Designing A Life That Works: TEST

Tahera Khorakiwala

This piece is part of a ClariT series of essays that draws on the core ideas from Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Their work introduces a design-thinking approach to life decisions, and in this series I explore those ideas through a coaching lens, turning them into practical reflections you can apply. These essays are not interpretations of the book rather than summaries. Each one stands alone, but they do progress and build creating a cycle. The best way to approach them is with curiosity. Pause where something resonates. Try the small step offered at the end. Let the ideas meet the reality of your own life.

Expanding Your Options

People often feel overwhelmed by decisions not because they choose poorly, but because the options in front of them are too narrow and when the frame is tight, everything feels high-stakes.

Design thinking teaches that good choices start with a wide field of possibilities. Once the field is wide, patterns appear. Some paths feel hollow, some feel energising, some feel surprisingly familiar, as if they have been waiting for you. Thus from here, choosing becomes lighter and clearer.

A good life is rarely built from one dramatic decision. It is built from a series of aligned choices. Choices informed by curiosity, values and honest self-awareness.

A question for you

Are you making a decision from a place of scarcity or possibility?

A small step

Write down three different paths you could take in the next three years. Notice what each one awakens in you.

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