Hey, future lifestyle designers. Have you ever felt like there’s a deeper purpose to life? And that we have a limited time in front of us and we don’t maximise our potential? How we would do that? Would that be the role of lifestyle design?
I’ve often pondered the same questions and, trust me, the answer isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. I’ve heard about lifestyle design a while back and it’s a concept that I’d confidently call “pretty obvious”. But it’s also a concept that demands a closer look, a second thought, and maybe even a little rebellion.
Lifestyle Design – that’s the phrase that’s been buzzing around for a while, gaining momentum in conversations, online discussions, and even in the entrepreneurial world. At its core, it’s the radical idea of intentionally creating a life that resonates with your deepest desires and individuality.
Sounds simple, right? Just design your life the way you want it. But let’s be real; life has a knack for throwing in curveballs that make this seemingly straightforward task a bit more complex. You really need to take this serious and have a thought conversation with yourself about what you want, really want and how you can get it.
In this article, we’ll delve into the captivating realm of Lifestyle Design. We’ll explore the clash between societal norms and personal aspirations, and how this struggle has led many to question, including myself. And yes, we’ll also unravel the growing fascination with entrepreneurship as a means to mould life according to one’s dreams.
So, if you’re ready to challenge the status quo, redefine success on your own terms, and discover the art of crafting a life that’s uniquely yours, then keep reading. Because in a world that’s gradually waking up to the power of intentional living, embracing Lifestyle Design might just be the key to unlocking the door to your truest self.
Get ready to design a life that’s authentically, unapologetically, and beautifully yours. Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What is Lifestyle Design?
Lifestyle design is simply finding out what you love in life and making sure that you are doing it naturally, without compromising. Whatever you want to be doing, you make your life choices by ensuring you are getting closer to your ultimate goal – your go-to priority for happiness.
For some that could mean simpler life changes, for others could mean really difficult decisions; either way is a route which will require dedication, outside the box thinking and perseverance. As a heads up, probably will be seen as unconventionally, but don’t lose the sight of the bigger picture – your happiness.
The power of lifestyle design is:
- intentional action
- unlocking your time by becoming more efficient with how you spend it
- finding your true calling, what you really enjoy.
How Can You Design Your Dream Life?
While I was reading more and more about it, I’ve found a couple of articles suggesting all kinds of questions, which in most cases, where related to your retirement. Instinctively, we believe that once we are retired we are going to have the time to enjoy what we are doing, to take more hobbies, to go for that road trip we always wanted and so on.
However, I believe we don’t need to wait for retirement, we need to design a life you can enjoy it now. You know the saying: “Enjoy the road towards your destination, not only the destination.” Therefore, I end-up with 4 steps we can take to design our dream life.
Step 1: Build a Habit of Reflection
Learn to become keenly in tune with how your mood is and your body feels. What words describe your current mind and body status in this particular moment?
Are you confused? Are you exhausted? Or maybe you are relaxed? At ease? Happy where you are? Energised? Ready to go?
Really important: begin tracking how you feel and so you can analyse why you might feel that way. This exercise will build a habit of constant reflection. You will start understanding what makes you feel good and when. Again, for when you feel bad and how many bad moments you’ve had.
At the beginning, you will see struggle to log every single day how you are feeling and what your mood is, but I can say that you will be shocked to see the percentages of when you were in a good mood to a when you were in a less good one.
Step 2: Assume Control of Your Own Route
Probably, you have heard this before and maybe sounds like a cliché, but is true. You are the master of your own journey. As you are the only one which can control your own actions and you are never powerless to change how you feel and react.
Sounds easy, but in my opinion is one of the most difficult things to do. To acknowledge and to assume the responsibility for how we feel.
Let’s say you are not really pleased with your current job or current situation? What can you do to turn that around? Who’s forcing you to stay in the current environment? Who’s stopping you from communicating and taking action from rectifying this?
It seems unthinkable, impossible, but taking small steps creates instant relief. By assuming control and learning that you can fix your situations is a powerful tool in your arsenal.
Step 3: Create Your Ideal Future
Ask yourself the following questions and put the answers on a piece of paper so you can revisit them. Remember, these answer will evolve as you go through your own ventures and you get closer to your ultimate goal.
- What does your ideal day looks like? What about week?
- Do you prefer stability, routine or spontaneity?
- What kind of diet is important to you?
- What about the amount of exercise or outdoor activities?
- Where you see your family, friends in your ideal scenario?
- Do you want more hobbies or maybe less? Which ones are bringing more fulfilment and joy?
- Are you looking into minimalism, sustainable living or maybe minimalism?
- Are you pursuing FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early)?
- Are you looking to improve your income by combining hobbies with work?
- Where is your dream location? What about dream house? Car?
- What is your ideal job?
Step 4: Take Action: Just Do it.
Now that you have a starting point – your answers, synthesize them and create a mood board. You can either use a digital or physical version of a whiteboard where you can add images of your desired experiences, items, guidance quotes which incapsulate your answers.
With that board in mind, you are now going to reverse engineer your designed lifestyle, but creating measurable goals. For example, let’s say you are pursuing FIRE, and you’ve calculated that you need a certain amount of income to maintain your lifestyle. You can now create a budget to help you hit FIRE.
Begin incorporating mindfulness practices weekly, daily. Take small steps to achieve big dreams.
Lifestyle Design Tips
For the mood board, I highly recommend having a digital version of it as you can have it at your finger tips, anywhere and at anytime. I personally use Notion, which offers you a couple of templates for this purpose. Actually, if you are looking through their template library, probably you will find templates even for budgeting, or career progression. Here is a screenshot of one of the templates they offer for Personal Development.
Be uncomfortable
One of the reasons, why we are loosing our focus or we are procrastinating is related with our very own mindset and risk tolerance, either we are talking about the fear of success or the fear of failure.
If you start saying yes more often to opportunities that scare you, more quickly you will realise that most things work out easier that you initially thought. Sometimes, all you need is a leap of faith in the right direction.
So, start small and dream big. Your own “venture” is just around the corner.