Activities 1 and 2 will help you to develop an overview of your life so far, and to consider how your early history contributed to it.
Allow about 20 minutes
In this activity you’re going to use the template for this activity in the resource pack to draw a ‘lifeline’. This lifeline can help you to:
Using Figure 1 as a guide, note down key life events such as education, work, interests, marriage, children and so on, to show the high and low points at different times of your life.
For some people, the lifeline exercise can result in a lot of emotions coming to the surface as you review your experiences. You may find it useful to talk through any difficult feelings that arise with someone you trust.
When you’ve drawn a lifeline that reflects your key experiences, think about the feelings aroused by each experience and then answer these questions, noting down any thoughts or ideas that occur to you:
For example, this activity revealed to one person that all her high points were associated with praise from others and her low points with geographical moves. Another noted that all his positive job changes followed disappointments in his private life, and he saw that each disappointment motivated him towards a change and offered opportunities. A third recognised someone else as consistently acting as a mentor.
Would someone who knows you well have drawn your lifeline differently? It might be an interesting exercise to ask at least one other person to draw your lifeline to compare their view with yours.
Allow about 20 minutes
This activity seeks to spark some more detailed memories from your childhood and teenage years. Make notes in response to the prompts given below. The activity may make you want to amend or add to your lifeline, as you consider your experiences in more depth.
Now spend some time considering what your notes say about you – what you’re like, and why, and how you arrived at where you are today. You may see themes appearing, such as strong aspects of your personality or particular talents and interests. Maybe you had various abilities but developed one rather than another – sporting ability rather than artistic talent, perhaps. Looking back, could you have made different choices? Make a note of any insights you’ve gained.
You've now completed Section 1 - well done! We hope that you have found your study useful and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each block you will be able to download a badge as evidence of your learning. If you collect the full set of badges, you can download a statement of participation that recognises your completion of the whole course.
OpenLearn - How did I get here? Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.