My Three Markers

WHYZMEN · Rewire Retirement | My Three Markers · Charter Section 1.1


            H O M E W O R K               ·    C H A R T E R           S E C T I O N   1 . 1
                                       My Three Markers
                                The three scenes that shaped who you became



   W H Y T H E S E T H R E E · Dan McAdams · The Stories We Live By
   After 40 years of research into how people construct identity, psychologist Dan McAdams
   identified three specific kinds of memory that carry more weight than any other in shaping
   who we become. He calls them nuclear episodes — not because they were the biggest
   events in your life, but because of the meaning you made from them. Your peak tells you
   what you were made for. Your valley tells you what you were made of. Your turning point
   tells you when you became the man you are now.
   Dan Allender adds the theological dimension in To Be Told: these scenes are not merely
   memories. They are invitations — God is still speaking through them. You are not writing
   autobiography. You are doing discernment.


⏱ WHEN                                   ✍ HOW MUCH                        🔒 PRIVATE
Before the next session.                 Three sentences per               These pages stay with you.
Spread across two sittings if            marker. No more. We are           Nothing is read aloud
helpful — not all at once.               planting seeds, not writing       tonight. They become seeds
                                         the full story. That comes in     for the story work that
                                         Sessions 4–5.                     follows.



   1       Peak Moment
           A time you felt most fully alive — most yourself, most capable, most in your element.
           What was happening? What made it a peak? What does it tell you about who you were
           made to be?




Participant Guide · Confidential | 1
WHYZMEN · Rewire Retirement | My Three Markers · Charter Section 1.1




   2       Valley Moment
           A defining hardship — something that broke, or threatened to break you.
           What happened? What did it cost you? What — if anything — did it forge in you?




   3       Turning Point
           A moment when something changed — a decision, a loss, a word, a meeting.
           What was the before? What was the after? What is different about you because of it?




  WHAT HAPPENS NEXT                                      CHARTER 1.1 · MY STORY
  Bring these pages to the next session. You             These three markers are the raw material for
  may expand them between now and then                   Charter Section 1.1. They are not the
  — adding detail, names, places, dialogue               finished section — they are the excavation
  — but do not edit them. Expand only.                   that makes the writing possible.
  Sessions 4 and 5 will use these three                  McAdams: identity is not what you did — it
  scenes as the foundation for the full                  is the story you tell about what you did.
  McAdams narrative interview — mining                   Allender: these scenes are invitations. God
  them deeper, finding the arc, and placing              placed them in your life to be read.
  them into Charter 1.1.




Participant Guide · Confidential | 2