It has been several months since I first read Living Forward and went through the life planning process. Time to review and revise. This time, I get to take some friends with me. Ten of us are committed to read, discuss and apply this process over the next several weeks. I thought I would let you all in on our journey. To get started I am reposting my posts from last spring.
Living Forward Again
When I first heard about the book, Living Forward, A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and get the Life you Want, by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy, I did not immediately jump on it. In fact, I had no intention to even get it. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Mr. Hyatt, am a member of Platform University, listen to his podcasts and am using his book PLATFORM, Get Noticed in a Noisy World, as a guide in designing my personal platform. In fact, I doubt this blog would even exist but for the spark from his virtual mentoring.
You see, I am a planner. I inherited this from my mother. She instilled and honed the skill of planning into me as far back as I remember. From Saturday morning “chore” lists, daily routines and checklists, to delayed rewards until t
he work was complete, she trained me. She also modeled good planning in her life with grocery lists, reward goodie bags on long road trips and laying out clothes each night for the next day. It was natural. It was not forced, it was the way things were done.
he work was complete, she trained me. She also modeled good planning in her life with grocery lists, reward goodie bags on long road trips and laying out clothes each night for the next day. It was natural. It was not forced, it was the way things were done.A Plan for The Planner
So, I plan. I mean, what more could there be except to continue with what I was doing?
- I have engaged in 5-year planning, annual goal setting and other great visionary guidance on living intentionally for 30+ years.
- I have read and lived Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, used the Franklin planning system and rarely start a week without mapping out where my time will be used.
- In my air traffic career, I have led teams to plan and execute major airspace restructuring and airport master plans both here and abroad.
I Loved every minute. I am a believer in this concept and have seen wonderful results in my life. However, When allowed to read an advance copy of the book and be a part of the Living Forward launch team, I got excited. Wow. I realized this is a whole new level of what I have been doing – sleek and streamlined and over-the=top. The book flows easily while dealing with profound truths in a way that draw you in. It pulls you into engagement with the one most precious gifts we have: One’s life.
Not Done Moving Forward Yet
As a high achieving baby boomer in my early 60s, I am not done contributing to this life. My passion is not only to continue to discover and be all I am created to be but also to assist anyone else who desires the same thing.
The concepts and simple plan in this book fit well with what THE STONEBRIDGE is about; designing one’s life by discovering the stones that make up your life, assembling them and then walk it out. Being intentional about the one thing that is truly yours: your life.
I could hardly wait to get away on retreat (which I did) and write my life plan. This process enabled me to pull together the bits and pieces of previous planning, into a simple, cohesive and comprehensive life plan. When I got to the nuts and bolts of the process I was so inspired, it was easy. Well almost, after all, you ARE making a life plan! The tools provided saved so much time and mental energy that doing this in ONE day was achievable. ONE day to define one’s life. What a gift.
The authors do a great job of defining the “why” do a life plan, the “why bother”?
“When you lose your why, you lose your way” .
“If you don’t decide where you are going, someone or something else will”.
A life plan protects you from what the authors call “the drift”. In fact “the drift’ is the villain, the thief in this story
In my next BLOG I will talk about the process Living Forward outlines. For now, think about and answer this question:
Do you know your “why” of this journey we all call life?