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How to Practice Lifestyle Design
Lifestyle design is the practice of designing your life exactly the way you want it. This includes all areas of life including work, relationships, health, etc.
For many people lifestyle design is a foreign concept because most of us are taught that in order to live we must spend the majority of our time doing things we don’t really want to do.
Transcending this belief can be a challenge but I believe it is necessary in order to achieve true satisfaction in life.
My Story
I first heard about lifestyle design from Timothy Ferris in his book , “The four hour work week.”
I had long been into the concept of law of attraction and creating your own reality so the concept of lifestyle design was familiar to me.
But the four hour work proposed an even more grandiose idea of having complete freedom of time and mobility, ie. to be doing the things I wanted to be doing all the time.
In order to achieve this freedom Ferris proposed a “cash muse,” which could be either a physical or digital product that allowed one to make money anywhere and anytime.
He mentioned other ways to achieve freedom of mobility, such as getting your boss to allow you to work remotely, but none of those ways afford the same degree of freedom.
Lifestyle Design is a Holistic Approach to life
Lifestyle design is not just about freedom of time and mobility, but obviously it is easier to travel, pursue hobbies, and spend more time with your family when money is not an issue.
While I loved the idea of having a business that would allow me to travel and experience pretty much anything I wanted, I did not find it as easy as Ferris proposed it was.
Despite following his advice to a tee, nothing really panned out. It was incredibly frustrating and eventually I gave up.
Lifestyle Design requires changing your thoughts about Money
I personally believe the reason it is not easy for everyone to achieve what he did so effortlessly is a deeply ingrained belief that money is scarce and working hard is a part of life.
Most people are taught at a very young age that struggling with money is a part of life. The middle and lower class are taught virtually nothing about business in school.
“Money doesn’t grow on trees,” and “Money is the root of all evil” were phrases I heard repeatedly throughout my childhood.
What this translates to is…
- “Money is Scarce”
- “People who have money are bad”
The reason I am mentioning this is because I know I am not the only person who has had a deep desire for something without knowing exactly how to achieve it.
I didn’t give up on the idea of lifestyle design but decided I would stop stressing about not having a million dollar business.
My approach to lifestyle design
1) Create a Vision
Lifestyle design starts with a vision. A vision is essentially the blueprint of what you want your life to be like. This is commonly called creative visualization.
It is actually very common for people to not think much about what they want their lives to be like.
Most people are in survival mode and primarily just worrying about getting by.
How to Get a Clear Vision of your Ideal Life
- Write down everything you want to have in your life. Make sure you address every area of your life…
What kind of relationships do you want?
Where do you want to live?
How do you want your body to look and feel?
- Create a vision board
A vision board is a collage of images that present things you want to have or experience in your life.
To do this find magazines and pick images that represent what you want. All that matters is that images are meaningful to you.
2) Feel the Essence of that Lifestyle
Just knowing what you want your life to be like will not automatically bring it to you.
In order to start to create the life you want you must teach yourself to feel as if you already have it.
You do not have to be “spiritual” or even believe in the law of attraction to do this.
This is extremely difficult because you must essentially ignore “Reality.”
How to feel the essence of your ideal life
- Meditation
Meditation is very effective because it blocks out the external world and make it much easier to imagine your life the way you want it to be
I personally find Joe Dispenza’s meditations the most effective for this purpose.
- Practice the “what would it feel like exercise”
I learned this exercise from Abraham Hicks Material and found it to be extremely effective in changing my state of mind.
Ask yourself how it would feel to have to experience something, then try to conjure that feeling.
I find this exercise much easier to do when I am already in a good mood. If you try this and it doesn’t work, then don’t try to force it. You will know it is working if you start to experience an elevated state of mind,
3) Take Inspired action
Inspired action is an impulse that comes as a result of lining up with your desires.
If you are effective in feeling the essence of your ideal life then you will eventually be pulled in the direction of that which you desire.
I gave up on taking any action and for 7 months simply did the minimum amount of effort to survive, ie. going to work, and simply practiced feeling as if I was already living my ideal life.
I eventually experienced a burst of inspiration to take on multiple projects and businesses. My life literally changed overnight. You can read more about it below.
Challenges of Lifestyle Design
This three step process may seem extremely simple and perhaps too good to be true.
