When we apply future thinking to ourselves, we can project ourselves into the future and think about where we would like to be and then work back on how we can get there.
We can ask ourselves:
What are my wants and needs?
What job are we doing?
What do I like doing in my free time?
What kind of person am I?
What is my home life like?
What kind of partner/parent am I?
By imagining ourselves in those futures we can identify what we need to do to get there. Future Thinking in career development refers to cultivating a mindset that isn’t solely focused on the present, but actively considers personal growth, the future landscape of work, industry developments and the evolving job market.
Applying future thinking to life-long career management enables us to prepare for future trends, opportunities, and challenges so we can make informed choices, action plan, capitalise on un-planned opportunities and realise our “positive” careers.
‘In my career, I hadn't really thought of myself as an entrepreneur, but I had thought that I was responsible for myself. So, in a sense, I had the thought that I'm the owner of my own business, and being the owner of yourself, it's how do you invest in yourself, how do you take responsibility for being better […]? I hadn't thought that the skill set of entrepreneurs, when I was going through as an employee, was the skills that I need. It was only later, when I started doing entrepreneurship, that I realized that those skills were the precise skills that would enable me to invest in myself and help me both create the future and adapt to the future.’
– Reid Hoffman, Founder of PayPal, and LinkedIn
Bibliography
Eisenbart, B., Lovallo, D., Garbuio, M., Cristofaro, M. and Dong, A. (2023) 'Future thinking and managers’ innovative behavior: an experimental study', Journal of Knowledge Management, 27(6), pp. 1660–1679.