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Natural inclinations are generally related to things that we naturally gravitate towards as a child, before we our parents and society ‘tells us’ what is right or wrong, and what we ‘should’ be doing. Inspired from the book ‘Mastery’ from Robert Greene, the author discussed the concept of natural inclinations. He argues that each person is born with specific interests and natural skills that they can excel in if they develop them with time. These can be discovered at different times in one’s life. It is therefore important to cover this aspect as soon as possible and attempt to highlight people’s natural inclinations so they and the world around them can benefit from these. Robert Green explains that understanding and leveraging one’s natural inclinations is the first step towards mastery. This is mainly because, if you are naturally drawn towards something and you enjoy doing that more than anything else, you can sustain practice in this aspect and deepen you skill, and understanding of this specific thing, as to eventually become a master on that subject/art/sport/profession/activity.
For some people, this is ‘easier’ to discover than others. For instance, Green’s natural inclination is writing. For others it could be painting, playing music, making people laugh, cooking, doing a specific sport. These can also relate to activities or tasks that you gravitate towards as a child. Examples of this could be helping others, doing a specific sport or art, providing guidance, teaching, organizing things, making new friends, observing, learning about something specific, exploring, mediating, solving conflicts, leading, understanding how things work, etc. By combining such components, it can help you define more accurately what you love, and why.
State of ‘flow’ is also known as ‘being in the zone’. It’s a mental state where you feel fully immersed, feeling energized focus, involved, and enjoying the activity or task at hand. In this situation, you are in complete absorption with what you are doing. Time often feels like it ‘disappears’ when you are in this state (distortion of temporal experience). Such an activity usually feels intrinsically rewarding.
Listen to the inventor of the concept here: https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness
Peak experiences are situations in which you felt at your best, you might qualify them as some of the best moments in your life.
‘’Such peak experiences are often associated with self-actualization and an intense "flow" state. According to Abraham Maslow, a peak experience includes such states as " a sense of wonder, awe, reverence, humility, surrender, and even worship before the greatness of the experience", where reality is perceived with experiences of "truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness, aliveness, uniqueness, perfection, pure potential, completion, justice, simplicity, richness, effortlessness, playfulness, self-sufficiency". (Taken from: https://www.thebrightpath.com/en/peak-experiences/)
Imagine if your doctor tells you that you now have 3 months to live before sudden death:
Think about what would you keep on doing?
And what you would stop?
Are there similarities with what you found during the ‘What I Love’ workshop?
What is the aim of the exercise?
Discovering what we fundamentally, really love. This is part of the Ikigai and will be a useful component to explore in its completion.
In what context is this exercise useful?
By understanding better what we love, we can adapt our activities accordingly and find the sweet spot of the Ikigai.
Preparation time: 15 min, if only reading all content of workshop and preparing for it. Alternatively, about 90 minutes, as ideally, facilitator should do this exercise before workshop to provide examples.
Workshop time: 90 minutes
Ideal group size: Mostly individual exercises, size does not matter so much. Maybe keep it relatively small.
Contact of Workshop Developer: mathieu.shanks@gmail.com
Equipment and tools needed:
Papers
Pens
Thinking / focus music
Something to play music (e.g., speakers, laptop)
Activity & Format
Time
Instructions
Facilitation Notes
Check-In
5 min
Introduction of facilitators
Present agenda
If a small group, check-in on participants mood, expectations, or other.
Get people to ‘arrive’ in the space. This will be a highly introspective session and participants will need full presence. Ask them to get comfortable, turn off any distractions. Take 3 deep breaths.
Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and let everyone share and then hand the word over to someone else.
Introspective discovery of ‘what I love’ – Natural inclinations
30 min
Explain what are ‘natural inclinations’ with the description provided below
For this exercise, participants will need a pen and paper to write down what’s going through their mind.
They should think about themselves as a child between ages of 4-8 years old. Ask them to close their eyes. They should write their thoughts as they come.
Imagine your younger self. Where are you? It could be at home, outside, in the school yard...
What are you doing?
Go through the following, give about 5 minutes between asking the following question:
What were you naturally drawn to?
What did you enjoy doing most?
What did you like most about those things?
Were there things you liked to do that others didn't like to do as much?
What made you different?
While people are thinking and writing, I suggest playing some calm focus music.
Introspective discovery of ‘what I love’ – Flow state and peak experiences
25 min
Explain what the ‘state of flow’ is and ‘peak experiences’.
