CHAPTER 6

The Framework—Lifestyle
Design

As we begin to explore Lifestyle Design, the story of the Mexican fisherman (author unknown) is a good starting point for our discussion:

This story captures the essence of the two fundamental and opposing perspectives about work on a continuum. On one end is the mindset of the typical 9-to-5 worker, preoccupied with earning in order to someday have the money available to afford time off to finally pursue his interests. On the other end of the continuum is the life-centered perspective, like the one put forth in this book, where making time available throughout one’s life is paramount and guides all of the other core elements of life including career-related choices.

Earning is important to people on both ends of the continuum; the emphasis is simply different with the one more often focused on surviving and the other on thriving. Let’s start by looking at the first half of the 9-to-5 Cure Equation—Lifestyle Design, which is a concept dedicated to factors related to quality of life—and then begin working through some practical exercises to determine what “quality of life” means to you in practical terms. Because the equation is central to your understanding of the 9-to-5 Cure, it is repeated here for your reference:

An Introduction to Lifestyle Design

Lifestyle Design is a concept that I have been exploring and experimenting with for many years, but it was only when I sat down to write this book that I discovered Timothy Ferriss had coined the term and defined it as “escaping the ‘deferred-life’ plan,” where instead of waiting until retirement to pursue your wildest dreams, you make life a priority over work—beginning right now.²

The term Lifestyle Design has become part of mainstream consciousness in recent years, but the concept has been part of the American culture for generations. Take, for example, the surfers that descended on Hawaii in the 1950s to ride the waves and live hand-to-mouth in order to follow their passion. That certainly was a Lifestyle Design that suited them, but in mainstream America it’s what we typically think of as a fringe-of-society way of life.

Okay, how about a more mainstream example of Lifestyle Design? Let’s look at an industry that is growing exponentially and the people who work in it: online universities. These virtual institutions of higher education are packing in students at a growth rate that outpaces brick-and-mortar campuses 2:1 for a number of reasons, with convenience topping the list. In 2007, 3.94 million students enrolled in at least one online course, and where there are students, there are professors.³

The duties and responsibilities of an online professor vary from institution to institution, so let’s talk in general terms. What would your opinion be about the Lifestyle Design of a woman who quit her 9-to-5 job in the corporate world in order to accept a position as an online professor? You may think that it seems like a reasonable choice because there is prestige and mystique tied to the title of “Professor.” Now what if I told you that she accepted that position so that she could backpack around the world with her laptop in tow in order to periodically log in to her classroom and teach? Would that change your judgment about this woman’s Lifestyle Design? Perhaps.

I think this piece about seemingly unlimited travel or leisure or pursuit of our passion is what causes trouble. Those of us raised in the American society are not conditioned to accept it as normal or acceptable behavior because, quite frankly, if we were all running around pursuing our wildest dreams, who would fill those 9-to-5 jobs in office buildings, factories, and warehouses? Who would work at places like those portrayed in The Office’s Dunder Mifflin if people had a chance to make the same money (or more) and live life on their own terms? No one, that’s who. If every 9-to-5er rejected their current work life and instead embraced a form of employment like the one I describe, “Nobody would be left to round out the workforce and execute the business plan,” as Bill Rancic, winner of Donald Trump’s show The Apprentice, once said. However, is that really how you want to spend your life? Being a cog in the corporate machine? Of course not!

Lifestyle Design is about living life on your own terms by clearly defining what it is that really matters to you and then fitting important slices of your life into that bigger picture, a piece of which includes making a satisfactory amount of money on a regular basis. Lifestyle by design doesn’t have to be about travel. In fact, for most people it has nothing to do with travel. But what it does always refer to is the unique freedom to work when, where, and with whomever you choose. It is the greatest gift you can give yourself.

But what would your ideal work year look like if you could change your routine? Would you work a different schedule during the weekdays? Or during the winter months? How would it look different? What goals would you prioritize and construct your schedule around? In the next section, you will start building a foundation for your ideal lifestyle by design by mapping out your ideal work year.

Your Ideal Work Year

Let’s define what the ideal work year looks like for you—separate from the financial gain associated with it. Let’s just focus on what “perfect” looks and feels like for you in this initial section. As you read through each workday component, jot down some notes, and then we’ll pull them all together.

