Design Your Way Through 2022: 5 Principles of Life Design

I don’t know about you, but I am FIRED up for a new year. Maybe you’re not, and that’s ok. You might be hitting yet another wall in the face of omicron and winter weather, or maybe you’re yelling “Heck, yeah, let’s do this!” right alongside me. Either way, Life Design is where it’s at. Stay with me for a minute.

I first encountered the concept of Life Design years ago when I read The Four Hour Work Week. This book isn’t for everyone, but for me, it was a paradigm-shifter. I felt like Neo swallowing the red pill. I saw life in a new way, and there’s no going back.

That sounds dramatic…and it was for me. It made me question a lot of the assumptions I had about the way life works and the way live. I realized I don’t have to follow the traditional work 9-5-Monday-through-Friday-complain-about-how-busy-and-stressed-I-am-until-65-then-retire model if I don’t want to, and that opened up doors, which ultimately led to co-founding Peak Mind.

Since that paradigm-shifting moment, I’ve delved much deeper into the blossoming field of Life Design, and it’s so rich, so applicable, even if you do want to follow the traditional work/life model. Life Design takes the framework of design thinking and applies it to your life. When we add in a heavy dose of Psychology, what we’re left with is a powerful set of mindsets and tools for curating a life experience that really works for you.

As we begin a new year, I say we let go of the typical resolutions and, instead, resolve to be good Life Designers. Over the next few weeks here at Peak Mind we’re going to focus on all things Life Design. To set the stage, here are 5 key principles you’ll want to start considering.

Key Principles of Life Design 

1. YOU are at the center for your own life…and only you.

Sure, you have other people who are important to you, who depend on you, and who you affect. Ultimately, though, it’s YOUR life, and they all have their own lives. You are the main character, and they are supporting roles.

2. Radical responsibility

This means taking 100% responsibility for 100% of the situations you are in. It doesn’t mean you’re at fault, but it does mean that it’s up to you to decide how you want to move forward. Take ownership.

3. If to no one else, be completely honest with yourself.

While this sounds simple, it’s not easy. It can be difficult to admit to ourselves when something isn’t really working or when we’re not really taking responsibility in our lives. To make a change, though, we have to acknowledge how things actually are. We need to be brutally honest.

4. You are always choosing.

While we may not always get to choose the options in front of us, we are continually choosing which path to take. Even being passive is making a choice. As Life Designers, we know that we make a choice, take a step, then iterate. We choose one small step at a time, experimenting and recalibrating each step of the way.

5. Your life is a finite gift.

Time is a non-renewable resource. We get a limited amount – and we don’t even know what that amount is – so it’s important not to squander it.

Let those principles start to sink in, and if you want to go a bit deeper, check out this podcast episode.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?” 

– Mary Oliver