4/6 (Tue.)Design your life / simple ways to get organized, save time and space (Host: Shirley)

[Shirley Hsu]

Dear all,
Have you ever had an experience of feeling stuck in your life and don’t know what to do?
Let’s discuss how to design the life we want and learn the ways to organize our space.

Session 1:


Summary:
Dysfunctional Beliefs that you can get rid of:
1. You should have passion
2. You should know where you are going to be
3. You are in the best version of yourself

Five Ideas from Design Thinking:
1. Connecting the Dots
Who you are <-> What you do <-> What you believe = Key to gaining meaningful life

2. Gravity Problems
If it’s is not actionable, it's a circumstance: you just have to accept it, such as gravity.
If it's a problem, try to reframe the problem to something workable and find a way to solve it.

3. One life, Many Possibilities
Exercise: Come up with 3 great five-year-from-now versions of yourself.
- What are you doing right now? Continue doing it and make it better.
- What would you do if you died tomorrow?
- What would you do if you have money and don’t care what people think?

4. Prototype – ask interesting questions, expose underlying assumptions, involve others with your ideas, sneak up on the future.
You can "prototype" your ideas by
1) prototyping conversations: the future is already here, only unevenly distributed - others
are already living your future - get in touch with them and learn
2) prototyping experiences: test the experience (example: a 45 years old business exec attending a uni lecture to see if it feels right)

5. Choosing Well
The process of choosing well and making yourself happy:
1) Gather & create options
a. Deliberately (active brainstorming etc.)
b. Serendipitous (be open for opportunities in your peripheral vision etc.)
2) Narrow down options to a working list
a. "When you have too many choices, you have no choice"
b. Radically cross out all choices until ~7 are left (overcome FOMO!)
3) Choose / Pick one: Combine rational judgment (pro/contra comparisons etc.) with holistic gut feelings
4) Let go & move on instead of agonizing
Simply get curious, talk to people and try stuff!

Questions:
1. What are your beliefs when you pursue the life you want?
Do you agree with the author that we should get rid of the dysfunctional beliefs below?
a. You need a passion.
b. You should know where you're going by now.
c. You must become the BEST version of yourself.

2. “When we have too many choices, we have no choice.” Do you agree the statement? When you want to design your life, which part do you want to start with, meaningful life, personal achievements or Marriage and job?

3. What would you do if your job got replaced by AI? Would you explore any side-hustle or other talents, etc.?
What would you do if the thing you are doing or what you have goes away tomorrow?

4. "Gravity problems": “If it's not actionable, it's not a problem, it's a circumstance, try to reframe problems to something workable. If that doesn't work, accept them as circumstances.”
Do you agree with the speaker’s idea on "Gravity problems"?
Did you have any examples of this kind of “gravity problem”? What did you end up dealing with them?

Session 2:


https://dansilvestre.medium.com/the-lif ... 3dc4db73c2

Questions:

1. Are you satisfied with your home environment? How many material possessions that you’ve kept but not used for a long time, such as some of your books, clothes, and collections? If we hold them just because we may need them in some hypothetical future, do you consider throwing them away now? Why?

2. When you finally make a decision to let go of some old/sentimental stuff and finally get your comfortable space back, will you buy more new stuff, or buy a lot less in the future and be more protective of your space?

3. "By handling each sentimental item and deciding what to discard, you process your past… The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.”
Are you a person who has difficulty in discarding sentimental items? If there are too many things to keep, what other ways to preserve your sentiments without sabotaging your space?

4. Do you believe that cleaning, simplifying, and organizing your belongings will also change what you choose to own? How do they impact your way of living, thinking, and perspective on life?

Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:15pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:15 ~ 8:55pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:00 ~ 9:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:20 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements

Meeting Date: As shown on the Subject Line
Meeting Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm
Meeting Venue: 丹堤咖啡 Dante Coffee (Minimum Order $80)
Address: 台北市濟南路三段25號[MAP]-捷運忠孝新生站3號出口步行3分鐘

Important Notes:
1. We advise participants to print out the discussion questions and bring them to the meeting for reference. As for the supporting articles, feel free to print them out, as well, according to your preference.
2. We suggest that participants read the articles and think about the questions in advance.
3. Newcomers should prepare a two-to-three minute self-introduction in English to deliver when called upon by the host before the start of the discussion. The host may also ask you to give brief feedback about the meeting at the conclusion of the meeting.
4. We conduct the entire meeting in English. All participants should have at least moderate English-conversation skills and be able to articulate your ideas for each discussion question.
5. We welcome newcomers and other guests to attend the meetings and join the discussion freely for three times. After that, we hope you will consider becoming a YoYo English Club member. We charge a NT$1000 lifetime membership fee.

[Iris Wu]

It’s true that for most projects in our lives, we follow the principle of design, development and implementation processes, but for the most important project, our life itself, we are hardly so disciplined. Maybe it’s because we started from the stage (baby) with no knowledge of the process, and we became accustomed to the thinking that life takes its own course.

Is it true that our lives are just part of mother nature, running its own course? Can we, as the “host” of our lives, do something to make the life more “manageable and fulfilling”? Is there a “life design lab” that can help people build a well-lived and joyful life?

I was somewhat cynical in this regard at the beginning, but I did find this TED Talk inspiring. It’s well-organized, relevant and applicable. No wonder it is one of the most wildly popular courses in Stanford University. The ideas, such as:

• accepting gravity problems (things you cannot change) or reframing them to make them workable

• prototyping your life plan to prevent it from coming apart at the seams

may help us define our problems in a more realistic scope and unleash our vast potentials to tackle these issues.

The approaches of this life design lab may not make our life as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, but hope they can make the process more manageable and attainable.

[Shirley Hsu]

I was somewhat cynical in this regard at the beginning, but I did find this TED Talk inspiring. It’s well-organized, relevant and applicable. The ideas, such as:

• accepting gravity problems (things you cannot change) or reframing them to make them workable

• prototyping your life plan to prevent it from coming apart at the seams

may help us define our problems in a more realistic scope and unleash our vast potentials to tackle these issues.

The approaches of this life design lab may not make our life as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, but hope they can make the process more manageable and attainable.

Thank you.
Yes, this TED Talk uses the innovative technique of design thinking, which may give us more options to understand and plan our life.
Hope it can bring you all different ideas and resonance.