Okay, let’s get in the zone! During this brief exercise, I want you to forget about the realities of the 9-to-5 world that you know all too well. Instead, give yourself permission to dream a little, no holds barred. If money wasn’t a factor and you were going to design an ideal work year, what would it look like? Now, before we go any further, I have to let you know I realize that money is a factor—an important one! For now, though, let’s agree to just walk through this visualization and see what you come up with. You might be surprised.

Congratulations! You have done what few adults in the world ever take time to do—think about how they would ideally like to work, which ultimately translates into how they would like to live. This is a great first step toward creating the ultimate product of Lifestyle Design, which is your own lifestyle by design.

Okay, you did the work; now take a moment to read through the way you described your ideal work year. Did you notice that the Mad Lib was written in the present tense? There is a reason. This Mad Lib provides a blueprint for what you want your ideal work year to feel like from the number of hours per day to the pace of the day, the week, the month, and ultimately the year. This template can serve as your script of how things will be instead of what they might be “if only.” It’s a starting point—good work! You’re on your way.

Your Ideal Career

Think back to your senior year of high school. Was it an action-packed year? Traditionally that momentous year is brimming with excitement. There are homecoming games to win. Senior pictures to be taken. Prom dresses and tuxedos to be found. Yearbook committee members to be charmed. And, oh yes, career decisions to be made. For some, high school commencement means the end of formal education and the beginning of working life. For others, it is a milestone en route to vocational training. For yet others, graduation is a springboard into higher education.

No matter what avenue you chose, eventually you ended up in the work world for better or for worse. During your senior year, you likely made decisions that were defining moments in your life, decisions that affected the path your career took, either in big or small ways. Back then, looking at the sea of potential career paths and trying to make an educated decision was challenging on some level simply because you lacked life experience. That isn’t the case anymore. Now you are a veteran of the work world and have a pretty good idea about which career fields you may or may not have an interest in. Likewise, you know which ones likely are the most demanding, which pay better than others, and so on.

Back then you had to blindly make career decisions based on the advice of books, guidance counselors, and family members. Today you can make these decisions for yourself based on life experience. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you really want to do?
• What would you do if money were not a concern?
• What is it that you like to do? Do you know?

Of course you do! Although I know so many people who don’t think they do. Perhaps this is because so many people believe that they have to figure out how what they love will translate into money or a specific job title before they even consider it as a viable career choice, a classic example of putting the cart before the horse that limits our thinking. What is the solution? Simply think about what you enjoy doing; that’s it. We’ll talk about this in greater detail as we dive headlong into the fundamentals of the Patchwork Principle in Chapter 8, “A New Strategy—The Patchwork Principle.”

Your Ideal Workplace

Location! Location! Location! In real estate and in the work world, your location matters; it can affect everything else in your life across the board, including how you feel about yourself, your lifestyle, and how others perceive you. It’s time to think about where in the world you would like to work. Seriously, think about it: Where would you like to work?

One of the fabulous features of working within the paradigm of the Patchwork Principle is that you and you alone determine where you work. And let’s face it; everyone has a different idea of what the ideal location is. For the stay-at-home parent, reporting to an office sounds heavenly. To someone trapped in cubicle nation, working from a home office is the dream. What is your ideal location? Let’s look at three sought-after location scenarios: working from home, working on-site, and working location independent.

Working from Home

For many people, working from home is the dream scenario. For others it is an imperative if they face a long commute from a rural location, unreasonably heavy traffic to and from the workplace, young children at home who are not suited for daycare due to emotional or physical challenges, an ailing spouse or parent who requires supervised care throughout the day, and so on. If one of these scenarios is true of your situation and you are eager to jump headlong into a work-at-home career paradigm, be sure to take a realistic look at yourself and your surroundings and determine if your lifestyle is well suited to this kind of arrangement. Some key questions to ask yourself include the following:

• Can I stay on task and meet important deadlines without getting distracted by the home telephone, television, refrigerator, friends, or family?
• Do I have the office equipment necessary to do the job? (Most employers will expect this.) Can I afford to purchase what I will need to get started?
• Can I handle the high-tech headaches that may occur or will these make me feel overwhelmed? Can I troubleshoot basic technical questions or learn to do so if necessary?
• Will I enjoy working alone, away from the social setting of the workplace? Will assuming a much more isolated, introverted way of working energize me or leave me feeling lonely and sad?
• If I have children or pets at home while I work, will they interfere with my work in any way, including noise pollution that could tarnish my professional image when communicating with my boss or co-workers?
• If family, friends, or neighbors stop by during the workday, will I have the nerve to turn them away in order to stay on task and meet important deadlines?
• Will I be tempted to work outside of my scheduled office hours because the work is there on the desk in the corner of my home office?

