DESIGNING YOUR LIFE
Take control of your future
Introduction > Know Yourself > Wayfinding > Ideation > Odyssey Plans > Life Prototypes
“There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you’re capable of living.”
— Nelson Mandela, first president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Designing Your Life with Innovation is a 1-credit class for those who want to answer the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”
This question is relevant for students as well as anyone who feels stuck in their current situation and need new directions or ideas to move forward.
A key belief in this class - “It is never too late to change your life”. You can always come up with new ideas and explore new possibilities that will lead you to a well-lived and fulfilling life.
In designing your life you will not just be dreaming up fun fantasies that are not grounded in reality or related to the real you. You are going to build things (known as prototypes of your life), try things out, talk to people who can help you, and have fun in the process with a group of supportive people (your design team).
This class will show you how to discover your passions and then use Design Thinking techniques to create, calibrate, and reinvent your life. Along the way, you will also learn how to overcome dysfunctional beliefs that are preventing you from reaching your fullest potential.
Here’s the big truth – each person has many versions of themselves and they are all “right”, meaning there are no wrong answers. Life design is about having the right mindset, using some tools, and being with a supportive group of people who will help you figure out how to grow into whatever version of you that you want.
The class culminates with each student developing three alternative 5-year plans they could explore and a game plan to make them happen.
Design Thinking framework
Design thinking is a process for solving problems creatively. It uses a human-centered approach and focuses on the needs of the people facing the problem. The process begins with asking the right questions and using mindset shifts to tackle the problem from a new perspective.
Why is Design Thinking a useful framework for designing your life?
First, this human-centered approach helps bring to light your values, hopes, fears, interests, passions, and other things that impact your future self. Secondly, it uses ideation techniques to help you generate lots of ideas and possibilities. Thirdly, it utilizes prototypes (quick and low-fidelity versions of your future life) to test the feasibility of your ideas. These reduce the risks associated with trying out different life choices.
In designing your life, the usual Design Thinking model is enhanced with Meaning-Making (the meaning of work, the meaning of life, and point of view) as well as Discovery & Support (practices, discernment, mentors, and a community of supporters).
Key Design Thinking mindsets
1. Reframe problems
Designers get unstuck by reframing a problem. Reframing enables designers to look at a problem through a different lens so as to generate even more innovative solutions.
4. Radical Collaboration
Design is a collaborative process and many great ideas come from others around you. The radical component comes from the diversity of the team with different experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view.
2. Be curious
Being curious often leads to new opportunities that you never thought of before. Curiosity invites exploration instead of judgment or rushing to a solution. Get use to saying, “tell me more…”
5. Mindful of process
Being mindful of your own process is key to life design. Are you rushing to a solution? Are you having a mental block? Which activities energize you and which are the ones that drain you? Are you harboring certain beliefs that are holding you back?
3. Bias towards action
Designers try things and are committed to building their way forward. They do not just talk about solutions. They test out ideas, failing often until they find what works.
6. Storytell
Telling stories and listening to others’ stories helps us connect the dots in our lives. Sharing a vulnerable moment, heartbreak, or jubilation helps you connect with other people and get more out of your engagements.
Dysfunctional Beliefs
Feeling stuck? Running out of options? Thinking that it is too late to change? Many of us harbor certain ideas we believe to be true when they are actually misconceptions. In life design, we call these dysfunctional beliefs and these are myths that prevent people from designing the life they want.
What are some examples of dysfunctional beliefs?
“If I pick the wrong major, I’m stuck in that career.”
“The key to happiness is a well-paying job.”
“It’s too late to change direction.”
“I have to find my passion first if I want to be happy in my career.”
Dysfunctional beliefs create barriers or limit how you approach changing your life. To overcome this, you must reframe the issue.
A reframe is when you take new information about a problem, see it from a different lens, and start thinking of and creating new solutions based on the new perspective.
“If I pick the wrong major, I’m stuck in that career.”
Reframe: 75% of college grads end up working in a career that is not related to their majors. It is okay to go with your current major and change career later.
“The key to happiness is a well-paying job.”
Reframe: True happiness comes from designing a life that works for you.
“It’s too late to change direction.”
Reframe: It is never too late to design a new life as long as you can generate new ideas and stay curious.
“I have to find my passion first if I want to be happy in my career”
Reframe: Passion can be developed later in life. You try out new experiences, find yourself wanting to get good at it, and it turns into a passion. So be open to new experiences.
A key question in life design is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. However, the better question (or reframe) is, “Who or what do you want to grow into?” You can find the solution to this complex question by using a problem-solving methodology called Design Thinking.
Ready to move on to the first stage of Designing Your Life: Wayfinding?
or choose from the below options.
Introduction > Wayfinding > Ideate > Odyssey Plans > Life Prototypes