Never thought I would give a positive review to a self-help book, I tend to avoid them, but the author's TED talk intrigued me. This is great for anyone trying to build a work plan that maximizes happiness.

I'm currently reading this. I'm finding it to be a bit pretentious..I dont know if I'll be able to get past that and finish, quite honestly. There are small pieces of helpful info, but it could prob fill up a booklet. There's a lot of filler. It's really focused on career vs life, and seems to be most helpful for college students, recent grads, or people who are just beginning their journey of self awareness. I'll prob skim thru the remaining, but it wont be a keeper in my home library.

I had the misfortune of reading a book called “The Defining Decade” by therapist Meg Jay, which meant for her bored and aimless clientele. These were adults in their 20’s who had finished college, had endless familial support, and still managed to flounder. Some were facing ennui after returning from a year of travel, some were working “dead-end barista jobs”. Jay chastises them, listing all the ways their lives will be off track if they aren’t in a career-track job and mindfully dating their future spouse (but not living with them, of course) by the age of 30. At the time, I was 29, literally working as a barista to finish college (4 years late) without digging myself further into debt. I was unmarried but living with my partner, and as Jay had pointed out, it would have been extremely difficult to break up. By her account, I had done everything wrong. This pulled at the structural fear thread at my core - that experiencing a series of tragedies had set me behind my peers in a permanent way, and I had missed my chance at happiness. I am so grateful that I found this book next. Evans and Burnett lit a fire under me by teaching me to think iteratively. I started to see possible futures in front of me instead of all the failures behind, started to understand what was important to me in a job instead of focusing on my lack of personal connections. Design thinking tells us that there is always a solution, we just need to iterate towards it. I did graduate and find a job that led to fantastic opportunity. I built a beautiful life with my partner by learning to work through the challenges that came with moving in together too soon. I still return to this book when I feel stuck again, and it quickly helps me to recenter on what’s important to me today. It’s never too late to redesign your life.

Such a good book. Recommend for any person at any point in their life that wants their life to be even better

Exercises are very practical, you just have to do it and you will see It is enjoyable and give you a brand new perspective about future.

There's only two self-improvement books I'd recommend to anyone: "Designing Your Life" and "Eight Dates." Designing Your Life does a fantastic job outlining a roadmap filled with practical exercises that can help you explore new avenues or dig in deeper on opportunities you've identified. It's non-judgemental in its tone, but it does require you to be honest with yourself and at times push yourself outside your comfort zone. Just get it, start reading it, and see how you like it. Not every exercise hit perfectly for me (and some were certainly harder to do regularly than others.) But, I can promise you, you'll come out the other side having learned something about yourself. 4 months of applying the exercises in the book, I've finally finished reading it, but the real work has just begun. I've got a weekly book club set up with some friends to keep talking about the strategies and projects we're working on. Can not recommend this book enough!

This was required reading for my grad program, but I’m so glad I took the time to read it and do the exercises. If you have considered a career change, are looking to start your first career, or maybe you’re fine where you are but are interested to know what your passion really is, give this book a read and do the exercises. It really gets you thinking and is fascinating with how helpful it can be.