How To Create A Life By Design

Okay, picture this… I just woke up, I rolled over to the sunrise and hit the button on my phone just to see the time, the only days there are alarm clocks in here are for early airport calls.

I fixed my coffee, picked a podcast to start the day, grabbed my journal and walked out onto the balcony.

Today my balcony is overlooking the city streets of Madrid Spain, yesterday my balcony was overlooking a tiny neighborhood in Lisbon Portugal, and two weeks ago… a little town called Dundee, Scotland, next week Scotland again… my personal favorite country.

This is my life, and this is how I designed it to be.

People say things to me like this all the time…

“You’re so lucky.”

“I wish I could do that.”

“I don’t have enough money to even go on one international trip.”

Girl. Listen. Up.

This life had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with design.

I am as sure that you can do anything you want in life, as I am that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west everyday.

And if you don’t see the pieces matching up right now, create them.

Because if you are reading this post from a tiny little box that connects me, wherever I am in the world this week, with you… Then you have so many more resources than you know and you are abundantly capable of designing the life you want.

I wouldn’t call the path here easy, more like hiking up a mountain without any training… hey I’ve actually done that in Guatemala so I can safely say this is an accurate comparison… 

And it will be the same for anyone’s journey to what they deeply desire. Growth isn’t supposed to be easy or comfortable. Growth is meant to challenge you, stretch you, and teach you. Because without those things, you wouldn’t fit into your new life.

Discomfort when you are choosing growth isn’t because it’s wrong, it is because it’s new.

Learn to embrace discomfort in change, and your life by design will unfold with ease.

So how did I do it? How did I create a life by design?

Look you have to understand, future plans were not my jam.

I changed my major in school 7 times, I researched countless career paths. I honestly wish I kept count on how many careers I researched. Ask me about a career outlook and I could probably tell you.

I took career aptitude tests, saw my guidance counselor and another one and another. I took random online quizzes about your best career. I worked in more jobs than I could count, not just because I needed the money but because I was testing out different fields.

I thought I was doomed. Made for a job that would suck my soul away and then have fun sometime in between the walls of my cold office.

I wasn’t one of those people that was just born to know what they would do, what career path they would take. I was by all definitions stuck.

Until…

I created a new formula.

I can’t really pin point the exact moment I chose this new formula. It was somewhere between meeting the man of my dreams and my first international trip to Mexico. I realized life was meant to be FUN.

The new formula – Design my life around what I want, around what’s fun for me, around what I actually enjoy; and everything else will fall into place.

I vowed to try this for at least a year, if it sucked and didn’t work in one year then I’d go back to the normal path.

But guess what… It worked. Every single day it worked.

And in one year I was planning my first trip around the world, working my business part time, and loving every ounce of every single day.

Design your life around what you love, and everything else will truly fall into place.

I want to leave you with 3 tangible tips to follow to build your own life by design. Think of it like a recipe to purpose!

If you’ve heard it before and you’re still not living the life of your dreams, do me a favor… Try it again, try it until it sticks. As the girl who took one million different types of career aptitude tests I rolled my eyes out of my head at trying another exercise. But because I did, because I took the chance and tried again… I am here.

Okay here we go…

1. Add in Fun

I used to roll my eyes when people would say things like, do what you love and everything else will fall into place. If you find yourself doing the same, then there are one of two things happening… probably both 

1. You actually don’t know what you do for fun.

Girl, I feel this one. If you asked me what I did for fun 5 years ago I might have said, “ummmm, going to the gym?” Which, at the time, I did like maybe 2 times a week… on a good week.

If you’re not doing things just for you, just for fun… then how do you expect to find your “purpose” in life? Your purpose doesn’t exist just in your career. Your purpose is the full picture of this life you are living.

Want to live a life by design? Start designing it. Have some freaking fun!!! If you don’t know what that means, start trying new things. Get out of your comfort zone at least once a week and try something new for you!

2. You’re expecting instant results

This is a biggie.If you’re expecting instant results, you’re asking for instant frustration.

If you are doing what you love and still rolling your eyes at the whole “do what you love and everything else will fall into place.” Pause, look around you. You are designing this life, you are in the process of it. Whether you like it or not, the place you are at in your life right now is because of the steps you took.

If you can love the process, you will love the results even more. It’s not about getting anywhere while designing your life, it’s about intentionally designing it every single day.

2. Experiment

You have to follow the bread crumbs to your purpose.

If you want to live a life by design you have to lean into those random callings that don’t really make full sense why you would follow them. This is the exact step it took to bring me from 7 major changes in university to crystal clear on what I wanted to do with my life.

I had to stop saying “I have no idea what to do with my life.”

And start saying, “Where would I start, if there were no rules and no limits, where would I begin? What if I tried this? What could that lead to?”

Don’t be afraid to test something out, to just give it a try. You never know what one chance opportunity could open up for you. And I know for sure, that when you start to open up doors that lead you towards joy, more doors open up.

3. Let It Unfold In Its Own Way

Finally, an important piece of this life puzzle if you want to do this in maximum peace and ease.

There are so many people who have decided to follow their happiness, but that’s just the thing… It’s THEIR happiness. It’s not yours. You path is completely separate from their path. If you want to design the life you are wildly obsessed with, you must let it unfold in it’s own way.

Some paths to life on purpose are quick ones, most are more of a slow roll. And remember when you are getting inspired by other people’s life by design, you’re only seeing the point they are currently in right here and now. You’re missing the full journey behind it.

If you’re stuck living life out of purpose because you’re bummed that you’re just “not there yet…” Keep moving! There’s no where to get, only a process to unfold in each moment.

Fall in love with every moment of the process, and a life by design is already yours.

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