Lifestyle Design: Creating The Life Of Your Dreams

lifestyle design - create life of your dreams

Lifestyle Design: Creating The Life Of Your Dreams

How would you love to create a better life? One that that is designed by you that is easy and fun and fills you with joy, freedom and power? I want to introduce you to a concept of creating your own Personal Operating System. A lifestyle design blueprint for creating your dream life by putting YOU first. 

Think of it this way. When you turn on your computer in the morning every time it goes through a specific boot sequence and loads up programs every time to operate as the best version of the computer. You can design the same process for yourself to become the best version of who you want to be and live your ideal life. 

In this post I’ll break down the various ways of thinking about how to design your life, as well as the tactical steps for making it a reality. 

If you’d like the podcast version of this blog post you can listen to this Built For The Game episode.

Do you have a life system?

Let’s take inventory of the life systems you currently have. That way we can create a clear plan of action for you. Which of these four levels best describes where you are currently at?

  • 1. I don’t have a life system – this is also known as “living by default.”
  • 2. I have a loose life system – I don’t follow it consistently, and it creates inconsistent results.
  • 3. I have a good life system in some areas – but I am not filling up all my life buckets.
  • 4. I have a joyful & loving life system – I am showing up as ideal version of myself daily and living by design.

Step 1 of personal development is awareness and taking inventory of where you are at. There is no judgment here, only a desire to grow and create a better life. 

If you are not currently at number four, living by design holistically in all areas of your life, I’ve got good news for you. Because there is a lot of opportunity for you to design your lifestyle and create a lot more of what you would love in every aspect of your life.

Why is having a Personal Operating System important?

Having a Personal Operating System is important to live the life you envision. Because the bigger the dreams, the deeper the foundation, and you want to design a life where you are in control. Let’s break this down with five reasons why creating a personal operating system that you design your lifestyle around is so important.

Systems Scale

If you want to create a better life where you spend your time doing what you love, having a blueprint you follow every day allows you to create momentum with consistency and sustainability. It takes you from wishing things were better, to living in action. 

One book that changed my life was The Power of Consistency by Weldon Long. In it he says (and I am paraphrasing), “The reason most people don’t live their dreams is they just don’t spend enough time in them.” So often people like the idea of lifestyle design and having freedom of time, but that’s as far as it goes. They do not have a system or consistency practice to keep the most important thing top of mind. 

By designing a Personal Operating System, you create a scalable structure for your life that allows you to make you dreams a reality. There is no wishing because you are the lifestyle designer of it all.

Prioritizes Yourself First

There’s a myth in Entrepreneurship Hustle Culture that the first thing we should when we wake up is start working or jump on social media or turn on the news. The second you give up control you operate on the worlds agenda, not yours. I call this Living By Default. 

The reality is when you prioritize yourself first by being intentional about how you start your day, what your inputs are, and how you want to spend your time, you immediately put yourself in a better position to succeed. 

When your systems put your personal development first you create a force multiplier. Not only do you create amazing days, but when you are stacking things in your life that you love to do right away, and you do it for weeks, months, years, and decades at a time, you create a dream life.

This is how to create abundance in your life 101. 

Creating Unlimited

Holistic Success

Your Personal Operating System is about holistic success, where you are filling up the buckets in all areas of your life (ex. your health & well being, wealth, love, happiness, exploration & adventure).

As someone who didn’t live this way for the first three decades of my life, I know what it’s like to feel the desire for more fulfillment. I was not self aware and did not have a growth mindset, and my life consisted of being a work hard place hard ad sales guy. While the financial success and partying was great, eventually I grew tired of this lifestyle. 

It was upon going to zero, where I quit my job and went all-in on being an entrepreneur that I saw the opportunity to start designing a life I love. One where the way I live and work go together in harmony, where I am excited to wake up every morning doing what I love. This became the seeds of designing my ideal lifestyle.

I encourage you to take inventory of the areas of your life that are most important to you, and how are you intentionally aligning your days to prioritize them. 

