# Designing Your Life ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4142H2ZeBeL._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Bill Burnett and Dave Evans]] - Full Title: Designing Your Life - Category: #books ## Highlights - Names: Burnett, William (Consulting professor of design), author. | Evans, David J., author. Title: Designing your life : how to build a well-lived, joyful life / William Burnett and David J. Evans. Description: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. Identifiers: LCCN 2016008862 | ISBN 9781101875322 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781101875339 (ebook) | ISBN 9780451494085 (open market) Subjects: LCSH: Vocational guidance. | Self-realization. | Design—Social aspects. | Decision making. ([Location 12](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=12)) - In fact, in the United States, only 27 percent of college grads end up in a career related to their majors. ([Location 70](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=70)) - The idea that what you major in is what you will do for the rest of your life, and that college represents the best years of your life (before a life of hard work and boredom), are two of what we call dysfunctional beliefs—the myths that prevent so many people from designing the life they want. ([Location 71](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=71)) - Dysfunctional Belief: Your degree determines your career. Reframe: Three-quarters of all college grads don’t end up working in a career related to their majors. ([Location 73](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=73)) - Dysfunctional Belief: If you are successful, you will be happy. Reframe: True happiness comes from designing a life that works for you. ([Location 88](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=88)) - In the United States alone, more than thirty-one million people between ages forty-four and seventy want what is often called an “encore” career—work that combines personal meaning, continued income, and social impact. ([Location 99](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=99)) - Dysfunctional Belief: It’s too late. Reframe: It’s never too late to design a life you love. ([Location 102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=102)) - A great design comes together in a way that can’t be solved with equations and spreadsheets and data analysis. It has a look and feel all of its own—a beautiful aesthetic that speaks to you. ([Location 141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=141)) - A well-designed life is a life that is generative—it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise. ([Location 151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=151)) - Reframing is one of the most important mind-sets of a designer. Many great innovations get started in a reframe. In design thinking we always say, “Don’t start with the problem, start with the people, start with empathy.” Once we have empathy for the people who will be using our products, we define our point of view, brainstorm, and start prototyping to discover what we don’t yet know about the problem. ([Location 203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=203)) - A reframe is when we take new information about the problem, restate our point of view, and start thinking and prototyping again. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=207)) - The biggest reframe is that your life can’t be perfectly planned, that there isn’t just one solution to your life, and that that’s a good thing. ([Location 212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=212)) - Your life is not a thing, it’s an experience; the fun comes from designing and enjoying the experience. ([Location 214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=214)) - The reframe for the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is this: “Who or what do you want to grow into?” Life is all about growth and change. It’s not static. It’s not about some destination. ([Location 215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=215)) - What people need is a process—a design process—for figuring out what they want, whom they want to grow into, and how to create a life they love. ([Location 218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01BJSRSEC&location=218))