Introduction
5 steps to designing the life you want are the Ted talk by Bill Burnett. Bill Burnett is an executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford.
In this Ted Talk, he gave suggestions to design the lives of people using the technique of design thinking. He says that the most problematic and challenging design is design life.
Design thinking– it is a culture and set of mindsets of how designers think. If an individual wants to do something new and achieve something that no one has ever achieved before, then it comes with curiosity. It means that new things can be discovered by undertaking different experiments. The second thing that Burnett advises is to have biased actions. It means to try new experiments. He suggests that as soon as any plan comes into contact with reality, the plan is bound to fail because the real world is filled with dynamism. So, he suggests having biased actions towards our goals.
3 Most Common Dysfunctional Beliefs
- Have Passions– It is believed that one needs to have one important passion in their life. When his colleague experimented, he found that there were less than 20% of people who had a single identifiable passion. He says that it is okay for people to have more than one passion or for that matter, have many passions in their life.
- You should know where you are going– people tend to believe that if one does not know where they are going in their lives, they are late in their lives. Burnett says that it is never too late, one should start from where they are.
- Be the best version of yourself– people ask others if they are best at what they are doing and are doing it nicely enough if they are not settling. To this, Burnett replies “The unattainable best is the enemy of all the available betters”.
5 ideas from design thinking are
- Connect the dots– Burnett says that if an individual can find a connection between three things: What they believe, what they do, and what they are, then an individual will find that his or her life is meaningful. For this, one should ask these three questions to themselves in the domains of work view and life view. The coherent view in this aspect will help an individual to connect deeper meaning to their life.
- Gravity problems– ‘If it is not actionable, it is not a problem, it is a circumstance.’ Gravity problems are those problems that are essential things that an individual cannot change. If there is a problem in someone’s life and if they are not willing to do anything or are unable to resolve that problem, then that problem just becomes a circumstance of their lives. So, a person should follow these steps instead of gravity problems- accept, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
- How many lives are you– He says that on average, people say that they want 5-7 lives but, the truth is that we get only one life. However, we can stay optimistic and say that there are lots of great YOUs. It is never too late to start anything new in life. We have just one life and, it is upon us how great we make it. We should take out time to ideate alternative futures. He says that instead of choosing one idea and then brainstorming three ideas further down the road, it is better, to begin with, the three ideas as the lives of those who begin with multiple ideas are transformational. He suggests having five-year version plans of oneself.
- Prototyping– He suggests creating prototypes. It means asking interesting questions, exposing assumptions, involving others with our ideas, and sneaking up on the future. There are two types of prototypes: prototype conversation and prototype experience.
- Choosing well– People often have to choose. People are very not happy with the choices they make in their life as the question that haunts them is ‘How do you know when do you know?’. So, Burnett gives the process of choosing – gather and create, narrow down, choose and lastly, let go if any choice goes wrong.
Conclusion
Design thinking is a new concept and, we need to find our way around it. The tips that Bill Burnett gave seems to be interesting and can come in handy to those who wish to achieve the unachievable. In modern times, when there are numerous career options available with an individual, Design Thinking seems to be a useful tool in finding the way out of this maze. Bill Burnett suggests, not to be harsh on oneself due to dysfunctional beliefs that are prevalent in our society. This advice seems to be appreciable in today’s competitive world.
:By-Achal Suchak
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