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How to Live a Meaningful Life

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How to Live a Meaningful Life

Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day

Simon Element,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

“Design thinking” helps you find and cultivate meaning in your life.

Editorial Rating

9

getAbstract Rating

  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Many people whose lives seem satisfying on the outside are struggling internally with “discomfort” and disillusionment. In guiding others about how to overcome that angst, design thinkers Bill Burnett and Dave Evans discovered its source: a fundamental lack of a sense of purpose. In response, they provide a step-by-step process, guided by design thinking, to help you recover your sense of purpose and meaning. Their advice: Identify your unique source of meaning and incorporate it into a future filled with “wonder, coherence, flow, and community.”

Summary

You can find a sense of meaning.

Many people wrestle with the feeling that their life lacks meaning. If you are in that number, design thinking can help you find purpose and your future direction by encouraging you to be curious, explore ideas with others, try various options, and share what you learn.

Design thinking can reframe a lack of meaning as a solvable problem instead of a source of despair. Its tools, ideas, and practices offer ways to recast your thinking and incorporate “wonder, coherence, flow, and community into your life.”

A meaningful life focuses on the present and embraces a greater good beyond self-fulfillment.

The first step in good design thinking is to give a problem the correct name. Begin by identifying what you mean by a “meaningful” life. In this context, “meaning” refers to rebuilding a sense of purpose in your life, not, for example, to the ultimate spiritual meaning of life. Design thinking does not drive the quest to find a single passion, but it orients you toward living with purpose and passion.

To light your path to finding meaning:

  1. Disentangle meaning from...

About the Authors

Bill Burnett is the founder of the Designing Your Life Institute and the executive director of Stanford’s Life Design Lab, which was co-founded by corporate consultant Dave Evans.  

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