Lifestyle design is one of those new buzzwords.
You can thank Timothy Ferris’ wildly popular book “The 4 Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” for doing the honors.
I’m a pretty avid Barnes and Noble aisle browser and I ran across the book title right smack dab in the middle of my grad school tenure. You can see how a title like that will catch the eye, especially when you’re several years into your grad school career, your dissertation is looming, and it feels like you may *never* finish (with your sanity intact).
What exactly is this whole lifestyle design thing?
Well, it’s not just hype. What lifestyle design means in a nutshell that you are living the life you want to live. You’ve put a whole lot of conscious thought into how you would like to spend the precious hours of your life:
- It means you’re doing work that you find personally rewarding and fulfilling.
- It means you’re making enough money not only to pay the bills but to live comfortably.
- It means you’re able to travel to Fiji without first asking for approval from your supervisor at work. (OK, so maybe that’s my dream).
Most people – especially most young people – never stop to think about what they want their life to look like once they leave campus for good. They never stop to think about whether or not their career path will afford them the opportunity to life live to the fullest according to their own unique definition.
Don’t believe me? Ask and find out how many professionals are busting their rumps 40+ hours per week at work at the office. Ask how many of them live for the weekend and dread Monday mornings. Every. Single. Week. Ask them if their jobs afford them adequate time to stress and de-compress when they need to recharge their batteries. Ask them if they are able to spend as much time as they want with their families.
You will find a lot of unhappy people who never once thought about lifestyle design before they chose a career path. And now they feel stuck. Trust me – this doesn’t just happen in movies.
Lifestyle Design Is What You Won’t Learn in College
Lifestyle design basically means that you are taking very specific actions based on the vision of the kind of life you want to life. It’s that short and simple. For Tim Ferris, his dream lifestyle meant not waiting until retirement to enjoy life but partaking in lots of “mini-retirements” throughout his life where he has the opportunity to do whatever eff he wants to do.
Some people’s lifestyle design may lead them to set their sights out on becoming a prizewinning kickboxer (Tim’s did). You may have some loftier goals. Either way, it’s all good. Happiness and fulfillment is all about living the kind of life *you* want to live. And taking strategic actions to get there.
Have you ever considered…?
Forget about the “how to’s” of getting into grad school for a minute. Have you considered whether you’re *truly* embarking down the right path for you? Asking yourself these questions will save you a ton of career angst somewhere down the line:
- What do you know about the average “day in the life” in your intended profession?
- Will it require too many hours to really enjoy your family or to get out and enjoy the rest of your young adulthood?
- Will you make enough to live comfortably?
- If you won’t be making as much as you like, have you thought about creative ways to bring in additional income based on your knowledge and expertise?
- Will you actually have enough time to work on building additional income streams and maintain a sense of psychological well-being at the same time?
Make sure you do the ground work to figure it out before your lifestyle is *designed by default* by your future employer. Once you’ve determined that your career path works for you and the lifestyle you want to create for yourself, now it’s time to put together the puzzle pieces on getting into grad school. If you need some help figuring out which exact steps to take… well… that’s why I’m here!
Taking time out to consider lifestyle design means that your end destination is clear. It’s circled in red marker in the map of your mind. Now you can truly go forth, conquer, and prosper throughout your grad school career.
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