For the past few months, we've been reading Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy in the Indie Business Book Club. The subtitle of this book, A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want, is really on point. This book really is a life plan template, and if you work the plan, the plan will work for you.
Before I dive into the details, I want you to know that this book is surprisingly short (208 pages) for tackling the huge issue of life planning. I was surprised that so much power was packed into such a small package.
Additionally, this book is not just for reading. This is a book for acting. If you just read and make the occasional notes in the margins, the book will not have the positive impact it could on your life.
You will want to read this book with your journal beside you, using your favorite colorful pens to chart your life course as you go.
Book Review: Living Forward
1. Understanding your need
I love that this book does not just dive into life planning. It starts instead with helping you recognize the need for the process.
According to the authors, people live their lives in “the drift,” slowly being carried along by life. This drifting happens almost without them knowing it, until one day, they wake up and wonder how they got where they are.
If you are in this place, you didn't get there because you wanted to be there. You just drifted there. The rest of the book is about how you can reverse the drift, or avoid it in the first place.
2. Creating your plan
This section of the book starts off by asking you to ponder what you want your life legacy to be. What kind of impact do you want to have during the time you are here on earth? How do you want to be remembered? What do you want to leave behind?
Once you know that, you can take a look at your priorities today. Are they in line with your legacy? If not, you have some work to do.
Once you clarify your legacy and your priorities, you can begin to chart your course. How will you get from where you are now to where you say you want to be? Which leads to …
3. Making it happen
In the last section of the book, you are asked to be courageous, and proactively create an action plan that will allow you to maximize your control over, and progress in, every area of your life.
You'll clarify various different areas of priority (personally and professionally), define how you want them to look, and then chart a course to structure your daily activities around that vision.
This is not a dynamic process. You don't just do this once and it's done for life. This is an exercise you'll want to do on a regular basis, at least annually. I highly recommend this book, and the tools referenced therein, to help you do that.
Buy this and other Indie Business Book Club picks at IBN's Amazon shop.
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Question
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