It's tough right now if you’re job searching.

If you’re weary of endless job postings, unsure the next role will fulfill you, or questioning your path, you’re not alone.

Many professionals feel stuck between jobs that pay the bills but don’t spark joy, and career advice that sounds good in theory but doesn’t fit real life.

If that’s the case for you, maybe it’s time to explore another option: life design.

In this article, we’ll explore what life design is, how it can help you find a great career and what it takes to make it work for you. By the end, you’ll see how shifting from a job-hunting mindset to a design mindset can help you identify new paths and greater fulfillment.

What is Life Design?

Life design is your secret weapon for achieving career growth.

It’s not about climbing a ladder just because it’s there, or following a path someone else told you was “safe.” Instead, it’s about approaching your career with curiosity, creativity, and intentional choices – not following cliché career advice that keeps us trapped and unhappy because we’re buying into the notion of what society tell us we should have such as the high-paying job we hate, or chasing the career our parents told us to go after just because it was lucrative.

This type of thinking sets us up for failure, just as assuming our path to finding the right career is exclusively rooted in traditional career coaching (i.e., resume building and working on interview skills). While these actions are important, they tend to be more reactive in nature. Life design, however, is much different; it’s a proactive approach. Before we can even begin to prepare for an interview, however, we need to make sure we’re in the right seat in the first place. Embracing life design principles can help us minimize mistakes in our career planning and ensure we’re pursuing a path that truly resonates with us.

We achieve this by embracing aspects of design thinking, such as brainstorming, testing, and prototyping. Applied to career development, these principles empower life design and we can use a hands-on, action-oriented approach to align our values, personality traits, and strengths in the process.

But to be clear, we don’t neglect career coaching; it’s just not our starting point.

Why Life Design Works

The concept of life design puts you in the driver’s seat. If you’re burned out or hate your job, you’re not scanning job boards and submitting millions of resumes with the “spray and pray” method.

Not when you go the life design route. You’ve done the groundwork first.

You’ve had the chance to experiment or test what jobs feel right for you. You’re designing a career that fits you and your needs – your values, strengths, and skills. You’re not simply reliant on outdated methods or working from a state of fear. I’ll give you a real-life example from my own experience. Back when I was working in public affairs, I absolutely hated it. I loved the people, but I felt stuck. It wasn’t until I learned about the principles of life design that my life literally changed. Instead of making a drastic leap into my next career, I experimented in small ways. I started new side projects, volunteered for things that sparked curiosity, and treated each step as a test run before committing. Those micro-experiments showed me what energized me and what didn’t, and gradually, I shaped a career that suited me.

So, I can personally attest to the success of using life design. I’m living proof.

The Secret Ingredients to Designing Your Life

Life Design is for anyone ready to improve their life, regardless of age or background. All it takes is courage to take the first step. To succeed, you need to focus on these three key traits:

Commitment. First things first. You have to be willing to show up for yourself. No one is going to put in the work for you. The more you’re engaged in the coaching –asking questions, doing all the activities, experimenting, and stepping outside of your comfort zone –the better off you’ll be and on your way to finding a career that works for you.

Honesty. You have to be willing to be honest about what you truly want in life. Not what your parents, spouse, friends, or society thinks you should want. When you’re designing your life, these choices are all about you. You have the right to say no to a certain pathway you once embraced; you can stop, pause, and reflect at any time before making a major move, or completely change your mind during the process if you see fit. Whatever you do, you have to be willing to be honest with yourself and the decisions you make.

Resilience. You rarely find the “right” career on your first try. You may get lucky and discover several paths, or you may find none. If the latter happens, know there’s a silver lining. Discovering what you don’t want is as valuable as learning what you do. As you explore different careers or roles, pay attention to your thoughts and gut feelings—they offer clues about your direction. Keep moving forward until you find the right fit.

Conclusion

Remember, life design is not a quick fix. It’s an ongoing, iterative process that takes time. As you grow and change, so will your career interests. That’s the beauty of this approach — it gives you permission to keep experimenting, to keep prototyping, and to treat your career as something you actively design rather than passively endure. Start small, stay curious, and be willing to adjust along the way. When you approach your career as a design project, every choice becomes an opportunity to create work that truly fits your life — and that’s how you turn uncertainty into possibility.

About the Author: Janelle Howell is the founder of Life Design with Nelle, a coaching practice that helps people design careers and lives that align with both purpose, passion, and practicality. When she’s not guiding clients through discovery and growth, you’ll find her listening to jazz, dabbling in acrylic painting, or diving into her latest business book.