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Life Design — Product Documentation

The 7-step studio that turns your archetype blueprint into an actionable life plan.

Version 1.0 · Last updated April 2026 Route: /life-design · Page: DesignMyLifePage.tsx Gate: requires Personality Assessment (discoveryCompleted === true) Unlocks: Growth Loop · People Blueprint · Relationship Lens

Table of Contents

  1. What Is Life Design?
  2. How It Fits the Journey
  3. The 7 Steps
  4. Step 1 — Identity Foundation
  5. Step 2 — Assessment Status
  6. Step 3 — Future Path
  7. Step 4 — Life Wheel
  8. Step 5 — Guided Ikigai
  9. Step 6 — Life Blueprint
  10. Step 7 — Strategic Audit
  11. The 6 Life Pillars
  12. Data Model
  13. Completion & What Unlocks Next
  14. Coaching & AI Support
  15. Design Principles
  16. Glossary & FAQ

1. What Is Life Design?

Life Design is the second stage of the MindMeditate Personality System.

The Personality Test tells you who you are. Life Design asks the harder question:

"Given who you are — what life do you actually want to build, and what would it take?"

It's a structured 7-step studio where you translate your archetype blueprint into:

  • A baseline of where you are in every major life area
  • A chosen direction (Acceleration / Mastery / Contribution)
  • A meaning statement (your Ikigai)
  • A vision + mission + 6 pillars (your Life Blueprint)
  • A strategic map of what's helping you and what's quietly sabotaging you

The output is a personal plan anchored to your archetype — not borrowed from someone else's life.

2. How It Fits the Journey

Personality Test  →  Self Mastery  →  Life Design  →  Growth Loop  →  People Blueprint
   (Who)             (Insight)        (Direction)    (Execution)    (Relationships)
Stage Output
Personality Test Archetype + Force + Secondary
Self Mastery Coach-style reflection on your profile
Life Design Your blueprint: vision, Ikigai, pillars, strategic plan
Growth Loop Habits, streaks, monthly reviews against your blueprint
People Blueprint How you show up with partners, teams, family

Life Design is the direction-setting stage. Without it, Growth Loop has nothing to track against.

3. The 7 Steps

The steps are ordered deliberately: each builds on what came before.

# Step Purpose Icon Output field
1 Identity Foundation Emotional baseline per life area 🧠 Brain identityBaseline
2 Assessment Status Confirms archetype is set 📄 FileText (gate check)
3 Future Path Choose one of 3 life trajectories 🚀 Rocket selectedPath
4 Life Wheel Rate current reality 1–10 per pillar 📚 Layers lifeWheel
5 Guided Ikigai Synthesize your meaning statement 🧭 Compass ikigai
6 Life Blueprint Vision, mission, per-pillar goals 🎯 Target vision, mission, pillars
7 Strategic Audit Threats, habits, capability gap 🛡️ ShieldAlert swot, strategicHabits, strategicThreats, capabilityGap

Step 1 — Identity Foundation

Purpose. Before you assess how life is going, you measure how connected you feel to each area. This is the subjective, emotional baseline.

What the user does. Rate each of the 6 life areas on a 5-point identity scale:

Score Label Meaning
1 Disconnected "This isn't me right now."
2 Uncertain "I don't know where I stand here."
3 Aware "I see it, but I'm not living it."
4 Aligned "This reflects who I am."
5 Embodied "I am this — it shows up in my daily life."

Plus an optional core statement — one line that captures how they want to see themselves.

Why it's first. This score gap (Identity Foundation vs Life Wheel later) is one of the most powerful diagnostics in the system. It reveals belief gaps — areas where your outer life may look fine but you feel disconnected, or areas you deeply identify with but haven't built yet.

Output. identityBaseline: { scores: [{id, score}], coreStatement }

Step 2 — Assessment Status

Purpose. A lightweight gate-check that confirms the user's Personality Test is completed and the archetype + force are available. All later steps consume these fields.

What the user sees. - ✅ Archetype + force badges if complete - ⚠️ A prompt to complete the test if not (with direct link)

This step has no input — it's a progress marker and safety net.

Step 3 — Future Path

Purpose. Commit to one of three life trajectories. This becomes the lens every later step is viewed through.