Working from home offers great freedom and cost savings, but it may or may not be a feasible option for you depending on your personality and circumstances. Look before you leap and make careful preparations to ensure your success.

Working On-Site

For anyone who has been stuck in the house for too long, the lure of getting up and out of the house every day can be irresistible. Just ask any stay-at-home parent or long-time unemployed worker how they feel about the idea of getting up and out of the house each day to work on-site at an office, construction site, or another workplace setting; they long for the opportunity! So, too, do those individuals who are extroverts by nature, for whom the opportunity to talk with other people in a workplace setting is stimulating and essential to their emotional well-being.

However, for most people, working on-site is the only choice they have ever known, and, as a result, it is the least interesting option to them because it is all too familiar. Is this true for you, too? If so, keep in mind that with the Patchwork Principle you can choose to seek out work that allows you to work off-site or on-site or a combination of the two. It’s your choice; choose what best fits with your Lifestyle Design paradigm.

Working Location Independent

If you long for the open road, the high seas, or some other fantasy scenario, there is good news! Your dreams can become a reality, and for many they already are. People who work like this are known as location independent. This term can be generalized to those who value the ability to move from one geographic location to another at will without it compromising their work. However, working location independent is not necessarily tied to high-adventure travel; in fact, it may be applicable to you if you are interested in any of the following scenarios:

• Being a snowbird: This lifestyle means living “up North” (as they call it in the Midwest) during the spring and summer months and “down South” during the rest of the year. This may be especially appealing if you are working well into your retirement but wish to enjoy spending your free time with family and friends of a similar age who live a snowbird lifestyle.
• Working while on the move: If your spouse’s or partner’s career forces you to pack up and move to a new location regularly, working location independent may be an option. Spouses of military personnel, professional sports coaches and players, or high-profile positions that are traditionally short-lived (CEOs, for example) can make a good living by working location independent.
• Caring for an elderly parent: If you care for aging parents who live in another city, state, or country, it can be challenging to be true to them and hold on to your job, depending on the circumstances, the boss, and the corporate culture. Working location independent can offer you the ability to maintain your career and care for your loved one without concerns about requesting time off or catching up on work upon your return.

Although working location independent can be applied to any of the preceding scenarios, the term is most often associated with that fantasy scenario we all dream about. The one I’m referring to is nomadic in nature: Bermuda today and Australia tomorrow. Such a lifestyle may sound unfeasible, but more than 25,000 people are location independent right now!⁴ These individuals are driven by wanderlust and travel the globe to wherever the wind takes them, all while making a pretty good living. What type of work do these globetrotters do? A sampling includes coaching, consulting, copywriting, graphic design, IT work, reporting, market research, online teaching, and translation of technical documents.

If you think this career lifestyle is practical only for twenty-somethings, single people, or DINKS (double income no kids), then think again! The Location Independent Professionals (LIPs) network includes every lifestyle scenario, including a parenting network. Leaders in this lifestyle field are Lea and Jonathan Woodward, who were interviewed in 2009 by The Guardian about the location independent movement. When asked the question, “Why this lifestyle?” here was the response: “Basically, we just thought, ‘Let’s live life while we can!’ We’re running a professional business, not backpacking. But when we have downtime, why not be able to stroll along the beach and watch the sunset?”⁵ If this sounds appealing to you, visit the LIP Web site (www.locationindependent.com) for more information.

So then, what is your ideal workplace location scenario? Is working from home what you dream about on the long commute home each night? Or is the thought of putting on a business suit and spending the day working downtown with other professionals what energizes you? Or is it simply kicking the dust off your shoes and heading out for the open road to work and live an adventure-filled life with no one location tying you down?