For this exercise, participants must think about a peak experience they have lived and situations where they experience a ‘state of flow’. Give about 2-3 minutes between each question to allow time for participants to think and write.
Ask them the following (peak experience):
Think back at what you could describe as one/the best moment in your life.
Why was this moment so good?
What did you do to get to that moment / that achievement?
What did you enjoy most of the process to get there and of the specific moment?
Ask them the following (flow state):
What do you like doing the most in your free time and at work/studies?
Think about a moment where you are ‘in the zone’ or in the ‘flow’.
What characterizes this situation?
What do you love the most about this situation?
While people are thinking and writing, I suggest playing some calm focus music.
Connecting the dots
15 min
Ask participants to take the following 15 minutes to look back at what they wrote.
Can they see patterns between the written information?
What are the main similarities and differences between their younger self, their peak experience, flow state and now?
Can they group the components of what they love in 5-10 main categories? (e.g., helping people, organizing things, communicating with people, performing a sport or an art, working on a specific task, etc.)
Give about 5 minutes for each question.
While people are thinking and writing, I suggest playing some calm focus music.
Sharing with a peer
10 min
Ask participants to group in pairs and discuss their findings.
What results did they get?
What patterns did they find?
What stands out the most?
Participants have about 5 minutes each to share with the other
Check-out
5 min
Debrief activity, ask them if they enjoyed it, gather quick feedback.
Provide logistical info about next planned workshop (if any)
Check-out suggestion if small group: Get each person to say how they feel in one word after this workshop
Thank people for joining. Invite people to retry this exercise at home and see if they get different results.
Listen to the inventor of the concept here: https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness
Meaningful is anything, that triggered you in one way or another. It may be an emotional event, or something that made you grow. I.e. graduation might be meaningful for some people, but totally irrelevant for others. Still, make sure that the lifeline is less of a Curriculum Vitae rather than a personal "story of your life".
Think about what part(s) of the lifeline you want to present during our session. You don’t have to talk about every event – you may simply leave some of them out, if you want. Maybe, you want to start with a short overview of the lifeline and then zoom into a special event?
I strugged to automatically convert the google doc as a webpage through github.Gdoc source : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LngHdDzXwhrOJ3LupNs9U36oOFu1MIrLzB2N5eqv06s/edit#heading=h.cc8bruvmmy5o
Please contact us at leap@oikos-international.org to share your feedback ! (copy-paste the URL of this page in this email so we know which page you're talking about)
What is the aim of the exercise?
This exercise aims to allow participants to take some time to review their own life and create a timeline for it. As they proceed through the exercise and share, participants reflect on the ‘most important’ events of their life and how these impacted their journey thereby connecting the dots.
In what context is this exercise useful?
This exercise can be useful to improve one’s understanding of how her/his life impacts the decisions made, it can help to understand behavioral patterns, improving understanding how things connect together and enhance storytelling abilities. Importantly, it can be highly beneficial to understand other’s, create a strong bonding situation, enhance collaboration and team performance.
Preparation time: +/- 1-1h30 hour (all)
Workshop time: 10 min + (20 min / participant)
Ideal group size: 3-6 people
Contact of Workshop Developer:
This workshop was developed by multiple LEAP advanced coaches and formatted in this template by Mathieu.
Equipment and tools needed:
Papers
Pens
Thinking / focus music
Something to play music (e.g., speakers, laptop)
Activity & Format
Time
Instructions
Facilitation Notes
*Can be done before workshop starts by all participants*
Lifelining: Introduction
20 min
Introduction: Steve Jobs speech https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die
Every person has story:
What is your story and how you connect the dots until now?
In this session we want to get insights on defining moments in your life.
We want to create understanding about where you come from and where you are now.
Steve Job says:
you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
Today will try to look backwards at our lives and experiences and try to connect the dots.
This exercise is a creative process for you to capture the key moments in your life. This self-reflection exercise can be useful to review your personal history and reflect upon where you have been and where you might be going. This Lifeline Exercise can help you capture significant events in your life and may enable you to create a more integrated view of your life journey.
Patterns may emerge that help you understand yourself better. The lifeline exercise is a tool for exploring who you are, what you’ve done and how you got to where you are today
*Can be done before workshop starts by all participants*
Lifelining: Who am I – Individual Reflection
60 min (or more)
Start by getting a sheet of paper and creating a list of key moments, events, accomplishments, obstacles, and celebrations that are important. As you detail your timeline, don’t hesitate to add other important events that come up (not everything listed needs to be lifechanging events).
