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Design Like Your Life Depended on It
BY
Daniel Ritzenthaler
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I recently hiked Mt. Doom with a few friends--you know, the Lord of the Rings mountain. It's actually called Mt. Ngauruhoe and is a part of the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand, one of the most beautiful hikes in the world. Unfortunately, it was raining and at a few points extremely foggy. I was never close to death, I just like to think I looked it square in the face… From several miles away… Wearing a warm and waterproof coat.
We still managed to have fun and every since I've had a strange draw to survival books. Now that I've read many I can't help but notice a common thread that seems incredibly familiar. It's all so obvious and full of common sense, even though you would never be able to put it all together on your own. Design is very similar--painfully obvious, but too mysterious to define.
Hopefully by the time you're done reading this, you'll feel a strange mix of enlightenment and anger from learning something you already knew.
Building Awareness
If content is king, then context is queen, and she will punch you right in the face if you don't pay attention. In a survival situation think of the content as your tools and ideas and context as the environment and conditions. All are incredibly important to understand and use to your advantage.
Perceive/Believe
Once your crisis occurs (landing a gig or starting a project), staying alive requires a thorough evaluation of what the current situation entails. It may seem counterintuitive, but accepting this project can kill you and addressing it with that level of respect can open your eyes to the unwanted facts that will end up saving your life.
If you can't convince yourself that this situation can kill you, your should remember that most deaths happen while doing something routine. Remember, nature (the industry) never gets tired and doesn't care about your safety.
Stay Calm
Emotions are extremely useful, but should never be allowed to take control. A survivor can use emotions like tool to point themselves in the right direction, give them energy and reclaim their cool. Fear can inspire anger towards the problem and anger can help motivate you to take more specific action. Humor, or the ability to poke fun at yourself, can help you get back on the path of dealing with the problem instead of grieving over your misfortune.
We still managed to have fun and every since I've had a strange draw to survival books. Now that I've read many I can't help but notice a common thread that seems incredibly familiar. It's all so obvious and full of common sense, even though you would never be able to put it all together on your own. Design is very similar--painfully obvious, but too mysterious to define.
Hopefully by the time you're done reading this, you'll feel a strange mix of enlightenment and anger from learning something you already knew.
Building Awareness
If content is king, then context is queen, and she will punch you right in the face if you don't pay attention. In a survival situation think of the content as your tools and ideas and context as the environment and conditions. All are incredibly important to understand and use to your advantage.
Perceive/Believe
Once your crisis occurs (landing a gig or starting a project), staying alive requires a thorough evaluation of what the current situation entails. It may seem counterintuitive, but accepting this project can kill you and addressing it with that level of respect can open your eyes to the unwanted facts that will end up saving your life.
If you can't convince yourself that this situation can kill you, your should remember that most deaths happen while doing something routine. Remember, nature (the industry) never gets tired and doesn't care about your safety.
Stay Calm
Emotions are extremely useful, but should never be allowed to take control. A survivor can use emotions like tool to point themselves in the right direction, give them energy and reclaim their cool. Fear can inspire anger towards the problem and anger can help motivate you to take more specific action. Humor, or the ability to poke fun at yourself, can help you get back on the path of dealing with the problem instead of grieving over your misfortune.
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Think/Analyze/Plan
Gathering all necessary information, timelines and tasks is often an overwhelming experience but it can make the difference between life and death. You need to take the adequate time to solve the problems that will surface repeatedly and steal away your valuable time, but you also need to start working immediately.
The perfect plan will kill you before you start it and a lack of plan will kill you even quicker. You need enough information to avoid being caught by surprise and keep it open enough to adapt as the world changes around you… Since it always will.
Productivity Planning
Now that you have a good idea if what's going on and what you need to do, making it happen is the obvious next step. Unfortunately, this can be significantly harder than it sounds. How you do each task may determine your results.
