DESIGNING YOUR LIFE
Summarized for Busy People
How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
Based on the Book by Bill Burnett and Dave
Evans
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1: Begin Where You Are
Exercise No. 1
Chapter 2: Build Your Own Compass
Exercise No. 2: Write Your Work View
Exercise No. 3: Write Your Life View
Chapter 3: Finding Your Way
Exercise No. 4: Your Good Time Journal
Chapter 4: How to Get Unstuck
Exercise 5: Create Your Mind Maps
Chapter 5: Design Three 5-Year Odyssey Plans
Exercise No. 6: Design Three 5-Year Odyssey Plans
Chapter 6: Build Some Prototypes
Conversational Interview
Experience Prototype
Brainstorming
Chapter 7: The Internet Job Search
Chapter 8: Play a Role in Designing Your Own Dream Job
Chapter 9: Happiness is Created by Making Good Choices
Chapter 10: Become Immune to Failure
Chapter 11: Build a Design Team
Conclusion
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Introduction
There once was a time when even people who graduated in
prestigious colleges or universities could not find a job that paid the
bills. Students nowadays finish their degree with a sum of debt large
enough to fill a Brinks truck, yet they end up as a barista at
Starbucks or along the lines of the service industry. Should you
somehow find yourself in the same fateful circumstance, this
summary of Bill Burnett and Dave Evans' Designing Your Life: How
to Build a Joyful, Well-lived Life will teach you new strategies which
you can then utilize to produce those innovative ideas that are
guaranteed to make your life better.
Fresh graduates, as well as people still indecisive about their
careers, could be helped by this summary. There is also a process in
this summary that demonstrates how those stuck in the same place
eventually come upon new concepts and hence make significant
progress. Establishing new beliefs compels us to take a step further
and build the life we have dreamed.
The said process begins by again linking our mind to our feelings,
gut instinct, and other spiritual and physical senses. This harmony
within one's self will enable us to look for the most fitting career for
us. Now that we have an idea of the work most suitable for us, we
can test them out in real life. Moreover, keeping in touch with the
people who work the jobs we want to try, we are able to gather
enough information regarding a venture without putting too much
time in trying to achieve a goal that may not be meant for us.
Most people find comfort in the belief that working hard and being
good at something will eventually make them happy. In fact, only a
third of working American citizens have stated that they feel some
degree of happiness with their work. Fifteen percent, however, have
admitted that they dislike their work. If only they went the extra mile
and planned a life that aligns with what suits them, they will most
likely feel more content with their careers.
Success at work and fulfillment of responsibilities—although they
may warrant honor and draw admiration—could never guarantee
happiness.
For most people aged forty or more, settling for another career could
give contentment in later life. It is up to you and you alone to take the
courage and pursue another career. Most people, however, do not
know how to manage such transition. The others who do may be
scared to try, thinking either it is too late or they are too old to make
that leap. Designing your life begins in making the choice to jump.
Stop thinking that it is too late, and start believing that now is the
perfect time. Design your life according to your needs, and you will
begin the process towards achieving your goal.
Human emotions are the key ingredients to aesthetics. All humans
prefer one design over another. One may like the Ferrari's Italian
engineering, and the other may prefer the Porsche's German artistry.
The design of your life must also be patterned to your emotional
responses. Identifying the element you find most pleasing in terms of
aesthetics is therefore analogous to determining the aspect you want
your designed life to consist of.
Synchronizing what one does, what one believes in, and who one is
clears the path towards a well-designed life. This includes new
adventures, enlightening experiences, as well as hardships and
failures that will impart life lessons.
You must first take the time to complete the recommended exercises
in order to design the life most fitting for you. Awaken your curious
mind, call out your awareness, perceive what the problem requires,
and immerse yourself to the design process. This summary will
provide tools and ideas that will enable you to design a life that is
optimal for you, but the choice whether to use them or not lies in you
alone. Make your decision, and let's get started.
Chapter 1: Begin Where You Are
It is safe to assume that you are reading this book summary because
you are currently dealing with a setback in your life. In the case that
this statement is correct, your first step shall be identifying exactly
where you are right now.
This may not be as obvious for some people as you may think. They
most probably do not take the time to clear their minds and align
their thinking to overcome the difficulties they are facing. Being
aware of the existence of a problem can only get you so far. The
important step lies in being aware of the possible solutions to the
existing problem.
Any problem solving method begins with identification. Having a
clear and open mind as preparation for tackling a problem will be
more than helpful in assessing your situation. More often than not,
the difficulties we are facing prove to be different from what we have
first perceived.
A type of problem impossible to solve is called a "gravity problem". It
is impossible to solve in a way that one cannot take action against it.
An example of a gravity problem is the difficulty of cycling uphill.
Gravity is natural, and no one take action for or against it. In other
words, a gravity problem is one that is unyielding—no matter what
you do, your actions will not affect the circumstances.
