Running head: LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 1

Life Design Portfolio

Asia Martin

University North Carolina Greensboro

LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 2

Life Design Portfolio

To begin with, “life design is the way forward” (Burnett & Evans, 2017, p. xxi). This

form of thinking allows designers, like myself, to become imaginative, constructive, and

continually developed in their experiences. As a part of life design, individuals are encouraged to

create meaningful experiences in which are connected to their life. Within this process lies the

foundation of SPARCK - Story, Purpose, Aspirations, Reflection, Connection, and Kick-Start.

SPARCK is the tool used to assist those in identifying key aspects of life, where individuals feel

more “empowered, passionate, energetic, and committed” toward a life that represents who they

really are and where they aspire to go (Johnson, 2014).

In completing life design activities based on the SPARCK model, I feel that I have gained

much insight and developed even more holistically. I believe that I have established a clear

mindset for myself and for my future. This positive attitude that has grown within myself

stemmed from the SPARCK activities that I felt were most meaningful. These SPARCK

activities include: My Life Story, Are You Living Your Best Life?, What’s Most Important in

My Life?, the Odyssey Plan, The Life Balance Wheel, Personal Board of Advisors, Seven Day

Challenge, and Finding Meaningful Balance.

To help explore the experiences that have made me who I am today, I found “My Life

Story” to be most beneficial. This activity allowed me to identify the positive and negative

personal situations that occurred in my life. Listing out these experiences, specifically the

negative ones, were most challenging for me as I became emotional in completing this
LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 3

assignment. After reflecting on this activity, I realized that I had many more positive experiences

than negative ones, which made me feel good about my life. With this, I was able to address the

parts that were contributing to holding me back from achieving goals in life. Once I was able to

write these down, I was able to face my fears and leave these experiences in this assignment

rather than taking my fears along with me. This was something that I had never done before. In

the future, I plan to continue to put myself in positions where I am hopefully encountering even

more positive, impacting moments. From my professional work perspective, I think this activity

could be used in career development in assisting students in finding their positive and negative

work experiences and thinking about how their work experiences have shaped them into making

the decisions that they have thus far.

In helping declare my purpose in life, I found the activities “Are You Living Your Best

Life?” and “What’s Most Important in My Life?” to be most valuable. “Are You Living Your

Best Life” allowed me the opportunity to see what I am doing “correctly” versus what I need to

work on. Although this activity seemed as if it would fall under the “reflection” piece of

SPARCK, I viewed it more from the personal perspective, where activity signifies a way to find

my purpose. I was able to realize what purposes I should be fulfilling for myself rather than

focusing on my professional work. In relation to “What’s Most Important in My Life”, I was able

to recognize my purpose in finding my “why”. I listed the items that drive my decisions and

actions on a daily basis, which included my health, happiness, and success. These are my

personal and professional purposes in life, however I find it interesting because, being a full-time

student and part-time graduate assistant, it is difficult for me to completely be healthy and happy
LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 4

as I desire. These are definitely aspirations for me as well. With this being said, I have

challenged myself to take time out of my day for at least one-hour of self-care.

“There are multiple great lives (and plans) within me, and I get to choose which one to

build my way forward to the next” (Burnett & Evans, 2017, p. 90). In creating my Odyssey

Plans, I was able to clearly define my aspirations. In the beginning, this was very challenging for

me, but through planning I was able to gain insight on where I saw myself in the next five years.

I broke this wayfinding direction up into professional and personal aspects of my life, which

allowed me to embrace my multiple personalities as expected. I do not view the Odyssey Plan as

steps, instead, I view it more as a path that leads me closer to my journey and aspirations. Having

this understanding, would be advantageous to the students that I work with in career

development. I would ask the students to create an Odyssey Plan for their years in college. I

think this would be most beneficial for first-year students. In this, I would suggest for them to

think about their career goals, and how they plan to achieve then, encouraging them to ask

themselves questions such as: What internships am I interested in? What organizations should I

get involved with? How I can get connected with those who are in the field that I am interested

in now?. These are the questions that I proposed to myself throughout college and would have

enjoyed having this aspirational activity to guide me.

