March 16, 2022 | Liz McCardle

Find Your Grind | Lifestyle Direction vs Destination

Understanding personal priorities and interests to inform next steps.

During this lesson, you will hear from FYG Mentor, Maddie Graham. Maddie is the owner of her own fashion company The Frugal Fox.

You will gain a deeper insight into the meaning of lifestyle direction and the importance of discovering and defending your lifestyle. You will gauge your current lifestyle using reflection and learn more about how to craft your lifestyle journey through all of your work experiences.

After watching the video above, complete your challenge, activity, and journaling prompt below:

Challenge: Complete the Find Your Grind circle activity that Maddie and Mike explained at the end of the video. The goal of this activity is to help you choose a direction, not just a destination. Pick one lifestyle or industry you are passionate about, then list 5 opportunities that support that direction. Share your completed circle and why you chose that lifestyle/industry direction through a written response. Watch Mike’s tips for this challenge.

Activity: To help you better understand your lifestyle direction, think about your Peak Experiences. To learn more about Peak Experiences, read this article. Peak experiences can range from simple activities to extreme events. It’s not necessarily about the actual activity, it’s about the feeling that is experienced.

Create a list of 5 peak experiences. Think about experiences you feel like you were fully invested in—meaning, you were interested in and passionate, engaged, energized, and joyful about the topic or purpose! Then, write down who you were with, where, and when the experience took place.

Peak Experience	Who, When, Where

How many experiences are related? Do they align with your lifestyle results? For example, if a peak experience is of adventure, are you also a thrill-seeker? This activity can either validate your lifestyle direction or help you shape new paths to consider.

Journal Reflection: Write a narrative for each of your listed peak experiences. Explain why these are considered peak experiences for you. Answer the following questions about each experience:

Why did the experience interest you?
Why did the experience engage you?
Why did the experience energize you?
Why did the experience bring you joy?
Was the experience involved with a topic or purpose you’re passionate about? Why and how?

**Educators: Use this as a discussion guide instead!