The three paths:

Path Core drive Typical goals
🚀 Acceleration Speed, growth, impact, scale Career advancement, starting a business, leadership, high performance
🎯 Mastery Depth, skill, craft, expertise Choosing a major, deep learning, career pivot, strength discovery
🤝 Contribution Meaning, service, relationships Personal growth, community work, teamwork, social impact

How it's recommended. The LifePathSimulator component reads: - The user's current status (student / working / business owner / etc.) - The user's current goal (e.g. "Advance my career / get promoted") - The archetype + force combination

… and suggests the best-fit path via the GOAL_PATH_AFFINITY map in LifePathSimulator.tsx. The user can override.

Commitment moment. After selection, a modal asks the user to confirm:

"This becomes the direction your blueprint will build. Every step ahead — your Ikigai, life pillars, and strategic audit — will be shaped by this trajectory."

Output. selectedPath: 'acceleration' | 'mastery' | 'contribution'

Step 4 — Life Wheel

Purpose. Rate current reality in each of the 6 pillars on a 1–10 scale. This is the objective view that pairs with Step 1's subjective Identity Foundation.

The 6 pillars (from lifeWheel.json):

Pillar Definition Hint
🔮 Faith & Purpose Meaning, spiritual foundation, inner peace How connected are you to something bigger than yourself?
💪 Health & Vitality Physical energy, sleep, stress How well are you really taking care of your body?
🌸 Family & Relationships Love, presence, connection at home How present are you with the people who matter most?
💼 Career & Impact Work fulfillment, growth, significance How meaningful is your work right now?
💰 Financial Freedom Money, security, freedom of choice Are your finances giving you options or limiting them?
🌱 Growth & Mindset Learning, self-development, mindset Are you becoming who you want to be?

What the user does. 1. Slider score (1–10) per pillar 2. Select pillars that are most important to them 3. Select pillars they want to improve 4. Declare focus zones — usually 2–3 pillars to work on first

Diagnostic. Comparing this score to Step 1 surfaces four gap types:

Identity Life Wheel Type Meaning
High High Strength Zone You live in alignment here — protect it
High Low Belief Gap You identify with this but haven't built it yet
Low High Performance Gap You deliver here but don't feel it's you
Low Low Hidden Risk You've stopped investing; fragile

Output. lifeWheel: { scores, important, improve, focusZones }

Step 5 — Guided Ikigai

Purpose. Turn the Japanese concept of Ikigai into a personal meaning statement. Ikigai = reason for being; it sits at the overlap of four circles.

The 4 circles:

Dimension Question
💖 Passion What do you love doing?
🎯 Profession What are you good at?
🌍 Mission What does the world need that you care about?
💰 Vocation What can you get paid for or build value from?

The statement. After filling the 4 circles, the user writes a single-line Ikigai statement:

"I use my [strengths] to solve [problem / mission] for [audience], and it lights me up."

Archetype-aware assistance. The ikigaiEngine service (services/ikigaiEngine.ts) pre-fills each circle based on the user's archetype + force combination, using patterns seeded in framework.json. The user can accept, edit, or replace — but they never start from a blank page.

Output. ikigai: { passion, profession, mission, vocation, statement }

Step 6 — Life Blueprint

Purpose. Translate direction (Step 3) + meaning (Step 5) into a concrete plan across all 6 pillars.

Three layers:

6a. Vision

"In 10 years, my life looks like…" One paragraph. The long horizon picture.

6b. Mission

"Every day, I show up to…" One sentence. The daily operating purpose.

6c. Per-Pillar Goals

For each of the 6 pillars, define three layers:

Layer Example (Career pillar)
Goal "Become a technical lead at a product-led company."
Anchor "A team that ships fast and values craft."
Time-bound "Lead a feature squad by December 2026."

The anchor is the principle — the thing that matters even if the specific goal changes. It's what keeps the goal honest.

Output. 

{
  vision: string,
  mission: string,
  pillars: {
    faith, health, career, finances, family, growth,  // goal text
    anchors:   { ... per pillar ... },                 // principle
    timeBound: { ... per pillar ... },                 // deadline
  }
}

Step 7 — Strategic Audit

Purpose. Stress-test the blueprint. Before execution, surface what could silently break it.

4 inputs:

7a. SWOT (Opportunities + Threats)

External-facing: - Opportunities — "What's in my favour right now?" - Threats — "What forces outside my control could derail this?"

(Strengths + Weaknesses are already covered by the archetype profile, so they're not re-asked.)