Take Decisive Action
Plans don't start or finish anything--you do. As obvious as that seems, it's amazing how often people in extreme situations don't connect the dots. Maybe there's enough people that you can assume someone will take care of a certain task or that once you've figured out your plan you'll always know what to do next… If this sounds acceptable, you're probably going to die soon and die painfully.
Check your plan often, make sure you're doing the right thing, and ignore everything else.
Celebrate Your Successes
Stress can get even the best of us. Loosing hope is much easier than you think when the idea of death, or a deadline, is quickly approaching. If you look back and see nothing but work you've lost an extremely valuable source of hope. When you look back and see success, even small ones during long stretches of suffering, everything seems a little more bearable.
Count Your Blessings
Regularly take time to evaluate yourself for what you have and what you can do. This is not a time to be humble--really look for anything useful. You might be surprised by an idea or tool you can use in a way you never expected. Each time a task is completed there might be a shift in the story that brings in a more positive light.
Gathering all necessary information, timelines and tasks is often an overwhelming experience but it can make the difference between life and death. You need to take the adequate time to solve the problems that will surface repeatedly and steal away your valuable time, but you also need to start working immediately.
The perfect plan will kill you before you start it and a lack of plan will kill you even quicker. You need enough information to avoid being caught by surprise and keep it open enough to adapt as the world changes around you… Since it always will.
Productivity Planning
Now that you have a good idea if what's going on and what you need to do, making it happen is the obvious next step. Unfortunately, this can be significantly harder than it sounds. How you do each task may determine your results.
Take Decisive Action
Plans don't start or finish anything--you do. As obvious as that seems, it's amazing how often people in extreme situations don't connect the dots. Maybe there's enough people that you can assume someone will take care of a certain task or that once you've figured out your plan you'll always know what to do next… If this sounds acceptable, you're probably going to die soon and die painfully.
Check your plan often, make sure you're doing the right thing, and ignore everything else.
Celebrate Your Successes
Stress can get even the best of us. Loosing hope is much easier than you think when the idea of death, or a deadline, is quickly approaching. If you look back and see nothing but work you've lost an extremely valuable source of hope. When you look back and see success, even small ones during long stretches of suffering, everything seems a little more bearable.
Count Your Blessings
Regularly take time to evaluate yourself for what you have and what you can do. This is not a time to be humble--really look for anything useful. You might be surprised by an idea or tool you can use in a way you never expected. Each time a task is completed there might be a shift in the story that brings in a more positive light.
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Even when your positives are outweighed by the negatives there's a good chance you have enough to get the next task completed. Which is all that really matters.
Play
Finding your flow requires using patterns and rhythm just like any game. Use this to make moving forward easier. No matter how difficult something is, there is always a way to turn it into a dance. Playing can open you up to trying new ideas and any new idea might lead to a new technique or strategy that can make your journey safer and a little more enjoyable.
Balance emotion and intellect to get yourself into a groove and learn to enjoy it. This is a skill you can learn and adapt to any situation--enjoy it because you know how to enjoy it, not because it's enjoyable.
Verifying Results
Regularly checking in with reality is a critical requirement of staying alive. Again, this is incredibly obvious but rarely taken into account and incorporated into a plan. The human brain is shockingly proficient at filling in gaps and manufacturing stories to back up your guesses and assumptions. Don't let your imagination hijack your plans to stay alive.
See the Beauty
When you're evaluating yourself and your situation it's important to see as many sides of the story as possible. Looking for the beauty can keep you in a positive frame of mind and help you reduce the chances of taking things personally and getting defensive. Once you become defensive you're energy gets diverted to sabotaging others, and often yourself, as apposed to helping get the job done.
A proper evaluation isn't just finding the bad. If you're also looking for the good it will keep you looking a more diligently and more objectively. Under those circumstances you're a lot more likely to find something useful.
Believe You'll Succeed
There are probably going to be several times you're confronted with the desire to give up. The more you understand your situation the more you’ll probably hate what you got yourself into. No amount of good will, optimism, or hope can get you over a set of hurdles you're certain you can't jump.