Do More Of What You Love

Your Personal Operating System is about doing more of what you love. Because if you could do anything with your time, what would you love to do? When you start from this place, you can now design a lifestyle to make it happen. 

So many people never give themselves the gift of time and intention to map out what it is they’d love to do more of. The simple act of writing it down and getting clear on what that looks like opens the door to so many possibilities. With intention comes commitment, and with commitment comes actions. 

Living life the way you want is much easier and more accessible than you imagine. It starts by coming from a place of love and honoring your true self.  

Creates A Better Future

Creating a better future is completely in your control as that’s part of having a growth mindset. When you are intentional about how you want to live, what areas are important to you, and you design your life around it a better future becomes a certainty. 

One of the most impactful things you can do is create a system for how you want to live the rest of your life. Since you are the architect of your way of living, it’s advantageous to step into that power now and start designing your own lifestyle for a better future. 

Best of all, the positive impact you create in your life will also create a better future for everyone around you, and have massive growth in your business as well. Because a life with intention will create an energy and frequency about you that is magnetic. 

Creating your belief system

Your personal operating system ultimately becomes your belief system. It is the heart and soul of your life and your journey.

Once again, it starts with intention. You know that you are called for something greater in your life. Eventually you get to a point where this thought happens so often that it becomes a calling. You have to do it because it’s WHO YOU ARE. 

That’s where you begin to audit what is truly important in your life. You have a vision of what’s possible for yourself, where you are living every aspect of it.

From there the lifestyle design structure starts to come together, one habit, routine, and mindset at a time. Like lego blocks, they begin to stack on top of each other. The more you figure out what you want, the more clarity and joy you create. 

As you live this with consistency and build a lifestyle that serves you, it becomes who you are. You are happier, performing at a higher level, and you are creating almost effortless effort. You’ve created an identity for yourself that comes from passion and alignment. 

This is a belief system because you have the evidence of all it creates in you and your life. Plus, since you get to design your ideal life you have complete control over what you do or don’t do. This commitment creates your lifestyle. 

How to create the life of your dreams

Let’s get tactical and design the various elements of your Personal Operating System so you can begin to integrate them into your life. 

The way I like to think about this is in a simple manner of creating practical tools for yourself. I often use the concept of having a “Creators Tool Belt” where I’m arming myself with different perspectives or mindsets or ways of being that I can pull out and create with in any situation of life.

There are seven high level areas I focus on that build my foundation for the life of my dreams, and can for you too. 

Core Values

Your core values are the foundation upon which you live and make decisions. They are what you stand for, represent, and guide you in all you do. Each one has meaning and likely a personal story attached.

In lifestyle design they come first because they are most important. If you are looking for an example, here are the 8 core values that are foundational to who I am.

Action: if you have not yet created your personal core values I highly recommend you spend time creating them. Not only are they your anchor, but they’ll also help you make better decisions in business and all areas of your life.

Creating Your Vision

Designing the life you want starts with where you want to go and what you want it to look like. For many people, they struggle with a lack of clarity. They just hasn’t invested the time in getting clear on what a better life actually means to them. 

There are two ways I encourage you to create clarity of vision:

Creating Your Perfect Day

Starting from a blank canvas, if you could do anything in a given day, what would a 15 out of 10 look like? Write down those elements. 

For example, mine would include playing basketball, reading, journaling, meditating, spending time with my son, grilling out, dancing, and listening to music. 

The reason this exercise works so well is you now have a menu of things you love to do that you can do on a daily basis. The more of them you stack, the better your day. 

Tip: Part of having a growth mindset is we do not make ourselves feel bad for what we DO NOT do. So if you only do 1 out of 10 things from your perfect day that’s still a victory (not “look at all the things I didn’t do”). 

3-Year Vivid Vision

I want you to paint a picture of what the ideal version of three years from now looks like. Be very specific. Daydream. Put yourself in a state of mind where this feels real. Visualize it. See the details. Make it part of your being.  Once you have that feeling and emotion locked in, write it down on paper.

In 2023 one of my biggest victories was creating my Vivid Vision document. It was inspired by Cameron Herold’s book “Vivid Vision”. 

