Coaching Approaches in Life Design - Rosalyn Shih

What Draws you to the Topic?

I initially came across Life Design a number of years ago when I read “Designing Your Life” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It was not long after I moved to Taipei from Kunming due to COVID-19, and there had been so many changes not only in the world but also in my hometown of Hong Kong. It was a very confusing time for me personally to decide where to stay rooted. Life Design provided a framework for understanding my priorities in life and work, but also for envisioning multiple pathways for the future and how they could intersect. 

Later on, I brought in both coaching and Life Design concepts into my professional work as a college counselor for high school students. I saw how these approaches could help students take a broader approach rooted in self-understanding and discovery when planning their future. 

What Have You Learned From It?

Life Design equips us with multiple mindsets to approach decision-making in life. One example of such concept is the “Gravity Problem”, which are problems that are – much like the laws of gravity – so insurmountable that they are unable for us to change as individuals. So rather than focus on problems we can’t change, we need to refine the problems we can address. A “problem”, in a mathematician or engineer’s perspective, that we can try to solve. 

One way that Life Design has supported me, has been teaching me how to identify, accept and embrace the Gravity Problems in my life – such as changes in my hometown, or my relationship to my parents – and identify the other issues that I do want to actively try to work on and change. 

How can it be helpful for others?

Life Design offers many tools and approaches to help us design well-lived and joyful futures. It is a process that invites curiosity towards ourselves, and helps us reframe so we can get “unstuck”. 

Another really important approach in Life Design is the “bias towards action”, which encourages us to act upon our ideas through “prototyping” conversations with others or having prototype experiences. It is this dynamic approach to life planning which I find helps me and my students get out of thinking mode and into making tiny actions, which can help provide the necessary “felt experience” to support decision-making.

Bio

Rosalyn was born in Canada and grew up in Hong Kong. She now a high school college counselor in Taipei. She looks forward to helping teenagers, young adults, professionals and parents find their direction and purpose through Life Design principles. In addition to training with the BMC Academy she is also a student of the Body Mind Centering Somatic Movement Educator Program in Taiwan. Her hobbies include contact improvisation dance and Playback Theatre.