Design The Life You Love by Ayse Birsel: Book Review

I absolutely loved this book, Design The Life You Love: a Step by Step Guide to Building a Meaningful Future by Ayse Birsel. 

I am all about redesigning one's life. That's exactly what I did after I had my kids, only I call it reconstructing my life. That's what this blog is called, right? You can see why I was attracted to the title. 

Anyway, my life as an artist and special needs mom really resonated with the following four principles that Birsel lays out in the book: 

1)Turning a constraint into an opportunity 

Ayse says, 

"Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints—time, money, age, location, and circumstances. You cannot have everything, and if you want more out of it, you have to be creative about how to make what you need and what you want co-exist." 

Hello! that's actually the premise of my upcoming book, where I talk about how I crafted my creative business as a special needs mom.  

2)Deconstruct/Reconstruct 

Using soup as an example Birse talks about the idea of deconstruction/reconstruction. Birsel lays out the ingredients of chicken noodle soup so we can see what it is made of. She then goes on to say, 

"what I like so much about deconstruction is that looking at the parts, I feel like I have complete freedom to change them" 

I adhere to that same concept when I remake my clothes, I turn them over and see where the seams lie and figure out how I can change the shape by shifting seam lines. 

Continuing to use soup as an example, Birsel then shifts the ingredients and makes a new "reconstructed" soup. By shifting seam lines, I do the something similar when I reconstruct clothing. 

The same idea is then applied to life, deconstructing elements of your life and then shifting your perspective to reconstruct a new one. 

3) Heroes/Icons

Birsel has a chapter on heroes, in it she says,

 "we are inspired by people - real or fictional - people we know personally or not    at all. These heroes ell us something about our values, beliefs and the kind of life we aspire to live." 

Hello again! If you have been following me on this blog or social media, you know that this is the entire premise of my t-shirt line, Nelesc Designs. I screen print Latina/African American cultural icons onto slightly re-consructed tops, aprons, and cuffs. 

She asks the reader to list their heroes and qualities that endear these icons to them. "Then", she says, 

"cross out their names and put yours as the values you recognize and admire in your heroes are your values"

I have experienced this myself in my own journey to reconstruct my life as I also own the same values and principles as my screen printed icons. 

4) Metaphors


Last but not least, Birsel mentions metaphors as her favorite creative tool! I love metaphors too. She invites the reader to think about a metaphor to define the present and one for the future. This also helps the reader shift perspective towards the life they desire. She offers different examples of metaphors to help the reader along. 

These four points are just a little taste of this 254 page book.  The tome also contains many creative exercises and lots of blank space and templates to get you thinking and started on the journey to design the life you love! 

I enjoyed this book and recommend! Go buy it!