Build a coherent narrative across your three plans
Find the values and themes that appear across all three plans — they are your non-negotiables.
Why it works
The overlap across three genuinely different plans reveals the invariant core of a person’s identity — what Burnett and Evans call the "workview" and "lifeview" elements that appear regardless of the specific path. Narrative identity research confirms that identifying these recurring themes provides a stable motivational foundation independent of which specific plan is pursued.
How to do it
- Read all three plans and highlight any element that appears in two or three of them.
- List the recurring themes: a type of relationship, a kind of work, a value, a community.
- Write a single paragraph that names the non-negotiables — the things that, if absent, would make any plan feel wrong.
- Use the non-negotiables as constraints when evaluating or redesigning your plans.
Evidence
Narrative identity research finds that a coherent autobiographical narrative — one with identifiable themes and values that run across episodes — predicts identity stability and psychological well-being. (observational)
The three-plan format is specific to the Designing Your Life framework; the narrative coherence mechanism is supported by McAdams’s work, not by studies of the specific exercise.
Sources
- McAdams (2001), the psychology of life stories, Review of General Psychology
Common mistake
Forcing a theme across the plans that is aspirational rather than genuinely present — if an element only appears in one plan, it is not a non-negotiable and should not be treated as one.
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More practices for Odyssey Plans: Designing Three Alternative Futures
- Draft three genuinely different five-year plans
Sketch three distinct five-year lives — not variations on the same theme, but genuinely different directions.
- Rate each plan on confidence, interest, and coherence
Score each plan on whether you find it engaging, whether you could execute it, and whether it fits who you are.
- Run prototyping conversations before committing to a plan
Talk to people already living your Plan B or C before you decide whether to pursue it.
- Audit for gravity problems blocking your plans
Identify which constraints you treat as fixed that are actually choices — and test whether they are as fixed as they feel.
- Track your life gauges: work, play, love, health
Monitor how full your "energy tanks" in four life domains are before making a major plan decision.
- Run a small experiment before committing to Plan B or C
Design the smallest possible real-world experience that would tell you something true about a plan before you commit to it.
Related concepts
- The Life Crafting Intervention: Scripting Your Future Self
Structured narrative writing for self-concordant goals and engaged living
- Purpose Anchors: Keeping Meaning Accessible Day to Day
Concrete practices for keeping your larger why present when the urgent crowds it out
- Ikigai, Honestly Explained
The real concept, the diagram caveat, and practices that surface it
- Anti-Goals: Defining Success by What You Refuse to Accept
How defining what you don’t want sharpens what you actually pursue