Module 6 - Design your Journey
Module 6 is possible after you’ve identified a potential destination in Module 5. The journey map will allow you to implement the Whole YOU. Every decision you make in pursuit of the destination now has a purpose. Click on each section below to jump down the page. What will be covered:
Complete the downloadable activity sheets available and use these as your journal throughout the Designing You modules. You can choose to download all activity sheets with the button below or choose to download them individually under each section.
Value in this Module:
Understand the five building blocks required to deliver on your mission.
Explore and be inspired by 150 different mission maps.
Complete your 10-year mission map.
Your 5-year mission is aspirational and ambitious. It’s a little scary, but it’s supposed to be. The ambitiousness in your 5-year mission highlights gaps between the you of today and you in five years. If your mission is the destination, then the gap is the journey—it is the actions required to reach your destination.
The journey map to get you from here to there involves a series of complex and interdependent activities. In this section, you’ll develop a mission map as the first step in exploring your mission.
What are the big five building blocks of a mission map?
To create your mission map, you’ll first need to understand the big five building blocks essential to Designing YOU:
Education & learning
Employment experiences
Volunteer experiences
Contextual experiences
Relationships
Click the button below to explore the five building blocks of a mission map.
The mix of building blocks will vary based on your mission. When you reflect on your prevision research and interviews you will probably see important trends associated with different building blocks. To help you, refer to the Designing YOU Career Guides or mission map gallery. These provide the required competencies for almost 150 career paths. Each map is a summary based on interviews and surveys of real people and their real experiences. Each sample mission map is composed of the following sections:
Job Title & Sector: Pay attention to the sector or industry.
Job Description: What this hypothetical person does in their role.
Salary Range: What this position earns in Canada in 2017 dollars.
Priority Competencies: The competencies required to be an “expert at,” “great at,” and “good” at in year 10 in this position.
The Tip: Something so important about this person’s role they had to tell you about it.
Building Blocks: This section is broken down by the five building blocks and examines how each contributed to this professional’s competency development.
Remember, there is never just one single map to get from here to there. Consider the sample mission maps more of a compass than a map. They won’t tell you exactly how to get from here to there, but they’ll point you in the right direction, tell you where to start and offer example attractions along the route.
Below is a sample mission map for a creative director at a marketing agency.
Activity 6.1
Understanding Your Gaps
The next step in developing your mission map is a gap analysis so we can plot your journey. Complete the mission map table below, which considers four questions:
What are the specific priority competencies (both job-specific and enabling) required to achieve your 5-year mission?
What is your evidence these priorities are important (e.g., interviews, research)?
What is the required level you’ll need to achieve in 10 years?
What is your best guess of your level today?
The third and fourth columns represent your professional gap. There should be A LOT of gaps. Your mission map will allow you to close these gaps over time.
Activity 6.2
Consolidating Your Mission Map
This is it. Now that you’ve been inspired by the sample mission maps, it’s time for you to connect the dots and put it all together in a concise and actionable plan. To develop your mission map, refer to the building blocks above. In the sample below, data analytics was identified as a gap. To close this gap, we identified four possible building block activities. Executing these activities is your mission.
You might find it useful to create a checklist based on the activities you’ve identified as key to your mission. Create your mission map checklist to be accomplished during a four-year university program.
Linking to the Building Blocks
Mission Map Finale
You’ve put in the work and now it’s time to write down your mission map in your journal. Follow the template below. This information includes the concise 5-year mission statement from earlier and the building block activities from Table 2 above.
What is your final 5-year mission statement?
What are the priority building blocks you’ll need to achieve your mission?
Activity 6.3
Develop Your Mission Map
Now map out your priority building blocks from Activity 6.2 that you’ll need to achieve your mission. In the near-term (year 1) these should be more refined. For example, these may include specific courses or volunteer opportunities you’d like to pursue. In the longer-term your building blocks will be more aspirational.
Adapt and Change
During our interviews with working professionals for this series, we’d ask a common question: “What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?” The most common answers were to be proactive and develop a plan but also embrace opportunities when they come. In other words, always be prepared to adapt and change as you grow and learn.
This principle of evolution is essential. Your 5-year mission in your 20s will look very different from the 5-year mission in high school. Regardless of where you are on your 5-year mission map, don’t sit back. Life inevitably will throw you a curveball. You’ll find new competencies, new interests, opportunities, and relationships. But that’s why this journey is so important and fun.
Adapting, learning, and growing are your only options. At certain times in your life, your mission maybe most important, and at other times it may be your relationships, your health & wellness, or your spirituality. How and where they each fit in depends on how you define success at any moment in time. Stepping back and reflecting on everything else important in your life gives you a solid foundation to make those big (and small) decisions in life.
Recall, you considered several “what if” scenarios before arriving at your 5-year mission. That same exercise is practical throughout your life. When you’re faced with a change in life, use it as a reason to wonder “what if?” and revisit your 5-year mission. If you have a job opportunity on the other side of the world, consider what your 5-year mission might be if you went for it. If you lose your job in a recession, consider “what if” scenarios around going back to school, or starting your own business, or taking time off with the kids. “What if” is your best tool against sticking to a path simply because you’re already on it.
