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Personal Futures Network Exploring YOUR future
  
Welcome to the Personal Futures Network!

Methods for learning about the future have been available and in use by businesses for decades, but the process has simply been too complex for most individuals. The Personal Futures Network introduces some new, easily understood approaches that will help you to think like a futurist and learn about your personal futures.

Think like a futurist? What does that really mean, think like a futurist? Well, each futurist may have some different thoughts, but generally futurists think about longer term futures, usually 10 or more years ahead. Futurists believe that the future is not predetermined, but that several futures are possible. If several futures are possible, then one of those futures may be better than the others, or a "preferred" future. Very important; futurists believe that individuals or groups can take actions in the present that will help determine the future.

That brief paragraph helps explain why most futurists don't make predictions about the future, but rather suggest multiple possible futures, often in the form of "scenarios" or stories about the future.

The next page, Personal Futures offers a brief outline showing how to use futures methods to explore and prepare for YOUR future in three steps:

  1. Understand your life
  2. Explore plausible futures (personal scenarios)
  3. Plan to achieve the future you want (personal strategic planning)

NEW and FREE- The newest version of the Personal Futures Workbook is now available as a free download. Visit the "Downloads" page.  The free download makes it available to everyone everywhere at the same price. This version is in PDF and you can fill in and save the workbook and your information on your computer.

You are encouraged to share copies with friends or offer the workbook as a free download on your own website. If you want to translate the workbook to any other language, let me know and I'll work with you on the formatting.

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Pages on this web site

  • The PERSONAL FUTURES page describes the overall process of exploring your own future, including the three key steps: Personal Research, Creating Personal Scenarios and Developing a Strategic Plan that will lead you to the future you have chosen.
  • The LIFE STAGES page is the first step in understanding the rest of your life and the lives of your family members. Here you will develop images of your future.
  • The YOUR DOMAINS page describes and explains the six primary driving forces in your life. Here you will learn how each of these forces will affect your future.
  • The FUTURE EVENTS page discusses events that will probably occur in your life that can, in many cases be anticipated. This section helps you to understand the different kinds of life events and which events you should prepare for.
  • The FOUR SCENARIOS page will show you how to create scenarios and stories about your futures. With the information from your personal framework you will construct four scenarios that describe your plausible (including one about wild cards) futures.
  • The STRATEGIC PLAN page is where you will create a vision of your future, then develop plans and strategies to achieve that future. Then you will create contingency plans, just in case a wild card pops up
  • ABOUT THIS SITE explains the who, how and why relating to the creation and future of this site
  • THE DOWNLOADS PAGE offers  the most recent version of the Personal Futures workbook as well as an  Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded to your computer. These downloads are free.

Personal Learning

 Personal Futures offers three types of learning:

Learn about your own future

Learn to think long term

Learn to use futures methods

These three types of learning are important not only in your personal life, but also in your career. Explore this site, and see what you think.

Personal Futures Activities

I've been invited to speak before a large event November 21st, the Futurist's Summit 2008 in Istanbul. Details are available in English and Turkish at www.futuristlerzirvesi.com.

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In July, Jim Mathews and I were to give a presentation "Your Family: Stakeholders in your future at the World Future Society conference in Washington DC. Thanks to Hurricane Dolly, I didn't make it, so Jim gave the whole presentation.  Among other things, he introduced an improved version of the Family Worksheet, which is now available on the Downloads page.

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In May, I spoke to a group here in Harlingen, Texas, the members of Creative Retirement. Mostly over age sixty. Many of these people were involved in my original research into personal futures. Age is clearly not a barrier to personal futuring.

In addition to going through the Personal Futures Workbook, we discussed Strauss and Howe's books, primarily Generations and Millennials Rising. We also took a look at futures wheels and how to use them in personal futures.

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In April I  conducted a workshop for a group of students at the University of Texas College of Engineering.  The workshop  included a general overview of Foresight and Futures Studies followed by an exploration of futures methods using the Personal Futures Workbook. Most of the studens had downloaded the Personal Futures Workbook into their computers, so typed in data as we went through the workshop. Very enthusiastic group.

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February 12, I was in Austin, TX to speak to the IEEE Central Texas Management Council. Very good reception. We tried something new, an interactive PDF copy of the Personal Futures Workbook had been posted on the group's web site. They could bring their notebooks or a printed copy to the meeting, or not. I received more and better questions than usual!

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March 13 was at the University of Houston with Dr. Peter Bishop and his students in their final semester Studies of the Future. This is the same class (Proseminar) where I became interested in Personal Futures several years ago. This class is using the interactive Personal Futures Workbook as a text.  

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 I keep getting comments about this article! It has been a while, but these two articles may be still be helpful. The May-June 2006 issue of THE FUTURIST includes an article by Verne Wheelwright "PERSONAL FUTURING: A Step-by-Step Guide" (page 22) which explains the application of the methods described on this web site. There is also a follow-up article by Anne Rigby (page 30) describing her experiences when she "tested" the system. Her story could be summed up by her comment, "I'm here to say this method works."  Copies of both articles are now available at Amazon.com.

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A new web site about personal futures is offering workshops in Istanbul. The site, www.m-gen.biz, is in Turkish, and was created by Mrs. Ufuk Tarhan. Mrs. Tarhan has translated the Personal Futures Workbook into Turkish and is now offering workshops for high school and college students. Mrs Tarhan and M-Gen were recently featured in an Istanbul magazine.

 

 
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