In Life Designing we often talk about prototyping our career or life ideas. But what exactly does this mean?

Prototyping means nothing else than getting things out of our head and into action. Instead of contemplating an idea for weeks or even months you take action and evaluate the real life feedback.

Trying to design your way forward rationally and in your head only can lead you directly into procrastination and the feeling of being stuck.

So what to do and how to prototype an idea for your life?

What’s  Prototyping your Life Ideas?

First, of all, it doesn’t matter if you’re stuck over an idea concerning your career or future career or any other life decision or life situation.

That’s the beauty of Life Designing. It’s an “allrounder” fitting all kinds of life questions and life situations.

The big goal is to get things out of your head (hello over-thinker) and into real life for a rapid experiential feedback.

And without “risking” too much.

Yes, we Life Designers are risk takers and we take negative experiences or failures as learning and growth opportunities. But we also prefer a “soft landing” when failing.

So a Life Prototype should do exactly this: fast feedback and soft landing!

What’s the “Havaianas Approach”?

Most of you know, my heart is half Brazilian.

I draw a lot of energy and inspiring ideas from this fascinating and challenging country.

And the current situation in Brazil with all it’s uncertainty paired with this Brazilian playfulness and “jeitinho” mentality is the best soil for Life Designing. 

A perfect place to find my analogies to bring Life Designing closer to you and make it easy to apply.

So let’s see what Havaianas can teach us about prototyping and how we can translate this to our life:

Havaianas are cheap, they are so much fun, they are super easy to produce and they are not meant to last a life time. 

And we Havaianas lovers jump for joy when we see our pair of Havaianas starting to fall apart because it gives us the perfect excuse to rush to the next Havaiana store and choose another colour or design.

And this is exactly how a Life Prototype should look like: Cheap, fun, easy to make, and not a big loss if it fails.

So let’s suppose you have been contemplating a career change for a while. And you’re not sure if it’s the right move for you or not, if you will like it or not and so forth.

Do the Havaiana!

How to do the Havaiana?

Dreaming of opening a little Bistro and becoming a Chef because you love cooking? Well then try a real life work experience in gastronomy first. Help out in a kitchen or service for a couple of nights or weekends and see how your dream “feels” like in reality.

Or you enjoy motivating and inspiring people and dream of becoming a coach or motivational speaker? Well, then gather a bunch of friends and volunteers, choose an inspiring topic and some exercises and lead them through a mini-workshop during one weekend. See how it feels to design and lead a workshop. See how you enjoy to read and lead with group dynamics and energies. Maybe it’s far different than you imagined.

In both examples you don’t have to invest much, neither money nor time, it’s easy to make it happen and if you didn’t like the experience you only gain, you never lose.

What you gain is clarity and more courage to make the jump or change.

Or you maybe gained the insight that you were chasing an illusion that didn’t match reality.

In that case, no worries, you’re ready for your next pair of Havaianas. 

Enjoy.