How To... Design Your Life Pt. 1

Helpful excerpts from the book, "Designing Your Life, How to Build A Well-Lived, Joyful Life" by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans. Part 1/3 since I haven't finished it yet... was just too excited to share the helpful things I've learned thus far!

0:42 Episode Introduction

1:37 #1 Quote Thus Far

2:13 Dysfunction Beliefs

2:30 Exercise 1

4:25 Exercise 2

Other Episodes Mentioned:
How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome

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Chapters

• 0:42 Episode Introduction
• 1:37 #1 Quote Thus Far
• 2:13 Dysfunction Beliefs
• 2:30 Exercise 1
• 4:25 Exercise 2

Transcript

00:08
Catherine
Hello there. My name is Catherine and I am 23 years old, working as a full time freelancer in the media and entertainment industry. And welcome to the How I Diaries podcast. I'm here to debunk all your fears and doubts surrounding the topic of freelancing. More importantly, get you on your way to a happy and stress free lifestyle, doing whatever that creative passion is that you love.


So if you're stuck at a job that you hate or you're wondering how to get your dream started, I might have heard of freelancing before, but you're skeptical about what it entails. I'm sharing everything I wish I knew earlier and the tips and tricks I gain every day for my own freelance work. This episode is a little different from my other one, since it's solely based on a book that I love and have been reading called Designing Your Life How to Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life by Bill BURNETT and Dave Evans.


So as I've been reading it, I've been pulling some things from it that I thought would help people find the specific things that interest them. Because I think it's pretty common for creative people to either be super niche right off the bat or have a million things that interest them and they can't pick. If you're wondering, I am the second option of a million things that interest them and that I can't pick.


So I pulled some exercises and quotes from here that you guys can absorb and go read this book for yourself or take it as food for thought. This is part one because I haven't finished the book yet and I'm one of those people who reads five books at once, and I'm not sure when I will finish it, but I wanted to share my takeaways from this first third of the book because like I said, I really think it's relevant and can still get people thinking anyway.


The biggest quote thus far that has resonated with me was plain and simple. Truth is that you will live many different lives in this lifetime, which personally settles all of my crazy goals and allows me to live a little bit more in the present. And this ties into freelance because freelance gives you that freedom, right? You're not at the 9 to 5 job for 25 years, so you can retire sort of thing.


Another thing this book does is it takes our dysfunctional beliefs and reframes them. There's a ton like almost there's a few every chapter, this particular one is one that I feel like our society struggles with a lot. The dysfunctional thought is I need to figure out my best possible life, make a plan and execute it. Actually, no. And here's the reframe of it.


There are multiple great lives and plans within me and I get to choose which one to build my way forward to next. So where to start an exercise as they talk about and show is to make these journals about your day to day and work life measuring engagement, energy and flow. Quick tidbit. Another thing I really like about this book is they like draw things out.


So it's not just words like they give you, like they're talking about this journal and they literally give you a drawn out version of it back to that engagement, energy and flow engagement is defined by them as something that interests you greatly or activities that you find yourself really engaged in. Energy is defined simply as something that basically does the opposite of draining you.


You do it and it gives you energy. Lastly, flow is defined as engagement on steroids. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. Those moments where you're in the zone and just like super, super focused and like grinding, you'll begin to visually see exactly what's making unhappy and pinpoint specific things when you start to measure these things and just be a lot more mindful about those three specific things.


It's not that you hate your job or that you hate working. You just don't like meetings. But what is it specifically about the meetings that you don't like? You like collaborating and talking with other people, but you don't like being lectured at you like meetings where you're a leader, or maybe you like meetings when you're a participant. When you divvy up the engagement, energy and flow states, you'll get you'll start to answer these questions and realize these things.


You don't not like using technology at work. You just hate typing and answering emails all day. You rather do research or editing. Designing. Does that make sense? It also helps you reassure yourself on what you're good at. Referencing my imposter syndrome episodes. Artists and creatives are told they're whole, entire lives that their craft isn't worthy of making a living on, or that it's anything more than a hobby.


But bitch, we know that's not true. Not everybody can do what we do, and this exercise will definitely help you build confidence and specifically find your skills and interests. The next thing to do with all that information you gather is the actual designing of your life. They explain and have this idea to come up with three really different ideas for what you can do with your life.


And my favorite thing they say about this is don't think of it as picking a favorite life. Quote, Asking which life is the best is like asking if it's better to have hands or feet, which is very true idea. One is going to be the current thing. It's the idea that maybe brought you to this podcast, the idea you've already had, you know, run with it.


That's idea one. Idea two is something that you do if idea one was suddenly gone, not in a pessimistic way, but just another way to get you to think of something else besides that first thought, if you let your imagination go with it, by simulating that number one is not a thing anymore, you'll probably be surprised that way.


You can think of Idea three is that thing you would do in life. You would live if money and image were not a goal. Take those restrictions away. You don't have to make money and you don't have to deal with your outside perception of, you know, other people and whatever. So I encourage you very much to use those as food for thought.


Get yourself thinking, maybe go and purchase the book yourself. But I just wanted to share those. I'll be back for a part two or maybe a part three. Who knows how long it's going to take me to finish this book, but that is it for this episode. I know it's a little short, but like I just said, it's more of an episode that's going to get you thinking.


So let me know what you guys think of these exercises and what you come up with. And if this reaches you and you have any burning questions or stories, I'd be happy to use this as an outlet to connect and build a community. What are some books that you guys recommend? I'll add them to my ever growing list and share with me what you come up with on Instagram.


You can find me at how I diaries. Just shoot me a DM in the meantime, go binge all my other episodes for various other topics relating on how to get started doing what you love and please any episode recommendations I'd love to hear let me know what your particular struggles are. You're probably not alone. Last but not least, please subscribe to this podcast so you stay up to date on when I post the next batch.


Give it a rating, share with a friend who you think needs to listen post five new episodes at the end of each month. So stay tuned and thank you for listening.