Whatever your dream may be, the first step is clearly defining what matters most to you and then seeking out work that meets those criteria. I’ll talk about how to do that in the second half of the book, but for now let’s take this vision of where you would like to work and expand upon it. Think about not only where you would like to work, but also who those people are that you would most enjoy spending time with in a workplace setting.

Your Ideal Work Mates

Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.” Roosevelt attributed his successes to his ability to assemble a great team. Other highly successful people also believe that their successes are a direct result of the people with whom they surround themselves. However, how many of us truly choose our boss and co-workers? Before accepting your last job, did you ask the boss if you could interview your potential co-workers to see if you enjoyed their company or agreed with their work ethic? Of course not. And yet how great was the impact those co-workers had on your everyday life once you were on the job? Very! They were the people who essentially could make or break the job for you, right?

Along these lines, your Lifestyle Design absolutely must take into consideration and clearly define the characteristics of an ideal co-worker, or whether the absence of co-workers is more suitable. Have you ever really thought about whom you would like to work with? The following sections include a few talking points to get a dialogue going in your head.

Identifying Key Characteristics of Your Co-workers

What are the most critical characteristics of a co-worker? What are those things that really matter to you? The list is different for each one of us. As you begin to design your ideal lifestyle, consider the fact that you can cultivate your team of ideal co-workers by surveying the territory during the interview process, listening and watching for cues that might indicate if those are the people with which you wish to spend your days, and perhaps being so bold as to ask a would-be employer for a brief introduction. As you begin to define the characteristics of your ideal co-workers, consider the following questions:

• Are they your professional equals or are they people you can learn from?
• Are they polished and measured or rough around the edges and boisterous?
• Are they in your age category? Older? Younger?
• Are they ultra conservative, ultra liberal, or somewhere in the middle?
• Are they the politically correct sort or do they speak frankly?
• Are they champions of human rights or fully unaware of the world around them?
• Are they advocates for diversity or prejudiced with no holds barred?

However you define your ideal co-workers in your mind’s eye, know that you are more fully in control of whom you work with than you realize. In the second half of the book, a lengthy and practical discussion about the Patchwork Principle will describe how to choose your co-workers with ease.

Working as Part of a Team

Are you a team player? Some people are just meant to be part of a team; they thrive when they get to work and play well with others. Does this describe you? If it does, then working independently from home, for example, which is only one scenario among many, may be a little daunting at first glance because you do so much of the work in isolation. After all, a growing number of companies around the world farm out work to off-site locations.

Before you lose heart, remember that you can choose to seek out work that brings you inside, on-site, if that is a better match with your personality. The work that you choose to accept can be whatever you determine to be a good fit for your Lifestyle Design. So, if you are a team player, identify those jobs where you get to charge into the workplace and collaborate with a larger team. The great news is that the competition for on-site jobs will be considerably less than for off-site work because most people prefer to work from their home office or another location of their choosing, meaning that on-site work is plentiful.

Even if you choose to work off-site but still long to be part of a team, you’re in luck. Today many individuals work collaboratively via the Internet using specialized software tools that allow team members to share data. In addition, hardware such as videophones and webcams allow employees to hold large team meetings in which they can speak with one another and in some cases even see one another despite the physical distances between them.

Teamwork in this day and age is no longer limited by geographic location. Videoconferencing, collaborative workspaces, instant messaging software, and other technologies allow team members scattered around the globe to feel like they’re in the same room. If working with a team is important to you, take advantage of the opportunity by looking for mention of these collaborative technologies in the freelance ads or drum up your own leads by working with companies that you know use such technologies.

Going Off to Your Own Corner

Are you a loner? Some people prefer to work alone. They seek solace from the opportunity to go away from the world and focus on the task at hand with everything they have. Are you one of those people? Certain types of work, such as writing, graphic design, computer programming, and accounting, lend themselves more readily to working solo. However, in the world of freelance, most advertised work is meant to be done independently, away from the larger team. If you are a loner, this is great news.

Many freelance positions today have an underlying expectation that you complete the work and simply e-mail it to the boss once completed. Although there may be established benchmarks that allow the boss to make sure you are making steady progress, for the most part you work independently.

