Two of the best ideas from my last show in January were connecting the dots, and turning points.
Reading your life backwards, you can begin to connect the “dots.” Dots are the events that shape who we become. For example; mentors, education, travel, etc. Most of us also have major “turning points” when we move in new directions. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.
In my show, I described two of my most important turning points: moving from psychology to business; and leaving corporate to start my own company, PowerSpeaking, Inc.
Look back over your life at the key events and the important people (dots) that have shaped who you have become (think, therapists, mentors, drugs, the Army, education, that crazy uncle, children, marriages, divorces, etc.). Then consider how all of this influenced your major turning points.
Here is a timeline chart I developed to help clarify all this,
Draw a line from your birth to the present. Add the people and the experiences that influenced you along the way, and your major turning points. You will see a map of your life.
As William Faulkner said, “The past is always with us. In fact, it is not even past.”