For those of you who read the first part of this blog series, Designing My Life, you will be familiar with Bill Burnett and Dave Evan’s book Designing Your Life. It’s a career book written long before the world was dealing with the uncertainty of Covid-19 and I began my career reinvention, yet I find it to be a pertinent philosophy.

In my last post I introduced you to “You are Here” – a concept I adore for its truth and simplicity. Today, we dig deeper into the assessment of “here” thanks to Bill and Dave’s Dashboard. It is a visual  — which is part of why I love this book. A good visual can really hit home when you’ve been letting thoughts swirl around for a while and nothing clear is materializing. Here is my dashboard:

To create your own dashboard, Dave and Bill recommend writing a few sentences about how you feel you are doing in each area. For me, a person who processes thoughts through writing, this was a helpful exercise. But when I really geeked out was when I transferred it into excel so I could quantify each area. Oy vey. It’s true. I can excel the heck out of almost anything.

Process aside, having the visual is nice. It clarifies the areas in which I am doing well. Which brings me gratitude. I am lucky to have my husband and children and family. I am enjoying all of this free time to play (if anyone has missed it, check out my thoughts on white wine and you must watch Kim’s Convenience). And since all of the dashboard areas are interrelated, my health is both helped by play and love, and harmed by the abysmal state of work. But hey, that’s why we’re here, right?

Once I had created my visual assessment of my life, I was eager to share and move on to the next chapter. Full disclosure: Bill and Dave encourage you to read this book with others, do the exercises and share results. I tried this. My husband created his dashboard, and after weeks of nagging, I gave up and moved on to the next exercise, creating a Workview and Lifeview, without my husband’s participation. Moral of the story? This process is not going to be for everyone….

This week’s joyful things:

• Walking for exercise
• Air Conditioning
• Cold soba noodles dipped in Tsuyu