Make a timeline that begins with birth and ends today. Note the events on your timeline with a brief description. You determine if the events get added to your sheet above the timeline, on the timeline or below the timeline depending on whether the event was happy, neutral, or challenging for you.
Every participant takes 45 minutes to write/represent their story. And about 15 minutes to reflect on the following questions:
Step back and look at the entire picture of your life.
Are there patterns that you observed as you review your lifeline?
What do you notice about your lifeline and the events that are significant for you?
What these events have in common?
How are they different?
What are the successes (above the line) and challenges (bellow the line)?
To be shared: This exercise is done individually, this means “done by yourself”
Reflection is not just thinking… it is head, heart, gut, and body.
Find your own spot and take your time.
Think back on defining moments of your life, moments of joy and fun, but also painful and emotional moments.
Write the highs and lows in your journal.
Make a graph of your life moments and connect the dots.
Horizontal line = time
Vertical line = happiness/fulfillment.
Start of workshop with participants
This is where the sharing among participants starts.
Check-In...
5 min
Introduction of facilitators
Present agenda
If a small group, check-in on participants mood, expectations, or other.
Get people to ‘arrive’ in the space. This will be a highly introspective session and participants will need full presence. Ask them to get comfortable, turn off any distractions. Take 3 deep breaths.
Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and let everyone share and then hand the word over to someone else.
Suggestion: in a few words, did you find the individual exercise easy, moderate, or difficult?
Lifelining: Who am I – Sharing/Personal Illustration
20 min
The facilitator shares its own story, create an atmosphere of trust.
Create the right atmosphere
Create an environment of trust
Lifelining: Who am I – Sharing Participants
20 min / participant
Each participants share their lifeline. Meanwhile others listen without interrupting.
Some ground rules:
Make it personal: speak from yourself and from the self (I think… I feel and etc.)
Share what you wish to share
Be present
Listen
Do not judge
Do not compare lifelines. Simply appreciate peers for sharing their stories.
No discussion (Questions only for clarification)
What’s being shared here stays here
Silence is part of sharing
Ideally do outside if possible.
Allow participants to share their lifeline when they are ready to share.
Tell participants that there is no right or wrong. That every life story is unique. Therefore, the are no good, better or bad lifelines. Only different people with different stories.
Check-out
5 min
Debrief activity, ask them if they enjoyed it, gather quick feedback.
Provide logistical info about next planned workshop (if any)
Check-out suggestion if small group: Get each person to say how they feel in one word after this workshop.
Thank people for joining. Invite people to retry this exercise at home and see if they get different results.
General facilitation note : This exercise can be done partially by participants alone at home, or all together. If the latter is selected, you will need a beamer, video player (e.g., laptop) and sound system to play the Steve Jobs intro video. The advantage of doing it at home is that it allows participants to take more time to reflect. Alternatively, maybe some won’t take as much time.
Steve Jobs speech https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die
What is the aim of the exercise? | The goal of this exercise is to gain awareness about your reason for being and the contribution you would like to make to the world. |
In what context is this exercise useful? | This exercise is tailored to individuals that wishes to be more conscious about his/her deeper self, aspirations and what is driving you in life. |
Preparation time: 15 minutes Online / Onsite: Both Workshop time: 1 hour Ideal group size: Can easily accommodate up to 50 people Contact of Workshop Developer: Leuridan Vladimir Leuridan.vladimi@gmail.com | Equipment and tools needed:
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Activity & Format | Time | Instructions | Facilitation Notes |
Check-in and Session Introduction | 10 min |
| Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and then hand the word over to someone else, allowing everyone to share. Nice start for hearing all the voices in the room. |
Topic introduction | 5 min |
| Check Simon Sinek and his Theory of the Golden Circle. Learn about Why Statements. |
Explaining the exercise instructions | 5min |
Suggestion 1 - I want to {your contribution} so that {impact statement} o Example: to empower and educate everyone so that they can improve their lives and achieve their goals. o To inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that, together, we can change our world.
