Living By Default vs. Living By Design

Life really changes when your health becomes compromised.  It’s cliche to say you don’t appreciate something until it is lost, but it’s true.  Without health, nothing else really matters.  As the expression goes “your only true wealth is your health.”

Since 2016 when RA nearly brought my life to a halt, I’ve thought a lot about intentional living.  I’ve likened illness, or rather the path to wellness, to a compass: whatever points me in the direction of wellness is the direction I need to go.  Anything that takes me off that path, I release.  

So simple, right? 

Simple and intentional. 

Living intentionally means choosing what is going to be in your life.  I call it living by design.

Living by design is a completely different approach than living by default.  

Living by default means not choosing how you are going to live, and also not taking responsibility for what you have in your life.  

Responsibility.  

To truly take responsibility for everything in your life means that you acknowledge that what happens to you is created by you.  All your experiences are created by you. 

Woah!  Really? 

Absolutely.

This means no excuses, no blame, no being a victim.  

When you blame anything or anyone else for your circumstances, you have given up taking responsibility … your response-ability.  

And worse than that, you have given up your power, becoming a victim in the process. 

In Jack Canfield’s book The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, the very first chapter is titled Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life.   This is the fundamental truth that the entire book is based upon.  He says:

When it comes to illness, the obvious question is “am I responsible for this illness?” This is a difficult one to answer.  What I have learned is that most chronic conditions are the result of genes responding to the environment (including thoughts, and feelings).  The environment we expose ourselves to, our lifestyle and our reaction to it IS our responsibility.   Our thoughts and feelings are our responsibility.  We always have the ability to choose our thoughts, feelings, lifestyle, environment and how we choose to react to circumstances. 

The thing is, we are always creating our life.  We can create by default, by reacting to circumstances or we can create by design, by taking responsibility and planning. 

This distinction was absolutely critical in my healing journey.  I reflected a lot on my life since developing autoimmune disease.  There were times when I was living by design and there were times when I was living by default.  Default living was when I blamed, when I felt hurt, when I felt resentful, or when I felt stuck.  When I lived by design like deciding on a life partner, planning a family, planning vacations and life experiences, I felt happy.  

Most of us probably live partially by default and partially by design.  What is important though is that we can CHOOSE how to live.  

We are always creating our life, whether we are aware of it or not.  It seems to me that when I was more aware, I was in design mode and that was when good things happened.  

When I created healing in my body, I was in design mode.  When I created a life of wellness, I was in design mode. 

Can you look back at your own life and see when you were living by default and when you were living by design? Can you see how that distinction changed your circumstances for the better?

If your body is showing signs of illness, then you have the same choice: live by default or live by design.  Default means not taking responsibility for your illness … or your wellness.  

Living by design means that you will intentionally make choices that lead you to wellness.  Following that compass, pointing you in the direction of healing and wholeness.  

Living by default or living by design.  Now that you know the difference, what will you choose? 

Want to know where to start living by design?  Begin by making a decision that you are going to be a designer of your life.  

You get to be the writer, producer and actor of your own life.  

A great way to help improve your health is choosing to create peace and calm while you are eating.  HOW you eat can be as important as WHAT you eat.  I have a great resource for you to implement TODAY to help you become empowered in your health.  Click on the image below to receive it.