character strengths profile you can download and keep. You dont need to buy
the VIA reports to complete this activity.

Tip

There are several different strengths finders out there. The VIA Survey is one example. Many
university careers services offer other tools and resources to help you identify your strengths and
explore how you could use those strengths in different careers or different specialisations within
a field of interest. Make it a priority to find your universitys careers team early in your degree
and see what they have to offer you in building your self-awareness, so you can build on your
strengths throughout your time at university.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Understanding your strengths

What we focus on, we get more of in our lives so, are you paying attention to your strengths or
your weaknesses?

Did you jump straight to the bottom of the list to look at what you need to work on once you
got your VIA character strengths profile? People do this so often. But remember, were actually
trying to understand what your strengths are so that you can find ways to capitalise on them.
Your brain is wired to ensure you wont ever forget your weaknesses, so lets focus on strengths
for now.

Some key points to keep in mind about strengths:

 All strengths are good strengths.
Different people may use different strengths to achieve the same thing. For example, lots of
people who have self-regulation lower in their report are still perfectly functioning and goal-
achieving humans. They just use other strengths, like prudence, humility or perseverance, to
achieve the same ends.

Sometimes we see ourselves differently from the way other people see us. This means we can
tend to discount the very things that come easily and naturally to us. You might think you are
just normal and that everyone else thinks, believes and acts just like you. And thats just not
true!

What are your signature strengths?

It can help to take the 24 strengths in your profile and break them up into three groups:

top strengths
middle strengths

lower strengths.

Top strengths (strengths 19)

The strengths that have been listed for you in the first nine places are the ones that you have most
of. These are the strengths that you use easily, naturally and comfortably. It may be that youve
had lots of opportunity to use these and so recognise and identify with them.

Usually people have four or five strengths in this category, so that when they are using them,
they feel like it gives them energy. These are most definitely our super powers, and they are
called signature strengths. If youre not sure which ones of these are your signature strengths,
then look at each of the strengths in your top nine in turn and imagine a situation in which you
were using that strength. How did you feel after the situation or event was over? If you felt full
of energy, alive and well, then that might well be a signature strength for you. These are the ones
for you to focus most on using.

Middle strengths (strengths 1018)

Strengths in positions 1018 are the strengths that we have, but perhaps dont use as often,
havent had as much opportunity to use or dont find particularly energising. Sometimes we have
to consciously switch these on when a situation calls for them and were not feeling like our top
strengths could solve the problem. These are great; they just may not feel as easy or natural to us.

Lower strengths (strengths 1924)

Strengths in this category are the ones that we use the least often. We still have them, of course,
as they are part of being human, but they perhaps are not the ones that we immediately draw on
in our day-to-day lives. These are the ones for you to focus least on.
Think about it
1. Note down your signature strengths in your review of you.
2. What does this suggest will come most easily to you?

3. How does that relate to the careers you are considering?

My top strength is zest. Thats no surprise, but it also says Im high on kindness. I wasnt
sure about that, but then I realised everything Im working towards at work and in my business is
about helping others to make healthy changes in their lives. So this fits.

I know I like to keep a cool head, but seeing judgement and fairness in my top strengths
really surprised me. Who knew that being objective, fair and unbiased towards people wasnt
something everyone does? I was a school captain. I wonder if this is why people call me a leader.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Managing multiple aspects of life

What aspects of your life do you need to consider and balance?

When you created your vision of future you, its likely that you incorporated both work and
personal aspects of a meaningful and satisfying life. Having an awareness of the different aspects
of life that matter to you, both now and in the future, is vital for prioritising, managing our time
and setting goals.

Without this awareness, we can inadvertently end up focusing all our attention just on one aspect
because it is the one that weve set goals for. This is especially true when we take on something
new like study which requires a lot of our attention while we get settled into new routines.
The most satisfying career is one that has been built to accommodate all the other important
aspects of your life, so we need to consider this before we start setting goals.

Are you managing different aspects of your life effectively?

One way you can evaluate your effectiveness is to work out where your time goes now and to
think about how that feels compared to an ideal balance.

Most of us have multiple roles we play in different aspects of our lives:

at work
in our family

study

university activities and commitments

 friends and social life

health and fitness and wellbeing goals and activities.

For now well keep it simple and categorise the time you spend on different roles as time spent
working, learning, playing and giving. Giving is a broad category that may include activities
such as caring for a relative, volunteering within your community and routinely spending time
with people who are important to you. First, make a list of all the different things you do in your
day-to-day life that take time and attention. Separate them into the four headings working,
learning, playing and giving. Its up to you what you put where.