One of my most favorite activities, was the reflection concept of my life. The SPARCK

activity was called “The Life Balance Wheel”. In this wheel I was able to see the significant

aspects of my life that I wanted to become fulfilled in. None of the aspects of the wheel reached

the outside, and was, instead, closer to the middle of the circle, meaning that I have much room

for growth. The only portion of my life that I currently feel almost fulfilled in is my school and
LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 5

work life. The reason for this is because I have only a year left to graduate and complete my time

in school and hopefully obtain a career in career development. My lowest peak was,

unfortunately, self-care, which I am currently working on, however I feel that my life is

consumed with college and work. In the mix of this I realize that there is my family, health,

finances, spirituality, and other parts of my life that I need to grow in. I am challenging myself to

think about these other parts of my life just as I do my school and work life. Just like I feel that

there is only one year left until graduation, I want to be able to train myself into setting time

limits on the other aspects of my life so that I can reach a balanced lifestyle. In saying this, my

goal is to re-make this activity, using a corkboard, thumbtacks and rubber bands to connect

theses aspects of my life. Once this is done, I plan to revisit my wheel monthly to reflect on my

fulfillment.

Another SPARCK activity that I found to be really insightful was the connection activity

about the “Personal Board of Advisors”. This was very eye-opening for me because I was able to

see how the people that surround me actually impact my way of thinking, and my actions - both

personally and professionally. I never thought about how valuable it was to explore the

relationships and connections I have already attained throughout my time in college. I found that

the people I admire and the people I am closely connected with were the ones I listed, as they are

the individuals that have always encouraged me to succeed and achieve throughout my journey.

Those that I admire were the people I currently work with, while those who I felt were truly

supportive were family members. I enjoyed this activity and I would encourage my students to

use this activity as they are able to build connections with individuals, they feel could lead them

to accomplishing their goals throughout their college careers.

LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 6

With time spent in identifying, exploring, and analyzing my journey using the SPARCK

model, I reached Kick-Start and have used the “Finding Meaningful Balance” and “Seven Day

Challenge” to complete my goals. Ever since I completed the “Finding Meaningful Balance”

activity, I have been quick to think before I respond to others' questions. I, first, explain to

myself, “If I say ‘yes’ to this, then I am saying ‘no’ to these things.” In becoming trained to think

this way, I feel that I have grown to become more disciplined with myself in order for me to

either accomplish what I need to get done, or to simply take time for self-care. I have been

encouraging my students, coworkers, and family to think this way now that I realize the impact

that it has made on me. I plan to use this consistently as I believe that it is truly effective. In

addition to Kick-Start, the “Seven Day Challenge” has been a method that I continue to use, as it

promotes me to take on different challenges every seven days, and hopefully converting them

into a lifestyle. Currently, I have challenged myself to eat a certain number of calories for the

week to lose one pound.

Overall, these SPARCK activities were impactful as I thought about myself differently by

the end of the course. I have been able to identify my story, purpose, aspirations, reflections,

connections, and future changes through Life Design SPARCK activities. I have advanced in my

goal setting skills, while I have also grown personally and professionally from these exercises.

My current goal is to take what I have learned from Life Design and SPARCK activities and

apply them to my profession and the students that I interact with on a daily basis in UNC

Greensboro Career Services Center. The students that visit our office for career development

could utilize the coaching activities and techniques learned from this course. This includes

coaching them to better understand their life and career goals. In conclusion, I genuinely believe
LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 7

that I have invested in my best self and can effectively coach students to develop into their best

selves as well. In the next six months, my overall goal is to have a better sense of self-care and

actively apply self-care to my daily habits.

LIFE DESIGN PORTFOLIO 8

References

​ ew
Burnett, B., & Evans, D. (2016). ​Designing your life: How to build a well-lived, joyful life. N

York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Johnson, B. (2014). ​Design your life project: SPARCK inspired change!.​ The Dream Dean.