Start Where You Are
Take stock of your current life with a reflective tool like the Lifeview and Workview. Understand your starting point without judgment to design your way forward.
You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you are.
Designing Your Life - A Journey to Joy and Purpose
True happiness comes from designing a life that works for you.
Hey there, life explorers! Today, I’m thrilled to unpack Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. This isn’t just a book; it’s a blueprint for reimagining your existence through the lens of design thinking—a creative, problem-solving approach born in the innovation hubs of Stanford. Whether you’re feeling stuck, searching for purpose, or just curious about a fresh perspective, this gem offers practical tools to craft a life that’s uniquely yours. Let’s dive into how design principles can transform your personal and professional journey with curiosity, action, and a sprinkle of joy.
Building a Compass
Create a guiding compass from your Lifeview (world beliefs) and Workview (work philosophy) to align your path with purpose and meaning.
A compass is a tool for finding your true north—your direction in life.
Wayfinding
Discover what engages and energizes you by tracking your “flow” moments with a Good Time Journal. Follow the clues to a fitting life and career.
It’s not about having all the answers—it’s about following the signs.
Getting Unstuck
Break free from “gravity problems” (unchangeable issues) by focusing on actionable challenges. Use mind mapping to brainstorm fresh paths.
The key to getting unstuck is to focus on what you can change.
Design Your Lives
Imagine three distinct 5-year “Odyssey Plans” to explore multiple life versions, showing there’s more than one way to live brilliantly.
There’s more than one way to live a great life.
Prototyping
Test life ideas with small, low-risk experiments like shadowing a career or trying a short project before fully committing.
Prototyping helps you learn what works for you without risking everything.
Designing Your Dream Job
Craft your ideal role by aligning work with your values—impact, lifestyle, or growth—and prototype paths to fit your evolving needs.
Your dream job isn’t out there waiting to be found—it’s something you design.
Choosing Happiness
Intentionally design happiness by focusing on love, play, work, and health through small, deliberate choices in key life areas.
You don’t find happiness; you design it by prioritizing what matters most.
Failure Immunity
Reframe failure as learning with a Failure Log. Build resilience by seeing setbacks as data to grow stronger and wiser.
Failure immunity isn’t about avoiding mistakes; it’s about using them to grow.
Building a Team
Surround yourself with a supportive life design team—friends, mentors, collaborators—to brainstorm and thrive together.
You can’t design a great life alone—you need a team.
Start Where You Are
Embracing Your Current Reality
Starting where you are is the foundation of life design. It’s about taking a honest snapshot of your life across four key areas—health, work, play, and love—without judgment or wishful thinking. The authors introduce the concept of a “dashboard” to assess these areas, much like checking the gauges on a car. This isn’t about fixing everything at once; it’s about clarity. For instance, only 27% of college graduates in the U.S. end up in careers related to their majors, highlighting how often we start from unexpected places.
Assessing Life Areas
Key Insight
You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you are.
This powerful reminder (highlighted for impact) sets the tone for actionable change. Accepting your reality—whether it’s a mismatched career or unbalanced life—is the first step to designing forward.
Why It Matters
Understanding your starting point prevents wasted effort on “gravity problems”—things you can’t change, like wishing for a different past. Instead, focus on what’s actionable. This mindset shift, paired with reflective tools like journaling your Lifeview and Workview, empowers you to map a path that’s truly yours, not dictated by outdated assumptions or external pressures.
Building a Compass
Finding Your True North
A life without direction is like wandering without a map. Burnett and Evans propose building a personal compass from two core reflections: your Lifeview (how you see the world and what gives it meaning) and your Workview (what work means to you and why you do it). This isn’t about rigid goals but about coherence—connecting who you are, what you believe, and what you do. Studies suggest that people who align their work with social meaning are more satisfied and resilient.
Key Insight
A compass is a tool for finding your true north—your direction in life.
This standout line (marked for emphasis) underscores the importance of internal guidance over external noise. It’s your north star when life gets messy.
How It Guides You
Creating this compass involves deep introspection—writing down what matters most in life and work. It’s a personal anchor, ensuring you don’t live someone else’s script. Whether you’re a fresh grad or mid-career, this tool helps you navigate inevitable compromises with integrity, pointing toward a life of purpose over aimless drifting.
Wayfinding
Following Engagement and Energy
Wayfinding, an ancient art of navigation without a fixed map, is reimagined here as tuning into what lights you up. The authors suggest keeping a Good Time Journal to log moments of engagement and “flow”—that euphoric state where time vanishes, as researched by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Did you know your brain, just 2% of body weight, consumes 25% of daily energy (about 500 calories of 2000)? How you invest attention directly impacts your vitality.
Key Insight
It’s not about having all the answers—it’s about following the signs.
This gem (highlighted for clarity) encourages curiosity over certainty. Life isn’t a GPS with turn-by-turn directions; it’s a journey of noticing what energizes you.
Uncovering Your Path
This module isn’t about a final destination but about clues—when do you feel alive? For someone like Michael in the book, realizing he loved complex engineering tasks over admin work reshaped his career. Tracking flow moments reveals patterns, guiding you to roles or hobbies that fit. It’s a gentle, intuitive way to design without pressure, focusing on joy as a compass.
Getting Unstuck
Breaking Free with Ideation
Feeling stuck is universal, often due to “gravity problems”—issues beyond control, like wishing time moved slower. The trick is shifting focus to what’s actionable. Mind mapping, a visual brainstorming tool, helps explode a single idea into countless possibilities, bypassing your inner critic. The authors stress quantity over quality—more ideas mean better chances at innovation.
