Here’s a self-help book that refrains from merely telling you what to do to make your life better; here’s a creative book that takes you into the center of your life and helps you charter the course that you want and need, and you’re actively part of it.
Welcome to Design the Life You Love: A step-by-step guide to building a meaningful future bytopnotch designer Ayse Birsel.
In this book, Birsel takes the reader into her design concept which can be aptly applied in real life. Her process of seeing things – and life in general – is simple, practical and doable but still taps into the cores of your mind, heart, and soul and helps you realize the truths which have been staring in your face for so long but you refused or failed to acknowledge.
Birsel guides the reader in the process of deconstruction, point of view, reconstruction, and expression. These are very detailed steps which you should do with focus and determination. However, it still invites you to be playful and creative to bring out your real, true self.
The way this book flows is unconventional. Feel free to draw and write on the pages of this book. Do not mince any words in expressing what you feel and what you think. Draw even if you’re not an artist. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a writer or a journalist, just write. This book is as playful as the rabbit that constantly reminds the reader to be creative, to think beyond what tradition mandates, and just be totally free to express yourself.
Nowhere in any book shelf can you find a book that directs you to examine your life in a serious, playful, creative way. Worthy of sharing in this review is the process of deconstruction where you put your life in the center of the page and then write down the different aspects of your life which you want to deconstruct. Think spider webs and mind maps. Then go: think and write as much as you can until you can’t think and write anymore.
Look at things from a different perspective and express them the way you want to express it. When you’re tired of this book, set it aside for some time – and then come back to it. Because this book involves you and your life, it’s near impossible not to be engaged in it unless you truly want to disregard your life and how you live it.
Birsel takes reality in serious consideration in crafting this book but didn’t forget to blend in fun in the entire picture. This is a self-help, creativity book that involves you from starting to finish. You finish the book feeling accomplished having chartered your life’s new and improved course.
This book doesn’t present life in black and white but it doesn’t present it in a rainbow of colors either. It shows black, white, and red. These may just be the colors you need for now as you endeavor to build a meaningful life.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
