Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up. -- Anne Lamont

Development Exercise

Back to the Big Picture

Today we expand back into a big picture view of your life. Using Erik Erikson’s popular model of psychosocial development. I want you to consider how you fared as you moved through each of the eight stages of his developmental model. 

To help you connect your experiences to his developmental goals, I’ve created some questions. The first three columns are directly from Erikson, The fourth column questions are intended to help you sort out how you fared as you navigated this stage of development. It’s okay if the model doesn't make sense to you. (I've never found it very intuitive as it it typically presented!) It’s not necessary to understand the model to do this exercise. Just focus on the questions that I've written.

How to Write

You don't need to do free writing for this exercise as this is more like the Lifeline - jotting down your notes and thoughts. For each of the 8 questions, please write at least a phrase or two in response. For decades you haven’t yet lived or can no longer recall, please work imaginatively. What you imagine can be as useful (or more useful) to your project than facts!

The next exercise will have your reflecting on this work. Today you just need to do some thinking, remembering, and imagining.

It takes courage to answer these questions honestly as we explore where others were not able to meet our needs or where we feel like we could have done better. For many women, it can be painful to recognize how much of ourselves we have given away for decades. Your job is to be kind to yourself as you explore the truth behind these questions. No shaming or blaming of self allowed!

StoryList

If anything came to you today for a possible story, please write it down. You won't get StoryList ideas everyday, so don't force it if nothing comes. Write things down when you connect with something. (About halfway through the course, we will get into your StoryList to decide on what you will write, so we need to make sure you are taking these notes as you go!)

In search of my mother's garden, I found my own. - Alice Walker