The big idea: You have more than one good future in you, and sketching three very different five-year plans shows you what to test first.
In 60 seconds
- You have more than one good future. Sketch three very different five-year plans.
- Give each plan a title, the questions it tests and ratings on four gauges.
- Share them in small groups to see which plan to test first.
Do this: complete Creating Odyssey Plans before class and bring them to peer consultation.
How Odyssey Plans work
You contain more than one good life. Odyssey Plans make that concrete: you sketch three different versions of your next five years, rate them on four gauges and talk them through with a small group. None of them is plan B. Each is a real option you could test.
The life you’re on
The plan already in your head: the path you would follow if nothing changed.
Ask: what does it look like year by year?
If that vanished
Plan 1 is suddenly gone. That job or field no longer exists. What would you do instead?
Ask: what else would I build a life around?
The wild card
Money and what others think do not matter. What would you do with these five years?
Ask: what would I do if no one were judging?
Every plan gets the same four parts
A five-year timeline
Year by year, with work and life: where you live, who you are with, health, play, trips, school.
Tip: include the hard years too.
A six-word title
A headline that captures the life, so you and your group can talk about it easily.
Tip: make it vivid, not a job title.
Three questions
What would living this plan teach you? Questions turn a plan into something you can test.
Tip: each one should end in a question mark.
A dashboard of four gauges
Resources (time, money, skills, contacts), likability (your gut), confidence (that you can pull it off) and coherence (fit with your Workview and Lifeview).
Tip: set them by feel, then compare.
Reading the gauges
The most useful signal is often a gap. A plan you like a lot but feel unsure about is a strong candidate for a prototype conversation or a small experience. A plan with low coherence needs a hard look at your Workview and Lifeview before you invest.
Peer consultation in small groupsHow to present and how to respond
You share your plans in small groups. The aim is energy and curiosity, not critique.
- Presenter: walk through each plan in a few minutes: title, timeline, questions, gauges. Notice which plan you get excited telling.
- Listeners: watch where the presenter’s energy rises. Ask open questions: “What would year two feel like?” “Who do you know who lives a version of this?”
- Avoid: advice (“you should…”), ranking the plans for them or judging whether a plan is realistic.
- Close: each listener names one thing they noticed. The presenter writes it down without arguing.
This is psychological safety in practice: everyone can try ideas out loud, and nobody is graded on their dreams.
Common mistakesAnd how to fix them
- Three versions of the same job. Plan 2 should be a different life, not the same role at another company.
- Career only. A five-year plan with no place, people, health or play is a resume, not a life.
- A wild card that is not wild. If money and image did not matter, would you really pick that?
- Treating Plan 1 as the real one. All three are real options. You are not choosing yet; you are learning.
Where the ideas come fromYour journal, your maps and your compass
Your Good Time Journal shows what engages and energizes you. Your mind maps produce concepts, which often become the wild card. Your Workview and Lifeview are the yardstick for the coherence gauge. See Start Where You Are and Build Your Compass and Getting Unstuck.
Ideas from Designing Your Life and The Designing Your Life Workbook by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (Stanford Life Design Lab), explained here in our own words. BUAD 427 is taught by Lane Morris, PhD.
Try it: Odyssey Plan Builder
Tool · BUAD 427
Odyssey Plan Builder
Sketch three different versions of your next five years, rate each one and see which to prototype first.
- 1Draft 3 plans
- 2Rate gauges
- 3Compare
Prototype first
All checks
Saved on this device only. My own answers stay in this browser and are never sent anywhere. Example edits are not saved.
Put it to work: your Odyssey Plans and peer consultation
Odyssey Plans take two class sessions. First you complete the Creating Odyssey Plans workbook assignment before class. Then you share your plans in small-group peer consultation. Both are pass/fail workbook assignments, and your contribution in the groups counts toward preparation and participation.
Draft Plan 1
Write the plan you are already on, year by year, with life outside work.
Your deliverable: a five-year timeline, title, three questions and four gauges.
Draft Plans 2 and 3
Imagine Plan 1 vanished, then play the wild card. Pull from your mind map concepts.
Your deliverable: two more complete plans that are clearly different lives.
Set the gauges and compare
Rate each plan by gut feel. Look for the plan you like most but feel least sure about.
Your deliverable: one plan marked “prototype first” and one sentence on why.
Fill in the workbook
Copy your final plans into The Designing Your Life Workbook by hand. Use the tool for drafts.
Your deliverable: the completed Creating Odyssey Plans pages.
Present in peer consultation
Bring all three plans to your small group. Present each in a few minutes and write down what others noticed.
Your deliverable: notes from your group and one question you will test next.
What to do after peer consultationTurning plans into prototypes
- Pick one question from the plan you want to test first.
- Find one person already living a version of it and set up a prototype conversation. See Prototyping Your Life.
- Journal privately about which plan you defended and which one you lit up talking about. They are not always the same.
Do this, not thatHabits that make Odyssey Plans useful
Do this
- Make three truly different lives.
- Include place, people, health and play.
- Write questions you could actually test.
- Set gauges by gut, then look at the gaps.
- Listen for energy in peer consultation.
Not that
- Three versions of one job.
- A resume with dates.
- Questions with yes-or-no answers you already know.
- Leaving every gauge in the middle.
- Giving advice or ranking a classmate’s plans.
Before classCheck your plans
- [ ] Three plans: the life you are on, if that vanished and the wild card.
- [ ] Each plan covers five years and includes life outside work.
- [ ] Each plan has a six-word title and three questions.
- [ ] All four gauges are set for every plan.
- [ ] You know which plan to prototype first and why.
- [ ] Your workbook pages are filled in by hand.
Go deeper
Back to all BUAD 427 topics · Next: Prototyping Your Life: Conversations and Experiences
Part of BUAD 427 Designing Your Life and Career, taught by Lane Morris, PhD, in the Smith GLS human-centered leadership program, toward the Human Centered Consulting Certificate.
Frequently asked questions
What are Odyssey Plans in Designing Your Life?
Odyssey Plans are three different sketches of your next five years from Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Plan 1 is the life you are on. Plan 2 is what you would do if Plan 1 vanished. Plan 3 is a wild card where money and image do not matter. Each is a real option, not a backup.
What goes into an Odyssey Plan?
Each plan has a five-year timeline that covers work and life, such as where you live, who you are with, health and play. It also has a six-word title, three questions that living the plan would answer and a dashboard of four gauges: resources, likability, confidence and coherence with your Workview and Lifeview.
What are the four Odyssey Plan gauges?
Resources asks whether you have the time, money, skills and contacts. Likability is how much you like the plan at a gut level. Confidence is how sure you are that you can pull it off. Coherence is how well the plan fits your Workview and Lifeview. Gaps between gauges show what to test first.
How do I make my three Odyssey Plans different enough?
Make Plan 2 a different life, not the same job at another company. Ask what you would build around if your current field disappeared. For Plan 3, remove money and other people's opinions completely. Pull ideas from your Good Time Journal and mind maps, and include place, people, health and play in every plan.
How does Odyssey Plan peer consultation work?
In small groups, each person presents all three plans in a few minutes. Listeners watch where the presenter's energy rises and ask open questions, without giving advice or ranking the plans. Each listener names one thing they noticed, and the presenter writes it down. Then pick one question to test with a prototype conversation.