Design Your Nirvana

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Design Your Nirvana

Founders build businesses for a reason. It could be money, fame, freedom or some change to their status quo.

But, beyond the short term goals or a vague, amorphous drive, founders don’t have much to keep them going. They don’t have a big goal in mind. Without that, they end up going with the flow – wherever fate and the latest shiny object takes them.

Eventually, like a ship in doldrums (no wind in the sails), they come to a slow halt – wondering what to do next.

There’s a solution for this: Designing Your Nirvana

Designing Your Nirvana

Designing your ideal life gives you a powerful guide for the decisions you need to make as a founder. You make the decisions that take you closer to your nirvana.

With your key stakeholders – family, friends, significant others, design your ideal life. Think about the personal, professional, social and other important spheres of your life.

Write down what that life looks like. Get as descriptive as possible.

Once you have captured this vision of nirvana, it can (and should) act as a guide for making decisions. Make the decisions that will take you closer to your nirvana – and avoid those that you take you further away.

Case in point: Being able to understand what the customer wants and build it greatly improves your odds of success – and making your nirvana a reality.

An Example

To help you get started, here’s my write up of how my Nirvana would be. I wrote it as an email to my wife. Here it is, edited for clarity:

Waifu, 

This is the future we are building:

Living Situation
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We live in Stedding Tsofu. No garden or pets though as I don’t think we can maintain it. We live in the lower unit and the second floor is our office. Our families stay in their own homes. We visit them on alternate weekends. If anyone dies, the other parent comes to live with us.

We’re living in Bangalore for most parts of the year when Maya is in school. As for vacations, we go and live like locals in different countries for months at a stretch, but we always come back for the school year. Maya needs a stable part in her life.

Professional Lives
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We both run our companies out of the second floor of Stedding Tsofu. I’m running something to do with video & audio - a digital lifestyle business. I make money by creating content about AI and personal development online. I also conduct workshops and give speeches.

You lead a similar life. You have become an influencer in the parenting space and you run an expanded version of Aata Paata. You’re also a children’s book author and run an activity center for kids. Not a day care, but a place where kids can bond with their parents over activities. You have a team who runs the center like a business so you’re free to take time off whenever you want.

We also collaborate on a number of fun projects loosely housed under your brand. We record audio books, make videos, have workshops etc

Personal Lives
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Family is first. Fitness is second. Fun is third.

We three always have chai, breakfast and dinner together. We sit on the table and eat. No phones. Just chat about interesting ideas and life in general. We also take some time off to read our separate books, every day.

We also write for half an hour every day. We bond through this.

We have a strong fitness routine as well. I go for boxing while you and Maya go for zumba and yoga at Cult. We vegetate on the weekends though you’d probably force us to go cycling or trekking over the weekend.

You and I, we’re special. We still watch TV together every night. We also pick up dancing classes to bond.

How does that sound?

Your Turn

Now, it’s your turn.

Look at each of the following aspects of your life, and write down what are the most important things for you to have in that space.

  • Personal Life
    • Type of life you want to live
    • Your Home
    • Pets
    • Family
    • Significant other
    • City
    • Lifestyle
    • Hobbies
  • Professional Life
    • Type of Career
    • Nature of work
    • Work culture
    • Risk
    • Job Security
    • Experience
    • Lifestyle
  • Social Life
    • Friends
    • Community
    • Religion
    • Lifestyle

Take some time to write these down. Once you’re done, you can use this as a way to start making
important decisions in your life. Choose the options that take you closer to the ideal life you want.