How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans

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What happens when you’ve done everything “right” — built a successful career, made a difference, checked the boxes — and yet something still is missing?

Today I’m joined by Dave Evans, co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day and the #1 New York Times Bestseller Designing Your Life, and a longtime Stanford educator, to explore a question many people quietly wrestle with in the second half of life: Why doesn’t impact bring lasting meaning — and what actually does?

Dave shares insights from his newest work with Bill Burnett on meaning, presence, and what he calls the shift from role to soul. We talk about why chasing fulfillment often backfires, why the most meaningful moments are often small and fleeting, and how many of us live almost entirely in what he calls the “transactional world” — often missing the richness of the present moment that’s available right now.

This conversation is especially relevant if you’re nearing retirement, newly retired, or simply sensing that achievement alone isn’t enough anymore. Dave offers practical reframes, deeply human stories, and a powerful idea he calls the scandal of particularity — a concept that may completely change how you think about what a well-lived life really looks like.

Dave Evans joins us from California to discuss How to Live a Meaningful Life.

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Bio

Dave Evans is the co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day.

Dave has worked in alternative energy, telecommunications, and high tech. As an early member of the advanced systems group that built the technology that became the Macintosh, he led the first computer mouse team and laser-printing projects, before leaving to co-found the software giant Electronic Arts.

After more than thirty years of executive leadership and management consulting in the high tech world, Evans realized that what he really wanted and needed to do was help people rediscover purpose in their jobs and lives. He joined Stanford’s Design Program, teaching the incredibly popular Designing Your Life course.

In their book Designing Your Life, Dave Evans and co-author Bill Burnett, brought these principles to a larger audience, proving it’s never too late to design a life you love through innovation, creative problem-solving, and a growth mindset. Evans teaches audiences of all ages that the same principles used to create amazing technology and products can also be used to design and build a life filled with purpose and joy that is constantly creative and productive.

Dave Evans earned a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and a graduate diploma in Contemplative Spirituality from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He lives in Santa Cruz.

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For More on Dave Evans

How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day

Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans (2020 Podcast)

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Podcast Conversatons You May Like

The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD

Resurface – Cassidy Krug

The Purpose Code – Dr. Jordan Grumet

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Design