Your Money or Your Life

Let’s talk for a moment about, as the O’Jays sing, “Money, money, money, money, Mo-ney!” When you think about money, does your mind typically race to the amount that you want to make? Of course it does! However, that number is usually some pie-in-the-sky amount that would afford you exotic luxuries, right? For example, $100 million or some other number with a great many zeros after it. Hey, there is nothing wrong with dreaming big; I am all for it. But let’s begin this conversation about money by thinking not about how much you want but instead about how much you need.

How much money do you really need? You do need a certain amount of money in order to maintain those things that matter to you. Such items might include a place to live (a house, condo, or apartment), some form of transportation (a car, motorcycle, or bus), food, clothing, and other important necessities as well as some fun stuff, too. But how much does all of that really cost? Seriously? How much money would you need to make just to cover the basics? What is that magic number that holds you hostage at the present time?

Think about this from the perspective of “your money or your life,” which is essentially what you are deciding between each day that you wake up and go through the daily grind. You are choosing your daily wage over a day of your life lived freely. I invite you to take a few minutes to calculate how much that number amounts to on a daily basis.

How Much Money Do You Make Each Day?

Figuring out the math is simple. Think about your annual income and then remove the three zeros after the comma ($30,000 becomes $30, for example). Now divide that number by 2 ($30/2). That number is a rough estimate of your hourly wage ($15). Now take that hourly wage and multiply it by the number of hours in your workday ($15 x 8). That total ($120) is the amount you earn each day that you go in to work—before taxes and other deductions. This amount is a rough estimate because taxes and deductions are not included, and as you may guess, the after-tax figure is usually a little more instructional. Write that number here: $_______________.

If you want an all-out reality check, take a look at your end-of-month pay stub that shows actual take-home dollars and then divide that amount by the number of days worked to determine your actual daily rate. Depending on your tax bracket and other deductions for health insurance premiums and so on, the daily rate can drop by as much as 50 percent from the pretax amount. In this example, the daily rate would drop from $120 earned per day to $60 earned per day. In other words, each day of that person’s working life could be purchased for only $60! That’s a fire sale if I’ve ever seen one.

How Much Do You Need to Work?

Now that you know how much you earn each day, I want you to determine how much you would need to earn to cover the basic expenses you have at this time. Make a list: housing, transportation, food, and so on. For now, don’t include the extras; just look at the necessities (but keep in mind that health insurance is a necessity that you need to account for, which we will discuss in Part VI, “Set Up Shop”). Once you total up your necessary expenses, what is the dollar amount? I encourage you not to guess; stick to the facts.

Write it here: $_______________ per month. Circle the number so that you can easily refer back to it later on.

Are you already making less than you need to cover your costs? This is the most common scenario. And keep in mind that this is before you even factor in the fun stuff! So the bottom line is, you work a lot and make a little. Are you tired of that? Who wouldn’t be?

Typically people look at the mandatory expenses in their lives and believe that the only solution is to keep working and in fact work even longer hours to make extra money in order to somehow “get ahead” of their bills. That is the trap that so many people fall into; there is a better way. Let go of your preconceived notions as you move to the next section, which asks you to think about something seemingly counterintuitive: limiting the number of hours that you work despite your expenses.

How Much Do You Want to Work?

Now that you know how much you need to earn to cover your bases, it’s time to figure out how much you would like to work if money were no object and then reconcile the two. Set all of your immediate concerns about money aside for just this moment while you think things through. I’m not talking about working for zero hours and being a millionaire; instead I mean, realistically, how many hours each day or week would you like to work in order to feel productive and fulfilled? Good news! You already figured this out earlier in the book; flip back to the Mad Lib exercise you completed about your ideal work year earlier in this chapter. Is your ideal workweek a part-time venture or a full-time venture? Copy those numbers from the Mad Lib into the blanks below and do some quick math:

Number of hours you would work each day: ___________________

Number of days you would work each week: ___________________

Number of weeks you would work each year: ___________________

Now, do some simple math to figure out your base work year in hours and days:

1. Multiply the number of hours _______________ x _______________ days each week.
2. That total is ________________. These are the total hours of work you would commit to each week on average.
3. Now, multiply the preceding total _____________ x _____________ number of weeks you would work each year.
4. That total is _______________. This is the number of hours you would like to work each year. Circle it; this is the first part of a two-part goal.

