Live By Design

Are You Living your Life by Design or Default?

Living Life by design is not a skill or talent, and definitely not a privilege given to only few in this world, it is your “choice”. Living by design means understanding about our core values and what truly matters in our life. It’s about setting intentions for ourselves and aligning actions with those intentions. In other words, it’s about taking ownership of your decisions and consciously choosing what you want from life rather than letting life happen around you.

I believe that everyone can live their life by design instead of by default by activating them to make that “choice” and following these three principles.

1. Discover Your SELF: To find your Values, Strengths & Interests.
2. Define your LIFE: To find your Passion, Purpose & Goals.
3. Design a PLAN: To Architect your Life, your way.

Let’s dig into these three areas of life that will lead you to a life lived by design.

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DISCOVER

Let’s begin by discovering “Who are YOU?”

Do you know your innate talents? Do you wonder why you do things the way you do them? Do you understand why you seem to gravitate to some tasks rather than others?

There are so many assessments available to let you explore about your strengths, interests, core values & personality traits. It helps you to get the clear picture about yourself and understand what makes you “YOU”.

Understanding about YOU will help you in two very important ways.

First, it helps you understand why you do things the way you do them as well as why I gravitate to certain facets of life and run away from others. It will give you the comfort & permission to just be yourself. To see all your talents, interests & choices in a positive light.

Secondly, learning about YOU will help you to begin and accept others for who they are. It will help you understand them and you will start to accept the differences in others naturally. You would learn to respect the boundaries & would know from where their expectations are coming from.

I firmly believe that knowing who you REALLY are is the first step towards living life by design.

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DEFINE

Now let’s define those things that gives your life its true meaning.

“What is your Passion?”

Now that you are aware who YOU really are. It is of utmost importance to define your LIFE, it’s pretty much like you are ready for your journey without knowing where actually you are headed for. Knowing about your Passion can open the doors & set the directions for you.

Passion has always been an elusive concept for me & probably for everyone. One is never so sure about what they are so passionate about, can be so many things, or at times feels like there is nothing strong enough to drive me.

To get the clarity, I will setup some activities to get indulged upon yourself. The more in flow you are, the more it tells you about your passion. Remember, passion is a state of sudden outburst of emotions & rise in energy levels while doing some activity, being with someone or talking/thinking about something.

Discovering your passion will set you free. It will help you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you are on track with your life or not.

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“What is your Purpose?”

As Mark Twain said “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why”

Make a note of one thing, you can ONLY give your best to something which you are passionate about.

Now that you have figured out your passion, you would need to develop that vision/imagination where you are indulged following your passion and creating/achieving something, which fills you with lot of energy, makes you restless maybe, just a thought of that makes you feel driven.

This becomes your purpose.

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“What are your Life Goals?”

When you create a vision of you following your passion, it becomes your purpose, and when you break down your purpose into tangible tasks with the reference of measurable time & efforts, it becomes your life goals.

This serves you as your guiding principles of your life. You know what you are expected to do at any point of time. You can track your progress, you can ensure you are following the right path & best of all, every decision you take in your life keeping these goals in your mind makes you stay aligned with your SELF throughout.

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DESIGN

Finally, time to live by DESIGN.

You can plan your future and begin to live life by Design and not by Default.

“It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go and do all you can with it, and make it a life you want to live.” – Mae Jemison

Once you discover your born talents and strengths, and have fully embraced your true passion, it’s time to draft a plan. Design your own future.

Pursuing your passion can be a part time gig or a full-time gig. You can do it in the margins of your life, or you can jump in with both feet. There is no right or wrong here. It’s YOUR passion, YOUR purpose and requires to be YOUR plan, do it YOUR way, but DO IT.

I know what you are thinking, “it’s easier said than done” ...YES! It’s not been easy at all, been a struggle initially to break the norm laid out by our society. It has been an uphill battle for me as well to swim against the tide. You may need to look within or around yourself, most of us have been living a life that can be characterized as “filling my bank account and emptying my soul”. This “living by default” drive is driving us crazy to follow the goals which will fill our bank account (if successful), while keeping our energy drained & our soul empty all the time.

Discovering my strengths and defining my passion has been at the core of everything I did in last decade. But, as I sit here and craft this post with tears welling up in my eyes, I can say that the struggle has been worth it. I am finally in a place in my life where I can alter my life plan and pursue “meaning” instead of money.

Don’t misunderstand me. My passion includes making money and lots of it. I believe that the income we earn is in direct correlation to the value we give to those who need it and are happy to invest in it. The more connected you will be with yourself, the better chances of adding the true value, hence achieving more results in the form of money, name & fame.

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Remember....Discover, Define & Design!

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Let’s begin!!

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LifeArchitect

www.lifearchitect.in