Architect Your Life: Design the Career and Future You Dream Of
Last weekend, as I was waiting for my son's soccer game to start, I found myself engaged in an energizing conversation that stuck with me.
Another parent shared something powerful: growing up, his father had taught him early on a simple but life-shaping idea — you are the architect of your life.
He talked about how that mindset shaped everything from the career he built to the lifestyle he created. And it made me reflect: when did I first realize that same truth for myself?
I grew up believing I could create the life I wanted. But now, moving through my second career, I realize there’s a difference between believing it’s possible and living it intentionally.
Being the architect of your life isn’t just about dreaming.
It’s about design.
It’s about daily decisions — participating in what lights you up, choosing what you build, and determining what you refuse to let in the door.
Today, I help high-performing creative leaders, senior executives, and entrepreneurs who are on the brink of something big design their lives and careers with greater clarity, creativity, confidence, and courage. Because being the architect of your life requires intentional choices — not just reacting to what’s in front of you, but designing what’s next.
In this season of my life, I’m paying closer attention to the new foundations I’m setting and the structures I’m choosing to create. I’m asking questions like:
What makes me happy and fuels my energy?
What kind of projects light me up?
Who are the people I most want to work with?
Where do I want to spend my time?
What deserves a “hell yes” — and what needs a firm, unapologetic “no”?
The Framework to Design Your Life
In a recent coaching intensive, I learned a simple but powerful framework that has been helping me design my life with even more intention: Keep. Cut. Double Down.
It's an exercise in conscious decision-making — and it's one I've started using as I plan my time and energy.
Here's how it looks in practice:
🔹 Keep: What fuels your growth and joy
There are parts of my life and work that fill me with energy, even on the busiest days.
Anyone who knows me well knows how important my fitness practice has been — it's where my coach first helped me unlock beyond what I thought was possible.
At the center of building my business is a daily commitment to conversations with past, present, and future clients — staying connected to possibility, growth, and service.
These conversations nourish both my business and my spirit.
Ask yourself:
What parts of your day do you leave feeling more energized than when you began?
Those are the things to keep.
🔹 Cut: What drains your energy or misaligns with your vision
In any career — and in life — it's easy to accumulate "shoulds" and obligations that no longer serve the person you're becoming.
For me, I’ve been actively cutting opportunities that bring more stress than joy, especially the ones that feel misaligned with my deeper purpose.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Ask yourself:
What have you outgrown — and what would happen if you gave yourself permission to let it go?
🔹 Double Down: What creates expansion and possibility
This is the fun part. What’s working? What feels expansive into what you want to create next?
For me, that means doubling down on creating space for creativity — carving out more time for writing, ideation, and building programs that excite me, rather than just reacting to what’s urgent.
In my former career in TV, urgent deadlines ruled every day.
Now, as a coach, I've learned that when I prioritize creativity, new opportunities naturally flow.
Ask yourself:
Where are you seeing results with ease and joy — and how could you give that even more of your attention?
Being the Architect Means Choosing with Intention
Designing your life isn’t something you do once at a milestone birthday or during a New Year's reset.
It’s a daily practice.
It’s consistently choosing to align your actions with the life you're trying to create.
When you think like an architect, you don't just react to what's in front of you.
You step back, envision the structure you want to build, and make choices today that support the future you want to live in.
You focus on the foundation:
The values you stand on.
The relationships you build around you.
The work you pour your heart into.
The spaces you create for joy, for rest, and for growth.
A Simple Starting Point to Design Your Life
If you want to start being the architect of your life today, here's a simple exercise you can try:
At the end of each day this week, ask yourself three quick questions:
What energized me today? (Keep)
What drained me today? (Cut)
What inspired me or felt expansive? (Double down)
Track your answers for a week. Patterns will start to emerge.
And with those patterns, you’ll have the raw material to start designing your next chapter with more clarity and confidence.
Full Circle: Lessons from the Sidelines
On our way home from my son’s soccer game, I kept thinking about that conversation.
The players who stood out weren’t the ones simply reacting to the ball — they were the ones who anticipated the play, positioned themselves for success, and made intentional moves ahead of time.
Being the architect of your life is a lot like that.
It's not about reacting to what life throws at you.
It's about reading the field, envisioning what's possible, and positioning yourself for the opportunities you want to create.
What would it look like to fully step into the life you're dreaming about?
You have more power than you think.
Sometimes, you just need the right lens to see it.
When you lift your gaze — when you look through the telescope instead of just at what's right in front of you — you start to see farther, dream bigger, and move more boldly toward the life you’re meant to build.
The future you want isn’t a distant hope.
It’s already coming into focus.
Ready to Build What's Next?
If you're ready to stop reacting and start designing your next chapter, I’d love to help you see what's possible — and build it together.
Reach out here, and let’s start a conversation.
