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Welcome to season 3 of Design Lessons!

Season 3 is special because it is focused on you. It will give you the opportunity to focus on one specific area of your life that you would like to make just a little bit better.

Grab Your Project You 30 Day Planner and let’s get started.

Share your experience with Project You

Hey Designers,

You are on the last leg of Project You.

Raise your hand if you didn’t really do anything for your project this week.

Raise your hand if you need a boost to complete this first 30 day round

I’ve got the solution for you…

You started off you project excited to begin. Perhaps that first day you made your change; you tried out your design and you were exuberant about your results. Maybe you changed your bedtime routine, or made an exercise plan, or batch planned your lessons.

After week one, you had tweaked your design and made it even better

By week three, you were seeing some consistent results. You celebrated.

Somewhere between week three and week four the momentum has waned. The exuberance you had in your project in the beginning may be waning.

I’m here to tell you that this is normal. Settle in for a short story and to learn what to do when you feel like giving up.

Put yourself in my shoes for a moment.
I’m an intermittent runner. I have run 5ks, 10ks, half marathons and marathons.
But as much as I enjoy running, as much as it makes me feel really wonderful when I am running consistently, sometimes I get to a point where I stop running. I just stop. And months go by and I haven’t run.
In essence I have lost the momentum for the project of running.
It doesn’t make me any less of a runner anymore than losing steam on your project makes you any less of a LEADER for your life.
The key is to recognize that each project you set for yourself gives you data about your habits, the cycle you are in in your life, and lets you tweak the project design to propel you further for the next time.
The LEADER framework is a mindset. It shifts the way that you think about the challenges in your life. The actions that you take are all data that is going to help you to reflect and figure out what do do next. The LEADER framework helps you to have a reflective mindset which in turn helps you develop habits and make decisions that align with the life that you want to lead.
We will go even more in depth with that in the next episode when we wrap up our projects.
So picture this. I’m running in my first marathon over a decade ago. I had trained for this marathon for months. Marathon training is all consuming. You pay attention to your runs, your nutrition, your sleep. All for obtaining a goal of completing 26.2 miles and joining less than 1% of the population who have completed a marathon.
My family had come out to cheer me on. At mile 13 or so, my dad and my son, Christian popped up on the side the road cheering me on as I passed by running a few feet with me and sending me on my way with fuel to get me through the next few miles. I was feeling like I could conquer the world at that point. Running felt effortless and joyous. I had joined a pace group, so I was on pace to finish the marathon in 5 hours. I had been chatting with members of my pace group as we wound our way around Baltimore. We passed the harbor and viewed the aquarium. We went out to Fells Point and through the Baltimore Zoo. I felt like I was on a sightseeing trip of Baltimore and part of a parade all at the same time. Bystanders cheered on runners from their front porches, offering encouragement and random refreshments.
Perhaps this is how you felt at the beginning of your project. You were feeling good and enjoying seeing the sights buoyed by the newness of it.
Now picture me 10 miles later at mile 23. Several hours had passed by. My pace group had passed me. I could no longer keep up. I was out on the course, and although there were runners out there with me, they were few and far between. Although I was moving my legs like I was running, I was barely crawling along. I had hit a wall. And although I had trained for months and I had designed a great fueling and pace plan for finishing, I wasn’t quite certain at this point that I would finish.
I was coming down the hill just after mile marker 23 and I saw my dad and my son waiting for me at the bottom of the hill. I still had 3 miles to go, but seeing them gave me a boost. When I thought I was a lost cause, and soon would need a ride, they were there to cheer me on.
But what really helped me to make it to that finish line that day, just a few minutes before they were taking down the finish line. Was what my son, Christian did next. As I slowly put one foot in front of other, my son joined me. I still had 3 miles to go. What would normally have been a light morning jog seemed like a slow never-ending slog.
Having him run along side me for the last three miles helped me to reach my goal of completing my first marathon.
It wasn’t pretty. It didn’t break any records, but I finished and I learned how to run a marathon.
My second marathon was much prettier because of all that I learned from my first.
So this first round of design is your learning round. It’s your first marathon.
Having someone in your corner as you make it toward the finish line of your project can be just the boost you need to complete your first micro design and other projects as we set up the larger vision that you have for your life.
It goes without saying that I’m here to help you. To run along side you as you design a life that you love to wake up to every day.
Here are two strategies that can help you as you are in the last 3 miles of testing your design.
Strategy 1:
Tell someone about your project. Just like my son helped me to get to the finish line of my project, an accountability partner, a friend, a family member, a colleague can help.
Share what progress you have already made. Have them complete that last week with you. Do you need a check in? Do you need someone to ask how’s it going? Do you need advice? Determine what support might help you to finish out your project.
You will find that sharing your project design with someone else can help you gain clarity around where you are in your project and what you next steps.
This LEADER Community can help you as well—Leave a voice message about your project and we can help you keep your momentum. Go to https://www.speakpipe.com/DesignLessonsPodcast
Strategy 2:
Fill out your habit tracker. Take a look back at the last 3 weeks. Fill out the habit tracker in our Project You 30 day Planner. This will give you visual of how well you have kept your promise to yourself—how well you have adapted your design. It’s important to be honest because this will help you when we go to the reflection phase.
Celebrate! You are in the home stretch of your design. Give yourself a count down T-7 days till your to reflect on your experiment. In our next episode, we will dive in to the reflection phase we will have the opportunity to ask ourselves key questions that are going to help us make decisions that align for what we want for our lives.
Until next time designers.