Are you worried or confused about your future? 

How do I know where to go to college? How do I know what to study? How do I know what I want to be when I grow up? Lots of people have ideas about these answers, but they’re fearful, they’re nervous, they’re not sure. WHICH IS TOTALLY OK!

What am I going to do with my one life? 

INTRODUCING THE COPE METHOD 

The COPE method is my four part approach that will help you to start considering your future options.

C-O-P-E

C stands for CURIOSITY

I always, always, always tell my clients to get more curious about EVERYTHING.

Whoever said curiosity killed the cat was 100% wrong. 

Curiosity is good. We want to ask more questions; better questions. 

LIKES/DISLIKES

When it comes to your future ask… 

• What do I really love? 
• What do I lose track of time when I’m doing? 
• What do I really NOT like to do? 

And the most IMPORTANT question to get curious about is… WHY? 

Why don’t I like doing that? You may hate history class, but perhaps it’s just because you don’t enjoy reading that much. In real life, you might find the content is very interesting, when presented in a different format! Or what if I really don’t like science, but it’s actually just because I’ve had some really crappy science teachers? 

Get curious about what you like, what you don’t like and above all, figure out the the deeper why.

OTHERS

Also get curious about what other people in the world are doing. This is a major component of the fierce&flourish program. I interview amazing women doing all sorts of interesting careers and who have taken different paths to get to where they’re at. This is because I want my clients to really be thinking about the multitude of possibilities that there are for them. Get curious… don’t just assume that the five adults that you know and the professions they have are the ones that you have to have.

O stands for Open to Everything. 

I really want you to get curious, but I also want you to just be OPEN to the possibilities. In one of our Create Your Life interviews for fierce&flourish I was talking with a young woman who was a part of National Honor Society and highschool. DUring her sophomore year she needed some volunteer hours, and against her better judgement, she went to a school to read to kindergarteners. Prior to this she was adamant that she was “not a kid person.” And guess what? She fell in love with it. She enjoyed it so much, she is now pursuing the field of education in college.  I urge you…be open to new experiences – even if you don’t THINK you will like them, or they scare you. Try things that are outside your comfort zone…go stand on that stage, take that art class, try a new activity, volunteer somewhere. Take an hour or two out of your life to do something that you probably won’t love. But you never, ever know, so give it a shot, be open to everything.

P stands for Passion. 

Start discovering that passion by using curiosity, by being open to new experiences, and then work on GROWING that passion. Go after it NOW. If you want to be an actress, go start acting. Now. I don’t care how old you are. If you want to be an accountant, a teacher, a podcaster…whatever it is you want to be, start doing that now in some shape in some form or fashion. There is nothing in this world that says you have to wait until you’re 18 to start the next step. If you are 12, and you are watching this, figure out something that might be your passion. Once you think of something, then find a way to start doing it now, no matter how small it is. Start making it happen. If you think you want to be a lawyer, go argue with people.

(Okay, maybe not your brothers and sisters …don’t have your parents coming at me.) You could however shadow lawyers to figure out what they do, and consider if it is something YOU might want to do for a career. 

E is for Experiences. 

The key here is to pair your experiences with your passions, and try to create something new. Figure out what things are special in your life, and how you can you pair that with your passion to come up with something new! Think about how to bring new life to old ideas.

My Two Friends

I have two friends who found ways to marry their passion with their experiences and come up with something brand new that lights them up inside. 

One is my friend who loves horses, and she loves helping people. So she studied how to help people, be more comfortable with themselves, be more confident with themselves by working with horses. She doesn’t ride horses for a living, she doesn’t teach other people how to ride horses for a living. She doesn’t actually even own her own horses. But she’s partnered with a stable, and she gets to help people like she’s always wanted through this totally unique situation that she’s created for herself pairing her love of horses and her experiences with helping people. 

I have another friend who is an actress, but she lives in the middle of the cornfields in Illinois. She als has her MBA, so she coaches professional men and women in improv techniques that will help them be better in their business. She she’s taken her passion in theatre and improvisation and she’s paired it with her experiences in business, to be able to help other people use all of those skills to be better at what they do. She also produces a stage show here in Central Illinois and around the nation, helping women tell their stories. 

These women have found ways to pair their passions and experiences to create lives they love. 

Get curious, be open, find your passions and pair those passions with your experiences. 

When you do these four things, you will be a whole lot more confident about the direction you want to head next, and maybe more importantly, the directions you do not want to head next. 

Following the COPE Method will help you to choose thoughts that are exciting and looking forward to the future.

It’s going to help you to create a life that you actually love, that you want to live, that you’re excited to wake up for every day. And when you do those two things (choose your thoughts and create your life), you are then going to change the world. Because you are showing up as the fullest, best version of yourself. And that’s EXACTLY what changes the world.

I can’t wait to watch you do it.