Lifestyle Design (how I curate a nomadic aesthetic life)
I am not a lifestyle brand. But then again, everyone is a lifestyle brand. I make music and art, travel, write and create content in a style that reflects my authentic self.
I stumbled into lifestyle design because it resonated and felt creative. I also realized it’s a great throughline for all my different passions.
It’s style, fashion, adventure and aesthetics all wrapped up together. Lifestyle design feels like a blank canvas that you can paint and repaint however you like.
So this is my take on things.
Table of Contents
What Is Lifestyle Design?
Lifestyle design is curating the context of your life to matche your taste, values, passions and life goals.
For me, this looks like an artsy, adventurous, multi-passionate, aesthetic life.
But most of us are already pretty good at presenting a particular lifestyle online. I just think we forget that we can (and maybe should be) curating things when the camera’s off too.
Not to pretend to be someone else. But to actually become who you are deep down.
Lifestyle Design Is Really Just Manifestation
The more I curate my life to match my ideal, the more that ideal unfolds in my life.
I think life design is actually just manifestation.
Since life design is just context curation, there are lots of different “life buckets” we can work with, like:
Career
Social
Personal
Environment
etcetera
And chances are, you can control at least some of these things. And once you do, things start to snowball and segue into new circumstances.
Life design is deciding to start your dream life now rather than waiting for some permission or external result.
And it follows a core manifestation principle: “act as if.”
When you start acting, feeling and believing a certain way (for long enough), life tends to change and reflect those actions, emotions and beliefs.
Life meets you where you’re at, not where you want to be.
It’s a frequency thing. But it’s also logical.
If you create new habits and beliefs, your life is going to change. There’s nothing groundbreaking or woo about that.
BUT, if you constantly believe you always get the short end of the stick, you’ll keep (subconsciously) attracting and designing a life that reaffirms that belief.
You get what you expect.
Lifestyle design changes your expectations.
My Lifestyle Pillars
My lifestyle pillars are the core domains I talk about in this blog. So if any these strike a chord with you, feel free to use them (or check out my newsletter below).
Travel
Adventure and embracing a lost perspective is core to my identity. And by lost, I mean literally (as in traveling) and metaphorically (as in having multiple passions and not being sure who I am or should be).
Explore more:
➤ How to Travel More
Creativity
I’m an artist and musician first. So creativity is core to what I do, believe in and write about.
The creative life spills into authenticity and multi-passionate living too.
Explore more:
➤ How to Be More Creative
Autonomy
I really don’t like structure. My biggest goal for this blog was to find financial and location freedom.
Autonomy means you can do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want.
Carefreeness
I have a relaxed perspective in life. I’m casual, happy-go-lucky and carefree. It’s baked in my DNA. But I think it’s a serious advantage.
So I reference this value a lot in my content and work.
Explore more:
➤ How to Be More Chill
How to Design Your Lifestyle
Find clarity and optimize your life for each of the things below—in no particular order.
Define Your Ideal
What’s your ideal life look like?
That’s a good place to start.
For me, it’s about authenticity and owning who you are. It’s not about how different or subjectively “cool” something is.
So, what makes you tick?
What comes most natural to you?
What are you most drawn to?
What do you authentically and unapologetically love?
You can totally borrow my pillars, but if there’s something you need to tweak or add, definitely do that too.
Ya’ Mindset
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
Your beliefs, thoughts and emotions are the most important thing. No matter what your life looks like on the outside, none of that will matter if you still feel shit on the inside.
It sounds trite, but it’s true.
Mindset is also not a destination, but a practice. It takes work. There are bad days and good days. But over time, the scale tips, so there are more good days than bad.
Eventually, it becomes a habit. A way of thinking and a way of life.
A new personality.
Lifestyle design starts in the mind.
So start by staying aware and catching negative thought patterns. Make ideal thought patterns the new normal until eventually, they’re louder than the old ones.
Explore more:
➤ Why Mindset Matters
Actions
“Nobody is more anxious than the ambitious person who creates nothing.”
Lifestyle design is a creative act.
Aka, you actually need to do the things you say you’re going to do. Because if it’s all just talk, then nothing changes.
So what habits do you need to embody or change to create your dream life?
Explore more:
➤ Think Less, Talk Less—Do More
Taste + Style
Taste and style are like the color palette of your lifestyle design.
Taste is in the movies you watch, the books you read and the music you fck with.
Style is how you show up and how you want to be perceived.
To design a lifestyle, your taste and style should be self-expressive and feel authentic. So:
What shows do you watch and rewatch?
Who do you look up to?
What’s your nostalgia?
What’s your fashion sense?
All of these things create your taste and style profile—your lifestyle palette.
Explore more:
➤ Fashion and Creativity Are Good Friends
Spaces
Our environment shapes our habits and mood. So let’s make sure it’s up to snuff.
Part of why I love travel so much is the multi-cultural environments I get to spend most of my time in.
It sparks inspiration and creativity. Challenge and growth. Ethos and values that reflect my ideal lifestyle.
But even without travel, the places I go, eat, shop at and so on all shape my lifestyle in subtle ways.
How you design your apartment and where you spend most of your time influence your lifestyle design.
So ask yourself, do my spaces reflect the ideal lifestyle I want to embody?
Your Inner Circle
I never used to network or connect with other creatives and like-minded peeps.
I was seriously missing out.
Having a core group (or a few) who just get you is so helpful. It’s a support system, where you give and also get.
It’s accountability and motivation. It also changes you.
Apparently, we become the average of the five closest people in our life.
So audit your inner circle. And if you need to, meet some new people.
Autonomy + Fulfillment
For me, an offbeat creative nomadic lifestyle is ultimate freedom, autonomy and fulfillment.
I’m not asking for much here! lol
But as a North Star, I just prioritize my core passions. Even if I can’t make them a full-time job, at least choosing work that’s aligned helps.
For me, that means remote work that’s flexible and creative.
How about you—what’s your autonomy and fulfillment look like? Try making small changes to get closer to that.
Learn how to become a digital nomad and join me abroad (or wherever your mood takes you)!
Want More? Nice. Here’s More.