Other situations that may be considered gravity problems are: a
decade of higher education in order to become a medical doctor; the
small consumer market for aspiring poets; the difference in the
wages of a typical social service worker and a white-collared
professional, and; the slim chance of rising in the ranks of a familyowned business which puts only family members in managerial and
other high-ranking positions.
From the examples above, it can be said that gravity problems can
be classified into two types. One type is when actions cannot be
taken upon the problem itself. Sacrifice and maximum effort despite
the high chance of failure are required to solve such problem. The
other type is when the problem resembles an aspect in nature. Like
the planet's gravity, the cause of such problems lies in the order of
things; it is natural, and hence one must learn to accept it.
Another example of a gravity problem is the small employment
chance of new mothers and old workers who have not worked for
five years or more. In such circumstances, an easier solution is
affecting the employer's insight regarding your history of employment
which can be done by including volunteer works and the likes.
Bear in mind that in evaluating whether you are indeed in a gravity
problem or not, the objective is ensuring that you don't get stuck in
the same situation with no shot at generating a solution. Resign
yourself to the reality of the situation, not to your perception of it. In
designing your life, try to asses these four aspects: love, play, work,
and health. This book summary concentrates on the area of life on
work, but it is just as important to assess the other aspects.
Exercise No. 1
Ready a blank sheet of paper. On it, draw four lines that look like a
row of fuel gauges.
Label “love” for the top line, “play” for the second line, “work” for the
third line, and “health” for the bottom line. Similar to the gauges,
indicate how empty or full your “tank” for each aspect is. Below is a
sample of the gauge to help you make yours.
E _____________ F
There is a meaning in the order of which these “tanks” are arranged.
Health, which involves physical, mental, and even spiritual wellbeing, must be placed on the bottom for this affects all the other
areas in your life. Remember that the objective of this exercise is not
to ascertain that all four tanks are full. Rather, this exercise aims to
raise a warning if you are missing something in any area of your life.
In this way, you will be compelled to make time for the issues that
need to be addressed and eventually create the most fitting solution.
Evaluate each of the four aspects, and try to compose a paragraph
regarding it. In health, for example, you may write about the existing
health concerns you are facing. You may also write about the last
time you had a physical examination. As for your mental health, it is
helpful to describe in detail the daily activities that allow your mind to
remain sharp and active. If you can relate spiritual health in your life,
you may also want to write about it. Describe your spiritual journey
and the connection you have established with spirituality.
Assess each drawing of your tanks and its corresponding paragraph.
Upon evaluation, decide in what aspect you would like to improve. If
a problem in one area is identified, assess accordingly to ensure that
it is not a “gravity problem”.
Chapter 2: Build Your Own Compass
You must first differentiate your “Life View” from your “Work View” to
build your very own life compass. A Life View answers what brings
meaning to your existence and what makes it worth all your while.
On the other hand, Work View, essentially the value of work in your
life, is a personal belief that specifies what you get from work and
why you work. Life Views and Work View are not set in stone—they
will change over the course of your life. Writing them down now,
however, will be critical to making a life compass that suits your
current predicament.
Establishing both Views will enable you to exercise and cultivate
consistency. An alignment between what you do, who you are, and
what you believe in will develop. Consistent living, however, will not
guarantee that everything will go the same way all the time.
Remember that compromise is an integral part of human life. For
example, man who makes a living by painting may come to work at
an office job once he gets married and becomes a father. To help
with your Views, below are Exercises No. 2 and 3.
Exercise No. 2: Write Your Work View
In this exercise, you will establish your Work View using the following
questions:
1. Why do you go to work?
2. What is it exactly that you strive to accomplish?
3. What is the meaning of “good work”?
4. How significant are fulfillment, growth, and money to you?
Take your time in considering these guide questions. Keep your
answers once you’ve finished because an exercise involving your
Life View is next.
Exercise No. 3: Write Your Life View
In this exercise, you will establish your Life View using the following
questions:
1. Why are you where you are right now?
2. What does life mean?
3. Where do your country, friends, family, and others fit in your
life?
4. What does a good life mean?
5. In life, what is evil?
6. What role is a spiritual power or God serving in your life?
With your Work View and Life View established, compare the two
and determine how they complement the other. Are they, in any way,
in conflict? Is one View driven by the other?
When your Views are aligned with each other, they can be used as a
compass to guide you in designing a fulfilling and more meaningful
life. Should you find yourself at a crossroad of life-changing decision,
refer to your Work View and Life View to guide your path. The
objective is aligning your life in order for you to find your true North
and not wander in the dark.
Chapter 3: Finding Your Way
There continues to exist a notion that work wasn’t really supposed to
be pleasurable. The people who think this way continue on to their
distasteful jobs. Some of them even hate their job entirely. To avoid
this, you can seek your type of work based on the things and
activities that you enjoy doing.
To be able to work the job you actually enjoy, the authors of
Designing Your Life recommend an ancient art called “wayfinding”
described as identifying the direction to head for when one doesn’t
have a target destination. One needs a compass to do this, and in
this case, the compass shall be centered on your feelings.
Train yourself to become aware of how you feel when you do a
certain task. Note your level of energy as you complete a task, as
well as your degree of engagement over the course of the day.