When you launch the exercise below youll be able to adjust a pie chart to show the percentage
of time you currently devote to each of these categories in one week. Adjust the Current pie
chart until you think it is an accurate representation of your time. Everyones pie chart will be
different.

If this mix of time is not meeting your needs, or feels unsatisfactory in some way, you can use
the second pie chart to show your ideal balance of time. Your aim is to find a personal mix that
feels comfortable and meets your current needs and priorities. This is an exercise you can do as
often as you wish, because as our priorities in life change, so too does the time we spend in
different roles.

You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to do this exercise.

Please note, by launching the exercise you will be taken to a page containing content provided by
a third party website.

Have you got everything covered?

The last exercise may have revealed information you have previously overlooked.

Lets double check you took into account all aspects of your life when you visualised future you
and started evaluating your self-awareness.

Think about it
1. Are all the aspects of your life that are important included in your review of you? Yes? Great. If
not, then what needs to be added? Remember, were thinking about what needs to be balanced
and aligned to ensure you build a satisfying life to sustain your meaningful career.
2. Look back to your vision board. Are all the aspects of your life covered there? Are there aspects
of your life that matter to you in ten years time that you arent already working on now? If so,
you might want to consider adding them.

3. How can you make changes to the way you spend your time now, if your current pie chart does
not incorporate activities that meet all your needs?
 When I look at my pie chart, Im spending all my time at work, university and on the basics
of life. Im not spending any time on my own health or with my closest friends. No wonder I get
tired and stressed by the end of the semester.

I spend so much time travelling. Its hard once I get home to study and help out with the
kids. Im starting to think I need to find a way to use the time on the train more effectively.

Tip

Universities usually have support services to help students with time management and other
competing life demands. You might find that help with studying more effectively would help you
to have more time for other important activities track down the academic skills services at your
university. (Remember, studying at university is about learning to be a great student; no one
expects you to have all of the skills you need when you first arrive.)

Of course, sometimes life just happens. This is why universities often have teams of people who
focus on the wellbeing of students. They might be called the counselling, welfare or student
support teams. Make sure you know where they are and how to make an appointment. Most
importantly, dont wait until its urgent. Most of what they can do works best if you seek support
and input before things get really hard.

Goals
Youre going to need SMARTER goals if youre going to realise your vision of future you.

What do you want to achieve in your life? Your vision board will provide clues, and you can use
your self-awareness review to check in to ensure that you are planning activities towards
everything you want to achieve. Sometimes as part of a review of you, the vision changes
slightly as new ideas emerge. Goal setting is the final stage of the review of you process. Its an
opportunity to check in on what you have said you want to achieve, revise if necessary and create
stepping stones towards your vision.

There are different types of goals, and the way we set them can make a big difference to our
chances of achieving them. For now, its probably enough to consider the things youve
identified as being your ultimate measures of success on your vision board and think about
what might be some of the steps along the way to achieving those things.

Remember that the very best goals are:

specific
measurable

actionable
 realistic

timed

evaluated

reviewed/rewarded.

Wikipedia lists the SMART criteria you can you use to evaluate your goals and explains the
different definitions for the acronym.

Think about it

What might be something you could achieve in the next six months that would get you a step
closer to some of the things on your vision board? Or in the next year?

1. Take a look at your review of you, and for each life role youve identified note some of the things
that you ultimately want to achieve in those aspects of your life.
2. Set yourself a short-term (six months) goal and, if you like, a medium-term (12 months to two
years) goal in each area. Remember, these need to be stepping stones to your ultimate goals.

3. Check to make sure your goals are not competing with each other its hard to get great at being
a full-time university student and hold down a full-time job at the same time.

Tip

Setting goals is a skill that needs ongoing practice and review. The ability to review, reset,
prioritise and evaluate goals is part of our personal sense of achievement, but also fundamental to
success in most fields of work; for example, having strategies in business, winning grants in
research, achieving sporting or other competitive outcomes. Many universities have programs in
residential halls or other co-curricular programs that support students in developing skills in goal
setting and self-motivation. Check out the offerings at your university within the first three
months of commencing.

My work goal has changed. Ill create a business that incorporates mobile technology to help
fitness trainers support and monitor their clients better. But I now have other goals around
balancing my fitness and friendships. Ive formed a team of friends to do a fun run next month.

Within 10 years I will own my own home and be investing. My short-term goal is to get a
part-time job in an office so I can learn about business in real life not just at university.
 Ive joined a university environmental activist group and Im applying to participate in a
research project over summer that will involve field work study of an ecosystem that has been
affected by oil spills.

