Designing Your Life

There are false myths, known as "dysfunctional beliefs", that block people and prevent them from living the life they would like to (in the United States, two thirds of employees are not satisfied with their work and 15% even hate it). Three of the most common myths are:

1. Your studies determine your career.
2. If you are successful you will be happy.
3. It is too late to change.

After adopting a designer mentality, you will learn to reformulate problems and see them from a new perspective, which will transform these three dysfunctional beliefs into the following statements:

1. Three quarters of all working graduates in the United States do not hold positions related to their studies.
2. True happiness comes from designing a life that works; the one that works for you.
3. It is never too late to plan the life you want to have.

This book will teach you how to build your life using design techniques. Design solves problems and your life is the most interesting design problem there is.

There are 5 things you have to do in order to build a meaningful and fulfilling life:

1. Be curious. Curiosity makes everything new, it encourages you to explore and shows you that opportunities are all around you.
2. Try things. Stop worrying, analyzing, reflecting, just act. Run tests, create prototype after prototype until you find the one that works.
3. Reformulate problems. Change your perspective; a problem is simply something you have not yet understood.
4. You have to know that it is a process. Being aware that it is just a process will not make you feel frustrated by the disappointments that you will experience when a prototype fails.
5. Ask for help. You are not alone; designing is a collaborative process and the best ideas are born in a group.