Karla Shibell Yépez Defaz What is a Life Project for adolescents and young people? How to realize our life project? Is it important to have a life project in adolescence and youth?
What is a Life Project?
It is very beneficial that young people begin to draw a life project based on their goals and life expectations.
A personal life project is a tool that consists of writing down a person’s plans for the future. It raises and lists a set of possibilities and alternatives that the individual can take around their possibilities for their personal growth and welfare.
Characteristics of a Life Project for adolescents and young people
- It reflects the characteristics of the person: his or her desires, expectations and personal objectives.
- It allows to analyze and integrate the past, present and future.
- It generates a space for personal encounter and dialogue considering the social aspect.
- It considers personal virtues and gifts, as well as the possibilities of the environment.
- It outlines a path to follow according to the goals set.
In summary, we can say that the Life Project is a technique that allows adolescents to prepare themselves for adult life. In which, they should detail their short, medium and long term goals considering their strengths, weaknesses, experiences and opportunities of the environment.
The Life Project as a tool for personal development
The fact of sitting down to think and write your own project has a great value as a clarifying instrument for the individual.
Writing your Life Project is a way of self-knowledge.
Therefore, the Life Project can be considered a personal development tool, since it is based on self-knowledge, realistic expectations of the future and correct decision making.
Steps to design a Life Project for adolescents and young people
Rogelio Núñez in chapter 18 “A project for living life” of the Practical Handbook for Parents (Bertelsmann Foundation), establishes 10 basic steps to design a life project for adolescents and young people. These are detailed below:
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Learn to know yourself honestly and realistically.
It is important to distinguish between the image perceived by others, the ideal image and the real self. In addition, it is advisable to accept your limitations, but without losing the intention to improve and grow.
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Listen to life.
Attend and accept the situations lived, feel fully the feelings and emotions, connect with other people, people with whom you meet. In other words, it is not possible to live outside of daily life.
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Know how to choose, to make decisions.
It is necessary to consider that life is like a tree with multiple ramifications, which forces us to choose some paths and to renounce others.
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Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
The one who always loses is the one who does not decide or lets others decide for him. Therefore, it is necessary to be brave to accept mistakes and wise to learn from them.
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Be responsible for the consequences of your decisions
On many occasions the results are not exactly what we expected. It is then when you may feel pain and conflict with yourself and with others.
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Compromising your freedom.
To be free means to have the capacity to choose, to opt, to compromise, to give space, to give our time, to spend our life. Although, one must take the sense of freedom with responsibility.
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Be flexible and creative.
Because life takes many turns that are beyond our control. That is to say, a change of plans means changing course or even starting over.
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Share common projects.
Life projects do not have to be exclusively individual. Thus, many life projects or paths can be shared.
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Seek coherence between all the dimensions of your life.
Be consistent and coherent between personal and family life, according to your future plans, professional performance and social commitment.
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To live centered and unified.
It is necessary to keep in tune with what one thinks, says, does or feels. That is, being authentic, versatile and resilient in the face of life’s adversities.
In conclusion
Certainly, it is very beneficial for adolescents and young people, not only to be able to know themselves and self-regulate emotionally, but it is important that they begin to draw a purpose in life based on their attitudes, skills and competencies in harmony with their goals and life expectations. But, above all, they should set realistic short and medium term objectives that can guide their decision making.
Recommendations for you to create your Life Project
💡If you are interested in designing your Life Project, I recommend a technological tool for vocational guidance and two practical readings, which may be useful for you:
- MyWayPass is a free-to-use platform for schools, teachers, young people and families.
- Research: Life project for Adolescents, a concept analysis
How can creative therapies help to create a good life project?
A creative accompaniment is very indicated in these cases. Creative therapies will help the adolescent to:
- Get to know him/herself better.
- Develop their own creativity and thinking.
- Be less dependent on the opinion of others.
- Learn to think in the long term and set goals according to their real needs rather than their momentary desires.
- Recognize your emotions and use them for your own good.
- Letting go of emotions that can sometimes be overwhelming at this age.
With this and other benefits of creative therapies in the well-being of the adolescent, creating a life project to increase their personal well-being and focus their energies will be much easier.
Would you like to make an appointment to discuss your life project and see how we can help you build it?
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