Michael Hyatt is the bestselling author of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, writes one of the most popular blogs, and also produces This is Your Life, a podcast with over ten million downloads. He is a “virtual mentor” who has been coaching leaders for many years. Daniel Harkavy is the founder and CEO of Building Champions, a business coaching organization, and author of Becoming a Coaching Leader: The Proven Strategy for Building Your Own Team of Champions.
Why is a life plan important? Living Forward begins with an
acknowledgement of “the drift”, and explains the consequences of living without a plan: expense, confusion, and missed opportunity. The authors promise that the instructions provided will be like “An App for Your Life”, a sort of GPS to keep you on track to reaching your goals. Of course, to reach goals, you must have them in the first place. That is what the middle and largest section of the book addresses: writing a life plan. Will it work? There is only one way to find out. Write the plan, put it into action, and assess the results. This book, and life planning, were recommended to me by a good friend and advisor, and I plan to write a life plan next month. I will let you know the results!
People of faith will find many familiar concepts in the book.
There are examples provided from people whose life plans are centered on doing God’s will. It does not preach any particular religious view, though, and even agnostics will find the book compelling in its universal wisdom. A life plan is very personal and can only be written by the person whose life is being planned.
The book is very succinct and to-the-point. It can be read in a
day. But it is also a more-or-less complete guide to creating a
life plan. Questions are provided that prompt the reader and
inspire ideas that can then be personalized. The third section
is about action – how to take the plan and start making progress toward the goals immediately. It is written for “just about everyone”. If you feel you have been drifting, or are at a turning point in your life, or just want to make an assessment of your own life plan, Living Forward is worth looking at.
