Purpose

This exercise uses a shock tactic to motivate people and get them to recognize the importance of the time we have in our life. It encourages them to think about life as a whole and draw up their mission statement sooner than later.

Objective

Delegates are shown an image which they must recognise and suggest solutions. But then, there is a catch…

Setup

• Draw the above shape on the whiteboard or flipchart.
• Ask the delegates to guess what it is.
• Let them freely throw lot of ideas. Provide a relax environment where participants are allowed to make humorous comments.
• Once ideas are exhausted, state that they are indeed two tombstones. One of them is erected by you and the other is erected by others.
• Your task is to see what you want to be written on each of them. What do you want to have on yours and what do you want others to write for you.
• Depending on the type of delegates, you may not want to push them to share their self-disclosures. Some people will be more open (at least to themselves) if they know they don’t have to share, so again depending on your audience you can state that they don’t have to share before the exercise.

Timing

Explaining the Test: 5 minutes.

Activity: 15 minutes

Group Feedback: 5 minutes.

Discussion

Follow up by asking how they felt? Many people don’t have a mission statement and countless studies show that those who do and have a ‘written’ mission and goal in life are far more likely to succeed. This exercise encourages the delegates to think hard about how they want to be remembered when they are gone and what this life is all about.