Energy and engagement mean different things. Total engagement
sometimes enables one to enter a state of “flow”. For people who
have successfully entered this state, the time throughout the day
appears to stand still. Some even claim to feel calm and at peace
with a sense of clarity. Flow can occur to anyone under any mental
and/or physical activity.
Those who work at fulfilling and rewarding jobs enter a state of flow
on the regular. Some people consider this as “adult play”. Therefore,
you will become happier and more content with what you do if only
you could find work that often or even always allows you to enter a
state of flow.
Energy denotes how you feel when you are doing a task—whether it
is excitement or boredom draining the life out of you. It is ideal to
seek a type of job that lets you feel energized even after a day's
work.
Try to keep a Good Time Journal so you can track when you feel
energized, excited or are in a state of flow during your work. Below is
Exercise No. 4 to explain the practice of keeping the Good Time
Journal.
Exercise No. 4: Your Good Time Journal
For this fourth exercise, try keeping a Good Time Journal for seven
days. To create a compass that will help you in designing your life,
you need a Good Time Journal that will serve as an activity log for
tracking when you feel energized, when you feel engaged, and when
you don't feel energized or engaged at all. Leave a section for
remarks wherein you may write what you discover about yourself
during the exercise.
A pen and a sheet of paper must always be ready to make tracking
easier. Note in the journal whenever you begin a new task. Draw a
gauge for every task. Label "C" for "Cold" (not energized) on the left
side of the gauge, and label "H" for "Hot" (very energized) on the
right side. Indicate how energized you are for every task you will
engage in throughout the day. Below is a sample of the gauge.
C _____________ H
Discovering how we feel about our daily activities will provide us the
information required in designing our life. Note those activities that
make you feel alive. Work will be enjoyable when one is fully
engaged and energized by it.
For a week or two, consider how you feel about every task that you
perform every day. Write your detailed feelings and thoughts on the
section next to the activity designated for your remarks. When you
finally notice a pattern, identify which activity is causing the spike in
your energy levels. Try to be very specific in detailing these activities.
Consider the five issues below in writing your entries for your Good
Time Journal.
1. What activity are you performing? What exactly are you
doing at the moment? What role do you serve in this task? If
you are attending a meeting, for example, are you the person
who leads it?
2. Where are you doing this activity? Describe your
environment. Are you in an office, in a football stadium, or at
home?
3. What interactions are involved in this activity? Is it informal or
formal? Is it done with a friend, with a team member, or with a
computer?
4. Are any objects involved in this interaction? Are you using a
hockey stick? Is it a punching bag or simply a keyboard?
5. Who was with you over the duration of the activity? Take
note whether their presence creates a positive or negative
impact.
Avoid making judgements on yourself when you write these entries.
Only focus on how you're feeling. It would be more helpful in
designing your life if you write as truthful and as specific as you can.
In addition to writing about your current activities, you can also
recount your peak experiences and evaluate them according to the
guide questions enumerated above. Try to create a Good Time
Journal for your past and write entries about these peak
experiences. Track your work experiences, completed projects, and
volunteer work.
To sum up, make a Good Time Journal that indicates how energized
and how engaged you are in the activities you have performed every
day of the week. Detail your feelings on the section designated for
your remarks. Ideally, the Good Time Journal must be kept for three
weeks. If you can't keep it that long, strive for just one instead. Every
weekend, review your Good Time Journal to determine which
activities do and do not induce a spike in the levels of your energy
and engagement. Consider the type of activity, the environment, the
type of interaction, the objects involved, and the other participants of
the activity, and write them down along with your entries.
Chapter 4: How to Get Unstuck
There are instances when we can't help but feel stuck in a situation.
If only we can put our thoughts into action, then we won't have to
remain stuck. The creation alone of new ideas invites the potential
for progress. This process becomes uncomplicated once we
acknowledge that there is no one correct idea to base our lives on.
We must realize that rather there are several ideas and we simply
have to find the one that is most suitable for us.
People try to apply for job positions that they would appear to qualify
in because of their work skills and previous experiences. This
method of job hunting typically has a low rate of success. Such
strategy shall not be included in designing your ideal life because,
more often than not, it will land you in a job that you won't enjoy. If
you are in dire need of work, then this method is acceptable. You
may take the job regardless of whether you find happiness in it or
not, and you can start to look for another that suits you better once
you have achieved stability.
On the other hand, if your situation doesn't seem to be as dire and
you have time to think over other options, use this opportunity to
formulate ideas regarding your future. In designing your life, it is
always preferable to create as much ideas as possible. This is based
on two essential principles. As authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
stated, "You make a better choice when you have more options to
choose from, and never choose the first solution to any problem."
A tool you can use in formulating more ideas is "mind mapping". This
is the act of writing down a word in the middle of a blank sheet of
paper, drawing a circle around it, and drawing lines to words that you
associate it with. Perform this exercise as quickly as you can. From
the words you have associated with the original word, write down
new words that come to mind as another spoke.
