Set a goal so big that you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can.

― Zig Ziglar

Welcome to the fourth and final part of this positive psychology challenge!

This focus for this part is on putting what you have been learning and doing into a plan for a better future. From the start, this challenge has been about using positive psychology to increase your happiness and well-being and make the most of your life.

The first part was basic training to help you identify what would make you most happy, learn about the ways that psychology can help you achieve it, and build a foundation in mindfulness, resilience, and the wisdom and creativity you need to find your way.

The second part focused on discovering the best in yourself, identifying your strengths, and learning about what would enable you to use them to achieve your goals. This included learning about authenticity, perseverance, courage, self-efficacy, and self-control.

The third part of the challenge enabled you to improve your relationships and have a positive impact on the larger community and world around you by learning about social intelligence, kindness, love, the value of community, fairness, and forgiveness.

The activities and videos reflected this progression with the primary exercises focused on seeing more of the good around you in the first part, using more of the best within yourself in the second, and improving your relationships with others and the world around you during the third.

The primary exercises for this last part will involve creating a vision of the best possible life for yourself in the future and creating a plan for using what you have been learning and doing in this challenge to make it happen.

In addition to this first lesson that will get your started in this process, the lessons for this last part focus on the VIA strengths in the category of transcendence. These strengths enable us to transcend or go beyond our previous way of life and make the most of our life and live it to the fullest.

Here are the strengths we will cover to help you do this:

1. Optimism and Hope – the strengths that may help you the most in bringing about a better future.
2. Humour – the strength that can enable you to smile or laugh in almost any situation or circumstance along the way.
3. Appreciation and Gratitude – strengths that can make so much of our lives precious regardless of whatever challenges or stress we are experiencing.
4. Meaning and Purpose – strengths that enable us to focus on what is most important and may do the most to make our lives worth living.

The final chapter will be a review and celebration of everything that you have learned and done as a part of this challenge.

I’ll now turn to the main focus of the lesson for this chapter: the creative process that will help you design a pathway to a better future. This process is called the PATH process. PATH is an acronym that stands for Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope – and it is a planning process developed by Jack Pearpoint, John O’Brien, and Marsha Forrest. The PATH process provides a series of steps that we can take to make positive change happen.

There are eight steps in the PATH process and there will be a task for the first four chapters of this final part that will involve completing part of this process. You will do two of the eight steps in each of the first four chapters. In this chapter, I’ll give you an introduction to the process and briefly walk you through the eight steps. To provide additional information about the PATH process, we have included a special section as an Appendix titled “Guidelines for the PATH Process” which also has links for videos that will also help you understand the process.

So here we go:

First, the PATH process uses a graphic approach that will help you visualize the steps it will take to achieve the kind of future that you want most. The process involves creating a map of these steps on a large sheet or sheets of poster board and writing down what will help you reach your goals. Thus, the first thing we will ask you to do is to get two pieces of white poster board that are each A3 size that you can tape together to create one continuous poster board to provide an A2 poster. If you don’t have enough space, you can tape the two sheets of poster board together, so they fold in half for easier storage. You will also need to get a set of medium point-coloured Kokis or other coloured writing utensils you can use to write on the poster board or paper.

It is also possible to create a visual representation of your PATH on paper that rolls up or use computer software such as PowerPoint. Most people prefer to do it on a large poster board because they can put it up where they can see it and it is stronger and will last longer than paper that is much thinner. Some people have also talked about how they were glad they didn’t use computer software because they like to be able to touch it and use their hands to do the writing and any drawing that may be involved. You do not have to be an artist or good at drawing to do this. I have seen some great PATH posters with minimal drawing and mostly words or lines using different colours.

After you have these materials, you will be ready to begin the first of the eight steps of the PATH process.

The first step is called Touching the Dream and involves envisioning a “north star” that represents what you want most in life and what would be your “best possible life.” This “north star” will orient and guide you during the rest of the process and be the starting point for breaking your dream down into achievable goals. This is probably the step where drawing something or having a simple visual image, symbol, or picture may be most useful. Sometimes being able to visualize something you want in the future might enable you to discover things that may be harder to find or articulate using words alone. For example, if you want to be successful in a sport, you might draw or use a picture of a medal or a trophy. If you are retired and would like to spend more time with your grandchildren, you could use a picture of them or draw something that represents what they love to do.

The second step is called Sensing the Goal and involves identifying “positive and possible” goals for the future and a timeframe for reaching these goals. If you had a dream of increasing meaning in your life by helping troubled adolescents, for example, this step might involve setting the more specific goal of taking a class about how to help adolescents. This is also where something like a gold medal representing your dream might get translated into a more specific goal you can work towards like placing at a specific tournament or competition. For the dream of spending time with your grandchildren, you could write down a goal of moving closer to them, giving them special gifts, or taking them on a trip that you might both really enjoy.

While the first two steps are focused on the best possible future, the third step is called Ground in the Now and involves identifying where you are now in relation to reaching your goals. This may draw on what you learned about how mindfulness can enable us to change by first accepting where we are.

The fourth step is called Invite Enrolment and involves identifying and inviting people who are in a good position to support and help you reach your goals. The PATH process calls this group of people your “dream team” and this step will draw on what you learned in the last part of this challenge about improving your relationships with others.

The fifth step is called Building Strength and involves recognizing ways to build strengths and acquire new skills and talents. This step will draw directly on much of what you learned about identifying and using strengths in the second part of this challenge.

The final three steps involve making a plan to bridge the gap between now and achieving the vision you showed and described in the first two steps. The goals identified in these steps should follow the SMART acronym in that they are: (1) Specific, (2) Measurable, (3) Achievable, (4) Relevant, and (5) Time-bound.

The sixth step is to Identify Bold Steps for achieving your longer-term goals in the next several months, the seventh step is Organizing the Month’s Work by being specific about what you will do in the next month, and the eighth step is Committing to the First Step which means doing one thing now to get you started.

Because the PATH process can be a lot to take in when moving relatively quickly through the eight steps like I am doing, I highly recommend also reading the Guidelines for the PATH Process in the Appendix. Most important, there are links to three videos include with the guidelines and under the last task for this chapter. These videos may be the best way for you to see what a PATH poster can look like and what you may want to aim for.

Workbook Tasks for the Chapter

The tasks include getting started with the PATH process and created a vision of your best possible life in the future.

First, there is a special video about the reaction of a little girl to getting what it is that she wants more than anything else. This is shown as an example of the joy and gratitude that it possible for us to experience when we achieve goals that mean the most to us.

Second, to enable you to get started thinking more about your future, there is an activity that was developed in positive psychology which has been shown to increase optimism, hope, happiness, and the likelihood of reaching your goals. This activity involves writing about what you may imagine as your best possible life. To do this, you will be asked to think about your life in the future and imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could. You will be asked to answer questions about where you might be living, what work you might be doing, who you might be with, and how you might be giving back to others.

Third, as noted above, you will need to find or purchase the material you will need for your PATH poster you will be working on for the first four chapters of this final part of the challenge. What generally works best is to get two pieces of white poster board that are A3 that you can tape together on the back to create one continuous poster board that is approximately A2 size. In addition, it may be best to have or get a set of medium point coloured Kokis or other coloured writing utensils that you can use to write on the poster board.

Fourth, the final task involves completing the first two steps of the PATH process that are called Touching the Dream and Sensing the Goal. These steps are described in the lesson above and in the Guidelines for the PATH Process in the Appendix.

Fifth, there are reflection questions about the people you might like to invite to be a part of your “dream team” to support you in the PATH process and which of your goals for the future may be most important.