Key Insight
The key to getting unstuck is to focus on what you can change.
This critical advice (emphasized for impact) cuts through paralysis. Stop fighting unchangeable realities and ideate around what’s within reach.
Moving to Action
For someone like Grant, stuck in a draining job, ideation opened new paths beyond his first, flawed idea. This process isn’t about perfection but exploration—wild, crazy ideas are welcome because judgment kills creativity. By reframing “stuck” as a chance to prototype small changes, you fail fast, learn faster, and build momentum. It’s a designer’s hack for life’s anchor problems.
Design Your Lives
Imagining Multiple Futures
Why settle for one life plan when you can dream up three? The Odyssey Plans exercise invites you to sketch three 5-year futures: one based on your current path, one if money/image weren’t barriers, and one wild-card idea. It’s a liberating reminder that life isn’t a single track. Chung’s story shows how exploring multiple internships led to clarity, not compromise.
Key Insight
There’s more than one way to live a great life.
This vibrant truth (highlighted for resonance) frees you from the “one right choice” myth. Life design thrives on options.
Expanding Possibilities
This isn’t about predicting the future but playing with it. Each plan reveals different facets of you, building self-efficacy through divergence. It’s not a blueprint but a sandbox—test ideas without fear. Whether you’re 20 or 50, this approach shows life as a series of seasons, each ripe for reinvention, ensuring you don’t lock into a “second-best” existence by default.
Prototyping
Testing Ideas in Real Life
Prototyping in life design mirrors product testing—try before you buy. Instead of leaping into a new career, start small: shadow someone, take a short project, or volunteer. Clara’s journey from sales exec to homeless advocate began with low-stakes experiments, not a blind leap. It’s about data—real-world feedback without high risk.
Key Insight
Prototyping helps you learn what works for you without risking everything.
This pivotal idea (marked for emphasis) champions small steps over reckless jumps. Test, learn, adjust.
Sneaking Up on the Future
Prototypes isolate variables—curious about mediation? Try part-time. They’re not thought experiments; they’re physical experiences that reveal hidden biases and build empathy. Clara’s path wasn’t linear, but each prototype clarified her passion. This method reduces anxiety, letting you “fail forward” into a life that fits, one experiment at a time.
Designing Your Dream Job
Crafting Work That Fits
Forget chasing a mythical “dream job” online—only 20% of U.S. jobs are posted publicly. Instead, design it by aligning work with your values: impact, autonomy, or growth. Kurt’s 56 Life Design Interviews turned zero offers into seven by seeking stories, not jobs, tapping the hidden job market through genuine connection.
Hidden Job Market
Key Insight
Your dream job isn’t out there waiting to be found—it’s something you design.
This transformative perspective (highlighted for impact) shifts you from seeker to creator. Build, don’t hunt.
Co-Creating Your Career
This isn’t about perfection but “close enough” roles in meaningful places. Use prototyping and networking (reframed as asking for directions) to uncover invisible opportunities. Focus on the hiring manager’s needs, not just yours, and pursue offers with curiosity. It’s a dynamic process of co-creation, ensuring work evolves with you.
Choosing Happiness
Designing Joy Intentionally
Happiness isn’t luck; it’s a design choice across love, play, work, and health. Research like Dan Gilbert’s on “synthesizing happiness” shows we can create joy even in setbacks. The authors advocate discernment—using gut feelings alongside logic—to choose well, avoiding choice overload (Barry Schwartz’s paradox).
Key Insight
You don’t find happiness; you design it by prioritizing what matters most.
This profound truth (emphasized for clarity) flips the script. Happiness is active, not passive.
Living Into Choices
Choosing well means gathering options, narrowing to 3-5, deciding with multiple ways of knowing, and letting go of “what ifs.” It’s not about the “best” choice but embracing your pick fully. Small, deliberate actions—like nurturing relationships or playful hobbies—build lasting joy, proving happiness is a skill, not a destination.
Failure Immunity
Reframing Setbacks as Growth
Failure stings, but it’s not fatal in life design. Angela Duckworth’s grit research proves perseverance trumps IQ for success. Keep a Failure Log to track lessons, not losses. James Carse’s infinite game mindset sees life as play, not a win-lose battle, making you immune to failure’s emotional weight.
Key Insight
Failure immunity isn’t about avoiding mistakes; it’s about using them to grow.
This empowering reframe (highlighted for impact) turns failure into fuel. Every flop is data.
Building Resilience
Prototyping means failing by design—small, safe tests teach big lessons. Reed’s story shows failure as education, not identity. Life isn’t an outcome; it’s a dance of becoming. Embrace flaws and setbacks as raw material for success, designing forward no matter the obstacle, with curiosity as your shield.
Building a Team
Collaborating for Success
Solo life design is a myth—genius is collaborative. Build a team of supporters, players, intimates, and core collaborators (3-5 people) to brainstorm, reflect, and hold you accountable. Radical collaboration isn’t just help; it’s co-creation, as vital as any design tool.
Key Insight
You can’t design a great life alone—you need a team.
This essential truth (marked for emphasis) celebrates community. “We” outshines “I” every time.
Thriving Together
Your team isn’t about answers but presence—respectful, confidential, generative support. Mentors offer counsel, not advice, clarifying your thoughts. Beyond teams, community sustains a well-designed life through shared creation. From prototyping to pivots, others’ stories and insights shape your path, making life design a collective adventure.