Consider Grant for example. He works at a car rental company, and
he decided to keep a Good Time Journal. He noted that he never
entered a state of flow at work. In college, Grant was a literature
major, but he took up the job at the car rental company because it
was the first that offered him a salary above the minimum. Grant was
told that he was scheduled to be promoted to a managerial position,
but he doesn't know whether he should accept it or not. Grant only
entered a state of flow when he was far away from the four corners
of the office—either outdoors or with his nephew to help finish school
assignments. Grant felt—like we all have at some point—stuck.
Grant resorted to Mind Mapping, and "being outdoors" were the
words written in the middle of the blank sheet.
He then wrote words like "nature", "travel", "camping", "surfing", and
"hiking" as his first ring of spokes. From those outdoor activities,
Grant wrote a second spoke with words like "bicycles", "exotic
locations", "pirates", "tropical beach", and "explorers". These words
on the second spoke got him thinking to work part-time on a kids'
outdoor camp. With the torrent of ideas, Grant decided that he will
take the promotion if he will be assigned as a manager at a location
next to the tropical beach. He also thought that he could work four
days as manager and use the remaining time to perform the
activities he took pleasure in. Now, Grant has several choices, and
he no longer felt like he was at a dead-end, indefinitely stuck in life.
Another thing you wouldn't want as you make progress in life is the
"anchor problem". It is a type of problem that keeps you in place. It
won't go away, and it will restrain you from moving forward. In
designing your life, it is important to know when you are faced with
an anchor problem.
To further understand an anchor problem, consider Melanie's
situation. She longed to make a lasting change at the liberal arts
college she taught sociology at. She was aware that her students
paid attention to social entrepreneurship and social innovation, so
she filled her lessons with such matters.
Melanie, however, wanted to go bigger—she wanted to establish an
Institute for Social Innovation at the liberal arts college. College
administrators as well as students supported the idea, but the
Development Office did not have the fifteen million dollars required
to set up. The office disliked the idea because they didn't want to
share its list of key donors and the college itself didn't have enough
funds. Melanie was given instead a list of donors whom she could
not get a hold of. Obviously, Melanie couldn't raise the fifteen million
without the major donors. She felt as if she was stuck at a dead-end
until she decided to reframe the problem altogether.
Melanie took a survey on campus leaders regarding the ways
innovation could be integrated into the college culture and the ways
the students and professors alike can begin to use it. She gathered
several good ideas, and she established a joint team of faculty and
students. Of all the ideas, the team settled on "theme dorms". The
team went to college campuses which had theme dorms and polled
the students on the things they liked and disliked.
The team also asked the students to form a new campus club. The
club would continue to meet for two years to incorporate the idea of
theme dorms into the campus experience. The subsequent year, four
club members submitted an application to become the theme dorm's
resident assistants. The idea turned out to be a great success.
Melanie's reframing brought her to the realization that the problem
wasn't raising fifteen million dollars—it was establishing the Institute
for Social Innovation. Her curious mind led her to collaborate with
other bright minds on campus. Melanie managed her fear of failure
and lowered risk by using a prototype to put the idea to test
(prototypes will be explained further in Chapter 6). The idea was
significantly refined by allowing for adjustments and being adaptable.
Some people use a mind map to get themselves unstuck. Try to
create one in the following exercise.
Exercise 5: Create Your Mind Maps
Pull out your Good Time Journal and look for three blank pages.
These sheets will be used to make three unconnected mind maps.
To begin making the first map, choose any area of interest that
especially engages you. As quickly as possible, write on the first
spoke new concepts and words from that original area of interest.
Make a second spoke by generating more words from that first ring.
For the second mind map, choose a word from your Good Time
Journal that raises your energy levels. This may be a simple chitchat
with dear friends, trekking the woods, or attending a cooking class.
Follow the instructions above to create another mind map.
As for the last mind map, choose a word that you have written in
your Good Time Journal when you were still in a state of flow. Write
this word at the middle of the blank sheet, and again map out this
word through the instructions above.
Examine the first mind map and choose three words that appeal
most to you. Relate these words to form a coherent job description,
and then visualize yourself turning that job description into reality.
Select the words from the first ring of each mind map and use them
to create job descriptions most suitable to you. Although the results
may not be practical, this exercise will open you to the wide range of
possibilities that you can always explore over time.
Chapter 5: Design Three 5-Year Odyssey Plans
People have this notion that there is only a single correct path they
must take and that they would need to devise the perfect plan in
order to traverse it. This belief, however, often proves to be wrong. In
fact, there are several right paths that can be laid out for them, and
the only thing left to do is select the single one most suitable for
them. It is true that one can only live a single version of life at a time,
but there is nothing wrong with thinking through one or two other
versions you would want to live out within the following five years.
It is important to make sure that your five-year plans aren’t similar to
each other. You should create your first five-year plan according to
either the version of life you are currently living or the ideal that you
are striving for. The second five-year plan will then serve as a
backup if the first becomes unattainable. Visualize a future where
you have to start from scratch. As for your third plan, develop a
version of life that would want to live out if both image and money
didn’t matter in the world.