7b. Strategic Threats

Internal-facing. For each perceived gap, the user captures:

Field Meaning
area Which pillar it lives in (or custom)
description What the threat actually is
emotion How it feels (fear / shame / stuck / fatigue…)
type strength_zone · performance_gap · belief_gap · hidden_risk · developing
source auto_identity · auto_wheel · auto_both · manual
Auto-detection logic

From StrategicAuditStep.tsx → computeGapType() and buildAutoSuggestions():

For each pillar, two scores are compared: - Identity score (Step 1) on a 1–5 scale — "does this feel like me?" - Life Wheel score (Step 4) on a 1–10 scale — "how is it actually going?"

Thresholds: - idHigh = identity score ≥ 4 - idLow = identity score in [1, 2] - wHigh = wheel score ≥ 7 - wLow = wheel score in [1, 5]

Mapping (the core diagnostic table):

Identity Life Wheel Gap type What it means
High (≥4) High (≥7) strength_zone Identity and results are aligned — protect and leverage (not flagged as a threat)
High (≥4) Low (1–5) performance_gap You know who you want to be — the real-world results aren't there yet
Low (1–2) Low (1–5) belief_gap Inner identity block — self-concept work must come before results will change
Low (1–2) High (≥7) hidden_risk Life looks good but identity is fragile — at risk of sliding back without anchoring
anything else (partial / mid) developing Still forming — keep rating and re-assess as you grow (not flagged as a threat)

Source attribution for auto-generated suggestions: - auto_both — both Identity and Wheel are scored - auto_identity — only Identity is scored - auto_wheel — only Life Wheel is scored - manual — user-added, not system-detected

What the user sees. buildAutoSuggestions() produces pre-populated threat cards for every pillar whose gap type is performance_gap, belief_gap, or hidden_risk. strength_zone and developing are deliberately skipped — strength zones don't need a threat, and developing pillars don't have enough signal yet.

The user then confirms, edits, or dismisses each suggestion — so the AI pre-fills the audit, but the human owns it.

Auto-detected threats pull from the Step 1 vs Step 4 gap analysis — the user gets a pre-populated list and confirms/edits.

7c. Strategic Habits

For each threat, a paired habit that directly defuses it.

Threat: "I lose weekends to scrolling instead of my business." Habit: "Phone in drawer 9pm–9am on Saturday."

This creates a direct threat → habit linkage (StrategicHabit.threatId references the threat), which Growth Loop later turns into streaks.

7d. Capability Gap

One field. Free text.

"What's the one capability I'd need to build to unlock everything else?"

This becomes the master learning objective carried into Growth Loop.

Output. swot, strategicThreats[], strategicHabits[], capabilityGap

4. The 6 Life Pillars

The same 6 pillars are used in Steps 1, 4, and 6. This consistency is deliberate — it lets us diagnose gaps by comparing the same user across subjective identity, objective reality, and forward plan.

Pillar Colour Canonical source
Faith & Purpose violet lifeWheel.json
Health & Vitality emerald …
Family & Relationships rose …
Career & Impact blue …
Financial Freedom amber …
Growth & Mindset indigo …

Each pillar also ships with 4 starter tips (e.g. "Weekly family dinners", "Move more — 10,000 steps/day") used throughout the UI as soft suggestions.

5. Data Model

Life Design writes to profile.lifeDesign in MongoDB. Shape (from LifeDesignTypes.ts):

interface LifeDesignData {
  identityBaseline: { scores: [{id, score}], coreStatement: string };
  selectedPath: 'acceleration' | 'mastery' | 'contribution' | null;
  ikigai: { passion, profession, mission, vocation, statement };
  vision: string;
  mission: string;
  pillars: {
    faith, health, career, finances, family, growth,   // goal strings
    anchors:   { ...same keys... },
    timeBound: { ...same keys... },
  };
  swot: { opportunities: string, threats: string };
  strategicThreats: StrategicThreat[];
  strategicHabits:  StrategicHabit[];  // linked to threats via threatId
  capabilityGap: string;
}

Profile-level flags set on completion: - profile.lifeDesignCompleted = true - profile.lifeDesignCompletedAt = <timestamp> - Triggers: XP award + new badges via applyXp() / computeNewBadges()

6. Completion & What Unlocks Next

Completing Life Design unlocks:

Feature Route Additional requirement
Growth Loop /growth-loop —
People Blueprint /people-blueprint Paid plan
Relationship Lens /compare Growth Loop started + paid plan

See access-control.md for the full gating rules.