Suggestion 2 - I am the {metaphor} so that people {impact statement} o Example: I am the magician/ lighthouse/ dynamite/ alarm clock that... o Example:I am the lighthouse that guides people to their dreams; I am the dynamite that transforms people’s lives. oThe metaphor can also be an action: I wake people up/ I explode the lies/ I uncover the inner truth/ I call people home
o Remind them they are only about to start this journey into their why statement, therefore they won’t necessarily find the exact wording in the given amount of time. o The idea is only to find something on which they can start working with for the next months, not a final statement. o The why statement should be as specific as to differentiate whether they are on purpose or not when making a decision – apply for a job, choose between different holidays etc. o A why statement can be flowery, grandiose, corny – they are only there to help! - It can be something that won’t necessarily be achieved in a lifetime! It should only give you the motivation and power to act in the next few years.
Ask if they have any doubts before starting their individual reflections. | Invite participants to take a space in the room where they feel comfortable.
Better to do the exercise in silence so they can understand what the facilitator is saying.
You can write the 2 suggestions in a board (if onsite) or in a slide/miro/chat (if online) for a better visualization while you explain. Make it beautiful!
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Individual reflection time | 20 min |
| Better to do the exercise in silence and have soft, instrumental and inspirational music playing in the background.
This step can last from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the facilitator. You can ask how the group is doing after some time and ask if they need more time. To me the longer the better as it is a very privileged moment to be with oneself and it generally takes a bit of time to get into the right mood.
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Break | 5 min |
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Group debrief/Plenary discussion | 10 min |
| Another option if the group is small or if you have time enough is to ask everyone to share their why statements in front of the group. This can be a powerful activity of ownership of your why. Make sure to share during the instructions that they will have to share with the group at the end. So they are prepared. |
Check-out | 5 min |
| You can provide a document or in your preferred way the opportunity for them to provide feedback from this session. |
Check beforehand Simon Sinek’s Theory of the Golden Circle.
In my view it is not necessary to take more than 5minutes to go around the theory nor to show the multitude of videos that explain the theory – check out Youtube – because videos available focus on the corporate aspect – vs the individual aspect - of the Why statement. It can of course be wise to watch them for yourself as some examples may be used to display during the session. Keep in mind it might be the 1st time participants think about their purpose in life and that it is already an advanced exercise. Prepare yourself beforehand by for example meditating and being ready to give all your love & empathy. Focus on the present moment, speak slowly and clearly, breathe a lot and smile. Also try to make it personal and explain how it helped you down the road! |
What is the aim of the exercise? | This exercise aims to generate a better understanding of what are moods and how to navigate them |
In what context is this exercise useful? | This exercise can be useful to learn how to change one’s mood. Ideally from a negative one to a positive mood. |
Activity & Format | Time | Instructions | Facilitation Notes |
Check-In | 5 min |
| Start with answering the check-in question. Write down their answers.
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Topic introduction and sharing | 20 min | Explain difference between emotions and moods.
Emotions are in constant flux, they tend to be lived right here, right now and not necessarily last a long time.
Moods are more medium to long-term. They tend to stick for many days in a row. It can sometimes be difficult to change your mood. Moods are more similar to a mindset.
Breakout group questions:
| Split participants in groups of 4 people. Give them 10 minutes to talk.
Then regroup all together for 5-10 minutes and discuss main takeaways from each group. |
Exercise: positivity | 10 min | Ask participants to take a sheet of paper and a pen.
Task 1: Ask participants to make a list of all the positive things that are happening or that they have in their lives. These should also include relatively basic and granular things, such as having abundance of food, eating something specific that they like, enjoying coffee or tea in the morning, having friends, family, being healthy, etc. They should focus on the positive things that are happening in your life.
Task 2: See the flip side of the coin. Ask participants to think about something that is not going well in their lives (can be something happening currently, or that happened recently).
| Allow 5 minutes for each task (list of positive things & flip side of coin)
Play some focus music while participants reflect individually. |
Group sharing | 10 min | Split participants in groups of 2.
During this sharing session, participants can share between each other about their individual reflection.
What are some of the positive things they wrote about?
What are some of the flip sides of the coin they wrote?
Do they have some in common? | As participants share their input, write down the key elements for group viewing (e.g., on a flipchart or blank slide). |
BREAK | 5 min |
Input: Shifting moods | 5 min | BELIEF - BODY - FEELING
As Dan Newby explains, each emotion and moods have a story/belief, a body representation, and a related feeling.
You want to train your body and stories to match. You can then connect the body position and the stories that are associated to them. Just thinking differently, is generally not enough.
Could also be, going for a walk, eating something, taking a bath. You want to address the body, and that could help to shift the emotion or mood. | Display the picture or reproduce it on a flipchart to visualize the content.
See picture attached (shifting emotions and moods). |
Group exercise: Shifting moods | 20 min | Let’s try out the input together.