Exercise No. 6: Design Three 5-Year Odyssey Plans
Below are the steps to guide you in formulating a 5-Year Odyssey
Plan:
1. For all 5-year plans, create a visual timeline which indicates
personal and professional achievements. Such may include a job
promotion, career advancement, parenthood, marriage, etc.
2. For all 5-year plans, create a six-word headline, e.g. “The Story
I’ve Written Comes Alive”
3. For all 5-year plans, design a couple of questions, e.g. “What
capital do I require?” “What skills should I begin to develop?” “Do I
need to find a mentor?” “Will I ever earn enough to support my ideal
lifestyle?”
4. For all 5-year plans, form four dashboards.
a) The first dashboard will be for evaluating how much of the
resources required to set your 5-year plan in motion is available
to you.
0% _____________ 100%
b) On the next dashboard, rate how much you like or dislike
your 5-year plan. Label the far right “Hot” and the far left “Cold”.
Cold _____________ Hot
c) On the third dashboard, rate the level of your confidence that
you can actually pull off your 5-year plan. Label the far right
“Full” to indicate a hundred percent confidence and the far left
“Empty” to indicate zero confidence.
Empty _____________ Full
d) The final dashboard should signify how much you think your
5-year plan suits you. Label the far right “Fits” and the far left
“No Fit” to indicate how appropriate the plan is for your nature
of work and philosophies in life.
NF _____________ F
When you're done creating your 5-year plans, try to share them to
your family and close friends. Note your feelings when you do share
them, and determine which plan makes you feel most excited.
Chapter 6: Build Some Prototypes
The term "prototype" mentioned in Designing Your Life is used in a
manner different from its original meaning. Instead, the term is
defined as an important means in answering a certain question. An
ideal prototype should enable you to experience some of the
potential prospect you are currently considering. At the same time, it
should also isolate a specific aspect of the question you are
examining. With the new experiences you gain from your prototypes,
you can give any career path or a job a go. Over time, you can make
the necessary adjustments to suit your needs.
You may want to start simple in making prototypes. Focus on the
available resources. Adjusting accordingly will help you bounce back
from failures. Unless the prototype includes the act of researching, it
cannot be made simply by reading through volumes of books and
making researches—it must be created by being exposed to the real
world. Designing your life involves venturing out, making connections
with people, and creating new experiences.
There are three types of prototypes, and each one is for questions
regarding prospective choices in life design. These are:
conversational interviews where you converse with people who are
already living the life you strive for; experience prototypes where you
actually try out a job or simply observe the people who do it, and;
brainstorming where you gather a group of people to help you come
up with new ideas which you can use later on to make other
prototypes.
Conversational Interview
Conversational interviews are intended for capturing people's
stories. In this type of prototype, you discover a person's
experiences in pursuing the job you aspire. Find out which path that
person followed to come to that position, and learn what that person
likes or dislikes about it. If you want to collect more information, you
would need to conduct more conversational interviews.
Keep in mind that in this type of prototype, you are the interviewer.
Establish that you are simply gathering information about the job and
not asking to be employed. If you notice that you're answering
questions more than you're asking them, find a way to direct the
conversation towards the other person. Once the "interviewee"
believes you are looking for a job, then the conversational interview
would have failed to serve its purpose. Once your asking becomes
answering, the interviewee would be collecting information from you
and not the other way around. The other person will be begin to
evaluate you whether or not you are suitable for the position, and
this won't be helpful in designing your life choices. Unless it is a job
interview (a topic discussed in Chapter 8) you are actually hoping to
conduct, direct the questions back to the other person should they
go your way.
Experience Prototype
This type of prototype involves either actively performing the job or
merely observing the people who do it. To evaluate if the job suits
you, it is important to consider how you feel about the prototype. If
you aspire to open your own restaurant, for example, you could work
part-time in one. Cook dishes, seat customers, serve orders, bus
tables—anything to experience regularly working in that
environment.
If you simply want to observe, take up a different job with the same
atmosphere watch other people as they perform the job you aspire. If
you dream of becoming a lawyer, for example, you can watch trials
at the courthouse and work temporarily at Legal Aid.
Brainstorming
In this prototype, a group, which typically consists of four to six
people, gathers and spends twenty to sixty minutes producing ideas
to answer a specific question or address a certain problem. In
designing your life, a brainstorming session should be intended for
generating ideas that can be used as a prototype in real life. You
may perform a brainstorming session focused on one of the
questions from your 5-year Odyssey Plans.
There are four steps to a brainstorming session for designing your
life—forming a good question, giving the group a period for a warm
up, actual brainstorming, and organizing the ideas generated during
the session.
Step one of a brainstorming session is framing a good question.
Good questions are open-ended. They aren't too vague, and they do
not mention a preferred solution. Note that it isn't too broad to the
point that it is unanswerable.
Step two is allowing the group enough time for warm up. This period
will enable them to shift their focus from their busy lives to the
question or problem at hand. As warm up a few minutes prior to the
brainstorming session, the participants are sometimes given PlayDoh to occupy themselves with.
