Have the students close their eyes and envision their lives when they are 50 years old. Ask them to visualize answers to questions like this: When I'm 50 years old, what does my life look like? What type of job do I have? What is my home like? Have students visualize their futures for five minutes.
Have students write about what they saw during the visualization activity. You can conduct this as a 5- to 10-minute free write. Alternatively, you could have students draw scenes from their lives.
Invite students to share their visions with the class. Be sure not to criticize or offer suggestions concerning their dreams for the future at this point.
Point out that in order to get from where they are currently to that future point, they must make decisions that help them get to that place. This is what Stephen Covey calls "Beginning with the end in mind." By knowing where we want to go, we can then determine the best course of action to get there.
Have students list the various roles they play. For example, a student might write down that she is a student, a friend, a daughter, a sister, and so forth. These roles should be based upon how things currently are.
Have students list roles they would like to one day play. Perhaps a student might wish to be a lawyer or an activist. These roles should be based upon the visions the students wrote about in the previous activity.
For each of the roles the individual students have recorded, have the student write between one and three goals that he would like to achieve in that role. For goals based upon future roles, you can ask students what they believe they will need in order to hold that role.
Have students look at their goals and remind them that good goals are SMART. "SMART" is an acronym meaning specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic, and time-bound. For example, if a student would like to participate in more activities with his sister, then the goal might look like this: "I would like to spend at least one day a month playing board games with my older sister before she leaves for college."
Have the students go through their goals. Each student should pick between three to seven goals to focus on for the next year.
Have each student choose one goal he would like to turn into a series of actions. What steps will need to be taken in order to meet that goal? Students should work from the action closest to the achievement of the goal to the action that is closest to where they are now.
Does an action or step require more breaking down in order to become more manageable? For instance, in a goal like "Get an A in my English class this semester," there may be projects associated with the goal. If there is a research project involved, this will need to be further broken down into the steps for that project.
Have students schedule all broken down goal actions. When will you read that book? When will you talk to your sister about playing board games? When will you go to the library to research? By scheduling actions that will lead to the achievement of goals, students will be most likely to succeed in making their dreams come to life.