Conceptualising the bad mood: Think about and imagine a moment when you were in a bad mood or represent your current bad mood if that’s applicable.
Conceptualizing the good mood: Think about and imagine a moment when you were in a good mood or represent your current good mood if that’s applicable.
| Allow 10 minutes for each mood conceptualization.
Invite participants to spread in the workshop space where they feel comfortable. If online, they can turn off their camera if easier for them.
Guide participants by providing instructions and questions gradually. Allowing time between each instruction for them to write and participate. Indicate them how much time they have for each part. |
Sharing debrief | 10 min | Ask participants to share about their experience relating to the mood conceptualization.
| Write down the key elements for group viewing (e.g., on a flipchart or blank slide). |
Check-out
| 5 min
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What is the aim of the exercise? | This exercise aims at providing a general overview of what is stress and how it can be managed. |
In what context is this exercise useful? | This exercise is useful to provide some basics on stress management. It includes practical tips and trick on how to reduce stress. |
Activity & Format | Time | Instructions | Facilitation Notes |
Check-In | 5 min |
| Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and let everyone share and then hand the word over to someone else.
Want to go fast with larger group? Enumerate each number gradually from 0 to 5. Ask participants to raise their hand for the stress level they feel right now. |
Input: Introduction to stress | 5 to 15 min | Check information sheet attached to this workshop for input.
Cover following:
| The way to present this information is up to the facilitator. It’s possible to create slides with the provided information or select some parts to highlight verbally to participants (may take more or less than 10-15 minutes depending).
Pro tip: get participants to throw in ideas to answer the topic (e.g., ask them what they think is stress? What they think are the signs, causes, etc.) |
Exercise & sharing: Think of a situation you felt very stressed | 10 min | How did you feel physically and emotionally?
What did you do to make yourself feel better? | Ask participants to group in pairs (or assign them in breakout rooms if virtual) and ask them to discuss the two questions (they get about 5 min each). |
Input: Stress management | 10 min | There is wide range of information about techniques, habits and so on to deal with stress. Find more resources at the bottom.
We will focus on 3 to make it digestible and applicable.
| Feel free to select a different input if you think other techniques listed in the attached resources seem better to you. |
Practice: 5 senses meditation | 5 min | Easy 5 min meditation: tap into your senses – an old meditative trick that you can use, anywhere anytime. By tuning into your senses; See, smell, touch, taste and hear, this will automatically slow down the brain. Spend at least one minute on each:
| Ask participants to get in a comfortable position. They can find a space away from others if they wish to do so. If online, they can turn off their camera if they prefer.
Guide the participants through this easy meditation. Use a stopwatch and allow one minute for each sense.
Slowly read through the components of each sense. |
Practice: grounding | 5 min | See the images about the coffee example. | Ask participants to get something to drink if possible. Otherwise to find an object or something they can observe and feel. |
Check-out
| 5 min
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There is the website startwithwhy.com that gives you some material. Personally I watched the video on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA&t=656s. Half the video is enough to remind you. |
To further one’s understanding of his or her values. This allows a better understanding of one’s self, thus facilitating alignment, life decisions and providing strong fundamental values to grow as a leader. |
In what context is this exercise useful? | This is useful both for individuals and groups. |
Equipment and tools needed: If digital, Zoom with breakout rooms. If physical, you need a room, pen and paper. Some way to play focus music. |
Activity & Format | Time | Instructions | Facilitation Notes |
Intro & check-In | 10 min |
| Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and let everyone share and then hand the word over to someone else |
Topic introduction and instructions | 5 min |
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Values exercise | 10 minutes |
| If possible, ask participants to do this exercise before meeting. I added the task here, as there’s often at least one person that didn’t do it…
While people work individually, I suggest you play some background music. Ideally some ‘focus’ music. |
Elaborating on values | 20 minutes |
For each of the 5, ask participants to reflect deeper about these values, following questions can help:
Before allowing them to dive deeper in this task, ask if there are any questions and if the task is well understood. | To help guide participants, the facilitator(s) should do the exercise before the workshop and prepare answers to the suggested questions. The aim is to provide an example / ideas for the participants when they proceed with the exercise.
While people work individually, I suggest you play some background music. Ideally some ‘focus’ music. |
BREAK | 10 mins | Invite people to move, get some water, toilet, etc.
