Prototyping Possible Selves in Career Transition
This is part three of a three-part series.
How do we become someone new?
In a previous post, I wrote about loss of identity and career transition and how strength-based coaching can help. To close out the series, this final installment looks at how prototyping possible selves helps us move from identity loss and limbo into identity reconstruction.
What Are “Possible Selves?”
Introduced in 1986 by Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, possible selves theory explores connections between self-concept, imagined futures, and motivation. Our hopes and fears for ourselves are not mere abstractions but rather highly individualized and concrete. We can picture our future selves in our heads, hear them talking, see them walking around in the world. It’s the difference between thinking “I want to start exercising again” and imagining the future self, sweaty and energized after running a 5k with friends. Markus and Nurius describe possible selves theory as "the essential link between self-concept and motivation” [1, 2].
For coaches, this theory explains why articulating future identities can help clients move forward.
Why They Matter for Career Change
Changing careers often means changing identity. Exploring possible selves means opening to new options and may help with the trapped feeling that can accompany the need for change. Especially for adults exploring careers, it may involve breaking from old roles, imposter syndrome, or the sense that opportunity is limited by obligation to others [3].
At its core, exploring possible selves increases cognitive flexibility and perceived agency, two psychological capacities that support identity change.
How Our “Ideal” and “Ought” Selves Shape Motivation
You may already be thinking that some visions of your future self feel more useful than others. Research has explored how possible selves can be:
positive or negative (hopes or fears)
rated as likely or unlikely
“ideal” or “ought”
It turns out that both hopes and fears can be useful for motivation. Negative possible selves can direct our action especially well when we have an alternative positive self to move toward [3]. And, just like the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the tension between “ideal” and “ought” selves is between:
who you want to be
versus
who you feel you should be.
For clients, developing awareness of whether a future self is a “want to” or a “should” can be illuminating. And yes, research consistently shows that goals driven by intrinsic motivators support greater well-being and resilience than extrinsic motivators like status or praise.
Possible Selves in Practice
Trying on new selves is a central part of career change. As career development expert Herminia Ibarra proposes, our new selves are often provisional; they can be “created, tested, discarded and revised” [4]. In coaching, this means helping clients experiment with identities through small actions, reflection exercises, or powerful questions.
For example, a client who spent several decades as an expert in her field might welcome a future self in which she can again adopt the beginner’s mind, and with it, the freedom to experiment and play. Another client might imagine a future self who prioritizes a value-aligned career over one that promises more money.
How Do You “Prototype” A Possible Self?
If you’re looking for exercises that evoke Possible Selves Theory, check out the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Developed at the Stanford Design Lab, the DYL approach applies design thinking principles to questions of identity and career change. At its core is the idea of prototyping: trying small, low-risk experiments to learn what feels energizing and engaging. Many career changers find this approach helpful because it shifts them out of rumination and into action.
I recommend three core tools from the book:
Good Time Journal (tracks activities that energize or drain you),
Mind Mapping (explores themes through rapid association), and
Odyssey Plan (generates multiple 5-year future life possibilities).
These all use reflection, creativity, and visioning to generate novel future selves without the pressure of having to get it right.
A Real-Life Prototype
When illness interrupted my career as a professor, I used the DYL method to help me brainstorm what would come next. In fact, one Odyssey Plan—just one of many—ended up guiding my coaching career. I titled my Odyssey Plan “Put me in, Coach.” Who knows why, but it stuck as a mental title for my work and future self. To this day, the folder on my computer where I keep my coaching materials is called “Put Me in, Coach” and every time I see it, I’m reminded that my current self was once a possible self that I hesitantly prototyped, trying small experiments until I found my way. This is exactly how possible selves function: prototypes become containers for identity change.
Prototyping possible selves helps clients move from “how did I get here?” to “who do I want to become?”—one conversation at a time.
If you’re thinking about who you want to become next, you can start the conversation by booking a free consultation with me.
This article was adapted from my workshop, “Guiding Identity During Career Transition,” presented at the University of Pennsylvania’s Career Services on November 5, 2025.
References
[1] Possible Selves
[2] Why to Start Considering Your Possible Selves
[3] Possible Selves and Adult Learning
[4] Provisional Selves: Experimenting with Image and Identity in Professional Adaptation