Step three is the actual brainstorming session. Notepads and pens
should be readily available so the participants can write down their
ideas. Strive for quantity over quality, and try not to suppress or
reject ideas. When one offers a good idea, discuss it among
yourselves and build more off it.
The last and most important step of the session is collecting and
organizing the ideas produced by the participants. Note the total
number of ideas and categorize them by grouping similar ideas. Find
a way to convert these ideas into experience prototypes and
conversational interviews.
Chapter 7: The Internet Job Search
Writing a seamless resume and the flawless cover letter to go with it
is the main job hunt strategy for most people. Unfortunately, this
strategy leaves them waiting for a response for long amounts of
time. As perfect your resume and cover letter could be, employers
won't be find them as good if they don't fit the requirements of these
advertised jobs.
Job openings, however, aren't always advertised, especially if the
company is small and doesn't have an HR department. Some
openings aren't listed until there had been applicants tipped off
through social networks and word of mouth.
If your strategy is similar to the one stated above, then you must
ensure that your resume and cover letter fits the employer's job
description. Let the hiring manager come to you.
Firstly, you must first rewrite your resume and put in the exact words
used to describe the vacant position. Companies use a computer
program to select a few among the hundreds of resumes. The
program filters the resumes to find ones with certain keywords, so be
sure to use the exact words and not similar ones. Secondly, should
you happen to have a skill the job requires, be sure to include it in
your resume using the same terms the employer used. Lastly,
emphasize what a person of your skill set could bring to the
company. Appearing like you have a wide range of skills with no
actual specialty won't help your resume either. You must sell yourself
to be the perfect candidate to answer the company's needs. You can
let the employer know that you possess what other applicants lack
only after you have convinced them that you have the skills the job
requires. If you are called for an interview, remember to bring a copy
of your resume.
In searching the internet for a job, beware of the two types of
phantom job openings. The first type is the listing of a company
searching for a nonexistent "superstar" candidate with a pay that is
unbelievably low for a person of such skill set. You will identify this
type when the opening has been listed for more than six weeks. A
typical job under a good economy won't stay unfilled for more than
that amount of time. You will also spot this phantom job if there had
been more than eight people interviewed before you. If such is the
case, there is a great chance that nobody would be hired.
The other type of phantom job opening to lookout for is often found
at large organizations. These companies have most probably found
the perfect candidate but are obligated by company policy to list the
job opening, review other applicants, and hold a couple of interviews
before ultimately hiring their preferred applicant. You will notice this
in companies that list job openings every one or two weeks.
Chapter 8: Play a Role in Designing Your Own Dream Job
You will be more successful in finding your dream job if you set out
into the real world to search for it and pursue it once you have stable
footing in a good company.
The world offers good jobs. These are found in good companies full
of good people. Some good jobs are similar to your ideal job, and
you know their descriptions would be suitable for you. The problem
now is only about 20% of these are advertised, so you would need a
strategic plan to find the others. To find the unadvertised 80% of job
openings, you will need to establish a connection with the hidden job
network.
First, you will need an entry point in the market. To find one, you may
conduct conversational interviews with people already working a job
that appeals to you. It was stated that you would be conducting the
conversational interviews and to obtain the information you seek, the
questions should be focused on the other person. However, if you
are certain that it is their job you aspire for and if the other person
expresses interest in you being a candidate, this indicates that the
job is suitable for you.
If the person you are interviewing doesn't inquire about your
background or your interest in taking a job at that company, you may
try to direct the conversation by asking questions like, "What
measures should a person of my background take in order to
become a part of this company?" Although the company may not
currently have a job opening, the person you are speaking will most
likely refer you to somebody working at a similar company that may
be looking for applicants. To contact people for your Life Design
Interviews, you can use LinkedIn, Google, and other networking sites
like Facebook and Twitter to find people who are already working the
job you want. It is also possible to find actual job listings in these
sites.
The networking aspect of looking for people to conduct interviews
with is worrisome to many. They hesitate because they fear
appearing like a manipulator or a trickster. In reality, these interviews
are comparable to helping someone lost for directions. If someone
approached you and asked where the closest gas station was, you
would eagerly point them to the right direction and hope they do get
there.
In the same way, conducting these interviews can be considered
asking for directions in life.
Your objective should be engaging in the network. Look for the
network of people who are working the job you want to pursue and
become a part of their conversations. Through referrals is the most
common way people are introduced to networks.
When you have successfully engaged in the network most fitting to
you and conducted your Life Design Interviews, direct your efforts in
obtaining not a job, but only an offer. Since you still do not know
enough about that certain job to make long-term decisions regarding
it, focus instead on simply knowing what type of job the company
would offer you.
Take Kurt's story for example. He sent a resume and an application
to 38 architecture firms within Atlanta. He graduated with a degree in
Sustainable Architecture from Yale, and he has a Master's degree in
Design from Stanford. Despite his remarkable educational
background, not one company offered him a job. He then tried a
different approach by conducting 56 conversational interviews with
architects working in the field of sustainable architecture within
Atlanta. From these conversational interviews, he received seven job
offers. Kurt eventually accepted one of the offers for his dream job.
