Creative Live // Design the Life You Love

“My life is my biggest project.”

---

This small but powerful statement really stuck out to me as I watched Ayse Birsel’s Creative Live session. In the class, Birsel, renowned designer, walked through her book, Design the Life You Love. Ayse goes through the steps of design thinking she used to change her life. The book reflects on work/life/creativity balance and how to prioritize your passions in a creative way.

She went through the four steps in her design process for a more fulfilling life, deconstruction, point of view, reconstruction, and expression. Deconstruction is the process of taking apart your life, which leads to you breaking apart your preconceptions. The next step, point of view, is when your thoughts and feelings about your life begin to change. You start to think differently about things you know. The third step is when your new way of life begins to take shape. Reconstruction is the stage in which you use your new point of view to make choices about how you are going to live. These choices become the foundation of your new design. Once your design is done, you must give it form then express it. You could have the most ingenious design, but if it is not implemented, it is worthless. This is why the fourth, and last, step is so crucial.

When we begin to see our life as one big project, we become more intentional. We start to see our choices as part of a bigger picture, which motivates us to carefully consider our decisions. I challenge you to examine your bigger picture. Are you content with this picture or are there things you need to alter? We only get one life on this Earth so we must make it count. Design a life you love!