7. Coaching & AI Support

Every step is accompanied by the AI Guide (AiGuide component) with a life-design coach persona:

"You are a direct, honest life-design coach inside the Mind Meditate Personality System. You do not flatter. You do not rescue. You ask the question that gets them unstuck." — system prompt excerpt from DesignMyLifePage.tsx

The coach is scoped to Life Design context only — it reads the user's archetype + current step + entered data, and returns focused prompts like:

  • "Which area of my Life Wheel feels most out of alignment with who I want to be?"
  • "Does my Ikigai actually reflect the life I want — or the life I think I should want?"
  • "Where is the biggest gap between my Identity Foundation and my Life Wheel scores?"
  • "Am I choosing my Future Path from genuine excitement, or from what feels safe?"
  • "What is the one strategic threat I keep pretending is not there?"

Tone rules come from COACHING_VOICE_RULES in selfInquiryService.ts — shared with Self Mastery for consistency.

8. Design Principles

  1. Archetype-anchored. Every step pre-fills intelligently based on archetype + force. The user is never asked to fill a blank page.
  2. Subjective before objective. Identity Foundation (feel) is measured before Life Wheel (fact). The gap between them is the most useful diagnostic.
  3. One direction, not many. Step 3 forces a single path. You cannot be everywhere at once.
  4. Plan before execution. The Strategic Audit deliberately comes last — you audit the plan you just made, not a vague idea.
  5. Threat → habit coupling. Every strategic threat must pair with a concrete habit. No orphan fears.
  6. Pillars are consistent. Same 6 pillars, same colour codes, across all steps and downstream products (Growth Loop, People Blueprint).
  7. Coach is direct. The Life Design coach doesn't flatter or rescue. It asks the question the user is avoiding.

9. Glossary & FAQ

Glossary

  • Identity Foundation — subjective 1–5 rating of how connected you feel to each pillar
  • Life Wheel — objective 1–10 rating of current reality in each pillar
  • Future Path — your chosen direction: Acceleration / Mastery / Contribution
  • Ikigai — your meaning statement synthesising Passion / Profession / Mission / Vocation
  • Vision — your 10-year picture (one paragraph)
  • Mission — your daily operating purpose (one sentence)
  • Anchor — the principle behind a pillar goal (survives when the goal changes)
  • SWOT — Opportunities + Threats (external forces)
  • Strategic Threat — an internal gap with emotional weight, paired to a habit
  • Capability Gap — the one skill that unlocks everything else
  • Gap types — strength_zone · performance_gap · belief_gap · hidden_risk · developing

FAQ

Q: Can I skip Life Design and go straight to Growth Loop? No. Growth Loop needs pillar goals, strategic habits, and a capability gap to track against.

Q: Can I change my Future Path later? Yes — you can re-enter Life Design anytime and re-select. Growth Loop will update its tracking focus accordingly.

Q: Do I have to fill all 6 pillars? Steps 1 and 4 let you rate partial (with a warning). Step 6 strongly encourages all 6 — incomplete pillars will simply have empty goals in Growth Loop.

Q: Why ask Identity and Life Wheel separately? Isn't that the same thing? No — and this is the most valuable diagnostic in the product. Identity asks "does this feel like you?". Life Wheel asks "how's it actually going?". Two high-income earners can have identical Career scores (9/10) but completely different Identity scores (4 vs 9) — and their growth paths are opposite.

Q: What if I disagree with the AI-suggested Ikigai? Rewrite it. The AI seeds it so you don't start blank; it's not prescriptive.

Q: How often should I redo Life Design? Every 6–12 months, or after a major life transition (career change, moving, relationship change). The Growth Loop monthly review (stored in profile.growthLoop.monthlyReviews) catches smaller drifts between full re-designs.

Q: Is this public or private? Private by default. People Blueprint and Relationship Lens let you opt-in share selected parts with a partner or team.

10. Worked Examples

Three illustrative blueprints (not real user data) showing how the same 7-step process produces very different outputs for different archetype + force + path combinations.

