Future Authoring Program and Vision Building

Key Benefits and Research Findings

• Reduces Dropout Rates: Engaging in the Future Authoring program for 90 minutes decreases the probability of dropping out of college in the first year by 50%.
• Helps High-Risk Students: Particularly effective for students who are most likely to drop out.
• Vision and Plans: Good performers already have visions and plans, while bad performers often lack these, leading to higher ambivalence and more obstacles.

Importance of Having a Reason

• Obstacle Overcoming: Without a reason to do something, it's easy to avoid it due to obstacles and the effort required.
• Effort Required: Doing things like attending college requires significant effort and belief in the path chosen.

Future Authoring Program Structure

• Construing a Vision: The program helps individuals see themselves as capable of having a reason and developing a vision.
• Biblical Element: Based on Biblical principles like "Ask and you'll receive," emphasizing the importance of seeking and commitment.

Deep Exploration of Goals and Values

• Ask Fundamental Questions: What justifies your suffering? What would make carrying the life's weight worthwhile?
• 15-Minute Writing Exercise: Write about what life might be like 5 years down the road if you had what you needed and wanted.

Domains of Meaning

• Meaning Found in Multiple Areas:
  • Intimate Relationships: Desire and belief in the possibility of having one.
  • Friends: Having real friends.
  • Family: Positive relationships with family members.
  • Job/Career: Engaging in socially productive work.
  • Education: Intellectual fulfillment.
  • Self-care: Mental and physical health.
  • Avoidance of Temptations: Managing vices like drugs or alcohol.
  • Civic Responsibility: Participation in the community.

Addressing Depression and Misery

• Analyzing Life Aspects: Differentiate between being clinically depressed and having a terrible life situation.
• Small Steps for Improvement: Practical steps like improving social skills, making friends, engaging in the community, etc.

Vision Implementation

• Concrete Goals and Plans: Identify where you find meaning and address what would make your life meaningful.
• Positive Emotion: Positive emotion arises from progress towards valued goals.
• Negative Front: Understand the anger, bitterness, and fear that may stop you from progressing.

Personal Stories and Examples

• Personal Temptations and Solutions: Example of personal struggle with alcohol and finding better things to do.
• Therapeutic Success: Success stories of clients improving their lives dramatically through structured plans and vision.

Developing Character and Virtues

• Valuing Virtues: Importance of virtues like courage, trust, responsibility, and humor.
• Pop Culture Influence: Examples from media like Top Gun and The Marvel series that uphold classical virtues and inspire.

Addressing Bigger Issues

• Facing Larger Challenges: Importance of critical issues like famine and the balance between motivation and harshness.
• Fear of Death and Living Fully: Socratic hypothesis about living fully to combat fear of death and making the best use of life.

Philosophical and Psychological Insights

• Importance of Self-Sacrifice: Voluntary suffering and sacrifice for a higher good brings redemption and transformation.
• Role Models and Heroes: Identifying and emulating admired individuals to improve character.
• Building a Framework for Life: The hierarchy of values and the importance of societal structures.

Encouragement and Optimism

• Servitude and Meaning: Serving others as a way to find deep and abiding meaning, especially in times of hardship.