In my twenties I owned a business helping entrepreneurs launch their websites. Weirdly, the majority of this time was spent helping write their bios—often the shortest and most to-the-point content exercise in the gamut of website content.  And I can still remember getting to the portion of the bio that listed people’s achievements and feeling overwhelmed by how much they’d accomplished in their careers. While I was admittedly just starting out, I couldn’t help but feel bowled over by how much they’d been able to cram into their lives especially since many of them had careers, kids, marriages and commitments outside of work to juggle as well.

In time, however, I came to find out that my clients had come across these opportunities and experiences somewhat haphazardly—out of convenience, being in the seemingly right place at the right time, or wanting to get a step up but not really understanding what they were stepping into or how it fit into their life. They’d been asked or invited and it felt like an honor so they went with it, regardless of whether it fit into their grand overall plan.

Maybe this explained their discomfort putting the information out there. Maybe it explained why I—a website designer at the time—was spending most of my time working on their bios and finding ways to iron out the wrinkles and make sense of things that didn’t entirely fit. 

It occurred to me, while on draft 18 of a 500 word bio, to wonder… what will my bio look like five years from now? And so I began to ask myself the following questions… some of which spun into “outside business interests” but seemed pertinent to the unfolding of my future nonetheless.

• What will my job be?
• Where will I live? 
• How will I spend my free time? 
• What vacations will I plan?
• What organizations will I belong to and in what capacity?
• What causes will I feel most passionate about? 
• What will I talk to my kids about and what will I want them to take from me as a role model?
• What will I read professionally and personally?

The list grows as the years pass, and while I won’t bore you with the details of my answers, I’ll tell you some of the benefits I’ve experienced from going through this exercise, which I do annually now as part of closing out my year and starting a new one. 

1. It got me out of my comfort zone: Five years provides enough of a buffer to feel like I’m writing about someone else’s life so . In the same way that fiction helps us confront difficult issues, it’s also the best place to play in the sandbox of your life because sometimes it’s easier to confront the realities and messages of life in a fictional world. 
2. I can be very specific: Bios are pretty concrete narratives. In the professional realm (and even the creative realm) there are the somewhat predictable categories of certificates, boards, organizations, recognitions, awards, nominations, etc. that got be googling paths to organizations and. And any accomplished person will tell you that having concrete goals is important when it comes to achieving your dreams. This exercise forced me to get more specific about the steps towards my goals, why I had to achieve them, and what organizations could serve that purpose, while also supporting my values and beliefs. The internet (and now Chat GPT) is my best friend in discovering where I might end up.
3. I track my sense of accomplishment to my goals differently: While I haven’t actually been involved with most of the organizations written about in my fictitious blogs, I have followed many online to stay informed on their updates and collaborations and it’s informed a lot of the choices I’ve made in my life, especially with regard to the content I read and where I get my information. 

It’s a given that at twenty(ish) these questions looked very different than they do now at forty(ish), and in some cases the answers are less clear, and what’s clear and not clear changes. Sometimes the answers scream at me, other times the only thing that comes to mind when I consider them are my children screaming “mommy, mommy, mommy, I need you I need you!” That’s just where I am in life (and loving it!) but regardless asking myself these questions and writing down the words mind is always revelatory for me—even if I never put them into action.