That circled number represents how much you want to work. But how much do you think you need to work based on your expenses? This is your chance to figure it out, concretely. Take the dollar amount of your necessities (the number you circled in the previous section titled “How Much Do You Need to Work?”) and divide that by the number of hours you circled in the preceding section.

$_______________ (necessities cost) / _______________ hours each year listed above

This number represents how much you actually need to work. Circle it; this represents your bottom line.

How does that bottom line dollar figure look to you? Is it more or less than you expected? However you feel about the number, it is the reality you must contend with at the present moment. Keep in mind that at any moment you can change this number by downsizing some of your primary expenses (such as a house or car) in exchange for additional freedom and peace of mind. Downsizing is not a requirement, by any means; it is simply a choice that you may wish to consider if exorbitant living expenses are holding you hostage and keeping you from thriving.

Your Ideal Attitude

Finally, let’s examine your attitude about being employed. Think back to the last time you woke up on a workday. Did you bounce out of bed eager to get going, or did you hit the snooze button and think something to the effect of, “Ugh, it’s only Tuesday!” This speaks to the level of or lack of passion you feel for your work, a pervasive force that can either feed or starve other areas of your life with consequences that can affect your personal and professional relationships, your health, and your income—your overall success and enjoyment of life.

Having passion for your work is like yeast; it is naturally occurring and can have an utterly transforming effect. Yeast permeates the dough, causing a chemical transformation, just as passion can have positive effects on the body such as better overall mental and physical health, faster recovery from major illnesses, and increased longevity. Passion is a powerful force that energizes and drives us forward, full throttle.

Passion Is Powerful

Have you ever met someone who is passionate about a hobby? His or her weeknights and certainly weekends revolve around it. Because I live in Milwaukee, which is the home of Harley-Davidson, I can tell you that there are many people in this city who “live to ride.” They spend their weekdays polishing and fine-tuning their motorcycles, and they dedicate their weekends to road trips. They may have friends who also “ride” and with whom they socialize and network. They may read trade magazines about the bikes and perhaps take classes about safety, maintenance, and so on. So what’s my point?

My point is that their passion leads them to naturally create a network of people, seek out learning opportunities in order to improve themselves, develop a dynamic schedule that allows them to get everything done that they need and want to, and put it all into action. Now imagine if this passion could be applied to a career—your career! Imagine if you could design a career that had you so excited that you found yourself thinking about it even on your “off hours,” not because you had to but because you enjoyed it! Designing your career is a fundamental component of the 9-to-5 Cure; feeling passionate about your work is a must! Consider the following exercise.

So many people wall off those things in their life that they are really passionate about when it comes to their career. Perhaps it is fear of failure that holds them back. Perhaps it is lack of confidence. Perhaps it is something else. Whatever the reason, the price they pay for denying themselves is steep: They pay with their lives, lives wasted doing something that is tolerable but not energizing. They survive instead of thrive. So many people spend their careers just going through the motions, learning to adapt to whatever comes their way over the course of their decades of work in order to remain employed until retirement age. This life is their one life to live, and yet they spend it so passively. They allow circumstances to design their career, and so it meanders haphazardly. What a sad journey it must be! Don’t make this same mistake; instead be the exclusive designer of your career, tailored to fit your life. Play an active role in the life you live. If you aren’t managing your career, nobody is!

The Shape of Your Ideal Career Outlook

Now let’s look at the shape of your ideal career outlook. Sounds odd, right? Stay with me. Most people view their work life as either cyclical (a circle) or linear (a straight line), as shown in the following diagram. Which view best depicts your attitude? For example, do you view each year at your job the same old thing (cyclical), or is it a stepping-stone that is part of a larger plan (linear)?

If you answered cyclical, then I might venture to say you are someone who talks about “surviving another year” at work. You may view work as an endurance test and be subject to a greater incidence of burnout. If your view of work is linear, then I might guess that you talk about work in terms of milestones such as “having two years of experience under your belt,” implying that there is a next step on the horizon. Incidentally, working linearly is the better of the two options because it means that perhaps you are constantly aspiring to “become” whatever it is that you dream of for yourself. That’s productive and positive.

