A couple of months ago I had never heard of the expression ’Life design’. Or maybe I had never thought about it enough for the word to truly sink in. The more I think about it the greater it becomes. There are many ways of saying the same things and I have talked about it before, how important it is to choose what we have in our lives. But the word Life Design has really stuck with me. Because that’s what it’s all about. Designing our own life.
It’s so easy to put ourselves in a position where things just happen to us. We have all been there. Where it feels like we have no control over our lives, what happens to us and our tomorrow. If bad things happen to us, it feels like our whole world falls apart. It’s a dangerous state of mind, because when we feel like our lives just happen to us, it’s like setting out on a journey without anyone steering the ship.
As soon as we put ourselves in a position where we don’t control our life, we loose the spark. And without a spark we loose the power to inspire and change. Both for ourselves and others.
We can’t control what life throws at us. There will always be good days and bad days, happiness and tragedies, bad luck and good luck. That is out of our control. But what we have is even more powerful. We have the power to change, both ourselves and our lives. We can change how we react to things and how we act towards others. We can choose what to do and how we do it. And that, to me, is life design.
I have chosen to design my life so that I can do more of the things that matter to me.
So that I can work with all my heart and my soul. I have designed my life so that I can live above the arctic circle but still have goals that include the rest of the world. I have designed my life so that I can pick up Erik early from daycare and stay home on a Monday if I want to.
Designing my life and choosing what I have, and how I do things in life, has come with priorities and sacrifices. But it also comes with amazing opportunities and rewards. Designing your life is not easy, but it’s worth it. Petra wrote so beautifully about how easy it is to put up rules for ourselves, and how hard but rewarding it is to break them. And I think that’s what life is all about.
What’s right for me might not be right for you. My dream might be miles away from your dream. If I want to be happy, I need to design my life with my dream on the vision board, not yours. It’s easy to get stuck in those rules that Petra wrote about. How things are supposed to be, because that’s how other people do or how it has always been. I too, need to get better at actually using the privileges that I have designed for myself.
I need more long walks with friends on Tuesday afternoons. Like this one. Do you want to walk with me? Give me a shout ♡
