It’s time to raid your old toy box! Did you know that CAPD offers workshops and events utilizing LEGO® Serious Play® as a way to help you ideate, prototype, and plan out your career? One way to think about how LSP works is to think about how it is like 3-D printing what is on your mind. You can use LEGO bricks to explore topics through story, metaphor, and symbols. Thinking about how what you build comes together both literally and figuratively can offer you some unique insights into your needs—and is a lot of fun to do while you’re doing it!

CAPD has hosted a variety of workshops to help you reflect on how your values and strengths come together to provide a more holistic idea of what you are looking for in your future career.

Build towards your goal

Where are you now and where do you want to be? And how do you bridge the gap between them? Using your LEGO bricks, create an idea of where you are at this moment. Ask yourself:

• Who am I?
• What is important to me?
• What resources do I have at my disposal?

Next, spend time thinking about a goal you have. Be as elaborate or concise as you need to be, but feel free to reach far out into the future. After all, how do you build a humongous LEGO® Castle? One brick at a time. So, dream big! This process is designed to help you break down your goals into more manageable steps.

As you continue to play with the pieces, think about how you might bridge the divide between where you are now and the distal goal you are hoping to achieve. Ask yourself:

• How can I break this distal goal into smaller, more proximal goals?
• In what ways do I still need to grow or develop on my way towards this goal?
• What are potential barriers I will encounter, and how might I overcome those?
• What resources might I need to rely on as I pursue this goal?
• How will I celebrate achieving my goal?

As you build, note down things that you may need to do. Create a checklist to accompany the wishlist that is your goal. With some effort (along with the play) you should be able to reach any goal you design.

Build to a purposeful career

What makes a career purposeful? This self-reflection activity can be done individually or with other. After finding your top values, we encourage you to build a representation of your values using LEGO bricks.

As you create a representation of each value, here are some questions that you can ask yourself:

• How does my build reflect me?
• What is my favorite part of my build? Why?
• If what I built could talk, what would it say?
• What did I learn about myself from this exercise?

Once you have built representations of your top values, try to integrate them together into a holistic representation of you as an individual. Your build does not have to look anything like you, but through this exercise you will hopefully uncover:

• Your top priorities
• Potential barriers to avoid in your career
• Specific resources or supports you might need
• Some things you can do immediately to make the most out of your career

If you have done this activity with others, be sure to take time to inquire deeper with each other about what you each built. Sometimes it is beneficial to get the perspectives of others to harness deeper meaning into what you have built.

Build your talents into strengths

Claim your strengths! If you have taken the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment (which you can seek access to from CAPD), you can use your top-5 report to play with your talent themes to help you name, claim, and aim your strengths using LEGO pieces. You can take this activity as a solo exercise, or you can start to see how collaborating with others can help you merge your strengths together to get some surprising results!

Building each of your strengths individually, and then merging them together, can help you uncover some of the theme dynamics that make your top-5 a unique approach specific to you. These can become your superpower with the right amount of investment and dedication.

Once you have built your strengths, either as an individual or as participant in a group, try to think about how you might lean on your strengths to:

• Build relationships
• Communicate clearly
• Create accountability
• Develop or inspire others
• And more!

Even after you have built your strengths, spend time ideating how you will continue to use your strengths each and every day.

Not sure if any of these activities are right for you? No worries! A principal component of LSP is to not get stuck in your thoughts—let the bricks and pieces guide you. Develop a bias for action and start building something. As you play you may start to unlock news ways of thinking about a problem or see information in a new way.

Erik Pavesic is the Assistant Director of Career Advising & Training and in addition to being a certified Gallup Strengths coach is also trained as a LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.

Craft a personal vision statement

A personal vision statement is a way to bring together your values, strengths, and goals into a singular statement that you can use throughout your life to guide both your life and career. This exercise does take some reflection and brainstorming, but completing this exercise is time well spent. For more information on how to craft your personal vision statement, check out this article from BetterUp.

Build your five-year resume

Think about yourself five years from now. What kind of job do you have? What degrees have you earned or are in the process of earning? Where do you live? What skills do you have? By projecting an idealized form of you five years into the future, you may be able to uncover the steps you need to get there through planning and goal setting. This article will help you build your five-year resume.

Write a love list

Thinking about the future? Why not include things you would love to do in the future! A love list is a simple activity that allows you to write out all sorts of activities and things you would love to do. They do not have to be work or career related, however there is a possibility that you can uncover your passions through them. Learn more about writing a love list with tips from Be More With Less.

Build your wheel of life

If you are feeling out of balance, it might help for you to think critically about the areas in your life that you may be focusing too much on, and the others you are neglecting. The Wheel of Life exercise is a way for you to self-assess your specific areas and identify if you are finding yourself out of balance. Try building your own Wheel of Life using this online tool from noomii.

Map your heartbreak

One step to finding your purpose is through identifying issues or causes that really matter to you. If something breaks your heart, you may find additional motivation to do something about it. This reflection exercise prompts you to think about your passions and connect these with issues that affect these passions. Learn how to do this exercise with steps from Learning to Give.

Identify your values

Identifying your values can help you focus on what you find truly important in life. Let your values help guide you and filter out the aspects of your life you may not want to focus on too heavily. When you meet with CAPD, we can help you with a values card sort exercise, or you can do something very similar online using this exercise from Think2Perform.

Write down your purpose

Regardless of whether you did the previous exercises listed here or not, taking a moment to write down your personal purpose statement can act as your own personal guide into the future. Keep in mind that identifying and pursuing your purpose make take time and evolve as your progress, but these reflective exercises are a great way to get started. Learn more about writing your statement with the help of Fearless Culture.

Still struggling to find ways to tap into your greater purpose? Meet with a career advisor to discuss some of your thoughts and get connected to additional resources.

Think2Perform provides an online version of a values card sort exercise that can help as well.