Play
Finding your flow requires using patterns and rhythm just like any game. Use this to make moving forward easier. No matter how difficult something is, there is always a way to turn it into a dance. Playing can open you up to trying new ideas and any new idea might lead to a new technique or strategy that can make your journey safer and a little more enjoyable.
Balance emotion and intellect to get yourself into a groove and learn to enjoy it. This is a skill you can learn and adapt to any situation--enjoy it because you know how to enjoy it, not because it's enjoyable.
Verifying Results
Regularly checking in with reality is a critical requirement of staying alive. Again, this is incredibly obvious but rarely taken into account and incorporated into a plan. The human brain is shockingly proficient at filling in gaps and manufacturing stories to back up your guesses and assumptions. Don't let your imagination hijack your plans to stay alive.
See the Beauty
When you're evaluating yourself and your situation it's important to see as many sides of the story as possible. Looking for the beauty can keep you in a positive frame of mind and help you reduce the chances of taking things personally and getting defensive. Once you become defensive you're energy gets diverted to sabotaging others, and often yourself, as apposed to helping get the job done.
A proper evaluation isn't just finding the bad. If you're also looking for the good it will keep you looking a more diligently and more objectively. Under those circumstances you're a lot more likely to find something useful.
Believe You'll Succeed
There are probably going to be several times you're confronted with the desire to give up. The more you understand your situation the more you’ll probably hate what you got yourself into. No amount of good will, optimism, or hope can get you over a set of hurdles you're certain you can't jump.
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The doom and gloom usually comes after noticing some beauty, but it's what forces you to acknowledge what you can and can't do, reevaluate, adapt, and address the situation with a clearer perspective. These are the points where you understand the dynamics of the situation more clearly than you ever have before--when you see things for what they really are.
Let Go of Your Fear of Dying
People often avoid dealing with death (getting fired or losing work) as a defense mechanism. As this conviction gets deeper the symptoms can often be denial and ignorance, which will ultimately kill you. Confronting death will demonstrate you are aware of what's going on and that you intend to change or challenge it. This is pivotal to your success.
The idea that you're going to die doesn't really help you solve anything. Once you can accept it's possible, put it to the side and get back to work, the faster you can do something that will help you NOT DIE!
Finishing the Job
Do Whatever is Necessary
Survivors survive because they don't wait for someone to save them. If all it takes to save you is being found, then you're not in trouble--you're just lost. If you keep that mentality and people can't find you then you're going to die. It's hard to tell the difference between waiting for help and waiting for death.
You should always be doing something--that could be resting or playing, but only because that’s the most important thing to be doing.
Never Give Up
There is always one more thing you can do. Keep a keen eye on new opportunities, be aware of what's changing around you, accept what you can't change, and don't be afraid to start the process all over again if you have to.
If it's the difference between living (launching the project) and dying (a cubicle?) then you should know all of this this already. Good luck on your next adventure!
Let Go of Your Fear of Dying
People often avoid dealing with death (getting fired or losing work) as a defense mechanism. As this conviction gets deeper the symptoms can often be denial and ignorance, which will ultimately kill you. Confronting death will demonstrate you are aware of what's going on and that you intend to change or challenge it. This is pivotal to your success.
The idea that you're going to die doesn't really help you solve anything. Once you can accept it's possible, put it to the side and get back to work, the faster you can do something that will help you NOT DIE!
Finishing the Job
Do Whatever is Necessary
Survivors survive because they don't wait for someone to save them. If all it takes to save you is being found, then you're not in trouble--you're just lost. If you keep that mentality and people can't find you then you're going to die. It's hard to tell the difference between waiting for help and waiting for death.
You should always be doing something--that could be resting or playing, but only because that’s the most important thing to be doing.
Never Give Up
There is always one more thing you can do. Keep a keen eye on new opportunities, be aware of what's changing around you, accept what you can't change, and don't be afraid to start the process all over again if you have to.
If it's the difference between living (launching the project) and dying (a cubicle?) then you should know all of this this already. Good luck on your next adventure!