Designing Your Life

About the Authors

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans are the creative minds behind "Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life." Both authors have extensive backgrounds in design and education, bringing unique perspectives to the concept of life design. Bill Burnett is the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford University, where he also received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Product Design. His co-author, Dave Evans, is a lecturer at Stanford and has co-founded Electronic Arts, one of the leading companies in interactive entertainment. Together, they combine their expertise in design thinking and life coaching to offer a refreshing approach to personal and professional development.

Main Idea

"Designing Your Life" posits that by adopting a designer's mindset, individuals can create fulfilling, joyful lives. The authors emphasize that true happiness stems from designing a life that aligns with personal values and aspirations. They propose that, like designers tackling a project, people should view their lives as problems to be solved through creativity, experimentation, and iterative processes. By focusing on problem-finding as much as problem-solving, Burnett and Evans encourage readers to explore multiple solutions to life's challenges, replacing dysfunctional beliefs with more productive and inspiring ones.

Table of Contents

1. Start Where You Are
2. Building a Compass
3. Wayfinding
4. Getting Unstuck
5. Designing Your Lives
6. Prototyping
7. How Not to Get a Job
8. Designing Your Dream Job
9. Choosing Happiness
10. Failure Immunity
11. Building a Team

Start Where You Are

The journey of designing your life begins with an honest assessment of your current situation. Burnett and Evans emphasize the importance of understanding your current state before making any changes. They encourage readers to reflect on their current work and life, identifying areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This self-awareness sets the foundation for the design process, allowing individuals to pinpoint specific aspects of their lives they wish to improve.

"Designers focus on problems. After all, inventions such as the toothbrush come about because someone recognized a problem and set out to rectify it." - Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

By starting where you are, you acknowledge the reality of your current circumstances. This step is crucial as it helps you identify the gaps between your present situation and your desired future. Burnett and Evans provide various exercises to facilitate this self-assessment, including journaling and reflective practices. These tools are designed to help you gain clarity about your strengths, weaknesses, and areas where you feel stuck.

Building a Compass

Creating a "workview" and a "lifeview" are crucial steps in aligning your professional and personal aspirations. A workview explores your beliefs about what makes for good work, while a lifeview examines your core values and what makes life meaningful. By writing reflections on these views, readers can identify any disconnects between their beliefs and their current reality. The goal is to integrate these views into a coherent life that reflects one's values and aspirations.

"Coherency in life means there is a connection between who a person is, what they believe, and what they are doing." - Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

To build your compass, the authors suggest writing detailed reflections on your workview and lifeview. Questions to consider include:

• What does work mean to you?
• What defines good or meaningful work?
• What gives your life meaning and purpose?
• What are your core values and beliefs?

By answering these questions, you create a compass that guides your decisions and actions. This compass ensures that your choices align with your true self and lead to a more coherent and fulfilling life.

Wayfinding

Wayfinding is about navigating life by following what brings you energy and joy. The authors introduce the concept of "flow," a state of heightened engagement and euphoria experienced during activities that resonate deeply with an individual. By journaling and reflecting on moments of flow, readers can identify patterns and activities that align with their passions and strengths. This process helps in making informed decisions about career and life paths.