The Life Strategy Center

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The Canvas

Oliver Ding

This Life Discovery Canvas is designed for Life Discovery Activity. It can be used for self-reflection or coaching programs.

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The Life Discovery Canvas is guided by the Project Engagement approach which is inspired by Activity Theory, especially Project-oriented Activity Theory.

1. Seven Basic Principles

2. Four Significant Areas

3. Two Subspaces

4. A Multiple-dimension Model

5. Four Thematic Fields

6. The Inner - Outer Mapping

7. THINK: What should I Think for myself?

8. LEARN: What should I Learn for my life?

9. SAY: What Should I Say to others?

10. DO: What Should I Do for others?

11. Inspirations

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1. Seven Basic Principles

The Life Discovery Canvas is developed with the following seven basic principles:

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Being by Doing⁠

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Engagement as Projection⁠

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End as Means⁠

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Discovery as Development⁠

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Performance as Experiment⁠

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Curativity as Creativity⁠

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Project as Thematic Space⁠

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You can find more details in

The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 1: Theoretical Background.⁠

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2. Four Significant Areas

The Life Discovery Canvas is not a simple 2x2 matrix, but a multiple-dimension model for visualizing a holistic view. However, the 2x2 matrix is a subset of the canvas.

I divide the canvas into four areas from the view of the 2x2 matrix:

THINK: What should I Think for myself?

SAY: What should I Say to others?

LEARN: What should I Learn for my life?

DO: What should I Do for others?

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The THINK area echoes the Theory area of Thematic Space Canvas. For Life Discovery Activity, I consider two pairs of concepts for the THINK area:

Supplies — Demands

Aspirations — Situations

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I will offer more details for each pair of concepts. For present discussion, I only focus on Spatial Structure.

The LEARN area echoes the PRACTICE area of Thematic Space Canvas. For Life Discovery Activity, I consider two pairs of concepts for the LEARN area:

Skills — Knowledge

Themes — Contradictions

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The SAY area echoes the END area of Thematic Space Canvas. For Life Discovery Activity, I consider two pairs of concepts for the SAY area:

Resources — Opportunities

Results — Contributions

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The DO area echoes the MEANS area of Thematic Space Canvas. For Life Discovery Activity, I consider two pairs of concepts for the DO area:

Concepts — Ideas

Solutions — Problems

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The above pairs of concepts are inspired by the Project-centered approach.

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3. Two Subspaces

The Life Discovery Canvas is divided into two subspaces: Inner Space and Outer Space.

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The Inner Space contains the following concepts:

Supplies — Skills

Aspirations — Themes

Resources — Results

Concepts — Solutions

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The Outer Space contains the following concepts:

Demands — Knowledge

Situations — Contradictions

Opportunities — Contributions

Ideas — Problems

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4. A Multiple-dimension Model

I have emphasized that the Life Discovery Canvas is not a simple 2x2 matrix for building a typology, but a multiple-dimension model for visualizing a holistic view in order to sense-make a dynamic meaningful whole.

Now let’s look at more dimensions.

4.1 The Self — Other Relevance

There is a dimension behind the “Left — Right” direction: the Self — Other Relevance.

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I have introduced the Relevance of Zone in the Life Discovery Toolkit (v1.0). It considers four keywords: Self, Other, Thing, Think. It was inspired by the iART Framework and the Typology of Relevance. You can find more details from

Mapping Thematic Space #5: The “Relevance” Thematic Space⁠

4.2 The Practice — Theory Dialogue

For the vertical direction, I consider the Practice — Theory Dialogue.

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The Practice — Theory Dialogue refers to my primary project: the Knowledge Curation project. You can find more details about the above model from

The Diagramming as Practice Framework⁠

4.3 The Production Chain

One of the theoretical resources behind the Life Discovery Activity is Activity Theory which is originally about “Production”.

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The “Think — Do” connection refers to the Production Chain. The term “Chain” refers to “Think — Do — Think — Do — Think — DO” which is about a network of project.

4.4 The Communication Chain

I also consider Relevance Theory as one of theoretical resources for the Life Discovery Activity. The Relevance Theory is more about communication.

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The “Learn— Say” connection refers to the Communication Chain. The term “Chain” refers to “Learn — Say— Learn— Say— Learn— Say” which is about communities, platforms or other social contexts of projects.

