Lifestyle Design Definition: to create a deliberate and purposeful plan that promotes a desirable life.
If You Like Piña Coladas…
Does the term lifestyle design bring up images of sipping piña coladas at the beach and checking your cell phone to see how much money is pouring into your bank account as you work on your tan? It can mean just that to some individuals, but to you, it may mean picking up your kids or grandkids at school and playing with them at the park because you can work from your home, instead of your kids having to stay at aftercare or with a babysitter. Your lifestyle design plan may mean speaking in front of thousands of people on a stage, living in an RV and writing a travel blog, or writing books from a tropical location. It could mean creating cartoon characters in notebooks while backpacking in Thailand and then selling them online when you return to your computer. Or it may mean sipping coffee on your back patio while planning your next big adventure. 
How I Define Lifestyle Design – The phrase “lifestyle design” has become trendy and hip. Few understand the design process and how it is applied. Yet we see wonderful examples of lifestyle design popping up all around us.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word lifestyle as an adjective means “associated with, reflecting, or promoting an enhanced or more desirable life.” And the word design as a verb means “deliberate purposive planning.” To simplify the term, let’s say that lifestyle design means “to create a deliberate and purposeful plan that promotes a desirable life.” In Tim Ferris’ bestselling book, The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim describes the concept this way: “The concept of lifestyle design as a replacement for multi-staged career planning is sound. It’s more flexible and allows you to test different lifestyles without committing to a 10- or 20-year retirement plan that can fail due to market fluctuations outside of your control. People are open to exploring alternatives (and more forgiving of others who do the same), as many of the other options—the once “safe” options—have failed.”
My definition of Lifestyle Design is to create a deliberate and purposeful plan that promotes a desirable life.
Who is Lifestyle Design For:
- Moms who want to be with their children more and work from home or anywhere.
- People of any age who want to finally pursue the life they always dreamed of, finally!
- People who want to travel and share their adventures with the world, plus pay for their travels.
- Artists of all ages who want to sell their artwork and/or teach people how they create it.
- Teachers who want to be free from the day-to-day hassles, but still want to teach.
- Authors who know they have a book within them.
- Full-time employees who are running a side business until it replaces their full-time income.
- Individuals who want to rearrange their lives, their homes, their work, and their relationships to live a more harmonious life.
Your Lifestyle is a Diamond in the Rough
Over the last few years, I have been designing my life. Chipping away at the parts that make me unhappy and polishing the parts of my life that do make me happy. You can do the same. In this book, we will begin adding more playtime with work time while continuing to learn new things that can help you with work and play. You will discover Designer Destination Journeys that will provide you with a clear map of how to turn your big lofty ideas into your new lifestyle.
Never Mix Business with Pleasure ~ Pish… Poshhh
“Never mix business with pleasure.” This old saying is going by the wayside. Why not mix business with pleasure? Assuming the pleasure is legal. Here in Florida, I see all kinds of ways that people have mixed business with pleasure. At our favorite beach, there’s a place where you can get surfing lessons. The way these men and women walk and talk to their new surfers is always fun to watch. You can tell they are mixing business with pleasure. There are people who rent wind surfboards and kites. There is even a man who pedals an ice cream bike on the beach.
When it comes to lifestyle design, there is no set formula. It is all about designing a lifestyle that you love and that you feel proud of in later years. Consider the words of the late, Dr. Wayne Dyer; “If you are what you do, then when you don’t you aren’t.” Too many of us define ourselves as the career that we undertook throughout most of our lives; policeman, fireman, manager, etc. Instead, begin designing your lifestyle to fit your life today and into your future.
Kimberly “Design” Love is a lifestyle designer and author. After a successful career in interior design and architecture, she redesigned her own life, moved to paradise, and turned her strengths and talents toward helping people design a lifestyle they love. Her latest book, Design Your Life & Business shares her strategy for designing a lifestyle you love.
