We recently spoke with an educator who attended our January Designing Your Life (DYL) workshop to learn about her experience and insights gained. Here’s what she shared.
Discovering the Workshop
Before the workshop, she hadn’t heard of the Designing Your Life method or book, only vaguely familiar with design thinking from her education work. She discovered the workshop by chance, spotting a flyer at a café that immediately resonated with her life situation.
“As a trainer, I viewed it from two angles: would this be valuable for me? And how was it structured? I hesitated to spend money on myself, it’s not something I usually do.”
But after encouragement from friends, I decided to invest in myself and signed up.
Discovering the Workshop
Having worked at the same university for years in various roles, teaching, advising students, and training educators, she eventually burned out.
She was the type of person who is motivated to try many different things, and as a result spreads herself too thin.
“So that was also the build up towards the burnout, because matching three jobs is not a fair idea”
Additionally, she struggled with finding purpose in her work.
It gives me a lot of freedom, gives me a lot of autonomy, possibility to develop, and experience but it doesn’t give me recognition or financial opportunity to grow in the position”
This weekend was a chance for her to have a change of scenery, with different people.
Diverse Group
Initially, she preferred a mixed-gender group for diverse viewpoints. But after attending, she saw the appeal of women-only circles for fostering intimacy and emotional safety, reducing dominant voices and allowing vulnerability.
Additionally, the international environment was intriguing to her.
“To be honest, I never thought about it, that I would be, that it would be such an international group”
Workshop Surprises
The final exercise, mapping three different life scenarios, was particularly impactful. She was paired with someone who was very observant, and helped her realize how she felt about her current relationship.
“So what I’ve learned is, yeah, the very big cliche: choosing —choosing my own direction, with my own rules,”
Workshop Surprises
“It’s been a journey, for sure. It’s been insane, but it did a lot”. Despite feeling like she did not learn anything new, “like the older tools and all the things I’ve heard somewhere”, it was still a transformational experience.
“But I can’t believe how much you’ve done. It was just like small waves. It started to resonate so much in me. I would come back and look at my notes, my scenarios many times. I don’t want to stop”