By getting clear on what my ideal future looks like, in the most important buckets of my life, I could then reverse engineer it into my days. Best of all, once this document was live I realized that I had the power to step into BEING the person from my 3 Year Vivid Vision now (not seeing it as a future state). 

Mindset

Your mindset is your perspective on how you think about things and shapes your view of the world. The lens you create will impact the way you feel, what you experience, and ultimately your outcomes. This is especially important because how you create with the positive and negative situations in life will send you down different paths and influence your capacity to succeed. 

Some of the foundational mindsets you can cultivate are: positive mindset, growth mindset, self accountability, creative mindset, adversity mindset, gratitude mindset, entrepreneurial mindset. 

My life changed when I went from living by default to becoming self aware and adopting a growth mindset. It’s like the world went from black & white to color. 

I encourage you to be intentional about how you cultivate mindsets that serve you, and from what sources. Reading books, listening to podcasts, and joining entrepreneur organizations all helped me. They key is taking what you learn and putting it into action. Because with experience you now have a greater foundation to build upon. 

Being & Identity

In Tim Grover’s book Relentless he labels everything number one because they are all the most important. Despite that fact that I’ve already said that core values and vision are most important, so is creating your being.

Your state of being is the truth and identity of who you are. Designing the powerful story you tell yourself is paramount because your thoughts create your actions and your action create your results. Therefore how you see yourself and show up every day will ultimately determine what you create in life. 

Creating a powerful identity of who I am and how I show up every day is the most important thing I’ve ever learned (and can be for you too). 

Habits & Routines

What you do repeatedly and consistently is what will grow in your life. It’s why creating habits & routines is so important to the concept of lifestyle design.

For many people this can feel like a scary leap or something “I’ll get to later.” The reason is because “it’s comfortable being comfortable”, meaning that it’s easier to do nothing than change. The reality is when you stacking things you enjoy, add growth, and you want more of in your life, this becomes almost effortless. The key is getting started with one habit, and building from there. 

In my life I have designed a morning routine, evening routine, shower routine, and fitness routine because they are things that happen every single days, so I might as well be intentional about them. At the same time, creative living & mindfulness are important to me so I’ve created weekly habits around integrating them into my life. 

I encourage you to audit your current habits and routines. Are they helping you live a life you love, or are they missing from your life? Either way you have an opportunity to become the person you want and start living your life by design.

morning routine

Standard of Action

When you create habits and routines you love and serve you, you’ll notice yourself being happier and performing at a higher level. Day after day this energy and way of living will create a new standard of action for yourself. You’ll get to a point where you can’t imagine living your days any other way. 

If you’ve ever wondered how the best in the world do so much it’s because their standard of action is so high. They have a vision of what they want to create in their life, they create habits and routines around the actions that will help them get it, and they do so consistently until it happens. 

Once again, like Lego blocks this stacks on top of each other. The better you get, the higher your standard of action becomes, and the more freedom you create for yourself (ex. financial freedom, freedom of choice, creative freedom).

Like the idea of creating more Freedom in your life? Join us at Creating Unlimited.

Relationship To Time

One of the keys to lifestyle design is creating a relationship to time that serves you. One that comes from abundance and has you flowing with possibilities.

The majority of the world lives in scarcity of time, where there is “never enough” or it’s going away. This is a never ending trap guaranteed to create an unfulfilling life. When you become aware that your relationship to time is nothing more than your choice for how you see and use time, you quickly can take ownership of everything. 

To add more clarity to this concept, I created the Four Phases of Time Mastery. As you progress to the next phase, your energy and abundance flows even more. 

  • Phase 1: I am that I don’t have enough time (aka scarcity mindset)
  • Phase 2: I am that I have more than enough time
  • Phase 3: I am that time is a blessing
  • Phase 4: I am that I dance with time. 

Which Phase are you currently in? Which Phase would you love to be in? The good news is the choice is completely yours. 

Want a deeper dive on the Phases of Time Mastery? Listen to this podcast episode of Built For The Game.