A panel of Board Members conducted Kurt's final job interview. They
asked Kurt about his capacity to join the business network of people
within Atlanta when he had just moved there and knew only a few
people. Kurt then responded by saying that he had already reached
out to three people of the interviewing panel. They were among the
56 people he contacted for a conversational interview. The panel
finally concluded that matters like being new to Atlanta wouldn't
bother Kurt.
Chapter 9: Happiness is Created by Making Good Choices
All people have a desire to be happy, but only few know what it truly
is—an outcome, a result of choices we make. To be happy,
therefore, is to make good choices.
A four-step process is required for good choices: collecting and
making options according to your identity, narrowing down your
options, selecting the option for you, and finally letting go and
moving forward.
It is only counterproductive to mull over your choices instead of
trying to move on to other matters. Do not torment yourself by
dwelling on your decisions in the past, for it will restrain you from
living in the now.
The first step in making good choices is to gather and create good
options to select from. Previous chapters have already discussed
how to do this. Evaluate your Life View and Work View, as well as
your 5-Year Odyssey plans. Also, recount your conversational
interviews and your experience prototypes to help determine what
fits you well. Brainstorming sessions would generate additional ideas
—quantity over quality. Remember: you can use these tools on
aspects of your life beyond your career.
The next step is to narrow down your choices. Consider the number
of your options before proceeding to this step. Some won't have
enough options to choose from, and some have too many. Having
only two options isn't having enough. If you have only two options,
you will need to go back to step one. Having more than five options,
meanwhile, is having too much. You will need to narrow them down
to just about five. This is because according to research, having too
many choices is similar to having none. When faced with so much
choices, some people become overwhelmed and fail to choose at all.
This was shown in a "jam experiment" conducted by Columbia
Business School's Professor Sheena Iyengar. On the first day, she
put six flavors of specialty jams on display. Forty percent of the total
shoppers stopped by the table to look at the jams. About thirteen
percent of them total shoppers or a third of those who came to the
table actually bought a jam. On the second day, twenty-four flavors
of specialty jams were put on display. Sixty percent of the total
shoppers came by the table, but only three percent bought one.
The wide array of flavors piqued the shoppers' interest. There were
twenty-four on the table that second day, but only a small percentage
of shoppers decided to purchase one.
Your guts and intuition will tell you if you strike out a good option.
Should this happen, return that option to your list and cross out
another instead.
You can start the third step once you have the list narrowed down to
three to five options. Selection is best carried out not only with
cognition but also with emotional intelligence. Allow your sentiments
to weigh in your decision-making.
Some engross themselves with the idea of an option for one to three
days. You may try this by spending an entire day visualizing what life
you would lead if you choose a specific option. After a few days, try it
again and this time, imagine yourself making another choice. Repeat
the exercise until you've tried out the choices on the top of your list.
For each option you try out, record your thoughts and feelings about
the life you have visualized.
The final step is letting go and moving on after making your choice.
You should avoid stressing and worrying about whether you have
made the right choice or not. This will only cause you to take a step
back in life when you should be taking a step forward instead.
As Barry Schwartz notes in The Paradox of Choice, we become less
content with a choice we make when there are too many options or
when there had been options we didn't know existed. There remains
a nagging feeling that we could've made a better choice.
Standing by your decision and carrying it out immediately is included
in the recipe for success. Direct your attention and efforts to
committing to your choice. Focus on what you do after you make that
decision and what measures to take to live it out. Use prototypes in
finding ways that could guide you in this new opportunity. You decide
to be happy once you decide to move forward towards a better life.
Chapter 10: Become Immune to Failure
One can never go wrong in considering an experience prototype and
a conversational interview as a typical experiment. It is simply trial by
error. This mindset allows one to see that every failure is also a
chance to learn something new and become better than ever before.
Once this is realized, people can move forward in life to design
conversational interviews and experience prototypes which are a
better fit to their identity. In truth, these failures aren't really failures at
all because one wins experiences and lessons every time. In this
way of thinking, enduring multiple failures could help one become
resistant to very idea of failure itself.
James Carse points out in his Finite and Infinite Games that there
are two different approaches to every aspect in our lives. The first is
merely playing by the rules in order to win in the game. The second,
on the other hand, involves following the rules for the simple joy of
being in the game. Studying your lessons in chemistry to obtain an
"A" in the upcoming test is an example of a finite game. The result
you seek in using this first approach is an "A". In using the second
approach, however, you study your lessons in chemistry because
you are genuinely interested in the workings of nature itself. In
everything we do in our lives, you get to choose how to play the
game.
Should you choose to approach life as an infinite game, you can
never really fail. Either you discover something you've never known
about yourself before or achieve an outcome you're willing to live
through. The lessons and experiences you gain are useful in
deciding the next phase of your life. Always remember that growth
and evolution are the processes you are currently in.
