Leverage this framework to find your own path in the changing world

Photo by Aleksandra Boguslawska on Unsplash

Do you know someone who foresaw coming changes and leveraged them in their favor? I guess we all know such a friend. It seems that nowadays it is more than ever important to get an understanding of the global situation. This is a prerequisite not only for seizing new opportunities but even for saving the current level of life. So, if you planning your life/career or what to revisit your plan — this article is for you.

Introduction

Ray Dalio, a great thinker, macroeconomist, and founder of hedge funds, researched the history of 500 last years and come to the conclusion that “The times ahead will be radically different from those we’ve experienced in our lifetimes, though similar to many times in history”.

The first part of the quote means that be-default behavior and strategies will not bring success in the coming years. So, we need to revisit our current life plans and strategy. And the second part — we are lucky to know what to expect, as this happened earlier.

In this article, I will share a framework that I used for myself to create a new strategy for my life. I have called it the “Find your Own Path” framework or just FOP framework. I will also share some sources which might help you grasp global trends and where the world is heading to.

Why should you trust me? Let me introduce myself

Overview of Find Your Own Path (FOP) framework

Framework goal: help you collect in one place world outlook, knowledge about yourself, and your wishes to develop the strategy of going forward in a rapidly changing world.

How to use FOP: FOP has several blocks — make sure that you identify key 3–5 points in each block, not more. The fewer points you have the easier it is to act on them. Follow the Pareto rule.

Time length: from 3 hours

In this article, I will tell the theory and ideas behind the FOP. The framework is based on Elon Musk’s thinking model from the article, written by Tim Urban in 2015, and includes 5 parts: Reality, Wishes, Goals, Ideas, Strategy.

1. Reality: what does a) the world look like and b) who are you? (4 questions)

In each section, I will write key questions I recommend you to think of and provide additional comments & insights in Loom videos.

Totally, there will be 6 questions that will help you collect inputs for brainstorming and then create a personal strategy.

At the end of the article, you will find a link to the digital template of FOP in Notion, which you could copy and fill for yourself.

1.1. World Overview

• 1.1.1. What is the political, social, and economic context we leave in?
• 1.1.2. What will be a favorable environment (safe space) within this context?

Let me explain the last question. In any situation, there is a safe place, e.g. in a flood, this is a hill, in a desert, this is an oasis, etc. How would you define borders of the favorable environment in the current world context?

• What industries should it be from my point of view?
• In what countries might I expect higher stability and even economic growth?
• What type of employment (official, unofficial, self-employment, own business) and what company (local company, international company, small/medium or big size) could help me be in a safe zone?

I have shared some sources, I trust, at the end of the Reality section, which might help you understand the current world situation.

1.2. Yourself Overview

I really recommend you look through the video comments in this section — there a lot of ideas, on how to answer these questions.

• 1.2.1. What am I good at?

• 1.2.2. What am I particularly good at (what is my unfair market advantage)?

FOP: 1.2 Reality: unfair market advantage

Recommended sources

• Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio (40 min video)
• Future of Skills research by Person
• Skills of the future: How to thrive in the complex new world
• Future of work trends 2022: A new era of humanity by Korn Ferry
• The Future of Jobs Report 2020 by World Economic Forum
• Book Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by Ray Dalio

2. Wishes (1 question)

• 2.1. What do I really want?

In the video you will find some exercises which might help you identify what you really want and these exercises will be also included in the Notion template.

3. Goals (1 question)

• 3.1. What do you want to take as goals in the current world & personal context?

In the video, I share why I personally and many other people often fail to achieve goals and introduce a SMART framework for goal setting.

4. Ideas

Before developing a strategy it is right to brainstorm and collect numerous ideas about what you might potentially do. I recommend following several rules to get a big pool of ideas:

1. When you are filling this framework, you will notice that ideas of actions or interesting topics for research will arise in your head. Try to note all of them down, don’t care about the structure, just notice them and write them down.
2. Find people, who have achieved what you want to achieve and ask them for advice on how to set up your plan
3. Good ideas rarely come first, don’t stop until you have 30 ideas at least or 50 ideas (if you really want to get the maximum of this exercise).
4. Do brainstorm in several iterations on different days, this approach will involve your subconscious part in creating and you will get better results.

5. Strategy

In the last section, you review the ideas and write down the top 3–5 action items or big things you will work on to achieve your wishes and goals. And after that, you go planning and execution — some tips & tricks on this topic you can find below in the video.

Conclusion

I made this tool for myself and now share it with you. As for the digital template, you can find it here: Notion template of FOP. Fill it in, be patient and determined, and let me know how it worked for you in the comments.

P.S. I also made a fancy PDF of the FOP framework for printing and offline viewing (see a preview here). To buy it fill in this form.

My name is Dmitrii Eliseev. I work in a startup. Before that, I was responsible for business development at Microsoft and curated the early-in-career community. Before Microsoft, I developed a voice digital assistant while being a part of the engineering team. I write a blog on Telegram about self-realization, building relationships, and productivity.

Eliseev writes