10a. Driver + Catalyst choosing Acceleration

  • Step 1 · Identity Foundation — Career 5/5, Finance 4/5, Health 3/5, Relationships 3/5, Growth 4/5, Environment 4/5
  • Step 2 · Assessment — primary Driver, secondary Visionary, Catalyst force
  • Step 3 · Future Path — Acceleration. Rationale: "I'm done playing small."
  • Step 4 · Life Wheel — Career 8/10, Finance 7/10, Health 4/10, Relationships 5/10, Growth 7/10, Environment 7/10
  • Step 5 · Ikigai — "I bring decisive leadership to early-stage operators who want to ship faster without breaking their people."
  • Step 6 · Blueprint — Vision: "By 2035 I operate at the edge of the market I serve." · Mission: "Ship one high-leverage thing every week." · Career goal: launch the new service line by Q3 · Health goal: re-establish 4×/week training
  • Step 7 · Strategic Audit — Auto-detected threats:
  • Health · hidden_risk (Identity 3, Wheel 4) → habit: "Monday / Wednesday / Friday / Saturday training windows, non-negotiable"
  • Relationships · belief_gap (Identity 3, Wheel 5) → habit: "Friday 45-min dinner, no phones"
  • Capability gap: "delegation I actually trust"

The Driver+Catalyst's real risk is not effort \u2014 it's velocity pointed at the wrong target. The audit catches Health before burnout, not after.

10b. Specialist + Anchor choosing Mastery

  • Step 1 · Identity Foundation — Growth 5/5, Career 5/5, Finance 3/5, Health 4/5, Relationships 2/5, Environment 4/5
  • Step 2 · Assessment — primary Specialist, secondary Stabilizer, Anchor force
  • Step 3 · Future Path — Mastery. Rationale: "I want to be the reference in my field."
  • Step 4 · Life Wheel — Growth 8/10, Career 8/10, Finance 6/10, Health 7/10, Relationships 3/10, Environment 7/10
  • Step 5 · Ikigai — "I bring deep technical rigour to a narrow problem where the standard answers are wrong."
  • Step 6 · Blueprint — Vision: "A body of work that outlasts me." · Mission: "Advance one core question every quarter." · Growth goal: publish three peer-reviewed pieces this year · Relationships goal: one deep collaboration per year
  • Step 7 · Strategic Audit — Auto-detected threats:
  • Relationships · belief_gap (Identity 2, Wheel 3) → habit: "One genuine 1:1 per week, no agenda"
  • Finance · belief_gap (Identity 3, Wheel 6) → habit: "Quarterly rate review against senior benchmark"
  • Capability gap: "shipping before it feels ready"

The Master Specialist's risk isn't quality \u2014 it's invisibility. The audit forces them to protect the one relationship and one financial habit that prevent their depth from becoming isolation.

10c. Integrator + Flow choosing Contribution

  • Step 1 · Identity Foundation — Relationships 5/5, Growth 4/5, Environment 4/5, Health 3/5, Career 3/5, Finance 3/5
  • Step 2 · Assessment — primary Integrator, secondary Visionary, Flow force
  • Step 3 · Future Path — Contribution. Rationale: "I want the work to serve more people."
  • Step 4 · Life Wheel — Relationships 8/10, Growth 7/10, Environment 8/10, Health 6/10, Career 6/10, Finance 4/10
  • Step 5 · Ikigai — "I bring warmth and clarity to teams navigating the messy middle of scaling."
  • Step 6 · Blueprint — Vision: "A community of 1,000 people who feel seen and stretched." · Mission: "One useful conversation per day." · Career goal: move from IC coach to group programs · Finance goal: stabilise income with recurring cohort fees
  • Step 7 · Strategic Audit — Auto-detected threats:
  • Finance · performance_gap (Identity 3, Wheel 4) → habit: "Weekly 30-min money review, alone, no avoidance"
  • Career · performance_gap (Identity 3, Wheel 6) → habit: "Monday pricing decisions before 10am \u2014 no consulting three friends first"
  • Capability gap: "charging what the work is worth"

The Expressive Integrator's risk is under-pricing their own contribution to keep relationships comfortable. The audit makes that pattern visible in two pillars simultaneously, which is the signature of a belief, not a skill gap.

📝 Content Backlog (documentation edits only)

These are gaps in this .md file. No engineering work — just writing / pulling from existing source files.

  • [ ] Add per-path deep-dive sections (Acceleration / Mastery / Contribution in full detail)
  • [ ] Add screenshots of each step
  • [ ] Translate to Bahasa Malaysia

🛠️ Product Roadmap (features to build)

No pending engineering items — Life Design v3.0 shipped complete. Future feature ideas (e.g. collaborative Life Design with a partner, quarterly auto-review prompts) belong here if/when scoped.

This document describes the production behaviour of DesignMyLifePage.tsx and its step components under lifeDesign/. When in-product behaviour and this document disagree, the app is the source of truth and this doc should be updated.