Summary

“If always seems impossible until its done.”

Ayse Birsel is from Turkey and after moving to the US to study she went on to work in product design, which is a fascinating field of work. Several years ago Ayse and her partner, Bibi Seck, opened up their own design studio, Birsel + Seck.

She has designed products for many big brands including the number one toilet seat in the world for Toto. We discuss this story, which is really interesting in itself.

In this interview we discuss Ayse’s book which involves designing the life that you love using principles that she has taken from her professional career. This includes deconstructing your current life, gaining new perspective and insight, and then reconstructing and designing your ideal life.

It’s a really cool chat with loads of insight and fresh ideas. Hopefully it will help you continue on your journey to leading and living a life that you love, one with passion and purpose.

Until next we speak, peace, passion and purpose.

“If you can express the life you love you are so much closer to making it happen.”

Key Take Outs

·      Adopt creative process. Having a creative approach to whatever you approach you will likely be able to see things in a different manner, the issue is that many of us are taught how to follow the set path without individual creativity or input and this often restricts our ability to excel and do things differently from the status quo.

How to get your creative juices flowing?

·      Have Fun. Ayse really wants everyone to approach life and certainly her guide to designing the life you love in a fun way. When we do things and they are fun this will also stimulate our creative processes. If you do things without enjoyment you will struggle with whatever it is you are doing, you will likely not be as effective in doing it, and learning will be less effective. The lesson is to have fun in all that you do, or at least 80 percent of what you do.

·      Deconstruction. Pull apart your life and really try to discover your values. This is a very hard question for many of us and is not something that we are taught or that we practice throughout life.

·      Point of View. How can you think about your life differently and from different perspectives? Get creative in your approach to this to stimulate some really great insights. In her book Ayse says to look at your mentors or hero and what qualities they have that you admire. Most likely these qualities align with your values and qualities you have or desire.

She also suggests that we can use metaphors for our life. For example her life is a tree, this helps her understand and also gives her creative hooks to better approaching how she lives her life. This metaphor actually gave her a aha moment where she realised that she could teach and help others in her life.

·      Reconstruction. By using a metaphor you can really start to put all the pieces back together. Now that you understand your values and the areas in life that really matter you can start assembling life around this. We can look at bringing inline in areas around our emotional life, intellectual life, physical life and spiritually life. The truth is that we cannot do it all and have it all so in the process focus on those few aspect that really matters. One you have reconstructed you life you can start to express what you desire.

·      Expression. This is all about giving your life form in order for making more real. You can write about the life you love for example writing a letter to yourself, writing a poem or even writing a personal mission statement. In this script you want to include all or you discoveries throughout this process so the it captures all elements of your life design. Once you have this you need to take action.

If you can visualise and express the life you love you are so much closer to making it happen. This is your road map to living the life you love.

·      Action and realignment. Without action towards the life we have designed we will be without results. When you start taking the correct course of action you will start discovering what it truly means to live the life you love. Along the way I would also suggest that you would need to realign from time to time and correct the path you are on. This may be due to things not being exactly as expected or perhaps because life’s noise have steered you off course.

Whatever the case continue to take action, continue to adjust when needed and revisit the discoveries you made reflecting on your life metaphors, your values and mission statement and keep on following your dream life.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

To say yes more often.

Her interpretation of success.

Success means to experiment with new ideas, trying different things and following my heart.

Quick round questions

Favourite Food

Feta cheese and perhaps some tomatoes and nice bread to go with it.

Favourite Leisure Activitiy

She likes to read.

Favourite book(s)

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal

Design the Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Meaningful Future by Ayse Birsel

Quote

What does living life with passion and purpose mean?

Means designing your own life and an original life that resembles you, feels like you, tastes like you. Pursue that, figure out what that life is, and live it.

How to find Ayse and other links

If you would like to find out more about Ayse and her book with all the trimmings please check out her website Ayse Birsel.

This is her and her partners design business, Birsel + Seck, should you what to take a look at that.