Gap Years: Life Design Laboratories
Choice words
We’ve framed the life chapter that gave rise to Hello Gap Year as a career break, a sabbatical, and of course as a gap year. We had talked about approaching this time in our lives intentionally and reflectively, and as a chance to recalibrate priorities and reprioritize values. I find it helpful to have options when describing our search for meaning, especially when relating to a diverse population of students in my work.
A term we have not used but which fits nonetheless is life design 1. The concept comes from the design thinking approach to problem solving and ideation, and captures what we worked on during our gap time and what we hope to encourage here.
Life design as a framework for self-discovery
Fundamental to life design is a clear and accurate self-concept. Clarifying our self-concept can mean zooming out to a holistic view of self based on values, callings, curiosities, and identification with various communities. Zooming out to the bigger picture can have ripple effects on the way we think about each component of our lives. Work, for example, gets relegated to its rightful position as one component of our existence rather than the essence of our self-conception. These components start to feel a bit “smaller,” like things we can experiment with and control. This is key because a life design approach emphasizes experimenting with parts of our life as we realize the bigger design.
Experimenting
This might start with some brainstorming about what makes us curious, how our most meaningful life would look, or what it would mean to be our ideal self. Preferably a few possible versions of this (“my ideal day-to-day versions 1, 2, and 3” or “my two-year outlook A, B, and C”). With those “prototypes” established we needn’t rush into changes. Rather, we can allow our natural curiosity to fuel small “life experiments” that help us achieve elements of those prototypes, which can in turn strengthen our self-awareness as we figure out what feels right and what doesn’t.
In the context of life design, changes in routine (getting up earlier, volunteering, dedicating more time towards art) could represent small life experiments. Even so, they warrant some meditation on which changes feel right and contribute to our broader self-concept. Changes in routine would be low-risk experiments (but potentially impactful), as would connecting with someone in a new line of work we might be interested in pursuing. Life experiments could take the form of a move to a new city or home, membership in a new group such as a choir, reading club, or political organization, publishing or displaying art, volunteering, or starting a new job.
For us at HGY, leaving our jobs for gap time entailed a relatively dramatic shift even if we took significant steps to mitigate risks. It was a major life experiment containing quite a few “sub-experiments” in our daily schedules, activities, and locations and cultural surroundings.
Life design in education
Life design matters in the context of education and career readiness because it accounts for unpredictable job markets. We can’t control hiring trends but if we follow the thread of our natural curiosity we can build flexible skill sets, knowledge, and contacts in ways that appeal to us. In this way we draw on internal motivators and not merely what employers are seeking at a particular moment. Following our own motivation and curiosity into new learning opportunities can yield a better career outlook and internal gratification, whereas chasing employers’ needs alone may help us career-wise but is likely to lead to burnout as we grapple with finding meaning.
Following the thread
Life Design is a simple proposition, which is part of its appeal. Performing small “life experiments” feels like a reasonable undertaking and can be scaled up as appropriate to our situation.
I have often encouraged my students to take a “journalistic approach” by following their curiosity into new life opportunities. The journalist is not only curious but also follows the thread of that curiosity towards the heart of the story. Whether it is a storied life we seek or simply a happy one, we would do well to follow the thread of our natural curiosity as we draft a design for our lives.
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, co-founders of the Stanford Life Design Lab, established a framework for Life Design in their book Designing Your Life. For more information we recommend this thought-provoking conversation between Evans and Farouk Day (Vice Provost for Integrative Learning and Life Design at Johns Hopkins) or this TED Talk from Burnett.
