Listen to the Podcast:

Hey Designers,

What’s the first visual that comes to mind when you think mid-life crisis? Stereotypically most people of a man in a sports car, who has perhaps just blown up his life. Many of us perhaps believe that in order to have the impetus to make a change, our life all has to come crashing down around us.

I say skip the mid-life or any other crisis and design the life that you want now.

You know that we use the LEADER mindset to propel us toward action. That’s L.E.A.D.E.R. The L in LEADER is for listen.

You can skip the midlife crisis or watershed moment by listening to yourself now Here are three strategies that are going to help you to listen to find out what parts of your life you love and which parts of your life you want to revamp.

Strategy 1: Take Note

Journal each day for 1 week. At the end of each day, list 3 things that brought you joy and 3 things that frustrated or annoyed you.

Strategy 2: Set Intentions for Your Month

At the time of this recording, we are at the beginning of the month. Look at your calendar, what parts are you excited about. What parts are you dreading?

Strategy 3: Take a Bird’s Eye View

Take a birds-eye view. If you were to fast forward to 1 year from now. What would you like to be true? Describe this in as much detail as you can. Then notice what is missing. What do you need to jettison from your life? Take note of what has changed. What did you need to add to your life?

I just read the beginning of Suzanne Dailey’s upcoming book Teach Happier. She will be coming on the podcast to share her strategies with us. In her book, she referred to a longitudinal study that said that people report being most happy in their 50s. I found that to be fascinating and that it aligns with my personal experience. I’d say that I feel most content in my life now than ever. This partly might be because of my age, I just turned 50 last year, but I give most of the credit to the active decisions I made to live life on my terms.

For example,

I moved to the beach because the warm weather, the force of the ocean, and the sand between my toes bring me joy every time I’m there.

I stopped working 60 hours a week.
I prioritize sleep and my morning routine because they give me energy for my day.
I budget for and take extensive vacations around the world because it feeds my curiosity.
I started this podcast and love coaching people as they develop their own routines and passion projects that bring them joy.

I say that you don’t have to wait until you are 50 or any other age to be happy. You don’t have to wait until your life if falling down around you. By listening to ourselves to find out what makes us feel inspired, content, and happy, we’ve taken the first step to creating a life that we love to wake up to.

If you want to put the LEADER process into action in your life, download the Project You 30-Day Action Planner. I’ll walk you through the process for slaying some of your daily challenges.

Until next time designers.

If you love the investigation that we have been doing around the LEADER mindset, I’m offering an intro course to the LEADER mindset called Project You: Design Thinking for a Better Life. It’s similar to what we have been doing here on the podcast, but it includes a community and feedback and help from me to you personally. I’ve collaborated with Poppd.co to bring you this course. It’s a new platform to explore professional learning for educators by educators.

If you are ready to go all in…

Design and execute a larger vision for your life, focusing on your health, relationships, passion projects, creativity, and career, join the waitlist for the Life Design Masterclass.

This live 6-week life design masterclass takes you step-by-step in creating a pathway to a life you love.

As part of the live cohort, you will.

Uncover your core values, putting aside others’ expectations.
Create your future story, including your ideal work and passion projects, health and wellness goals, and relationships.
Develop the identity you need to create the future you envision.
Design a detailed pathway with milestones and celebrations to move toward the life you envision for your future.
Engage in weekly interactive cohort coaching sessions for collaboration and community.
Engage in individual personalized coaching sessions to as you take steps toward the life you love.

As always, if you have found this podcast helpful, recommend it to a friend either in person or on social media. Also please rate and review the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. I’m on a mission to help you design and live a life that you love to wake up to. I sincerely appreciate you. Thank you for helping me spread the word.

Until next time designers,