Living Life by Design

Living life by design… your design, sounds appealing, doesn’t it? “Lifestyle entrepreneurs” is a millennial term that typically describes creators who are doing their work while traveling and living abroad. These entrepreneurs are amongst the few who have broken free of the usual programming of, “Go to school, get a good job, settle down, start a family.“

What if you don’t have to wait until retirement to live life by your design?

What if instead, adults—of all ages—were encouraged to pursue their passions and follow their dreams? How different might our world be with more people “alive” and inspired because they’re living a life by design in pursuit of their dreams?

How does the world get there? By more people living lives of purpose and meaning now. It begins with you. Structuring your life by design begins with you, here, now.

Set a goal, reach that goal and then you set another.

Lifestyle Entrepreneurs

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Lifestyle Entrepreneurs
  • Audio Article – Life by Design
  • Immersion in the Creative Life
• Life by Design
  • Life is the Journey
  • Your Environment Makes a Difference
• The Real World
• Visioning Your Life by Design
• Immerse in Your Future
  • 3 Ways to Live Your Life Vision
• Design Your Life with Positive Habits
• The Transformed Life
  • Ayse Birsel – Your Life is Your Biggest Project

Audio Article – Life by Design:

Immersion in the Creative Life

These lifestyle entrepreneurs are amongst those leading the way into a new vision of life and work. When we hear about others who are succeeding at doing work they love, it helps encourage us to consider new possibilities for our own lives.

There’s another perspective underlying this concept: that of designing your life into existence. Not based on family or societal expectations, but a clean canvas on which to design your version of your life.

Your life is, after all, yours!

Today, we are at a time in history like no other.  Our grandparents didn’t have this privilege. Most of our parents didn’t either. You do.

Life by Design

In our small family of entrepreneurs, we’re working on exactly that: building our life according to our interests and values. When your interests become your work, then most of your day no longer feels like work. Rather, it is also your life! This is why we’re able to work 10-12 hour days without it feeling like work.

We call home a ‘startup house‘ because the focus is on the enterprises we’re building. We get to work together from home in our joint ventures while supporting and encouraging each other to create passion projects as offshoots to our current endeavors.

When you have a clear vision of where your going and the goals associated with that, most of the work doesn’t feel like work.

Sure, it can be intense… yes, we get tired… and of course, we have disagreements. But after a good night’s sleep, most of the time we’re eager to dive back into creating and building.

We’re clear on how all that we’re doing now will lead to more balance and greater freedom over time. We’re in it for the long haul and meanwhile, we’re definitely enjoying the journey.

Rich isn’t just synonymous with money, rich is synonymous with living.
~Think & Grow Rich – The Legacy

Life is the Journey

Working toward a goal is like travel. You plan the trip (goal), you embark on the journey (your daily work) and enjoy the waypoints along the way. And, also like travel, things can go wrong. Delays can happen, luggage can get lost, weather can impact your plans.

Your life by design will be better, happier and more successful when you incorporate adaptability and receptivity to discoveries along the way. Enjoy each day, come what may.

Embrace the discoveries in the difficulties, and that perspective will change your life.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

Your Environment Makes a Difference

If you can’t’ work with your family in creating work you love, perhaps you can at least connect with others similarly oriented. Make friends with those who are living and creating as you’re aspiring to.

Today’s online social platforms afford so much opportunity to connect with kindred spirits. Associate with those who will encourage and inspire you to do more of the work you love and build your life by design based on work that you matters to you..

“It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.”
~Henry James, American-British Novelist, 1843-1916

The Real World

Of course, if you’re choosing an alternate kind of life—especially if you’re a millennial—you may have those who ask you when you’re going to join “the real world”, and “get a real job”.

Have you ever wondered who decided what was to be “the real world”…?

While writing this I was listening to one of my favorite soundtracks from the movie Inception. Thinking about Inception, reminded me of a quote from the movie The Matrix, along the lines of “Is reality really real?“

The more you make your life into the life you want to live, the more real your life will become for you. When you think about it, living someone else’s idea of a well-lived life isn’t what’s real for you!

“What is real? How do you define real?”
~Morpheus, The Matrix

Visioning Your Life by Design

The first step in creating a life by design is deciding what you want your reality to look like. Visioning a different reality and life can be a challenge, because we haven’t been there, done that and lived that before.

Our brains find it hard to process a reality outside the one experienced by our five senses… unless we interfere. Like in the movie Inception, we need to insert ourselves into the future dream we wish to live, repeatedly, daily, through visioning.

As portrayed in The Matrix, the vast majority of people did not even know there was anything to question about their life.  With the movie, Inception, it became increasingly difficult for the main character, Cob, to distinguish his dream state versus his waking state.

Both films beautifully represent the mind-bending nature of how easy it is to be swayed by what we experience based on how our mind processes our environment.  That is why many of the top thought leaders and experts in mindset talk about training your mind to fully accept, believe and embody the reality you want to have.  Not just the reality you are living currently.

Thought leader and internet personality, Jay Shetty sums this up in a simple way:

“You can’t be what you can’t see.” 
~ Jay Shetty, show host, author, b987

Immerse in Your Future

Creating your life in your future, requires strengthening your mind muscle through daily practice. You must seek examples, experiences, and/or people who have the lifestyle you wish to live. In today’s connected world, you can generally find such people in some kind of online community. Associate with those who represent your mindset and the life you’re on your way to living.

And of course, you’re invited to join us in the iCreateDaily Facebook group!

This takes the vision boarding concept of creating visuals and ties it to something tangible. Visioning creates a reality your mind will accept and eventually believe the more you elevate your thoughts and environment to reflect that vision.

Visioning creates a reality your mind will accept. Action brings it to life.
~Devani Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®

3 Ways to Live Your Life Vision

• Immerse in content that elevates your mind and teaches you skills for growth
• Associate with people and groups who share and elevate your aspirations (online and offline)
• Set goals that align with your life vision and work them daily.

Positive thoughts, habits and associations don’t just make a difference, it makes all the difference.

Stop hanging around people who don’t want to win.
~Gary Vaynerchuck, entrepreneur, thought leader

Design Your Life with Positive Habits

Whether it’s a life of entrepreneurial, academic, corporate, or artistic excellence, success is based on a commitment to growth.  Growth and learning are habits that support an enriching life by design.

Success is based on a commitment to growth and positive habits.

“Without commitment, you cannot have depth in anything, whether it’s a relationship, a business or a hobby.”
~ Neil Strauss, author, journalist, writer

The Transformed Life

With health and fitness transformations, you can see the results of consistent dedication to weight loss, muscle building, and bodywork that sculpt the body into something new and improved. Others see the changes in your appearance, but not the months of dedicated hard work.

To the one who trains day in and day out, the transformation is not amazing or miraculous. Rather, it’s a daily grind of effort that creates success. This kind of transformation is what’s happening when you engage in productive life habits.

The challenge in lifestyle and mindset changes is that it’s so cerebral… it’s so “in your head”. However, as you cultivate the habit of a positive, growth-oriented mindset, steadily building the life of your dreams, you’ll notice positive changes in all areas of your life.

You’ll begin to see yourself as who you wish to be. When you are living the vision of yourself in your mind, the choices you make each day also shift.

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”
~Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect

“What if, instead of being told to ‘stop daydreaming’, children were encouraged to dream as a vital part of their education and development?”
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

Ayse Birsel – Your Life is Your Biggest Project

For more immersion in this concept, you may enjoy this TEDx talk on designing your life by acclaimed industrial designer, Turkish-American author, and speaker, Ayse Birsel, (first name pronounced eye-shah“).

You can check out a course on designing your life by Stanford professor, Dave Evans or see his TEDx talk at the end of this article.

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