4.5 The Feedforward Chain

The Life Discovery Activity also adopts the

Anticipatory Activity System⁠

framework for its theoretical resources.

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A person has an expectation of her or his life achievement in the future. This is called Anticipation. For example, a friend of mine made a vision for her ideal life in general and a life plan for the coming three years. This anticipation inspires her to make some decisions which lead to some actions. This is called Feedforward. Her life vision and short life plan guide her to design an adult development program which became her primary project last year. You can find more details about iART Framework

here⁠

4.6 The Experiment Chain

The last dimension is called the Experiment Chain which is defined by the “Anticipation — Performance” complexity.

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The “Anticipation — Performance” complexity refers to a sub-model of the the

Anticipatory Activity System⁠

framework. You can find more details in

D as Diagramming: The Defining Zone⁠

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5. Four Thematic Fields

In order to highlight four themes of the Life Discovery Activity, I also define four thematic fields. Each field contains four blocks with two pairs of concepts.

5.1 The Attachment Field

The Attachment Field echoes the ENTER field of the Thematic Space Canvas. It contains the following concepts:

Skills — Knowledge

Supplies — Demands

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5.2 The Achievement Field

The Achievement Field echoes the EXIT field of the Thematic Space Canvas. It contains the following concepts:

Results — Contributions

Solutions — Problems

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5.3 The Anticipation Field

The Anticipation Field contains the following concepts:

Aspirations — Situations

Resources — Opportunities

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5.4 The Performance Field

The Performance Field contains the following concepts:

Themes — Contradictions

Concepts — Ideas

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The “design thinking” behind the Life Discovery Canvas echoes my ideas about meta-diagrams, diagram blending, and diagram networks.

You can find more details in

The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 2: Spatial Structure⁠

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6. The Inner - Outer Mapping

The Inner Space and Outer Space is guided by the “Internalization — externalization” principle of Activity Theory. I consider the mapping between Inner Space and Outer Space as the starting point of Life Discovery Activity.

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This idea echoes the Thematic Space Canvas’s same spatial structure. Since the Thematic Space Canvas is developed for Developing Tacit Knowledge, I call it it “Objective — Subjective” Knowledge Curation. While Objective Knowing refers to the outer space, the Subjective Knowing refers to the inner space.

For Life Discovery Canvas, I just call it the Inner — Outer Mapping. Readers can find the difference between Inner Space and Outer Space from the following sections about pairs of themes.

The diagram below is

the Inner — Outer Mapping of Thematic Space Canvas⁠

. We could make a similar visualization from Mapping Life Discovery.

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However, I should emphasize that the Inner — Outer Mapping is not the only way of Mapping Life Discovery. Since there are several types of spatial configurations, we can explore more ways of Mapping Life Discovery.

The Inner — Outer Mapping is just the starting point of the journey!

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7. THINK: What should I Think for myself?

The THINK area contains two pairs of themes:

Supplies — Demands

Aspirations — Situations

The pair of themes “Supplies — Demands” refers to the first basic principle of the Project-centered approach:

Being by Doing⁠

The pair of themes “Aspirations — Situations” refers to two modules of Life Discovery Toolkit (v1.0):

Life Aspiration Orientation: What kind of hero are you?

Life Process Awareness: What is the status of your primary life project?

While the “Supplies — Demands” Mapping is about a discovery about life meaning at an abstract level, the “Aspirations — Situations” Mapping moves to the daily life activities at a concrete level.

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8. LEARN: What should I Learn for my life?

The Life Discovery Activity requires designing and developing individuals that learn and adapt. These individuals can bring about their continuing transformation in the face of growing challenges to their stability. Thus, I consider LEARN to be an important area for Life Discovery.

The LEARN area contains two pairs of themes:

Skills — Knowledge

Themes — Contradictions

The pair of themes “Skills — Knowledge” refers to traditional thinking of adult development.

For Life Discovery Activity, it means three things:

Reflect on your habits and behavior patterns of learning, reading, discussing, reflecting, etc.

Prepare for future life projects

Reflect on personal epistemic development

The third thing is about the Skills — Knowledge Mapping. I’d like to share a model called Epistemic Development for this task.

I also place the pair of themes “Themes — Contradictions” at the LEARN area.

