Hi Friend
It’s amazing how much and how little happens in seven days. I was at a friend’s neighborhood fireworks show that was equal to what our city has offered in the past. It was impressive. I also got my second fraudulent claim for unemployment through Hawks Agency. I don’t understand the scheme? They literally mail a letter to me that says “this person filed unemployment, is that cool?”. Thankfully our state has an excellent website to report it.
I finished up editing the raft message video. Putting on captions is all-consuming. But I like how they look so much better than what YouTube generates. I tell myself the effort is worth it. However, excellence takes time. Throughout the week I also had multiple conversations about our “Conference Producer” service we’re offering. I love it because I get to collaborate in creating the entire virtual experience!
As a keynote speaker, generally I have no input into a conference. I show up, speak, hang around, leave. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind that approach. The way I’m wired however, I’ve always got an idea about how to enhance the gathering. With my background running summer camps that hosted 800 kids and leaders a week, programming 18 hours each day, plus creating weekend encounters for students, I’m adept at big group dynamics and creating schedules that keep people engaged.
I like wrestling with designing a day that facilitates learning, fun, networking and a few surprises, leaving the audience wowed. The challenge of doing all of that virtually is even more interesting and difficult. Thankfully, I believe I’ve cracked the code on combining live-in-person plus pre-recorded encounters – the dubious hybrid event.
Designing our days is better than managing our time!
You, me and most of American society struggle with living our priorities consistently. We’ve created a lot of tools to schedule, map, project and allocate where we want to physically be at certain times of the day. Whether participating in a meeting, going for a run, giving a presentation, watching our kids sporting event or doing morning meditation.
It’s curious that we utilize the eternal, intangible TIME to determine where our finite physical beings should be. Even if we designate the time for a spiritual or soulful enlightenment, it’s typically assigning our physical bodies to be in a certain place. Granted, we can’t extract our soul from our body. 😆
What if we designed our days around pacing, not activities? We’ve talked about this before. Knowing when we’re at our daily peak. For me it’s in the morning. When is it for you?
When I was growing up, Jordache were “Designer Jeans”. I certainly didn’t own a pair, nor did I want to. With my punk rock attitude, anything that was “designed” was a bit plastic, empty or for the masses. None of which appealed to me. It all felt a bit uppity – for a kind of people, I wasn’t interested in becoming.
As a matter of fact, even these days, label something “Designer” and it creates a sense of exclusivity. Pick a category?
Clothes
Jewelry
Furniture
Underwear
Watches
Food
Grooming
Yet nothing, absolutely nothing, is built without first being designed. Randomness and serendipities spice up our existence on rare occasions, but meaningful growth, development, accomplishment, becoming and enduring only happen through initial intentional design.
From designing golf courses to interiors to software, BEING a designer wreaks of cool creativity, intelligence and uniqueness. It feels like architecture and fashion have been design-centric from the start. The industrial and computer age, expanded upon who carried that moniker. Now the phrase “lifestyle design” exists which somehow harkens back to the Jordache jeans vibe.
Why is that? It seems superfluous. An elite status for those who don’t have kids, don’t seem to work and apparently don’t live within the confines of us mere mortals. I propose you and I ARE day designers. However we lead our life, by intention or accident, there is a design in place that we adhere to.
What if we had…
Designer Thoughts?
Designer Responses?
Designer Relationships?
Designer Decisions?
Designer Emotions?
Designer Actions?
Initially, intentionally done daily?
Instigating Ideas
1. Design your perfect day.
2. What insecurities resist us being a designer?
3. What’s the most designer-thing you own?
4. What needs redesigned in your life?
On one hand, it sounds like a lot of work, designing our days. On the other, the way we function currently is by our own design.
What I love about designing days for big groups is taking a macro perspective on traffic flow, lulls of vitality, connection opportunities, being replenished, creating momentum and having fun. It’s possible to compose an agenda not by location, but by energy levels. What if we were thoughtful about our days that way? “Here’s where I’m going to experience a lot of joy. And here’s where I’m going to be emotionally spent. Then here’s where I refuel.”
It takes self-awareness. It certainly takes humility for us to acknowledge the current life we’re living IS the one we chose, by our daily designs.
You are a Day Designer! Be cool. Be creative. Use your imagination. I’m confident you can do better than Jordache with your days.
I dare you to design an upcoming day, exclusively by energy levels. I would love to hear how you acknowledge those external forces that zap you, but you combat them with your own intentional refreshing. Please Share.