Implementation of your Personal Operating System

For many people the idea of lifestyle design sounds amazing. Then their self limiting voice chimes in and starts asking questions and punching holes in the idea. Let’s address some of these questions so you can create peace that this is possible and easy for you. 

Is creating a Personal Operating System hard? 

No, it is not hard. Lifestyle design is easy, fun, and becomes almost effortless effort. The way this is possible is because you are the one who gets to design it and do so in a way that serves you. The key is being intentional about it. So if you feel any friction or resistance, it’s because you are the one creating it. 

How to think about building you Personal Operating System?

I encourage you to think about lifestyle design the same way you would building a house. 

You start with the blueprint which lays out all of the steps for creating what you want. From there you build the foundation (aka the habits and routines you live on a daily basis). 

Once the foundation is in place, you start to design your life one habit at a time. These habits then begin to stack on top of each other, and this is how you grow. By taking small, intentional actions, you create momentum. When you rinse and repeat this process on a daily basis, this is how you create a better life.

I already live a full life, I don’t want to be overwhelmed and add more to my To Do list

Foundational to creating your Personal Operating System and living it every day is coming from a place of GET TO not HAVE TO.

When you live by default it can be easy to see the world from a place of obligation or scarcity or not-enoughness. This creates a weight or anxiety that can feel heavy and does not serve you. That’s why having a To Do list that never seems to get smaller can feel overwhelming.

When you live by design and come from a place of GET TO, you are excited for all of the things you GET TO DO in your life. Once again, because you are the lifestyle designer you can create all the joy, peace, and freedom you want. Maybe you want to travel the world, or become self-employed, or create a lifestyle business that lights you up. All of it comes from the land of GET TO. 

Any time you begin to feel friction or resistance towards something, that becomes a signal for you where you are slipping back into default. This is actually a good thing because you’ve consciously gone from being a victim to your circumstances to being a witness and having a system to get you back into your ideal state. 

Tip: a good book I read early on in my journey that helped was The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. It opened up new possibilities for what you GET TO DO.

Questions for Lifestyle Design Clarity

Let’s make this super simple. I want you to ask yourself these three questions about lifestyle design then write down your answers.

1. What are the things you GET TO DO to become a better version of yourself? 

2. What is your system or process for INSERT THING YOU WANT TO DO?

Examples:

  • If you want to spend more time being creative, what’s your process for it and when is it happening? 
  • If you want to improve your health, when are you working out and what activity would you love to do? 
  • If you want to be more mindful, what meditation app are you using and when in your day would you love to do it? 

3. What belief or thought is holding me back from creating what I want? 

So often the thing that stops us is not committing to a time and being clear on the things we actually want more of in our life. Just by answering what those things are, you create your path to integrating them into your life. 

Optimizing Your Life As You Want

Once you create your Personal Operating System and are a lifestyle designer, you’ll begin to operate at a higher level. Now that you have version 1.0 of your OS in place, you’ll continually design it to be better and better. Your systems & processes will evolve as your life does, and that’s a good thing.

It’s important to be dynamic in the way you create your ideal lifestyle that flows with harmony. In order for you to create version 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 of your Personal Operating System, you’ve gotta have version 1.0 first. And the good news is since you already have the foundation in place, adding and subtracting to your system becomes easy. 

You keep and do more of the habits and routines that serve you, and get rid of the ones that don’t. Once again, you get to design your life and optimize it however you want. So audit your current lifestyle, start living life with intention, and start learning what works for you.  

Lifestyle Design Results & Impact

When you really step into the power of lifestyle design and have a Personal Operating System that guides you, the results it creates in your life are infinite.

You will be filled with passion, freedom, and power. You will wake up every day looking forward to how you’ll spend your time. You’ll smile at the life you’re living because you know it’s totally in your control. You’ll create bigger and bigger dreams, financial independence, and more incredible moments in your life. 

If you have made it this far you are someone who is called for greatness. Lifestyle design is no longer an idea for you, it’s something that is your new reality. What you do next can become a defining moment in your life. 

Take advantage of this opportunity, trust your intuition, and design your life like the champion you are. 

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