Step by step
5 WHYs
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- With this tool youth is encouraged to look their biggest fears in the eyes. Naming, visualising, writing down and dissecting the obstacles helps to get over them much faster.
- First, the adolescent needs to name the obstacle that stands on the way to succeed in any of the designed life scenarios and thrive in selected professional directions.
- Next task is to start dissecting the obstacle. Adolescent needs to ask why? As soon as there is an answer to first “Why?” it has to be questioned again and again until the fifth and final “Why?”
For example: My challenge is the fear of making mistakes. The first why: Why am I afraid of making mistakes? -> Because I have made a mistake before and I still remember it.
The second why: Why do I remember this negative experience? -> Because people around me blamed me for making a mistake.
Why do I worry about the thoughts of others? …. etc.) - With the fifth and final “WHY” an adolescent has at least 5 different perspectives how to address one obstacle, fear or insecurity. This helps to see and recognise, that sometimes big fears consist of small, often insignificant things or fears that are much easier to overcome. This also helps to come up with a plan: Which of the 5 WHYs the adolescent wants to address first, which the second and which – the last?
- Therefore, first step to create the big action plan is to create the smaller one – five step plan to overcome the big fear or insecurity.
- Plan like this can be made for as many obstacles or insecurities as needed.