Can be used as extra time for participants to reflect further individually |
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Discussing values in small groups / small circles | 20 mins |
The following questions can help participants to discuss:
Before allowing them to dive deeper in this task, ask if there are any questions and if the task is well understood.
| Facilitators should hover around the different groups, entering their breakout room or circle to make sure everything is okay. Answer unforseen questions. |
Discussing values all together in the main room / circle. | 10 mins |
| To break the ice if no one is jumping in, you can make an observation that you perceived from visiting the group during breakouts. |
Check-out | 5 mins |
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Preparation time: 15 min Workshop time: 90 min Ideal group size: 12+ people (will do groups of 4) Contact of Workshop Developer: | Equipment and tools needed:
|
Preparation time: 30-60 min (depending how much info you want to read) Workshop time: 60 minutes Ideal group size: 20 people (can be less or more) Contact of Workshop Developer:
| Equipment and tools needed:
|
Dealing with Stress:
Habit for Stress management:
Stress Buster:
WHO playbook on stress: |
Preparation time: unknown for facilitator, about 15 minutes for participants (filling values test) Workshop time: 90 mins (one hour and a half) Ideal group size: about 12, but scaleable for more Contact of Workshop Developer:
SelfLeaders Exercise:
For inspiration and advanced value use:
Please send us your feedforwards (tips) to with a copy-paste of this page URL so we can update it quickly
Please contact us at to share your feedback ! (copy-paste the URL of this page in this email so we know which page you're talking about)
Positive Psychology: 62 Stress Management Techniques
Diet:
Canadian's Center for Addictions and Mental health info about stress :
What is the aim of the exercise?
This exercise aims at exploring how satisfied the participants are with the various areas of their life. By giving each area a score in the categories of time spent, satisfaction, and importance this exercise follows a systematical approach instead of just generally reflecting if one is satisfied with life.
In what context is this exercise useful?
This exercise is useful as it uncovers areas of the participants lives which might have an imbalance between the time spent on them and the importance of that area. By gaining awareness of such imbalances, participants can later actively make changes in their lives to increase satisfaction in those areas.
Activity & Format
Time
Instructions
Facilitation Notes
Check-In
5 min
Introduction of facilitators
Present agenda
If a small group, check-in on participants mood, expectations, or other.
Get people to ‘arrive’ in the space. This will be a highly introspective session and participants will need full presence. Ask them to get comfortable, turn off any distractions. Take 3 deep breaths.
Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and let everyone share and then hand the word over to someone else.
Introduction & Explanation
5 min
What is the wheel of life?
The wheel of life is a tool that lets you explore the different areas, regions, or fields of your life. The goal of this exercise is to gain awareness of those different areas and the time you spent with them, how important they are to you, and how satisfied you are with them.
We provide some areas (like family, university, relationships, etc.) and you can finish the wheel with areas that we do not mention, but that play an important role in your life (e.g., exercise).
How to construct the wheel of life?
You will draw a circle and divide it into 8 sections. Each section is labeled with one of the areas of life. The areas proposed are:
Health
Family
Relationships (could be split into romantic or friendly)
Career / University
Personal growth
Social life / Fun
For the other areas you can freely choose your own categories like for example:
Hobbies
Nature
Extracurriculars
Self-care
Variety / exploration
Sustainability
These are only recommendations, please make the wheel of life completely your own. It is there to serve you and help you reflect on the areas that play a large role in your life. This is different for all of us, so please add and remove categories as you wish.
Between each category you can label the line with a scale from 0-10.
Next you will take three different colors and for each category mark on a scale from 0-10:
how much time you spent on that area
how important that area is for you
how satisfied you are with that area.
So, one color for each aspect: time spent, importance, and satisfaction
After doing so you can either connect the marks, color the areas underneath or leave them as is as you prefer the to visualize your thoughts.
It may be helpful to illustrate an example of the task with the template provided for flipchart.
After explaining the task, ask if there are any clarification questions.
Construction
20 min
Participants individually draw and fill in their wheel of life
As participants are thinking and writing, I recommend listening to some focus music
Reflection
10 min
You will now have 5 mins in pairs to reflect on the exercise in general and specifically these questions:
Where is the biggest imbalance between time spent and importance?
Which area are you the least satisfied with and why?
Did you have any new realizations through doing this exercise? If so, what?
Check-out
5 min
Debrief activity, ask them if they enjoyed it, gather quick feedback.
Provide logistical info about next planned workshop (if any)
Check-out suggestion if small group: Get each person to say how they feel in one word after this workshop
Thank people for joining.