If you decide to practice lifestyle design there most likely will be challenges.
While some people are able to follow this process and experience instant results, it took me a long time to achieve the results I wanted.
I have literally been practicing lifestyle design for more than 20 years and it has not been easy.
These are the biggest challenges that I’ve faced…
1) It can be a Lonely Road
This is something that is rarely addressed by lifestyle design gurus.
When you have a desire to change your life you may start to feel distant from people in your life.
Generally the people closest to us share similar goals and have similar values. Whenever you start to desire something else you are literally changing who you are and this can disrupt relationships.
2) A lot of People won’t care
People don’t generally want to hear about things they are not interested in.
Believe it or not, a lot of people are not passionate about lifestyle design. The majority of people on this planet are not excitedly planning their future lives.
They are living week to week and usually very unhappy with many areas of their lives
A mother struggling to feed her children each week does not want to hear about the passive income empire you are trying to build.
When you start to practice lifestyle design you will get much less “airtime” from people. Even people who politely listen will not share the same intensity you do about designing your life.
3) It is hard not to talk about your Interests
Many people warn about the dangers of talking to other people about things that have not happened yet.
There is a reason for this.
If you tell people about your dream of having the freedom of time and mobility and not working a regular job you will hear things like this…
1)) “No one wants to work….” What this really means is that they don’t believe you will ever achieve what you want because no one gets what they really want.
You will also hear…
“So you want to not contribute and just sit around and watch t.v. all day.”
This is essentially saying without a real job there is no real purpose in life. It also implies that people who don’t want a regular job don’t want to anything.
I have gotten used to rarely talking about the things that really excite me but it is not always easy because as humans, we are wired to communicate with each other our thoughts and our goals.
4) Feelings of Guilt
I don’t really see this addressed a lot when people talk about lifestyle design but I believe it is a major sticking point to overcome.
When you are surrounded by other people who are not satisfied with their lives you may start to feel guilty for wanting more.
I have had to deal with this a lot, often questioning why I should be able to live the life of my dreams while others are struggling.
Even though there are many people on the planet living fulfilling lives, a lot of people in my personal sphere are not.
5) Most people don’t care about Business
Business is a common desire of people practicing lifestyle design. This makes sense as it is one avenue to have a lot of freedom and choices in life.
But if you are a normal person who has always had to work and never been taught business, most likely you are surrounded by people in a similar echelon.
This makes it not only hard to talk about business, but also to get good advice.
Of course there is youtube and google, but this is never as easy as talking to someone in person. Oftentimes the information found for free on the internet is highly disorganized unless you buy a course.
But if you are working a normal job, it is not easy to come up with extra money for courses.
If you haven’t figured out business yet(and aren’t fortunate to have a rich benefactor, then you will have to use sweat labor to purchase expensive online courses.
This means working even longer hours, because obviously you still have to eat.
6) There is no instant Gratification
When you begin practicing lifestyle design, most likely your life will not be exactly the way you want it the next day.
This is a hard truth that people don’t often address.
Some areas will change before others. I was fortunate to have met a wonderful partner after practicing lifestyle design but it took me several years to start to manifest more money in my life.
Not only will you not see all the results you want right away, but you will also not get the approval buzz from other people.
The reality is most people don’t care much about things before they have manifested. For instance nbefore I was able to monetize one of my you tube channels no-one wanted to hear anything about it.
It was something I was passionate about, but could not really share it.
If you are working hard to design your life the way you want it, it is important to not expect other people to share your excitement.
So many people try to sugarcoat the process of lifestyle design. But in my experience changing your life is not an easy process.
Much like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly there is a time of intense struggle, but in my opinion well worth it.
Despite the obstacles, I am a firm believer that practicing lifestyle design makes life more enjoyable and rewarding.
I am writing this not to discourage anyone but to let people be aware of the pitfalls of following your dreams.
At first it may seem lonely but the more you line up with what you want, the more like minded individuals will come into your life.
Need some Guidance on your Journey…
I am a lifecoach specializing in lifestyle design. Having overcome many difficulties to achieve the life of my dreams, it my passion to helping others along their path.
Because I believe everyone’s needs and goals are different I offer as little or as many sessions as needed.
For a free 15 minute consultation e-mail me at aglassofcheri@gmail.com