The Life Discovery Activity focuses on 1)

Detecting Potential Contradictions⁠

and 2) Exploring Potential Themes in order to enhance a person’s life development. The term “Contradictions” is adopted from Activity Theory while the term “Themes” is adopted from my own work Themes of Practice.

Life Discovery: The “Problem — Solution” Challenge and Response⁠

, I introduced several ways for detecting Contradictions, Disruptors, Dramatic Experiences, etc. For Life Discovery Activity, I’d like to recommend a model called Levels of Activity and Disruptions.

You can find more details in

The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 3A: Concepts (THINK and LEARN)⁠

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9. SAY: What Should I Say to others?

The SAY area focuses on:

What Should I Say to others? (the significant question)

Resources — Opportunities (first pair of themes)

Results — Contributions (second pair of themes)

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As mentioned before, the Life Discovery Canvas is divided into two subspaces:

Inner Space

Outer Space

For the SAY area, we see the following configurations:

Inner Space: Resources + Results

Outer Space: Opportunities + Contributions

The SAY area refers to the “Self — Other” relevance and the communication chain. Here the Inner Space is more about a person’s own properties and self-awareness while Outer Space refers to environments and social contexts.

I’d like to point out that the pair of themes “Resources — Opportunities” is about Objective and Object while the pair of themes “Results — Contributions” is about Outcome and Reward.

Now we can adopt the Anticipatory Activity System framework to expand the SAY area. The core of the framework is the “Self — Other” Relevance. The framework also adopts the notion of “Object — Outcome” from Activity Theory.

You can find more details from

D as Diagramming: Strategy as Anticipatory Activity System⁠

. You can also read some related articles:

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Life Discovery: The “Result — Reward” Gap and Achievement⁠

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Life Discovery: The “Object — Objective” Gap and Attachment⁠

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10. DO: What Should I Do for others?

The DO area contains the following two pairs of themes:

Concepts — Ideas

Solutions — Problems

We can also see other configurations:

Inner Space: Concepts + Solutions

Outer Space: Ideas + Problems

I have discussed the “Problem — Solution” issue in

Life Discovery: The “Problem — Solution” Challenge and Response⁠

. However, the article focuses on our own problems in our life.

The Do area is about solving problems for others. It’s about designing projects, developing work processes, delivering final products such as content, services, tools, solutions, etc. It refers to creating values for others.

How to find problems and solutions? This is the significant question of design, strategy, and business in general. For Life Discovery Activity, I’d like to recommend the following diagram for connecting individual life experiences with social needs. It’s a heuristic tool called Career API.

The pair of themes “Concepts — Ideas” refers to my 2021 book Project-oriented Activity Theory (draft).

You can find more details in

The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 3B: Concepts (SAY and DO)⁠

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11. Inspirations

Some sources of my inspirations for designing the Life Discovery Canvas.

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The Context of Developing Tacit Knowledge⁠

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The “Life Strategy” Dialogue Knowledge Curation⁠

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My “Life” Thematic Space⁠

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The Slow Cognition Approach⁠

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The Shaper & Supporter Lab

Four Questions: Strategic Doing

Four Questions: Designing for Growth

Canvas: Business Model Canvas

Canvas: Product Field

Canvas: Actant Mapping Canvas

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The Dynamics of Tacit Knowledge⁠

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You can find more details in

The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 4: Inspirations⁠

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The Canvas

Contents

1. Seven Basic Principles

2. Four Significant Areas

3. Two Subspaces

4. A Multiple-dimension Model

5. Four Thematic Fields

6. The Inner - Outer Mapping

7. THINK: What should I Think for myself?

8. LEARN: What should I Learn for my life?

9. SAY: What Should I Say to others?

10. DO: What Should I Do for others?

11. Inspirations

1. Seven Basic Principles

2. Four Significant Areas

3. Two Subspaces

4. A Multiple-dimension Model

4.1 The Self — Other Relevance

4.2 The Practice — Theory Dialogue

4.3 The Production Chain

4.4 The Communication Chain

4.5 The Feedforward Chain

4.6 The Experiment Chain

5. Four Thematic Fields

5.1 The Attachment Field

5.2 The Achievement Field

5.3 The Anticipation Field

5.4 The Performance Field

6. The Inner - Outer Mapping

7. THINK: What should I Think for myself?

8. LEARN: What should I Learn for my life?

9. SAY: What Should I Say to others?

10. DO: What Should I Do for others?

11. Inspirations