Design, Not Default
A couple weeks ago, I had a networking happy hour with a guy named Adam, who I’ve known for about a year. My favorite thing about Adam is that he orders his own drink called the “Iowa Martini”, which is a light beer (of choice) on draft with three olives in it. I don’t even like olives, but I appreciate the ingenuity.
Our conversations have historically only been business related, but this time we hit on a variety of other topics. One of these topics was his current approach to life and he referenced living life by design, not default.
I hadn’t heard this phrase before, but it immediately resonated with me. Frankly, I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
To me, living life by design means living with more intention on a daily basis. It means making decisions that align with my personal vision, goals, and core values. It means having a plan and taking action towards that plan.
Living by default is clearly the opposite. Default means living your life on autopilot or just going through the motions. It means being influenced by the crowd and the environment surrounding you. It means you let things happen to you instead of following your own desires.
Someone living by default is making many unconscious decisions in one day let alone a week, month, or year. These default decisions are typically being made to maximize satisfaction in that moment, which helps to avoid any short-term pain or discomfort. This may be justifiable in a given situation, however over time these decisions can keep us from taking the right actions needed to reach a sense of personal fulfillment.
I’m definitely guilty of living life by default, at times. It’s hard not to — but that’s the point. It’s too easy to subscribe to a life by default, and that’s why not enough people are spending the extra time and energy to design the life they truly want.
Default choices aren’t inherently bad, but it’s important to consider that the world was not designed with our goals in mind. We may have a goal of losing weight, however that fast food restaurant on the corner has a goal of getting us to buy their food. So, when you’re coming home from work late and you’re hungry, do you default to picking up fast food because it’s convenient or have you designed a meal plan with food available at home that better aligns with your weight loss goal?
This illustrates the difference between a life designed for you (fast food) vs. a life designed by you (meal plan / prep). The world around us wants to shape our life and choices, but it’s up to us to live a life that we’ve designed opposed to accepting the standard one that can be handed to us.
As we embark on 2024, I’ve declared that my theme for the year is to live my life by design, not default.
Here are a few specific items that I will be implementing to support this theme:
Vision — For any area of my life in which I have no vision, it increases the chances of me wandering aimlessly. That’s not what I want to happen. These areas may include my career / business, relationships, mental and physical well-being, lifestyle, etc. My intention is to create a bold vision for what I want my life to be in each of these areas.
Annual Goals — I’m currently working on a list of 5-7 goals for 2024 that I want to accomplish. Since I’ve usually been more focused on daily goals or habits, I’m excited to formally incorporate annual goals. These goals should align with the vision for each area of my life, as well as enable me to focus my time and energy most effectively. This also allows my daily goals to be centered around a larger plan.
Reflect — For any vision or plan that I set forth, I expect that it will constantly evolve. What is best for me today, may not be best for me tomorrow. That’s why I want to be intentional about reviewing and reflecting on #1 and #2 to ensure that my actions still support my best interests.
The overall premise is that I will be working towards shifting my environment so that the good behaviors are easier and the bad behaviors are harder. This is the design piece at its core.
Happy New Year! See you in the funny papers.
Random Reflection
As a young boy, I became a University of Michigan football fan. I attributed this to the fact that their helmets were really fricking cool (still are) and that they were seemingly always playing at 11am on ABC every Saturday morning.
Since I did not go to a large university, I never had a reason to adopt any other college football team so Michigan has remained my favorite team.
In recent years, Michigan football has become the sports team that I am most passionate about as a fan. This is likely due to the fact that Chicago professional sports teams have seen very little success recently.
So, when I say that today’s College Football Playoff game of Michigan vs. Alabama in the Rose Bowl is the most signifcant game in my lifetime as a Michigan fan, you better believe it. Go Blue!