Melissa left her corporate job to launch a business as an environmental consultant to have the flexibility she needed to raise her three kids.
For twenty years, she enjoyed building a thriving business but now she feels she’s outgrown her business.
She’s not sure whether to return to the corporate world, explore opportunities with non-profits or even remain in the environmental field.
Because Melissa is unclear about her next step, she continues to plod along in her business, with little motivation to set any new goals. Her company’s income has plateaued, and she’s stagnating.
Mired in Fear & Uncertainty
Dana finds herself at a crossroads mired in uncertainty. She was laid off from her IT management job at a high-tech company over a year ago, and despite sending out a blizzard of resumes and going on several interviews, she’s received no offers.
When she’d been laid off previously during her 25-year career, she was always able to get a new job quickly.
But this time it’s different.
Dana doesn’t know whether to blame ageism, the current economic uncertainty or AI for her plight and feels like she’s drifting along in survival mode waiting for the economy and the job market to improve.
She wonders if she should explore switching careers or relocating from Silicon Valley to an area with a lower cost of living and start that business she’s been dreaming about.
However, fear and uncertainty hold her back, so she does nothing.
Whose Life Am I Living?
“I feel like I’ve been living my mother’s life instead my life,” Sophie told me over coffee.
Her parents had been successful lawyers who had strongly encouraged her to follow that same career path. They supported her through law school and helped her step into a job in a good law firm when she graduated.
When Sophie experienced a health setback in her mid-forties, that was a wakeup call to take a close look at her life.
She realized that she had never taken the time to get clear about who she was and what she really wanted. As a result, she had just drifted into whatever opportunities opened for her.
How About You?
Melissa, Sophie and Dana are living by default, drifting with no clear vision for their futures, wondering what’s next for them.
How about you?
Have you – like Melissa – discovered that a work or life vision created years ago now seems outdated and stale?
Perhaps you, like Dana, have experienced career derailment, a health challenge, or other upheaval that’s completely disrupted your plans. You feel like you’re struggling to survive and are stuck in a rut of fear and uncertainty.
Because you’re not sure which path to take, you’re drifting with no vision or goals for your life.
Or, like Sophie, you may have realized that, instead of defining success for yourself, you’ve been living someone else’s vision of success.
Living By Design
Whether you’re struggling to figure out your next chapter, feel stuck in a life or career that you’ve outgrown or seek to align your life with your priorities, the life design process offers a fresh new way to build a more joyful, fulfilling life.
When you’re living by design, your life is, in the words of the authors of Designing Your Life, “a joyous and never-ending design project of building your way forward.”
In my next blog post, I’ll discuss how the Life Design process can equip you to thrive in today’s fast-changing, disruptive world.
“Life Design is ultimately a way of life that will transform how you look at your life and how you live your life. The end result of a well-designed life is a life well-lived. And really, is there anything more we could hope for?” – Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