However, let’s take that thought one step further. Instead of thinking of a cyclical or linear model, consider a spiral such as a double helix or a circular staircase. The spiral reaches up and up, representing a striving to become better and better. With a spiral model, individuals strive to build upon the previous experiences and reach for even greater dreams and goals.

Cyclical Versus Spiral

So how do the cyclical and the spiral models compare? The spiral is the complete opposite of the cyclical model because whereas the cyclical is about routine and redundancy, the spiral is about constantly seeking out newness both for the sake of continued career growth and as a wellspring for creativity, continuous improvement, and energy. Although the cyclical can be comforting to those who crave routine, it is also a recipe for burnout because, among other things, there is nothing new to look forward to—it’s boring!

With the spiral there is always something new on the horizon. There is a repeated return to the starting point (the beginning of a fiscal year, for example) and then a journey toward the same endpoint (the end of a fiscal year, for example). With the spiral model, something new is always on the horizon. Each day builds on the next, and in turn each year builds on the previous to create a unique experience at each juncture. This change does not have to imply constant chaos, not by any means. Developing an underlying foundation of routine (a predetermined schedule) with the overarching spirit of continuous improvement and innovation, the exploration of and experimentation with new ideas is the lifeblood of the spiral model.

Linear Versus Spiral

Okay, so how about the linear model—how does it compare with the spiral? Whereas the linear model sees Point A and Point B and moves away from one and toward the other, the spiral moves to and from multiple points simultaneously, seeking out many directions with each step: left, right, center. The spiral model also sees multiple goals simultaneously and extends forward in all directions, able to twist and turn in order to reach higher and higher.

Although the linear and spiral models share a plan for forward progress, the linear model has trouble adjusting to setbacks that may block the way in the same way that a mile-long domino lineup fails when interrupted by the misplacement of a single piece. Conversely, the spiral is reaching up and out in so many directions simultaneously that if one move fails, another can pave the way for progress despite a simple failure.

For example, imagine if your goal was to land an account in a certain industry. If you solicited a specific group of companies by e-mail with the hope of breaking into that industry but that failed, you would have to stop, rethink your approach, select a single new approach, and try again—that’s the linear approach. However, if you solicited that same group through multiple media platforms such as in-person contact, networking, and so on all at the same time—that’s the spiral approach.

Furthermore, if you used something we will call momentum, you would experience success that builds on itself, leading to results with ever-increasing ease. There is an entire section in Chapter 9, “Guiding Beliefs of the Patchwork Principle,” dedicated to momentum in this context. For our purposes right now, imagine if you worked for a few hours a year in any capacity in a few of those sought-after companies or worked in complementary companies that interacted with those organizations. Somehow you could use those familiar contacts and that job history to work your way into those sought-after accounts. That’s momentum! The more accounts you have, the more decision makers who know your work and like it, and the more likely they are to talk about you or enthusiastically provide a good reference for you as you branch out in the industry.

Identifying the Shape of Your Current Career Outlook

Write about how your current outlook serves you and how it detracts from what you are capable of becoming. What needs to change in order for your outlook to transform, or does your outlook need to change at all?

Congratulations! You have taken the time to consider some of the most important factors that make up your ideal Lifestyle Design. You now have a rough sketch in mind of what the lifestyle of your dreams consists of, which you will fine-tune as you work through this book. Now let’s get to work on the business of making it an economic reality, an achievable goal. Let’s talk about how to work on purpose, for a change.

Endnotes

¹ David Newlands and Mark Hooper, The Global Business Handbook (Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Company, 2009), 83.

² Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Week (New York: Crown Publishers, 2007), 7.

³ The Sloan Consortium, “Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States,” 2008, www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/staying_course (accessed August 22, 2010).

⁴ Lea Woodward, e-mail message to author, March 10, 2010.

⁵ Oliver Burkeman, “This Column Will Change Your Life: 9-to-5 or Free and Easy?” The Guardian, September 12, 2009, www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/12/change-your-life-nine-to-five (accessed August 22, 2010).

⁶ Michael Doraush, “101 Words That Feel Good,” Chiropractic Blogs, http://blog.planetc1.com/2007/11/26/101-words-that-feel-good (accessed August 22, 2010).