Life Design 101: How to Design Your Life

The journey to life design begins by clearly defining your ideal lifestyle.

Too many people today have no direction in life and are getting nowhere because of that. They are wandering through life, desperately trying to find meaning by spending time with random people, keeping themselves busy all day, pursuing goals they don’t really want to achieve, and indulging in their bad habits that give them comfort.

Luckily, you’re a decision away from living a completely different life. But you must first have an honest conversation with yourself.

Before the law of attraction can be part of your life, you must get familiar with the law of expectation. It’s similar, but can be considered the stepping stone to getting exactly what you want.

One of the worst things you can do with your life is to spend years going after one thing, just to realize that you never really wanted it in the first place.

My lifestyle design journey began around 15 years ago – with the inner knowing that there’s more to life, that I wasn’t satisfied with the life I was living, that I craved freedom in many ways.

So I turned to personal development, and also learned from many location independent entrepreneurs who inspired me. They showed me it’s possible to create something online and use it to provide value but also live the life you want.

The side hustle I started with was freelance writing, and later I became a full-time blogger. I now teach blogging as a business and am still in love with that business model.

Your thing may be different. Your definition of freedom might not even require an online business. But the point is to define it and start going after it.

Some people live by the standards of those around them and try to live in a way that will make others happy. In the end, they have regrets about not taking their own path, as they see other people can never be pleased and will keep judging and criticizing even if you do everything right.

To avoid that, you can become more aware of what you truly want and then design your whole life around it. Here are some tips:

Life Design Tips

1. You deserve to have your own kind of happiness and success.

One of your missions in life is to create an enjoyable lifestyle, which will let you be your best self, do your best job, be good and help others too.

The law of expectation states that most of what you expect will happen, whether it’s negative or positive.

So before you begin attracting the things you want in your life, it’s smart to get rid of the ones you don’t like that much. And, most importantly, to stop expecting more of what you don’t want.

Take a closer look at your environment and how you spend your time daily.

Make a list of anything you’d like to change, from your job and the way you treat others, to how much you use social media and what more productive things you could be doing at the same time.

2. Define what you don’t want.

It’s worth spending hours, days and weeks to figure out what you want in life, to make an action plan, to set specific goals and analyze the things that may come your way.

That’s a great thing to do as so many people live their whole life without ever having defined their biggest desire, without a direction and a path to follow.

And, of course, such life ends nowhere. No mark is left in the world after this person is gone.

So saying out loud the things you want, accepting them as your definite goals and doing something about them each day gives your life a sense of purpose.

And purpose-driven people are the ones that have the chance to achieve great things. Or, at least to lead the ideal lifestyle.

And that’s the kind of a lifestyle I want to talk about right now.

It’s worth defining exactly how you want your days to look like in the future, and to slowly start implementing habits, changing things, eliminating people, improving qualities and skills so that you can become the person that will manage the success and responsibilities that go with it. But another thing that’s also key, is being aware of what you don’t want.

Ask yourself, ‘Which of the things I have in my life now should I eliminate to get closer to the ideal lifestyle?’

Here’s what I mean by that:

the things you do now that you don’t want to do (a job you don’t like, having to deal with your finances by yourself, cleaning your apartment, having people telling you what to do, working for someone else, having to get up too early, etc.);
the things about yourself you don’t like (not being fit, not finding the willpower to go to the gym at least a few times each week, spending too much time on social media, being dependent on your phone, and other bad habits and qualities);
the thoughts in your head that shouldn’t be there (worrying that you might get fired, fear of failure, having doubts, comparing yourself to others, and other mental habits that aren’t doing you any good).

All these are different for each person.

The one thing in common, though, is that we don’t want to be that person, to think like that or to do these things when we imagine our ideal lifestyle.

Once you identify them, stop thinking about them. Know that they’ll be gone soon as long as you’re moving forward in the right direction.

Here’s what Rob from Making It Anywhere says about that:

“Your life is the way it is now because of the accumulation of thousands of decisions that you made over time because you thought they would make you happy. If you ended up somewhere that you don’t want to be, it’s far more effective to just cut yourself free rather than try to gradually unpick the knot of your life so far.

Browne says that if you use your current life as the starting point, it’s all too easy to rationalise every part of it as essential and unchangeable. Instead, you should start with your dream life as the standard – and eliminate any part of your current life that doesn’t fit the dream.

Start by imagining yourself stripped of all responsibilities and constraints – starting from scratch with everything up for grabs. Think about what you would do if you were in this position: where you’d live, what you’d do, who you’d be with.

Then think about your life as it is now. Everything that’s in your current life that doesn’t appear in your dream life needs to go – making space for what you dream of having in its place. For each item you need to remove, there will be a price to pay – whether it’s money, time or social standing – but the sooner you pay the price and move on, the cheaper it will be.”

Are there such things in your life? Activities, people, qualities, thoughts? Do you think that getting rid of them will clear your path to the ideal lifestyle?

Also read: What is Lifestyle Design (and What It’s Not)

3. Have a deeper conversation with yourself.

The next step to design your life is to get clear about where you want in order to make sure you don’t end up in the wrong destination. This will also help you visualize things more clearly when you’re working on creating your own reality using the power of your subconscious mind.

Whatever you imagine in your mind, the universe will give you more of it. Because together with this picture and the consistent attention you pay to it, you’re also giving birth to new feelings and emotions that raise your vibrations and awake you spiritually.

4. Answer the following questions about your future life as honestly as you can:

Who do I want to be in my surroundings?
How will a standard day in my ideal life go? What time will I wake up? What will I work on? How will I spend my free time? What clothes will I wear?
What words will I use to speak more confidently? How will other people look at me now that I’m more social, positive and successful?
How much money will I have in my bank account?
How often will I travel and where?
What new skills will I learn and how will they help me expand my horizons, start a business or build a name for myself in a certain industry?

Set aside a day or two to really think about all that. Write it down to make the effect stronger and follow a life design action plan. Know that you’re creating your destiny now and you shouldn’t miss out on anything important to you.

Also read: 5 Steps to Becoming a Lifestyle Designer

5. Accept all the things you wrote on the list and start expecting them.

No more negative thoughts in your mind, no more desperate complaints about what you don’t have in your life.

All this is coming your way already, you just need to be ready for it and to attract it. But that starts with first expecting all this in the near future.

Know that whatever it is that you have now and whoever you’ve become, is a result of every single decision you’ve taken throughout your life. The power of a decision is stronger than we give it credit for.

So from now on, your decisions must be aligned with your life design plan and new way of thinking, with your newly developed spirituality and awareness.

If you’ve already been working with the law of expectation and attraction, you can still make the vision in your head clearer. The thoughts that go together with it need to be stronger than your doubts, and than any outer factor from the outside world that is trying to make you part of the crowd.

On the journey to attracting abundance and accumulating wealth, you’ll be listening only to yourself. But it will be your stronger self, your inner voice, your potential giving your guidance.

No one else is allowed to create your reality on your behalf. They don’t know your true desires and you’ll never be peaceful and contented unless you define your ideal lifestyle and start building it.

That’s how to design your life and get to know yourself better. This is all necessary long before you make any real changes in your life such as becoming a digital nomad, starting a lifestyle business, becoming your own boss, etc.