How to Design Your Life (Step by Step)

About this video

Kegley lays out a five-step method for designing a life, moving from the 1.0 you to a 2.0 ’true north.’ Step one is defining the dream without suppression, illustrated by Mary, who wants a seven-figure online business inspiring women through holistic health coaching, and Justin, whose dream is to be a music producer with 5 million downloads on Spotify headlining festivals. He uses Steve Jobs — citing a roughly 600-page biography and Jobs’s ‘reality distortion field’ — as an example of refusing to be realistic. Step two is breaking the journey into five to ten sequential steps, like Mary’s path from making content to growing an audience, monetizing, scaling and speaking, and he warns that comparing yourself to someone’s finished result hides years of prior work. Step three covers detours and setbacks: a detour like Mary becoming a coach for moms after having a child, or Jobs being fired, starting Pixar and NeXT, and returning when Apple was, in Kegley’s telling, 90 days from bankruptcy, can improve the route, while an unsupportive relationship can drain Justin into backsliding. Step four is recommitment, likened to a pilot constantly readjusting on a flight from Phoenix to Seattle. Kegley says he recommitted to drumming after envying a friend at Warped Tour, got a band offer within 60 days from a cover posted eight years earlier, and went on to tour, play on Conan O’Brien and play Download Festival. Step five is arriving at the 2.0 you, paired with his claim that setbacks may not be your fault but are your responsibility.

Key takeaways

• Step one is naming a true-north dream for your 2.0 self without dream suppression, self-disqualifying stories, or demands to be realistic.
• Step two is mapping the dream into five to ten ordered micro-steps, as good programs do, instead of presenting it as one giant leap.
• Step three distinguishes detours, which can reroute you to a better version of the goal, from setbacks, often driven by distraction or unsupportive relationships.
• Kegley teaches that success is recommitment more than initial commitment, using his own return to drumming as his central personal example.
• He frames the end state as taking responsibility even for circumstances that were not your fault, rather than focusing on unfairness or past failures.

Episode details: published June 20, 2022 · 17:13 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Clark Kegley’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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