When you are born, you are given specific colours of crayons, a sketchbook with some sketches already in it, and a unique sense of design.

When you are younger, you mostly use those same crayons and paint inside those existing sketches – because that's what you know. You follow the patterns.

As you grow older, your unique sense of design becomes stronger. You start to see that even an original sketch can become something completely different if you look at it with fresher eyes. And those limited crayons can be mixed to create new colors you never knew existed.

Now the question is, are you mixing your crayons?

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I have a personal quote I tell myself daily: I am the author and designer of my story.

Growing up as a Nigerian girl from a comfortable, privileged background, the sketch pattern was clear — go to school, get a medical degree, get a medical job.

It was just the sketch everyone assumed you'd paint.

At first, I wanted to be a superstar TV host and presenter. That dream burned me out before it could nurture me. So I switched with the same crayons, same sense of design, but a completely different sketch.

I rewrote my story as a marketing consultant, and I have thrived here in ways I never could have in media. And if marketing stopped working tomorrow? I'd pick up my pencil and improve the sketch again.

But this piece isn't really about me. It's about you and how you can design a life that makes you genuinely happy, applause or no applause.

You've been given a sketchbook. The question is:

• what are you putting in it?
• Are you living your own design?
• Are you painting the same sketch given to you?
• Or are you painting someone else's sketch?

The rules are simple and flexible.

Designing a life that helps you win means staying flexible. Tweak your designs until they fit. And if they stop fitting, switch them up.

Whatever design you land on must support your life as a whole — your peace, your health, your relationships, your joy. If it doesn't serve your whole self, you're probably sketching someone else's story.

So how do you actually design or paint a life that's authentic, mindful, and self-fulfilling?

Look at what you already have. Understand the colours and existing sketches — the circumstances, relationships, strengths, and constraints of your present life.

Decide what to change, remove, or add. With an open mind, look honestly at your situation. What can shift, beyond just adding money? If money is your primary measure of a better life, you will be disappointed. Money follows meaning far more reliably than meaning follows money.

Begin painting your new design. With your sense of design and your honest desires confirmed, start.

Make peace with mistakes. In art, every mistake is simply a new direction. When you get it wrong, don't sulk — create a new design out of it. Every final design must still support your whole life.

If you're not sure whether the life you're designing is truly yours, the process itself will tell you. Your gut never lies.

But you can only discover what's truly yours by moving, by doing. So just begin.

To our own stories,

Gigii.
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