Five mindsets for designing your life
I’ve just finished reading Design Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It takes the principles of design thinking and uses these to help build your career. It's a great read, and whatever stage you are at in your career, if you feel things aren’t quite going to plan, I’d happily recommend it.
And for those of you who are in the process of making your university choices, there are five basic mindsets in the book that you can definitely apply to your university search.
Be curious
Try stuff
Reframe problems
Know it’s a process
Ask for help
They are super-simple concepts, but also super-helpful, so today I’ll look at each of these mindsets, and how you can use them as you research and make your university course choices!
Be curious
It’s weird, but there is so much stuff out there that you probably think is pretty boring, and yet other people find deeply fascinating.
Politics, history and Shakespear are things that lots of people roll their eyes at. And yet loads of people spend their lives studying each of these, discovering new things about them, and seeing how they impact our lives everyday.
Similarly, there are plenty of people who yawn at the very mention of physics, chemistry and maths. And yet there are people discovering incredible stuff to do with space, time, new materials, and new technology through the study of these subjects.
So next time you think that something probably isn’t very interesting, have a go at being curious.
Ask questions like “what would someone who IS interested in this want to know?”, “what don’t I get about what is happening here?”, “how can I find out why others find this so fascinating?”.
With a curious mindset, there is nothing to lose in exploring new things. At best you find a new option for your future, at worst you’ve ruled out a potentially bad idea.
And, Bill and Dave suggest, by opening yourself up to seeing every new thing as an opportunity, you can even learn how to be lucky; because you will see opportunities that others miss, just because they shut down that option too quickly.
Try stuff (a bias to action)
Most of us overthink our big decisions. We find ourselves stuck, worrying and over-analysing. So next time you are stuck, instead of trying to think everything through passively, just take action.
What do I mean by this in a university choice context?
Well, a passive approach to deciding on what course to do would be to hit different university webpages and read about their courses. Then head over to YouTube and watch a video about the course and watch a campus tour. And finally think about which might suit you best.
An active approach, on the other hand, would be to actually try studying the very thing you are considering taking at university, or to actually try out the careers that you are considering. Springpod or UniTasterDays are a great place to start. With their subject spotlights, you won’t be reading about the course, you’ll be experiencing what it is like to study the actual subjectyou are considering. And with their virtual work experience, you won’t be reading about the career, you’ll be experiencing what it is actually like to work in that role.
And then of course, you can go and actually visit the university, see it for yourself and experience what it is like to be there.
With a “try stuff” mindset, when you are stuck in your decision-making, instead of thinking about it or reading about it, you simply take action and try out one of the options for yourself!
Reframe problems
We all face problems all the time. And we frame these problems according to our world view, and the views of those close to us. Very often the way we frame our problems is down to having a narrow and sometimes dysfunctional set of beliefs.
The reframe that really underpins the whole book is this (using my words not theirs):
Dysfunctional belief: There is one best path for me that will bring me the most success and happiness.
Reframe: There are hundreds of possible paths; a multitude of routes that will bring meaning to your life.
So instead of worrying about what to be when you grow up, you can consider what is most important to you, what you want from life, and how you can create a life story with purpose and meaning for you.
With this mindset, when you come up against what looks to be an impossible problem or choice, you’ll consider how you can reframe it and see it from a different perspective.
Perhaps it's not really a problem at all, but rather an opportunity or something you can skip completely!
Know it’s a process
Most things in life are actually a process, and choosing a course and a university is no different.
So many questions fire in your brain all at once: “what career am I aiming for?”, “what should I study?”, “where should I study it” “will I get in?”, “what will the accommodation be like?”, “will I be happy and make friends”, “do I even want to go to university?”.
And so you try to address these questions all at once, and it just becomes a massive explosion in your brain.
But it doesn’t need to be that way. We know that many students’ careers bear no relation to their studies, so for most students you really don’t need to think that long term. And in the short-term even your university choices will be made over a lengthy period of time.
So break it down into a process where you just make one decision at a time:
Is university the right next step for you?
What will you study?
Where will you study it? (if considering different countries, start with which country’s system looks like a good match for you).
How do I apply and gain admission?
So with this mindset, you’ll think of your career as a long-term, on-going process. Choosing your next step, applying to university, is just a small part of that process.
At each stage all you really need to do is decide the next step.
Ask for help (radical collaboration)
Some of us find it pretty difficult to ask for help, and we take everything on our own shoulders.
And when we do talk with others we still hold things back, fearing that our family, our teachers and even our closest friends will make judgements on our choices. And no-one wants to feel judged.
But what if there was another way?
Design your life recommends something they call “radical collaboration”. You should never be alone during your decision-making processs, so plan specifically how you are going to involve others in your big decisions.
You might simply find a supporter; someone who will listen for five minutes while you tell them what your situation is, and how you feel, and will then take five minutes to discuss it with you.
You might build a whole team of people, who you go to for help, because the reality is that you will all have one or two friends you trust, you all have parents and siblings who have your best interests at heart, and you all have teachers you can speak with.
You all have access to current university students who you can ask questions of, through Unibuddy and the Student Room, and you all have access to experts in every possible career and industry through LinkedIn.
The key is to be intentional about asking for help. Don’t just talk to people when you happen to see them. Don’t restrict your conversations with friends to when you are socialising.
Instead make a plan. Who will you speak to about each aspect of your decisions? When will you speak to them? And what will you discuss with them?
You’ll be amazed how happy people are to help, how much value you can get from fairly simple discussions, and how much easier asking for help gets when you make it part of your mindset!
Bringing it all together
So, as you head through the journey of choosing your university and course…
Be curious and open to exploring anything and everything; even things outside of your comfort zone.
Try stuff out actively, rather than passively reading and over-thinking.
Learn to reframe problems, seeing them from different perspectives where they might turn out not to be problems at all.
Remember that every big decision can be broken down into a process made from smaller, easier decisions that you can take one at a time.
Ask for help, in a planned and structured way.
These are great mindsets for just about every challenge in life, but especially for choosing what to study at university!
