Lifestyle design is an approach to life where you actually think ahead on how you want your life to look like and take actions in that direction.
There are usually two approaches that people take for everything: reactive and proactive.
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Reactive means that stuff happens to you and you react to it - this approach is not optimal because reactions are usually constrained by other factors like time, decision pressure, incomplete or no domain knowledge, etc.
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Proactive means that you think ahead about issues that you might encounter and try to find a solution to prevent or handle them before they actually happen.
When taking the proactive approach to life, one needs to measure at some point any progress or regress. One of the ways to do this is to use a system for measuring progress - usually a 3 month period is a good interval:
- Looking back over the past quarter, what are the things that make you the proudest about what you have achieved?
- When you look at everything that’s going on today, which areas of focus and progress are making you the most confident?
- What are the five new “jumps” you can now achieve that will make your next 90 days a great quarter regardless of what else happens?
Every 90 days, you want to take a few days off. You want to get away where you can ponder, reflect, think, visualize, strategize, and play.
During recovery, some questions need to be answered:
- what went well
- what were the key accomplishments
- where do you need to pivot (what do you need to change)
Some things to remember when applying lifestyle design:
- Confidence comes from watching yourself succeed
- Build your environment for what you want to do. The environment should be a catalyst for the changes you want to make, it should push or pull you in the direction you want to go.
- Use a Minimum viable dose approach - minimum effort required to accomplish something. Anything beyond that is wasted effort.