Writing
How to write about what you want next
A client can want a change and still be unsure how to say what comes next. Put it on a page, in their words, so the two of you can look at it.
It fits a career client, and it fits someone whose next chapter is retirement. They can write alone, or the two of you can do it together at any point in the work.
Start from a real week
A hope for the future is easy to inflate. A week they already lived is harder to dress up.
Ask for a recent week that was fairly ordinary. Skip a vacation week. Skip a crisis week too.
- What in that week would you willingly do again?
- What did you put off, dread, or hurry through?
- What did the week make room for, and what did it crowd out?
Keep their words
The rough sentence is usually the one worth keeping.
Do not tidy a line into something that would look better in a plan. If they say they are tired of being the person who fixes everything, keep that sentence.
Ask which person, task, or time of day the vague word points to. That detail is what you can work with. A smoother line about balance throws it away.
Separate want and should
The respectable answer usually arrives first.
Have them write two short lists on the same page, with space between.
- What would you choose if nobody you respect was going to read this?
- What would a sensible person in your spot choose?
If the lists match, say that out loud. If they pull apart, stay with the gap. You do not have to close it on this page.
One day after the job
Next is easy to hear as another job. For some clients it is the time after paid work.
If paid work is staying, skip this pass. If it might end, or it already has, ask for one ordinary day they would like once a job no longer sets the week.
- How does the morning start, and how does the day end?
- Who is in the day with you?
- Underline one thing from working life you would still want on that day.
Leave one line rough
A page that sounds finished has often lost the line that was hard to write.
Before they close the page, have them mark three lines.
- One line you are sure of.
- One line you are unsure of.
- One line you almost left off.
Open the next conversation on the unsure line, or on the one they almost left off.
Read a paragraph back
The page is there so you can talk. It is not the decision.
- Read one paragraph aloud and ask if it still sounds like them.
- Pick the most specific line and ask what happened in the last month.
- Pick the vaguest line and ask them to swap one abstract word for a person or a task.
Then stop. You have a place to start. A plan can wait.
Foundpath is a guided written interview that turns answers like these into a written brief. Read a sample brief, or start your own report.