What is the aim of the exercise?
This exercise is about the beliefs about us and the world that we first received.
In what context is this exercise useful?
Improving understanding of our beliefs, that shape our values, our thinking, emotions, behaviours and results.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Online / Onsite: Both
Workshop time: 1 hour
Ideal group size: Can easily accommodate up to 50 people
Contact of Workshop Developer: mathieu.shanks@gmail.com
Equipment and tools needed:
Paper
Pen
Facilitator needs this guide
Activity & Format
Time
Instructions
Facilitation Notes
Check-In...
10 min
Introduction of facilitators
Present agenda
If a small group, check-in on participants mood, expectations, or other.
Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and let everyone share and then hand the word over to someone else.
Topic introduction and instructions
5 min
What are beliefs
Why are they important - how they influence our actions and life
Explain about values exercise (give link to participants)
Check the behavioural iceberg for inspiration. Talk about the link between beliefs and values if you have not done before the values exercise with this audience.
Exploring beliefs - Part one
12 min
On their paper, they need to draw a line in the middle to split the paper in two columns.
It is going to be regular questions to different items – what was the first message you recall receiving in your life? It may have been explicit or implicit. It may have been in the atmosphere where you were growing. It doesn't matter how you got it, but what was the first message that you received on the different topics.
In the beginning it may seem a bit weird to you, but you will find the exercise when you will have heard 1 or 2 of the words.
It is going to be fast, because I want you to react intuitively, spontaneously; don't overthink it, just write down the first things that come to your mind.
We are going to start with one example, so you know what is going to happen. You start with the first column on the left.
Questions to ask participants and first example:
What was the first interpretation, the first message that you received early in life about family? What was the message that you received about what it is to be a family? Please explore that for a little while. Take a few notes before I give you other topics.
What was the first interpretation, the first message that you received early in life about…
...what your gender is?
…what work is?
Education?
Success?
Emotions?
Money?
Leadership?
Failure
culture
Sustainability
Criticism
Responsibility
Obligation
Self confidence
friends/relationships
Pride
Health of the body
Reason of existence
Invite participants to take a space in the room where they feel comfortable.
Better to do the exercise in silence so they can understand what the facilitator is saying.
For each question, you should give about 30 seconds after phrasing.
Exploring beliefs - Part two
12 min
Now I want you to think about today and how you would interpret these words from today's perspective. So I will go through every word with you again.
Go through the words of part one again…
What is your current interpretation of family?
On your gender?
And so on...
Better to do the exercise in silence so they can understand what the facilitator is saying.
For each question, you should give about 30 seconds after phrasing.
Individual reflection time
5 min
Now that participants have written down their beliefs about the various words, allow them some time to reflect on what they wrote.
Some questions to guide this process:
Can you notice some differences between your two columns? Have they changed? How?
Are these beliefs connected to your values? How?
Group discussion
12 min
Group participants in groups of 3 people and ask them to share about the following:
Discuss how your beliefs changed, what you noticed during the exercise, what caught your attention about those messages?
When you think about your first interpretations, where did they come from?
Was there anything that got revealed for you doing this exercise?
Check-out
4 min
Provide logistical info about next planned workshop (if any)
Check-out suggestion if small group: Get each person to say how they feel in one word after this workshop
Thank people for joining
You can also have a final debrief with the whole plenary (around 15 min) before the check-out to hear from the smaller groups their main takeaways.
Preparation time: 10 min
Workshop time: 45 minutes
Ideal group size: 16-20 people (groups of 2)
Contact of Workshop Developer:
leonie.kummer@student.unisg.ch mathieu.shanks@gmail.com
This workshop was developed by Leonie and adjusted by Mathieu.
Equipment and tools needed:
Papers
Pens
Thinking / focus music
Something to play music (e.g., speakers, laptop)
flipchart with example
Please contact us at leap@oikos-international.org to share your feedback ! (copy-paste the URL of this page in this email so we know which page you're talking about)
What is the aim of the exercise?
The goal of this exercise is to gain awareness about your strengths and to understand how they can support you in your work, life and the contribution you would like to make to the world.
In what context is this exercise useful?
