You Can Design Your Life
When I was in NYC last week it felt so strange to watch the sea of people at 9am getting off the subway, slogging down the street, and going into offices. I appreciate some people LOVE that and thrive on it, but it stresses me out and is not the life for me on a daily basis. And, the reality is most of the people I saw looked beaten down by life. A bunch of drudgery.
It was 65 degrees and sunny….so after I grabbed my Blue Bottle coffee, I sat outside in Bryant Park and worked. My creativity and inspiration comes from the sounds and smells of outdoors–city or otherwise.
I designed my life so that it’s rare to be in an office all day, and even more rare for me to be working at 9am. 😉 My work hours tend to be extremely early, in the afternoon, and late at night. During typical commute times, I am usually walking my dog, or sitting on my rooftop meditating.
It wasn’t always like this and I’m not being a braggadocios for any other reason except to say:
I purposely crafted a life that enables me to schedule my day to prioritize my purpose, wellness, and balance. As a result, I experience magical moments and appreciate the nuances of the world around us.
You, too, could, if you wanted to, design a life that enables you to be more joyful. You can design your life to be one of poetry and passion and purpose.
The Fallacy Of Doing What You Love = No Money
Are you perhaps experiencing a visceral negative reaction to this blog? Did you stop believing that life can be designed? Or that I’m clueless? I know some of you are thinking…just no, I can’t do it.
You might say, you cannot design your life because you’re trapped in a world where you equate doing something that you love with having no money.
Or your obligations, or children, or caretaking for parents (etc etc etc) prevents you from living a life on your terms.
Whatever you believe is what will manifest. So why not believe you can make it happen?
Design Your Life For Purpose And It Will Bring Abundance
Here are three core philosophies I believe in:
1. Money And Abundance Come With Passion: The biggest fallacy to me is this belief that we cannot make money by doing what we love. And we are taught this myth young, aka asked to get a business degree vs. a liberal arts degree. Yet money flows when you are in alignment with what you are passionate about. I have had my ebbs and flows with money, but I have always had abundance. Which brings me to this…
2. Money Is Not The End All Be All. My brother runs dogs for a living and loves his life–he designed it so he can be outdoors every day. It’s not perfect (read: Massachusetts in January), but he owns his schedule. His days are full of freedom. My brother does not need or want a penthouse in SoHo or new Gucci shoes, and when he is at my Newbury Street pad he appreciates that I like it (and love watching the sunset from my rooftop)–but knows it is not for him. You can actively choose to have the material things OR NOT. Perhaps you choose to live in the woods. Each day you can make choices that allow you to live the way you want if your passion is not a big moneymaker (yet, arguably there are ways to monetize any passion!).
3. You Can Take Small Steps: You do not have to wake up one day and re-design your entire life. Perhaps you start by scheduling in daily walks. Block your calendar just as if those walks are as important as a meeting (I think they are!). Maybe you wake up an hour earlier each day so you can take time to do something just for you. Or create a more flexible schedule to avoid a gnarly commute. Do something. One small step each day gets you aligned with the life you imagine.
Design Your Life As Poetry
I believe life is poetry.
When you live in alignment to your true values, and design your life to focus on them, life becomes poetic. To me poetry is waking up each day on my terms, watching the sunset, walking my dog specifically at rush hour (and not rushing).
Poetry is remembering the things you’d write poetry about.
Maybe it’s:
healthy food
talking until 3am
glorious love
travel
art
beauty
nature
sunsets
water trickling in a stream
the silence of clouds right after a storm
the soft coolness of new sheets
feeling sweaty and elated after a run
9 hours of blissful sleep
a wonderful dinner party
seeing a ladybug after an eclipse (this happened!)
It MIGHT be the rush hour commute, and it might be something out of Bukowski.
But if its aligned with your true values, it is poetic.
I looked down to see a ladybug on the couch outdoors. You can design your life to schedule meetings from the rooftop in order to see an eclipse!
Painting, Peonies, and an 80-Year Old Lady Who Floats Through Life
I had such a beautiful conversation with my friend Kim.
She was talking about painting with acrylics, visiting a farm and seeing a sea of beautiful fragrant peonies, and getting more plants for her home.
But my favorite part of the conversation was when Kim spoke about hanging with “an 80-year old woman who just floats, a little bubble, a little mince…she’s like a caricature….who presented us with a crystal quartz bowl to smoke with her.”
You can’t even make this up. The universe presented Kim with some real surreal poetry. Kim’s life is something akin to Coleridge or William Blake.
She designed her life to be this way. Kim collects interesting people and adventures.
Purpose is Poetry
I’ve been on a purpose kick lately. It’s because every single time I try to focus on things not aligned with MY purpose, the universe kicks me out of it.
Re-reading my Uncle’s book on living a life of significance gave me new fuel. It was sitting on my bookshelf gathering dust for years; I hadn’t looked at it.
But after my business trip in NYC, where I spent a full day in offices that looked like Tyrell Corp (if you know you know), I drove home and noticed the book. It almost glowed. Glowed! Like something out of a Neil Gaiman novel, some fantasy magic in my apartment.
I saw it in the sunrise, and picked it up, re-read it, and realized I had lost my way.
I was so inspired by his book that I wrote a blog post about finding purpose.
We always DO get the signs we need, but we’re often so busy and get distracted by other things that we push them aside. Or–we justify living a life for other people’s agendas. We justify slogging through the motions of a job we hate. Which then becomes a life we hate.
The Power of A Designed Life
Life is short. Time is precious. These are simple yet poignant and true statements of fact. When I was lying on a hospital bed after surgery, the only thing that mattered was the fact I woke up. The beauty of living.
Our purpose in life–which is unique to us–is our poetry.
We can design our lives around our purpose and have passion every single day. We are the authors of our own great poem.
What’s your poetry?
Have you designed your life? What would a life of poetry and passion look like for you?
