What if your resume wasn’t just a list of jobs and achievements, but a vision for who you want to become? In this episode of Epic Stories, I invite you to imagine your life ten years from now and ask: what would your future resume say?

I share how a simple yet powerful idea from Jesse Cole, founder of the Savannah Bananas, got me thinking beyond traditional resumes. Instead of listing what I've done, what if I focused on who I intend to be? This episode is all about shifting from simply filling a resume with success to filling a life with significance—and the intentional daily choices that shape our stories.

Key Takeaways

• Embracing the Future Resume: I explain how thinking about who I want to become, rather than just what I’ve done, helps me make better decisions each day.
• Focusing Beyond Work: I talk about the most meaningful additions to my personal resume—like repaired relationships, learned skills, or unforgettable experiences—that matter more than job titles.
• Living Intentionally: I share the realization that life rarely “settles down,” and it’s up to me to write my future through everyday choices, not just big events.
• Practical Challenge: I walk you through how you can create your own future resume—starting today, with a blank page and a bold vision.
• The Power of Dreaming: I remind you (and myself!) that every remarkable life starts with imagining a different future.

Ready to join me on this journey? Take out a piece of paper, title it “My Future Resume,” and start writing about the person you intend to become and the life you want to live over the next ten years. Share your dreams with the hashtag #epiclivingpodcast, drop me a comment on my Facebook page, or visit epiclivingwithjean.com to discover more about living your own epic story. Let’s make intentional choices together—today and every day!

Mentioned in this episode:

Epic Stories is Part of the eWomenPodcastNetwork

eWomenPodcastNetwork

welcome back to another episode of Epic Stories, the podcast where we believe that every person has a story worth living. End the story worth telling. My name is Jean Tillery. I'm a certified dream manager, speaker, author, and founder of Epic Living with Jean. And today, I want to ask you a question. What does your resume look like? Most of us have one tucked away somewhere on our computer. A resume is essentially a snapshot of our past.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to an interview with Jesse Cole, the founder of the Savannah Bananas. Now, if you've ever watched the Savannah Bananas, you know they're famous for completely reimagining the game of baseball. They don't just create fans, they create experiences that people never forget. But during this interview, Jesse wasn't talking about baseball. He was talking about hiring. He mentioned that he likes his applicants to submit something he calls a future resume. Not a document that lists where they've been, but one that describes where they hope to go and who they hope to become. I remember thinking, now that is a fascinating question.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't think that this is just a great hiring question. I think it's one of the best life questions that I've ever heard. Most resumes are backward looking. They tell us where someone has worked, where, what they've accomplished, the skills that they've developed. But a future resume, it asks something entirely different. Who are you intentionally becoming? If someone asked you to write a resume dated 10 years from today, what would it say? Would it list businesses that you finally started, a promotion that you earned? A nonprofit that you launched, a book that you finally wrote? Would it mention that you became healthier, that you repaired a relationship, that you traveled somewhere you always dreamed of going? Or maybe, maybe you would stare at a blank page because you've been so busy surviving that you've forgotten to imagine what is possible? I think that is a question worth wrestling with. When I became a dream manager, one of the first tools that I learned about was creating a dream list. Not a bucket list, a dream list.

Because dreams aren't just about vacations or learning to skydive. Dreams include becoming the kind of spouse that you want to be, the kind of parent, kind of friend, the kind of leader, the kind of employee, kind of business owner? Your dreams shape direction, and direction shapes decisions. That's exactly what a future resume is really all about. Not predicting the future, but choosing it. Every decision that you make today is writing a line on tomorrow's resume. Every habit, every Conversation, every opportunity that you say yes to and every excuse that you allow to keep you stuck, you're already writing it. The only question is, are you writing it intentionally? So let's make this a little personal. If I asked you to add five new accomplishments to your resume, what would they be? And really, let's forget all about work for a moment.

What would you add to your life? Resume things like, I became more patient. I finally forgave someone. I learned to play guitar. I ran my first 5k, I took my kids camping. I visited Yellowstone. I wrote letters to my grandchildren. These things, they won't ever appear on LinkedIn, but they may be the things that matter the most. I think we've confused success with significance.

Success fills a resume, but significance, it fills a life. When I spoke about the memory board test a few weeks ago, I asked a different question. What pictures would people find that told the story of your life? Today, I'm asking something similar. What would your future resume say? It's a different exercise, but the same purpose. To look at yourself and whether you're living intentionally. One of my favorite questions that I get to ask people is, what dreams have you been putting off? And it seems like the answers almost always start the same way. Well, when I retire, or when things slow down, or when I have more money, when I lose weight, when life settles down. But here's what I've learned.

Life rarely settles down. There's always going to be another project, another bill, another reason to wait. And if we're not careful, we will spend our entire lives preparing to live instead of actually living. So let's imagine that you're sitting down 10 years from now. Future you slides a resume across the table. Would you smile? Would you be surprised? Would you wish that you had taken more chances? Would you wish that you had worried less? Would you wish you had started sooner? The future resume is being written today. Not tomorrow. Today.

Every page starts with the choices that you are making right now. So the more I thought about Jesse Cole's idea, the more I realized that this isn't just a great hiring exercise, it's a great life exercise. Whether you're leading a company, raising a family, building a business, or simply trying to become a better version of yourself, your future resume is being written every single day. It also reinforced something that I have believed for years. As a dream manager. We spend a lot of time asking people, what have you done? Maybe we should be asking people, what do you want to become? Those are very different conversations, and they produce very different lives, which Brings me to today's epic message. Your future isn't built when opportunity arrives. It's built long before that.

One intentional decision at a time. Most people think the future will change because something extraordinary happens. A new job, a lucky break, the perfect opportunity. But our future is usually shaped by ordinary moments. A book we finally open, the phone call we finally make the dream. We finally written down that first small step that we finally take. Today's resume is simply the collection of today's choices. So choose intentionally.

This week, I want you to do something a little different. Take out a piece of paper and write the heading my future resume. At the bottom, put today's date. And then at the top, the date 10 years from now and start writing. Not writing what you hope to happen, but what you intend to become. Write about the person you want to be, the experiences that you want to have, the impact that you want to make, the relationships you want to strengthen, and the adventures that you want to take. Don't worry about how. Just dream.

Because every remarkable life begins with someone willing to imagine a different future. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. If today's episode challenged you and got you thinking about the future you want to create, I'd love for you to share it with someone who might need the reminder that it's never too late to start writing a different story. And if this idea connected with you, go back and listen to some of our recent episodes, like the memory board test where we talked about intentionally creating memories that tell the story of a life well lived. Because whether your memory board, your dream list, or your future resume, they're all asking the same question. Who are you becoming? Until next time, keep dreaming, keep growing, keep choosing intentionally. And remember, it's all about the story. Thanks for hanging out with me.

If today's episode struck a chord with you and you want to spread the love, please share using the hashtag epiclivingpodcast and leave a comment on my Facebook page. Head over to my website epiclivingwithjean.com to learn more about what it means to live epic. And while you're there, download a free guide, 7 Ways to Start Living Epic, and it will help you take your first step. If you want to learn more about my Dream Manager program or just want to chat about what epic might look like in your life, reach out to me and let's set up a call. See you next time. I hope you go out and live EPIC today and every day. And remember, it's all about the story.