1. Lifestyle and career

Subject title Lifestyle and career

Purpose of the activity To help young people understand the peculiarities of modern lifestyle and to form a vision of a career path, taking into account their personal life experiences.

Duration 2 hours.

Location and tools The presentation requires a projector, writing board, paper and writing tools for participants, tables, chairs, sticky notes, adhesive tape for gluing posters in space.

Number of participants Unlimited, but the most effective number – 16–20 participants.

Acquaintance/ team building methods

Practical tasks

METHOD “What if?“

Participants are asked to form pairs by choosing the least familiar person. While being in pairs, they are asked a certain question:

“If each of you knew that you now have unlimited financial resources for the whole life, what would you do?“ Participants are given 3 minutes to talk about this topic, so that each of them could express his/her vision. Each participant is then asked to find another least familiar partner and a second question is asked:

“If you could change one thing in the world – what would it be and why?“ Similarly, a third question is asked for new pairs:

“If you could choose one superpower – what would it be, why would you want to have namely that power and how would it help you?“ At the end of the method, participants are revealed that the above questions and their initial intuitive answers to these questions are the first steps in getting to know better their own personal talents and vocations. The answer to the first question provides each participant with information about what activity can actually become the one that generates finances. The answer to the second question gives a hint about the vocation of the personality, and the answer to the third question metaphorically talks about the inner talents of the participants.

Task no. 1

Invite participants to draw a square of the four professions and divide it into four segments so that each segment would be dedicated to a specific profession: „artisan and craftsman“, „scholar-educator“, „organizer“, „entrepreneur“. At the beginning of the task, it is indicated that each person has traits in himself/herself that are characteristic of all four professions, but some characteristics dominate, while others are less pronounced. All four segments together make up 100 percent of personality self-expression. Participants are asked to decide and write down what percentage of themselves and their daily lives they see in each segment, i.e. what percentage of his/her personality consists of a master, a scholar-educator, an organizer, and an entrepreneur. Next to each segment, they are also asked to write down what daily actions and activities that they do mean that they act as representatives of one of aforementioned professions. Time to complete the task: 10–15 minutes.

Practical tasks

Task no. 2

Invite participants to redraw a palette of senses with equal five parts and write into each of them all the senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Then ask the participants to colour the palette according to their most important senses. They have to colour the most those triangles in which they write down the sensations that dominate in their daily lives.

Time to complete the task: 5 minutes.

After completing both tasks, participants are invited to share their results with others.

End of session reflection methods

Notes to the leader

“Perception Diagnosis“ method

Three posters with three drawings of the discussed methods („Ikigai“, „The Four Occupations“ and „A palette of five senses“) are hung in the room. Participants are given sticky notes and asked in pairs to access each poster on the topic explored in the sessions and, while sharing their insights and conclusions they came up with during the session, to stick a sticky note on each poster in the place where they see themselves at this stage of their lives.

Time to complete the task: 5–15 minutes, depending on how open the participants are.

It is important to note that the duration of the tasks provided to the participants and the extent of the results of the tasks performed will depend on the age of the participants and on their work experience. Pupils will accept it more as new information that they are just beginning to rely on in making daily career decisions, whereas elder young people will tend to discuss more broadly, ask questions, and want to spend more time on tasks.

THEORETICAL INFORMATION

Peculiarities of building a career path in the 21st century In the beginning of the theoretical part, it is worth conveying relevant information from the introductory part of this methodology, adapting it for the benefit of young people.

Methods that help to understand the peculiarities of your own lifestyle In the second part of the theoretical part, we suggest exploring three models that will help young people to consciously shape their personal lifestyle and make career choices.

JAPANESE IKIGAI

“Ikigai” is a Japanese word that is not translated into any other language. Translating literally, it would mean “a reason to jump out of bed each morning” or, more simply, “a reason for being”. Interestingly, in Europe, the concept of “a reason for being” and its analysis appeared only in the 19th century, when the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard raised questions of existentialism, while in Japan the concept of “Ikigai” was used already in 14th century. Any representative of Japanese culture, when asked what his “Ikigai” is, would answer this question, as its exploration has long been an important part of the culture of parenting. For one person “Ikigai” means to take care of the children, for another person it means to create a certain product whereas for a third one – to sing. In Japan numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of Ikigai on the health of the population and direct links have been found to show that people who discovered their Ikigai had better health indicators in every way possible and this is directly related to the amount of hormones of happiness, produced in those people’s bodies, after they chose to do what they love.

The four main conditions of Ikigai that everyone is invited to pursue are: • “What I love doing” – activities that provide pleasure and satisfaction. • “What the world needs” – activities that are meaningful for those around us, that are productive and provide certain benefits as well as added value.

• “What I can get paid for” is an activity that generates finances and frees you from the necessity to look for a job that meets your needs. • “What I am good at” – certain knowledge, skills and experience allow me to perform well.

It is clear that the discovery of Ikigai is not a given, but, in one way or another, it is an ongoing process which aims to implement all four aspects. There are definite names of the states that people reach when they find themselves at the intersection of two or three aspects.

