In life, each of us faces countless choices. These choices can sometimes leave us feeling lost and confused, especially when it comes to deciding the direction of our lives:
- What am I truly suited to do?
- How do I find the direction that really fits me?
- How can I be sure that this direction is the “best fit” and not just a random choice?
When facing these questions, many people easily fall into anxiety, rush to make decisions, and then stubbornly stick to them blindly. However, this approach often yields poor results. This article introduces a more scientific and flexible method — “learning by doing,” trying and adjusting with low cost, gradually finding the life path that suits you best. This process is similar to the “rapid testing and small iterative improvements” principle used in internet product development, where repeated trials and adjustments eventually pinpoint the key that works best for the user — in this case, yourself.
What Is “Life Design”?
“Life Design” is the core concept proposed in this article. The idea is simple yet practical:
- Redefine the problem: Don’t view the issue too narrowly or absolutely; continuously adjust and broaden your perspective.
- Explore as many options as possible: Avoid rushing to conclusions; gather information and try various possibilities.
- Make quick choices and try them out: Use small-scale, low-cost experiments to validate your ideas.
- Continuously adjust based on feedback until success.
This approach emphasizes learning through action, encouraging you to discover and correct in practice, truly exploring the path that suits you.
Understand Yourself: Start From Your Current Life Situation
The first step in life design is a comprehensive analysis of your current state. You can divide your life into several key areas: health, work, leisure, and relationships (love). Create a “life dashboard” for yourself and ask:
- How is your health? Any physical discomfort? Is your mental state good?
- Are you satisfied with your work? Are you growing? Does it align with your personal values?
- Do you feel fulfilled and relaxed during your leisure time?
- Are your relationships harmonious? Is the connection with family, friends, and loved ones close?
Give yourself a rating from zero to full score in each area, write a few sentences describing your current situation, and identify the main problems. Further, judge if any problems are like “gravity issues” that are temporarily hard to solve — these might require long-term accumulation and adjustment rather than instant fixes.
With this, you gain a clear understanding of your current life, knowing what needs attention and what you can actively change.
Build Your Life Compass: Core Self-Understanding
Next, build a “life compass” to help clarify your core values and beliefs. The book suggests three important self-exploration questions:
- Who are you?
Reflect deeply on your identity — how you see yourself, your core personality, interests, and strengths. - What are your beliefs?
Not just religious faith, but your understanding and adherence to life’s meaning, values, ethics, and morals. - What are you doing now?
Does your current life and work reflect your identity and beliefs? Does your job or path truly represent the real you?
These questions are similar to the philosophical self-exploration: “Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?” It’s recommended to spend time seriously writing answers to each, about 250 words per question, so you can see your inner thoughts clearly.
Deepen Your Views on Work and Life
Once you have clarified your self-awareness, you need to specifically organize your views on work and life:
View on Work:
- Why do you work? What does work mean to you?
- What is the purpose of work? Just to earn a living, or to realize self-value?
- How is work related to your growth and sense of achievement?
- What do you consider an ideal job? What kind of work is “meaningful”?
- How do you see the relationship between work and money?
View on Life:
- Why do you live? What is the meaning of your life?
- How do you view relationships between people?
- How do you understand family, country, and society?
- What do “good” and “evil” mean to you?
- Do you believe in supernatural or higher powers? How does this belief affect your life?
- How do you view joy, sadness, fairness, and conflict in life?
There are no right answers to these questions. The important thing is that they help you gradually clarify your thinking and form your unique worldview and value system.
Compare and Integrate: The Dialogue Between Work and Life Views
Put your work and life views together and try to answer:
- What are their complementarities?
- Are there contradictions or conflicts?
- Does one drive the development of the other? If so, how?
This step helps you understand the relationship between work and life — no longer seeing work as merely a survival tool, but as a means to realize life’s value. Only when the two align can you truly feel satisfaction and motivation.
Explore “Flow”: Find What Fully Engages You
When you feel lost about the future and unsure what you like, “flow” is a very effective clue. Flow is the state when you are fully immersed in something, losing track of time and self, feeling immense satisfaction and joy.
By keeping a “Good Time Journal,” record moments when you experience flow each day and ask yourself:
- What were you doing at that time?
- Why did this activity fully engage you?
- What positive feelings did you experience?
This helps you discover the fields and activities that truly attract you, providing very specific clues for your future direction.
Pay Attention to Your Energy Flow: Design a Life Full of Vitality
Every day you go through different physical and mental activities — some recharge your energy and make you feel vibrant, while others drain your energy and leave you tired. By recording energy flows in your “Good Time Journal,” you can clearly see:
- Which activities energize you?
- Which activities tire you?
- How can you adjust your life schedule to maximize energy peaks?
Managing energy is more important than just managing time. Only when you are full of vitality do you have the capacity to pursue what you truly want to do.
Follow Happiness: Enjoy the Pleasure of Work
During the process of finding your life direction, happiness is an indispensable signal. Keep asking yourself:
- Does my current work make me happy and satisfied?
- Does my work align with my values?
- Does it ignite my passion and motivation?
Only when work matches your self-awareness and beliefs can you truly enjoy it and sustain motivation.
How to Practice the “Good Time Journal”
The “Good Time Journal” is a very practical tool that helps you record and reflect:
- Activity recording: Note the specific activities that fully engage you and make you feel energized.
- Reflection and summary: Review your journal, think about which activities brought growth and joy, and which did not have much effect.
Practical steps:
- Prepare a journal to record daily or every few days.
- Keep recording continuously for at least three weeks to ensure data continuity and completeness.
- Write weekly summaries and reflections, focusing on which activities you were most engaged in and which bored or tired you.
- During reflection, use the “AEIOU method” to analyze activities more deeply:
- Activity: What exactly were you doing?
- Environment: Where did the activity happen? How did the environment make you feel?
- Interaction: Who or what did you interact with? Was the interaction pleasant or tense?
- Objects: What tools or devices did you use? How did they affect your engagement?
- Users: Who else participated? Did they have a positive or negative influence?
These questions help you uncover patterns and clarify which environments and interactions suit you best.
Summary
Finding your life direction is not a one-time event. It is a dynamic, iterative process of continuous trial and adjustment. By carefully analyzing your current situation, building an inner compass, exploring flow experiences, paying attention to energy flow, and using tools like the “Good Time Journal,” you can gradually discover what you truly want to do.
Remember, life design is not a straight line but a cyclical iterative journey. Dare to experiment and adjust courageously, and you will ultimately find the path that suits you best.