Life By Design™: A Self-Discovery, Renewal & Growth Process

Introduction

Life By DesignT is a Leadership Program that establishes a unique process of using real-life experiences as learning opportunities in the non-academic areas of adaptability, creativity, decision-making, influence and problem solving. Individuals involved in the program experience a greater awareness of their identity, what drives them, what success truly means to them, the importance of meaningful relationships and how working within the culture serves both their fundamental needs as well as the higher calling of the organization. Life By DesignT serves the organization in a number of ways:

• Differentiates the organization from its competitors during recruiting and hiring process
• Increases retention of high-growth employees and identifies those not suited for long-term, productive careers
• Improves productivity of employees and employee teams
• Develops high-impact leaders committed to their own growth and development
• Creates a relationship development platform for all employees

Program Overview

Conceived as an on-going process, Life By DesignT begins with three one-day sessions held at monthly intervals and continues with a series of monthly, half-day Check Point sessions for participants who choose to continue in the program.

The one-day sessions are:

1. Welcome: Understanding Who We Are, How You Fit and Where We Can Go Together

In this session, participants:

• Discover the purpose of relationships.
• Examine how various relationships influence the quality of an individual's personal and professional life.
• Learn how to differentiate between relationships that are opportunity driven and those that are obligation based.
• Learn how to create positive, meaningful relationships that are pro-active, opportunity driven and catalysts for growth.
• Explore the characteristics that are essential to long-term, meaningful relationships as well as what causes most relationships to end.

2. Keys to Your Future: Unlocking the Best Within You for a Meaningful Personal and Professional Life

In this session, participants:

• Learn that meaningful life experiences offer the means and opportunity to redefine who they are and who they want to become.
• Examine the motives of people who choose stagnation over growth and vice versa.
• Learn that how people perceive the world stems from their view of themselves and impacts the relationships they have, the choices they make and also how they act and react to situations they encounter.
• Identify the lens they use to view themselves and the world around them.
• Learn how to apply a Life Choices Model (attached) to their decision-making when confronted with difficult life choices.

3. Welcome to Your Future: Creating a Map for Your Journey of Learning Experiences, Meaningful Relationships and Fulfilling Achievements

In this session, participants:

• Explore their view of the world; their values, ideals and principles; and the choices they have made in designing the life they currently lead.
• Learn and experience the importance of setting aside time to examine their life's direction relative to the ideals they strive to achieve.
• Construct a life design or vision for their future - one that is based on a definition of success that is tied to creating momentum and making a difference for them and the world around them.
• Identify and connect with the meaningful relationships necessary for their chosen life journey.
• Experience a new self-awareness that creates energy of excitement and optimism.

The half-day Check Point sessions are designed to offer participants a time away from their typical work routine to take a literal and figurative step back from their lives and evaluate their progress in creating a life by design. During Check Point sessions, participants:

• Identify and discuss recent successes and/or challenges, both personal and professional
• Discuss how they have handled recent challenge points and/or choices
• Evaluate their decision-making with an awareness of fear-based and/or opportunity-driven motives
• Reflect on and experience their power of influence and impact
• Experience non-academic learning of belief modification leading to new patterns of behavior
• Become more aware of their self-sabotaging activities and behavior patterns
• Commit to specific, corrective action for targeted results
• Examine, and if necessary, make thoughtful adjustments to their life design
• Strengthen the networking platform and relationships developed during prior Life By DesignT sessions.

Summary

Life By Design™ is grounded in several core assumptions. The first is that learning and growth flourish in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Consequently, a learning environment that is judgment-free is the bedrock of the program. Participants need to know that whatever they say will be heard without bias or judgment.

This becomes simple in light of the second assumption: what goes on inside individuals is more important than what goes on around them; thus, the world is as they are, not as it is. Hence, every opinion is a reflection of the speaker's unique, authentic and personal vision, which can neither be denied nor be judged right or wrong - it simply is.

The program's third tenet is that behavior changes only after beliefs have changed. Newly acquired knowledge, in itself, does not change behavior. Thus, for real change to be manifested in participants, their belief system must change and this occurs through openness, candor, dissonance and internalization of different points of view.

A fourth assumption on which the program is grounded is that how people perceive their world affects everything in their lives - their relationships, their choices and their work, which, when meaningful, will be what they do to create momentum and make a difference in the world around them.

The fifth premise is that "success" is characterized not only by the things one acquires but also by a sense of simplicity, authenticity, fulfillment and meaning.

The expected outcome of the Life By Design™ process is that participants will be equipped to live a more fulfilled personal and professional life - one that requires that participants know and accept who they are; engage in meaningful relationships; make conscious, growth-oriented life choices; establish and work toward viable goals; and recognize that success is a journey in which they make a positive difference in our world.