Designing Your Life

I finished reading this book in May 2019 but have not done all the exercises proposed by the book.  Bill Burnett and Dave Evans are the famous professors at the Stanford d.school that came up with this groundbreaking idea that we can apply design thinking principles to our life design.  The first chapter about starting where you are is quite inspiring.  The authors divide our life into four dimensions: Work, Play, Love and Health.  In these four areas, you can decide if you are where you want to be.  If not, that's what you want to pay attention to.  

The authors also break down dysfunctional beliefs to be reframed.  One that resonated with me the most is the belief that if you are successful, you will be happy.  It's not true.  No matter how much you accomplish, it doesn't mean anything if you don't actually care about the accomplishment.  Th reframe they suggest is that true happiness comes from designing a life that works for you.  Another one that resonated is the belief that happiness is having it all.  The reframe they suggest is that happiness is letting go of what you don't need. 

I also quite like the idea of logging your failures and identifying growth insights.  The premise is that life is not a finite game with winners and losers - it is a process and there are no winners and losers.  The goal is to become a more you version of you.  Become more you over time.