Go over Chapters 1 to 3 if you seek to create and develop ideas that
would help you make changes in any area in your life. Once you've
identified what you'd want to try out, proceed to Chapters 4 to 6. If
you are in dire need of a job, look to Chapter 7. Otherwise, you may
skip it and go on to Chapter 8 for designing the prototype that would
fit your needs. When you've finally decided on what option you'd
want to take, direct your efforts to becoming the person you want to
be and living the life you want to live. Development isn't done
overnight—it is a lifelong process.
Becoming immune to failure isn't completely ridding yourself feelings
of loss and pain—emotions are only natural to people. Rather, it is
realizing that these feelings can be molded into something good and
beautiful. Reframing failures into triumphs may be accomplished by
the following steps: making a note of every time you've failed;
categorizing these failures, and; determining what lesson you've
learned from each experience.
In recording your past mistakes, you can either go back as far as you
can remember or begin from today and go onwards. Try to make a
note of your recent mistakes at least every month, so you won't
forget the details of that experience.
You may organize your failures into three different groups. The first
should involve things or activities that you do well most of the time
and you had only made a mistake because you were absent-minded.
The next category is about mistakes that are due to human flaws.
Every person has flaws, and we need to be able to recognize our
own in order to avoid mishaps. Being impulsive and easily bored, not
thinking things through, lazing around, and procrastinating are
among the weaknesses almost everyone has.
This last category is also the most important because it includes the
mistakes we had the power to avoid. Considering where we went
wrong is the key to being able to avoid them next time. They serve
as opportunities for development if we recognize the lesson and
utilize it in the time ahead of us.
Chapter 11: Build a Design Team
Work alone if you want to go fast, and work with others if you want to
go far. When we work with other people, we come up with ideas we
couldn't have thought if we were alone.
Notice that all the prototypes in designing your life involve human
interactions. This is because we could learn more about ourselves
from learning the experiences and lessons of other people. You will
live all your life with the people around you, just as they will live all
their life with you. It is only logical to learn to approach to them when
you begin designing your life.
Human interaction is where life design and typical career placement
models differ. Career placement models ask you to generate a set of
goals and measures you would have to take to achieve them. Life
design, on the other hand, takes into consideration that you would
have to include people in the process of pursuing the life you want to
lead. It ensures that you are set on the most suitable path with the
most suitable people.
Pay attention to good mentors when you decide to design your life.
Good mentors are often those who counsel, not advice. Note that
there is a fine line between these two. An advice is what someone
would tell you if they were wearing your shoes. In other words, it is
how they would handle the situation you are in. When you ask
people for advice, remember that what is appropriate for them is not
necessarily what is appropriate for you. No two people think exactly
alike, so a person's advice might not really work out for another.
Counseling, on the other hand, is when people overlook their own
opinions and instead seek to understand your predicament and what
it is exactly that you need. Counselors clarify everything you say to
ensure that you both have a mutual understanding of the situation.
They also ask you questions in various ways to help you reframe the
problem and show you perspectives other than your own.
Ideally, good mentors should provide counsel instead of advice.
They prove to be helpful in designing your life by stimulating your
decision-making faculties. Good mentors may be found in your
extended network. Do not be afraid to reach out to people who
inspire you to follow a certain path. Get in touch with them if you
want to know about their life experiences. Ask for feedback if you
want to learn from them. Try to build your team of mentors whenever
you see people flourishing in the same path you'd want to take.
Engage with more people in more communities. Active participation
is beyond just showing up at community gatherings. Weave your
way through the lives of the people around you. By learning about
more people, you would be able to grow and learn more about
yourself.
Look for people who live with purpose, with a mission. Engage with
those who actually want to work with the people around them. Find
people who share the same values and set of beliefs that you do.
Join groups that have regular meetings. Interacting with people on a
regular basis helps establish deeper connections. It will also be
helpful to include yourself in a group that seeks not only to interact
with people but also fulfill their shared mission. The different lives
these people lead would be united by a single purpose.
It is among people who actively engage with the lives of others
where you would be able to find a sense of belonging.
Conclusion
Aligning the aspects of your life (health, work, play, love) isn't an
overnight process, and so is life design. Balance in these two are
developed over time, for a person can only do so much on a single
day.
Be aware of where you are at the moment. Let reality flow, and do
not get stuck. Designing the life you want to lead is a process that
takes a lifetime.
The tools you need to design your life are within you. Explore ideas.
Go out. Make new experiences. Evaluate the problem you are
facing, and try to reframe whenever the situation calls for it. Ask
others for the help that you need. Remember that well-designed lives
have both positive and negative experiences.
Everyone and everything is always growing, changing. You decide
whether you will simply react or actively participate. Should you
choose the latter, then the well-designed life could be more than just
that—it could also be well-lived. The choice is yours.
Thank you for taking time to read this book. We hope you enjoyed or
learned something from it.
We would highly appreciate it if you post a good review and share it
to your friends and other like-minded individuals.
To Good Life,
Goldmine Reads
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