This exercise is tailored to individuals that wish to be more conscious about his/her strengths and how to capitalize on that to improve your life, work, relationships, purpose.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Online / Onsite: Both
Workshop time: 1: 30 hour
Ideal group size: Can easily accommodate up to 50 people
Contact of Workshop Developer:
Roberta Domingues roberta.domingues@oikos-international.org
Equipment and tools needed:
Strengths assessment website (see at the bottom of the page)
Pen and paper
Board or slides/miro/chat to expose instructions
Phones/computers with internet to access strengths assessment
Facilitator needs this guide
Online or Onsite Room to run the session
Activity & Format
Time
Instructions
Facilitation Notes
Check-in and Session Introduction
10 min
Introduction of facilitators and participants if needed
Present today’s topic and agenda
Check-in on participants mood, expectations, or other. You can suggest a check-in question as “In one sentence, how are you arriving today?”
Start with answering the check-in question by yourself and then hand the word over to someone else, allowing everyone to share. Nice start for hearing all the voices in the room.
Topic introduction
5 min
Start creating the space for the reflections and conversations of today: you can highlight that many people are not necessarily used to creating space for reflection and personal development. Ask the audience to think when was the last time you took time to reflect about your strengths? Comment about the importance of these reflections for leadership, wellbeing and to create a positive impact in the world.
Introduce the topic of Strengths: explain that strengths help us to develop more self-confidence and self-awareness, as well as a deeper appreciation and value for how each of us is different (the need for diversity). It has also been linked by science to an elevated sense of vitality and motivation, increased probability of achieving goals, and a stronger sense of life direction.
Make the point that looking at your strengths is a very powerful way to focus your attention and efforts on what you are good at (your natural talents); it makes clear your distinctiveness and helps you to identify how to improve.
Explain that today we will use one exercise to find your strengths.
Explaining the exercise instructions
5min
Provide the websites and ask them to access the strengths online assessments and to follow the instructions.
Show them what the results will look like. The report they receive after taking the assessment.
Ask if they have any doubts before starting taking the assessment.
Check the resources list below for free strengths assessments.
Invite participants to take a space in the room where they feel comfortable.
Better to do the exercise in silence.
You can write the assessment websites in a board (if onsite) or in a slide/miro/chat (if online) for a better visualization while you explain. Make it beautiful!
Time for taking assessment and reading the report with results.
20 min
Instruct them to do the assessment and to read their results’ report individually in silence. Remember to share the time they have for doing it.
Better to do the exercise in silence and have soft, instrumental and inspirational music playing in the background.
This step can last from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the facilitator. You can ask how the group is doing after some time and ask if they need more time. To me the longer the better as it is a very privileged moment to be with oneself and it generally takes a bit of time to get into the right mood.
Break
5 min
Give them a break to have water, stretch, go to the bathroom and to prepare for the group discussion.
Pairs discussion
20 min (10 for each to share)
Gather participants back, and ask them to find a pair to share about their strengths.
Suggest some questions for their conversation as:
-How was it for you to see the results (do you agree/is it surprising, etc.)?
-How do you see these strengths taking place in different areas and relationships of your life and for your purpose in life?
-What do these strengths tell you about who you are?
-How would you like to improve areas of your life using these strengths?
You can offer less questions or allow them to focus on the ones they wanna speak about. They can take the other questions for further reflection at home.
You can write the questions on a board (if onsite) or in a slide/miro/chat (if online) for a better visualization while you explain. Make it beautiful!
This step can last from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the facilitator’s wish. You can ask how the group is doing after some time and ask if they need more time.
Another option is to allow personal reflection time (around 10 min) to think and journal on these questions before gathering in pairs, if you have enough time.
Group debrief/Plenary discussion
15 min
Gather participants back in a circle, and facilitate the discussion into the feelings/ sharing/ impressions of the participants.
You can ask them how was their reflection and sharing time; what stood out for them, what were the insights, what they have learned about themselves and about others.
Don’t forget at the end to ask what were the key take-aways from the session.
Check-out
10 min
Provide logistical info about the next planned workshop (if any) or any necessary announcement.
Check-out question: For example, get each person to say what they are leaving with from this session.
Thanking people for joining and closing the session.
You can provide a document or in your preferred way the opportunity for them to provide feedback from this session.
You can do the strengths assessment and practice the exercise yourself with someone before facilitating the session.
Keep in mind it might be the 1st time participants think about their strengths in life. Prepare yourself beforehand by for example meditating and being ready to give all your attention & empathy. Focus on the present moment, speak slowly and clearly, breathe a lot and smile.
Also try to make it personal and share with your audience how it helped you down the road!
Choose a strengths assessment to work with your audience:
Free resources:
https://high5test.com/strengthsfinder-free/
Payed resource:
