DESIGN THE LIFE YOU LOVE BY AYSE BIRSEL > DESIGN = CHOICES

Dear Designers of Life!?

Last week I wrote here, Design = Projects.

This week I want to write, Design = Choices.

Maybe it’s because I listened to Choose Carefully on Hidden Brain.

Maybe it’s?because my friend and mentor?Marshall Goldsmith reminded me of the lesson in Bhagavad Gita (the world’s most famous poem), about having two choices—bad and worse—and to remember to make peace with it.?

Or maybe it’s because it’s easy to explain Design = Project, while we take Design = Choices for granted.?

I did that during our Virtual Tea,?using?the?Overlay Boundary System for Herman Miller.?I didn't show you how we made the choices we made, for?an idea to go from a sketch to a commercial product in 3 years. This is my chance to circle back.

So how do you make choices in design??

1.?Go with the choice that raises your temperature. Why invest your time and energy in something that is not exciting to you.?

2.?Design is imagining the future based on what you know today. Make sure there's enough of the unknown (the future) to be worth exploring, with enough of the familiar (present) to be?feasible.

3.?Design is logic and magic. Do explain the “why” of your ideas. But don’t kill the magic, the wonder, of ideas in the process. We need both

4.?Not all choices are great. Some choices are between bad and worse, as Marshall Goldsmith reminded me. And in those moments, I like to remember what Charles Eames famously said,?“Design depends largely on constraints."

5.?Beauty matters. Favor beauty when you can. When you’re gathering inspiration, look for beautiful inspiration. When you're creating, strive towards beauty. A beautiful idea, a beautiful gesture, a beautiful friendship, a beautiful experience.

6.?We choose with our values. What is important to us—that is how we know to choose this and not that.?

Choose to be original. Lead an original life. Be yourself. Be simple. Be economical. Be diverse. Be curious. Be joyful.?Be ____.?

Think of your choices as you choose your projects—small, medium, large, joker (unexpected, outlandish)?projects.?

What is that project for you? How are you?making that choice?

If you’d like to think actively about it, join us for our next Virtual Tea. Every Virtual Tea is about thinking creatively and collaboratively about our life and work using design tools and processes.??

Last week we started to get our next project out of our heads to see what brings us joy. What raises our temperature. It?wasn't?nearly enough. We will continue this week.

Virtual Tea date and time:

Wed, March 9, 2022 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT

You can RSVP for next week below.

Here is the?link?to share the newsletter and the invitation to Tea with friends. If you know of someone who’s thinking about their next project, please invite them. Kids, parents, spouses, collaborators, friends, mentors, and mentees are welcome!?

See you Wednesday!?

RSVP

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Inspiration:

I wrote about making choices for?INC.com:?The Secret to Achieving True Work-Life Balance??Minimizing Choice.

Listen to?Choose Carefully?with?psychologist?Eric Johnson?on Hidden Brain. It is a priceless design lesson. Especially Winston Churchill’s speech?on the House of Commons rebuilding on October 28, 1943.

And here’s Marshall Goldsmith’s story about?Bhagavad Gita and choices.?

Sanyin Siang’s newly released newsletter inspires me:?The Leadership Playbook:?Unleashing Your Superpowers.

You can choose to make lunch your next project using Cheryl Johnson’s much-awaited book,?Box Lunch Lifestyle.?Daniel Pink is a fan of "Slow Down. Stop multitasking. And savor this remarkable work.”?Denise Meagles, from our Virtual Tea Community, is putting it to practice.

I have a talk coming up and wanted to share it with you. RSVP at?Pratt Presents Woman Made?on?Thursday, March 24, at 6:30 PM.

Thank you!

Design the Project You Love!

Ayse Birsel + Leah Caplan + Selin Miskavi

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Our Collaboration:?

Do you have a question about your life and work projects? Email me a question or reflection and inspire my next Newsletter and potentially Virtual Tea.

Co-Design Workshops:?

We make co-designing with you, your organization, your teams, and end-users easy and game-changing. Your project can be anything from Resilience to Hybrid Culture, from Luxury to Adventure to Excellence, from Birth to Long Life, from your Design DNA to Office Systems, Automobiles to Health. Join Amazon, CVS, Herman Miller, Staples, Walmart, and others and email us at?[email protected]?for a conversation and a short demo. By registering for this online Zoom event, you automatically allow your data to be used by Birsel + Seck. This session will be recorded and might be shared for marketing and educational purposes.