Designing Your Life

Designing Your Life book cover
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Only about 20% of young people between 12 and 26 have a clear vision of where they want to go, what they want to accomplish in life, and why. Only 27% of college grads end up in a career related to their majors. Two-thirds of workers are unhappy with their jobs. And 15% actually hate their work.
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans teach students at Stanford how to apply the principles of design thinking to the problem of designing your life. They’ve written a book so you don’t have to go to Stanford to have a well-designed life.
“When we were faced with the problem of helping our students leave college and enter the world as productive and happy people—to figure out just what the hell to do with the life in front of them—we knew design thinking would be the best way to solve this particular problem,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
Designing Your Life can help you address: How do I find a job that I like or maybe even love? How do I build a career that will make me a good living? How do I balance my career with my family? How can I make a difference in the world?
According to Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, ”Many people operate under the dysfunctional belief that they just need to find out what they’re passionate about. Then once they know, everything will fall magically into place.”
“We believe people actually need to take time to develop a passion. And the research shows that, for most people, passion comes after they try something, discover they like it, and develop mastery—not before…Passion is the result of a good life design, not the cause,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
“Most people do not have that one thing they are passionate about—that singular motivator that drives all of their life decisions and infuses every waking moment with a sense of purpose and meaning,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
“It has been our experience, in office hour after office hour, that people waste a lot of time working on the wrong problem. If they are lucky, they will fail miserably quickly and get forced by circumstance into working on better problems. If they are unlucky and smart, they’ll succeed—we call it the success disaster—and wake up ten years later wondering how the hell they got to wherever they are, and why they are so unhappy,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
“We can’t give you insights, change your perspective, and provide you with nonstop ‘aha’ moments, all in ten easy steps. What we can tell you is that if you actually use the tools and do the life design exercises, you will generate the insights you need to have,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
 Dysfunctional Belief: If you are successful, you will be happy. Reframe: True happiness comes from designing a life that works for you.
Dysfunctional belief: I should know where I’m going! Reset: I won’t always know where I’m going—but I can always know whether I’m going in the right direction.
Dysfunctional belief: Work is not supposed to be enjoyable; that’s why they call it work. Reset: Enjoyment is a guide to finding the right work for you.
Dysfunctional Belief: I need to figure out my best possible life, make a plan, and then execute it.  Reframe: There are multiple great lives (and plans) within me, and I get to choose which one to build my way forward to next.
“There is no one idea for your life. There are many lives you could live happily and productively, and there are lots of different paths you could take to live each of those productive, amazingly different lives,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
According to Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, “Life designers need to embrace two philosophies: (1) You choose better when you have lots of good ideas to choose from; (2) You never choose your first solution to any problem.”
“The plain and simple truth is that you will live many different lives in this lifetime. If the life you are currently living feels a bit off, don’t worry; life design gives you endless mulligans. You can do it over at any point, at any time. ‘Correction shots’ are always allowed,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
“A well-designed life is not a life of drudgery. You weren’t put on this earth to work eight hours a day at a job you hate until the time comes to die……You can use design thinking to create a life that is meaningful, joyful, and fulfilling,” said Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.