• “What I love doing” +

“What the world needs” = Mission • “What the world needs” +

“What I can get paid for” = Vocation • “What I can get paid for” +

“What I am good at” = Profession • “What I am good at” + “What I love doing” = Passion • “What I love doing” + “What the world needs” + “What I can get paid for” = Excitement and complacency, but sense of uncertainty due to lack of professionalism. • “What the world needs” +

“What I can get paid for” + “What I am good at” = A sense of comfort and security, but no inner satisfaction. • “What I can get paid for” + “What I am good at” + “What I love doing” = A sense of satisfaction, accompanied by a feeling of uselessness. • “What I am good at” + “What I love doing” + “What the world needs” = Delight and fullness, but at the same time concern about financial security.

As we can observe in our daily work with young people, each of them is constantly moving from one position in the Ikigai system to another in search of his/her lifestyle and career path. Therefore, telling about this system, an open discussion can be initiated, in which part of Ikigai each participant feels he/she is at this concrete moment and what is needed for him/her to be at the very centre.

THE FOUR OCCUPATIONS

Another method that helps to review your current position, just like in the “Ikigai” system, is The Four Occupations. According to it, all the activities and professions that exist in the world can be classified into four groups. The main evaluation criterion for assigning oneself to one or another group according to this method is, first of all, the feeling of pleasure a person experiences when being engaged in certain activities as well as natural inner desires, potential and talents that are related to these activities.

1. ARTISANS AND CRAFTSMEN. These are people who love to create by hand. Their main objective is tangible products and results which they can physically experience and evaluate. When you look around in the room you are currently in, you will see that all the things placed in it were created by the hands and efforts of the artisans and craftsmen.

Professions of artisans and craftsmen: designers of all kinds (graphics, style, home, products), architects, athletes, artists, project managers, who create a finished product. 2. SCHOLARS-EDUCATORS. Some people may be stronger as scholars, others – as educators. The main distinguishing feature of people who engage in that kind of activities is that these people are, in one form or another, “information filters”. They enjoy the process of storing information within themselves and then passing it on to others. For people who are stronger as scholars, sharing is not that important as they enjoy the process of cognition and exploration itself and only occasionally share the

results of their cognition with people around them. For educators, conversely, one of the most important parts of the information processing process is the possibility to pass it on to others. Thus, educators are able to process and systematize a large amount of information in a short time in order to purposefully adapt it to a certain target group. Professions of scholars and educators: teachers, researchers, academics, lecturers, social and youth workers, supervisors and the like.

3. ORGANIZERS. The main distinguishing feature of the organizers is their ability to gather people around ideas and effectively direct and use the potential of individuals when achieving a common goal. Organizers can be either the idea leaders themselves and the idea generators, gathering people around their own ideas, or strong executors looking for ideas they believe in and due to which they are ready to form a team. Professions of organizers: managers of all possible areas. 4. ENTREPRENEURS. These are people who, through their way of thinking, are constantly pushing the world economy and politics forward because they are interested in improving the current situation, both in terms of business and social life. People who are entrepreneurs by nature are able to process a large amount of information in a short period of time, structure it, assess all the strengths and weaknesses of the current situation they are observing, as well as formulate a future vision and strategy oriented towards creativity, development and added value.

A PALETTE OF FIVE SENSES

The last method we introduce is the Palette of Senses. As every human being has five basic senses through which he/she experiences everything, it is important to consider each individual’s dominant sensations and their characteristics to ensure quality of life. Out of the five existing senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell), each person usually has one or two that are the dominant ones, while the others are weaker. This means that certain one or more senses respond significantly more actively and strongly to external stimuli than other senses. Therefore, the pleasure and joy of life experienced by each particular person is strongly determined by the uniqueness of his palette of senses. This influences the choice of certain activities and professions. SIGHT. People whose dominant sense is their sight are called visuals. For those with visual memory, it is important to see the world as it is and to convey the values created by their creative imagination. At work, they need to get acquainted with the visual material and process it. When communicating with colleagues, they want to see them live, because this way they can evaluate not only the information provided, but also body language, facial expressions. While resting, these people also seek to see new things and to evaluate them visually. HEARING. People whose dominant sense is their hearing are called audials. In the professional field, these people are excellent negotiators, educators, social workers, psychologists who accept sensitively the audible information provided, process it effectively and give an answer. For these people visual content is not so important as they need to hear it. They also need to have the possibility to ask questions so they could clarify the information they hear. In their daily work, it is important the element of communication and information sharing. While resting, they also often unconsciously choose places and experiences where sound elements play an important role. Audials also have a penchant for music. TOUCH. People whose dominant sense is their touch are called kinesthetics. The distinguishing feature of these people is that they keep fidgeting and cannot stay for long in one place. It is important for them to feel physical comfort and keep moving. The most suitable professions for kinesthetists are sports, social work, work with human bodies, organization, arts. They are usually very empathetic, intuitive, creative, frank and easily make contact with others. The worst professional experience for kinesthetics people is to be seated at an office desk and be forced to sit at it all the time. TASTE and (or) SMELL. People whose most pronounced senses are the senses of taste or smell are far fewer than people with other dominant senses (visuals, audials, and kinesthetics). These people are pronounced gourmets: they often place high demands on the quality and environment of each process that is being performed, they care about aesthetics and cosiness, cleanliness and orderliness. The best way to understand what is meant in this case is to observe the daily behaviour, the conversations and the subtlety of the perception of the world of the world’s most famous chefs and perfumers.