What do I do with the rest of my one wild and wonderful life?

boston yoga designing your life

Stanford Professor Bill Burnett and Dave Evans believe that a joyful life is something we all have the capacity to achieve – regardless of our age or the vocation we may presently find ourself in.  They have been sharing their secrets for how to go about obtaining a sunnier existence for years in their popular class at Stanford University.  This month, they make their “movement” available beyond the confines of campus as their book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-LIved Joyful Life is published by Knopf.  “This is the career book of the next decade and… the go-to book that is read as a rite of passage whenever someone is ready to create a life they love.”  This from IDEO Founder, David Kelley.

The book was born from one of the most popular electives on Stanford’s campus, Designing Your Life, a course which in recent years has also been shared in workshops with Google employees.  Through their nine years of teaching the course and learning from its evolution, Mr. Burnett and Mr. Evans are confident they have crafted a system to help readers of all ages deal with almost any challenge life serves up.  In addition to unpacking the duo’s mantra of “design thinking”, the book also nudges readers to consider the question of “What do I do with the rest of my one wild and wonderful life?”.  With terms like “flow”, and “prototyping” and “Odyssey Plans”, the authors (and Stanford graduates) hope to reinforce in readers the sense of multiple viable options, unlock their imagination and take the stigma away from failure.

The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.

From the publisher of Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-LIved Joyful Life, “Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home–at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve.  In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.”

In an effort to further bring the book’s pages to life, Mr. Burnett and Mr. Evans have a full line-up of workshops on tap throughout the country – from Portland to Greenwich.  Check the Designing Your Life website for news on local appearances in the coming months.