Within the next five years Ill be able to speak the language of my ancestors, so I can tell
stories in both English and language.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

What have you discovered?

Phew. Lets pause for a minute and reflect on what this all means.

By now youve hopefully got some new perspectives on what matters most to you and the areas
you want to focus on for the future.

You can add this information to what you may already have been weighing up for some time
what you are interested in and what you are best at. Our interests and skills are usually the focus
of any discussion about our career direction, whereas this activity has asked you to focus on
areas you may not have considered previously. Well explore interests further in the next activity
when we look at pathways between study and work.

Think about it

Step back and take a look at your review of you now that youve done some further
investigation.

Do your values align with the career options youre considering?

Have you got the support you need to manage your energy sustainably through your university
studies? What might be challenges in the early years of the careers youre considering? What
will you need to manage those?

How can you use your strengths to help you to build your career?

What do your values, strengths, life roles and goals suggest about your expectations, needs or
requirements of any career decision you might make?

Feeling uncertain about the goals youve set? Setting and trying to work towards goals, even if
we dont achieve them, is one of the best ways to learn and continue to build our self-awareness.
In the final step of Week 1 for this course youll have the opportunity to explore some of the
science behind learning and how our brain changes as we learn and how even if we fail we
have still learned!
Talk about it

Share one of your most significant insights with us and read what others have found.

I was really lost after I finished school and didnt feel confident about any of the choices I
had on my uni application form. Completing the self-awareness activity helped me clarify my
personal goals and what really matters to me about work.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

The benefits of failing

Its natural to fear failing, and yet successful people have often failed and achieve more greatly
for it.

Starting university study is exciting and scary at the same time. This feeling of uncertainty can
come from a niggling concern inside many of us when we try something new, What if I fail?
We finish this week by exploring the possibility that failure is not to be feared. This knowledge
may help you when planning and revising your goals and career directions over your lifetime.

History shows that most successful people, in business, in science, in creative pursuits, in work,
are those who can leap in, try new things, experiment, and when things dont go so well, adjust
and fail forward (learn from what went wrong). Failure is, after all, a fundamental part of
learning.

These famous people are just a few who acknowledged they failed in order to succeed:

Richard Branson, of the Virgin empire fame

Walt Disney, animator and film producer

Albert Einstein, famous theoretical physicist.

Think about it

How do you think about failure? Many of us instinctively fear it and believe its something to be
avoided at all costs. Do you hide your failures away from others, and perhaps even yourself?

Sometimes we can wait too long Rachels story above shows that she may not have paid
attention to earlier failures that were adding up. This meant she had a much bigger failure to deal
with later on. While the concern about the consequences of failing grades in a course of study is
real, often learning from the earlier, smaller failures, paying attention to the feedback we get and
talking about or trying alternative strategies can help us to avoid these later consequences.
Fact: Failure is to be celebrated

Imagine a world where we celebrate our failures as opportunities from which to learn and grow.
The Resilience Project at Stanford University encourages us to do just that. The project focuses
on helping people to celebrate setbacks and failures as a normal part of learning and provides a
space for people across the university to share their greatest failures as a way of showing that
even those we most admire have tried and failed.

Train your brain

Did you know that when we fail, learn from feedback, try new strategies and persist at
challenges, the brain actually grows new neural pathways? Learning new things, or thinking
about things in new ways, can sometimes be frustrating and difficult just like working your
muscles at the gym but the hard work pays off.

So, whether its a new job or a new course, or a move to a new town (and starting university can
represent all of these for some people), its helpful for us to plan for, and connect with, our
ability to be bold, experiment and learn continuously.

Tip

Most universities have a large number of resources available for students. One way to kick-start
your university experience, and get the most from it, is to surf the website of your intended
university and look for the Student Support or Student Wellbeing teams. Sometimes theyre
called student advisors. These departments or groups offer support to students covering
everything from help with finding accommodation, all the way through to getting enrolled,
finding friends and planning your first orientation day. Make a note for yourself of the people
available at your university and what their service offers. Then if, or when, you hit a stumbling
block, you already know who to go to, to learn new strategies.

Congratulations. Youve reached the end of Week 1 and our activity on self-awareness. Take a
look at your To do list to see all of the steps and make sure youve marked them as completed.
Week 2 is ready and waiting. Why stop now?

Getting a scene to look the way I want it to on screen takes hours of filming. Im learning to
let go of frustration when it doesnt work, so I can figure out what needs to improve. Failure is
just the first take.

QUT 2017 unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J