Life Design
Life design is an approach that applies design thinking principles to life planning.
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What Is Life Design?
Many of us hold dysfunctional beliefs about what life should be. For example, we might think that the major we choose in college determines our career forever, or that success means earning a high salary, owning a luxury car, and having a big house.
These beliefs are shaped by a society that promotes a single, linear path in life—get a degree, find a job, work hard, retire, and then enjoy life. But life is anything but linear, and there is a different way to approach life—one that challenges these traditional beliefs and allows for more flexibility and fulfilment.
Drawn from the work of Stanford University instructors Bill Burnett and Dan Evans, life design is about rethinking these societal expectations and creating a life that aligns with your own values, interests, and aspirations. Instead of following a prescribed path, life design encourages you to explore various possibilities, embrace change, and actively create a life that is meaningful and joyful.
In a nutshell, life design is a way for you to figure out your own good life and your own answers to the following life questions:
- What is the good life?
- Why am I here?
- What am I doing?
- Why does it matter?
- What is my purpose?
- What’s the point of it all?
How to Design a Life You Love
There are 5 steps to designing the life you want:
1. Connect the dots
Most people want to live a meaningful and purposeful life but often feel lost about how to achieve it. The key to finding more meaning is by connecting the dots between who you are, what you believe, and what you do.
To start, ask yourself two important questions:
- Workview: What is your philosophy of work? Why do you work, and what purpose does it serve for you? What do you hope to achieve through your work?
- Lifeview: What is your understanding of life? What is the big picture for you? Why do you believe you're here, and how do you see your role in the world?
When you can connect your workview and lifeview in a way that feels coherent and integrated, you begin to live a life that feels meaningful and authentic.
2. Identify Your Gravity Problems
A gravity problem is a problem that simply can't be changed, much like the force of gravity itself. No matter how much you might wish to bicycle up a hill as easily as you ride on flat land, gravity will always make it a challenge. Similarly, in life, gravity problems are defined by immovable circumstances—things that are either beyond your control or that you are unwilling to change.
For example, perhaps you're determined to climb the corporate ladder at your current company, dreaming of one day becoming the CEO. However, it's a family-owned business, and leadership roles are reserved for family members. Despite your hard work and dedication, your chances of reaching the top are slim because you don't share the same last name. This situation can be frustrating, leaving you feeling stuck and unsure of how to proceed.
The key to dealing with gravity problems is acceptance. Recognising and accepting that these issues cannot be changed allows you to free yourself from frustration and wasted effort. Instead of getting caught up in what you can't change, you can change your thinking or you can decide to take a different route.
3. Create an Odyssey Plan
One of the most powerful ways to design your life is to think beyond just one path and imagine multiple possibilities. This approach helps you explore different ways your future could unfold, encouraging creativity and flexibility. This is where the concept of Odyssey Plans comes in.
Odyssey Plans involve creating three distinct versions of your future over the next five years, each reflecting different choices and directions your life could take.
To create your Odyssey Plans, answer these three prompts:
- Current Path: Describe in detail what your life would look like five years from now if you continue on your current trajectory. Consider your career, relationships, hobbies, and lifestyle.
- Alternative Path: Imagine what your life would look like five years from now if you took a completely different path. What if you pursued a different career, moved to a new city, or started a new hobby? How would this change your life?
- Unlimited Possibilities: Envision your life five years from now if money, social obligations, and other people's opinions were irrelevant. What would you do if there were no limits or constraints?
4. Prototype it
Having ideas about what you want out of life is a great start, but these are often based on assumptions and guesses about what the experience will actually be like. The reality might be very different from what you imagine. This is where prototyping comes into play.
In the context of life design, prototyping means testing out your ideas on a small scale before committing to a big decision. Just like in product design, where you create a model to see how something works, life prototypes allow you to explore new paths and possibilities without taking huge risks. It’s about experimenting, learning, and refining your options based on real experiences.
You prototype to:
- Ask interesting questions: Prototyping helps you explore questions like, “What would it really be like to work in this field?” or “How would living in a new city change my daily life?”
- Expose assumptions: By testing your ideas, you can discover whether your assumptions are accurate. Maybe you think you’d love working remotely, but after trying it out, you find you miss the social interaction of an office.
- Involve others with your ideas: Prototyping allows you to gather feedback and insights from others who have experienced what you're exploring. Conversations with people in the field can give you a clearer picture of what to expect.
- Sneak up on the future: By trying out different versions of your future, you can get a sense of what it might feel like before fully committing. This helps you make more informed and confident choices.
5. Choose Well
How do you know you've made the right decision? In life design, there’s a structured process to help you make decisions that align with your values and goals. This process, rooted in positive psychology, helps you navigate choices effectively:
GATHER & CREATE > NARROW DOWN > CHOOSE > LET GO & MOVE ON
Here’s how each step works:
- Gather & Create: Start by gathering information and generating as many options as possible. This phase is all about exploration—researching, brainstorming, and creating a wide array of possibilities. The goal is to give yourself a broad range of choices, considering different scenarios and paths you might take.
- Narrow Down: Once you have a list of options, it's time to narrow it down. Look at each option critically and ask yourself which ones align most closely with your values, interests, and goals. This is where you eliminate options that are not practical or don't excite you. Focus on the choices that feel right and seem achievable.
- Choose: After narrowing your options, it’s time to make a decision. Choose the option that resonates most with you—one that feels not just logically sound but also intuitively right. Trust your gut feeling and don't overthink. Remember, there’s rarely a perfect choice; the goal is to make the best possible choice with the information you have.
- Let Go & Move On: Once you've made your choice, commit to it fully. Let go of the other options and don’t dwell on what might have been. This step is essential because second-guessing your decision can lead to regret and dissatisfaction. Instead, focus on moving forward with confidence, embracing the path you’ve chosen.
How to Discover What Matters Most to You
Before you can make meaningful changes in your life, you need a clear roadmap of where you want to go. For some, this vision comes naturally—they’ve known who they want to be and what they want to do from an early age. However, not everyone has this clarity, and it's easy to get stuck trying to figure it out. The articles below provide strategies to help you discover what truly matters to you.
Best Life Design Books
- Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris