Comments

Lifestyle Design: 8 Steps To Get Started With Lifestyle Design — 16 Comments

  1. Alan, nice breakdown of thinking through our own personal lifestyle design. There are so many different ways to approach it. I think something that gets missed with a lot of the gurus is just how hard they had to work to make them location independent, able to travel on a whim, etc. They may have the 4 hour work week now, but there were probably a ton of 80 hour weeks to get them to their successful place.

    Once you have the blueprint, work hard to build skills that can make you location independent. Or work hard to transform your finances so they are not limiting your dreams/goals.

    • Thanks for a great comment Andy,

      it’s a good point – it’s like when people look at ‘overnight’ successes – often those successes were actually 2 years overnight (not really overnight at all – 2 years of hard work then suddenly they seemed to pop up overnight).

      But that being said, Lifestyle Design doesn’t have to be complicated at all, it can be as simple as deciding what you want from life (so that you can then start working towards that) – most people don’t even do that.

  2. I like how you say to ‘design your version of wealth’, as what is important for some people may not be what is important for others. I think its important to be clear about what YOU want in life, and not simply get swept up in the thoughts and goals of others. I’ve only heard about the term lifestyle design recently, its an interesting concept.

    • Hey Ally,

      thanks for your kind comment & I’m glad you liked the article. I really believe that Lifestyle Design is a very personal thing. Somebody asked me to recommend a ‘Lifestyle Design’ book today and I really tried but I just couldn’t, the subject is too broad and personal. Tim Ferris’ book is the obvious example but as I say in the article, that’s only one ‘brand’ of Lifestyle Design, there’s so much more to it and your version may be different.

      You & me both! Whether it’s called lifestyle design or anything else, it’s definitely worth thinking about,

      thanks again for the comment Ally,

      Alan

  3. It is truly good and very inspiring. It is a great feeling for me to learn from other person. For this year we are going to start a happy lifestyle and that is definitely I want to have this year.
    Thanks!

  4. I, like most people, first heard of Lifestyle Design from our friend Tim. I think his version also got a lot of people in trouble as the dream of quitting your job and giving surfing lessons in Hawaii to support yourself, doesn’t always pan out. Especially if you don’t plan out goals and how you will achieve them first. Like you mention, you don’t have to quit your job to have a happy lifestyle, it all depends on finding balance and purpose, at least in my opinion. Great article Alan, lets catch up soon!

    • Hi Gary,

      yep – I reckon if I tried surfing I’d soon be giving up that lifestyle for sure!!

      Now skiing – that’s a different story altogether (different climate too). Too much of this ends up being clichés and people lose the point and just try and copy the ‘famous’ people.

      On that note – I take Annie’s point (below) but I do think there’s something to be said for Lifestyle Design if done the right way – i.e. they are the right words to describe exactly what it is – designing the lifestyle you want – and that’s different for everybody.

      It would be great to catch up, I’m about to duck out of contact for a few weeks though (skiing for 3 weeks in Feb) so hopefully soon after that?

  5. Ugh! the dreaded term lifestyle design. I remember back in 2011 when I first heard this term and learned of Tim Ferris, i thought it was a joke. I dislike this term but i understand the importance of putting labels on things. I like the other term you use better. “live life on your own terms”.

    I digress…………

    These are all great steps to lifestyle design. The thing is, sometimes we don’t know what we want until some switch gets flipped.

    I remember working in corporate. I loved working. my job was like a puzzle. Taking numbers and making sense out of them. I went home and worked and dreamt of work. I thought how lucky i was to love my work and get paid lots of money to do something I loved. After a while though something felt like it was missing. I had no clue though..

    It wasn’t until I was laid off and had time away from work. almost a full year later, I discovered I had undeveloped interested in other areas of my life that i had been ignoring. My point is, i think a lot of people are stuck in this situation. It’s easier when you have a job you hate “i think”. The demarcation is more clear. you hate your job and instinctufully look for something better.

    Your steps outlined above are a good step to designing that idea life. Especially number 8. Keep changing small iterations and adjusting. Don’t just stick with something because you thought it was right to do. If it feels wrong try something new, different.

    • p.s. I also like ‘live life on your own terms’ better too – but if everybody else is calling it Lifestyle Design and those two words describe the concept very accurately then what’s a guy to do?

      I agree also with your point that often people don’t know what they want – they think they know what they want but they don’t always actually know what they want. That’s usually the difference between what surveys tell us and what real data (e.g. sales figures) tell us.

      People give you very different feedback when they have to put their hands in their pockets vs when they don’t. Just like playing a free poker game isn’t really playing poker at all – you’re only really playing if you put real money down, because then you have something to lose.

      So the best way to find out is to try / experiment…

      …and the best way to do it is to do it.

      😉

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Content Protected Using Blog Protector By: PcDrome.