Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy
Living Forward is a transformative guide that empowers readers to take charge of their lives through effective life planning. Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy present a step-by-step framework to help individuals design a life plan that aligns with their values and aspirations, ensuring they avoid the common pitfall of drifting through life without purpose. This book is significant for anyone seeking clarity and direction in their personal and professional journeys.
Who May Benefit from the Book
- Individuals seeking greater clarity and direction in life
- Professionals looking to align personal and career goals
- Those struggling with work-life balance
- Anyone interested in personal development and goal setting
- Leaders aiming to cultivate intentionality within their teams
Top 3 Key Insights
- Life Planning as Navigation: A well-defined life plan acts like a GPS, helping you identify goals and navigate obstacles.
- Craft Your Legacy: Writing your eulogy fosters clarity about how you wish to be remembered, guiding your daily actions.
- Prioritize Life Accounts: Assess and prioritize various life areas (spiritual, marital, financial, etc.) to maintain balance and fulfillment.
7 More Lessons and Takeaways
- Action Plans: Create SMART commitments for each life account to bridge the gap between current reality and desired future.
- Dedicated Planning Day: Set aside a full day annually to immerse in life planning for deep reflection and creativity.
- Create Margin: Eliminate non-essential activities to make room for what truly matters according to your life plan.
- Regular Reviews: Consistently review your life plan to stay focused on priorities and make necessary adjustments.
- Self-Leadership First: Lead by example with your life plan before promoting it within your organization.
- Foster a Culture of Intentionality: Encourage life planning in your organization to enhance employee engagement and alignment with company goals.
- Emotional Engagement: Engage both heart and mind while crafting your life plan for lasting motivation and clarity.
The Book in 20 Words
Living Forward provides a practical framework for creating a life plan, ensuring intentional living and alignment with personal goals.
The Book Summary in 1 Minute
In Living Forward, Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy emphasize the importance of crafting a life plan to navigate life intentionally. They liken a life plan to a GPS that helps identify desired outcomes, overcome obstacles, and ensure continuous improvement. By prioritizing various life accounts—such as spiritual, physical, and social—readers can create action plans that align with their values. The authors encourage dedicating time to deep reflection and regular reviews of the life plan to maintain focus. Ultimately, this guide serves as a roadmap for achieving personal and professional fulfillment.
The Book Summary in 10 Minutes
The Importance of Life Planning
In today’s fast-paced world, many individuals drift through life, reacting to circumstances rather than intentionally shaping their destinies. Living Forward posits that a comprehensive life plan can significantly improve life satisfaction and effectiveness.
Life Planning: The GPS for Your Personal Journey
Define Your Destination
To embark on a meaningful journey, you must first identify what you want to achieve in life. A clear vision serves as your destination.
Navigate Life’s Obstacles
Just as a GPS provides alternative routes during detours, a life plan offers strategies to overcome challenges.
Continuous Improvement
Your life plan is not static; it should evolve as your circumstances change, requiring periodic updates and reviews.
Begin with the End in Mind: Write Your Own Eulogy
Writing your own eulogy is a powerful exercise. It prompts you to consider how you want to be remembered, ensuring that your daily actions reflect your long-term values and priorities.
The first step in creating a Life Plan is to envision your legacy. This involves contemplating how you want to be remembered after you’re gone. By starting with the end in mind, you can better understand what truly matters to you, which becomes the foundation for your Life Plan. Hyatt and Harkavy encourage readers to imagine their own funeral and consider what they would like people to say about them. This exercise helps clarify your core values and priorities, which will guide the rest of the planning process.
Identify and Prioritize Your Life Accounts
Next, the authors introduce the concept of Life Accounts, which are different areas of your life that require attention and balance. These include personal growth, relationships, work, and spirituality. By evaluating the health of each account, you can identify areas that need improvement and prioritize them accordingly. The goal is to ensure that your life is well-rounded and that you’re investing your time and energy in the areas that matter most to you.
Understanding your life as a collection of accounts—spiritual, marital, financial, etc.—enables you to maintain balance. Evaluating and ranking these accounts helps identify areas needing attention.
Create Action Plans for Each Life Account
With your Life Accounts in mind, the next step is to create a vision for each one. This involves defining what success looks like in each area of your life. For example, a vision for your health account might include being physically fit, eating well, and managing stress effectively. Once you have a clear vision, you can create an Action Plan to achieve it. This plan should include specific, measurable steps that you can take to move closer to your vision.
For each life account, define your roles and set SMART commitments to ensure you are moving toward your envisioned future.
Managing Your Time Effectively
Time management is a crucial aspect of implementing your Life Plan. The authors emphasize the importance of taking control of your schedule and aligning it with your priorities. They suggest creating an ideal week template that allocates time for each of your Life Accounts. This helps ensure that you’re dedicating sufficient time to the things that matter most to you, rather than letting your schedule be dictated by others’ demands.
Dedicate a Full Day for Life Planning
Crafting a Life Plan requires deep thought and reflection. By dedicating an entire day to this process, you give yourself the space to think deeply and create actionable goals. During this day, choose a quiet environment, turn off distractions, and give yourself time to reflect on your values, purpose, and life vision. This immersion allows you to fully engage with the process and create a clear and meaningful plan for your future.
Implementing the Plan: Making Time for What Matters
Once you’ve created your Life Plan, the next step is implementation. Creating margin in your life is key. This means cutting back on distractions and unnecessary commitments to make room for your priorities. Schedule your most important activities first and learn to say “no” to requests that do not align with your Life Plan. Tools like an Ideal Week template can help prioritize your time.
The Importance of Regular Reflection
A Life Plan is not a static document; it requires regular review and adjustment. It is only as effective as your commitment to reviewing it regularly. Daily readings and weekly check-ins are vital for staying aligned with your goals. Hyatt and Harkavy recommend setting aside time for regular reflection, where you can assess your progress and make any necessary changes to your plan. This keeps your Life Plan relevant and ensures that you’re continually moving towards your goals.
A plan without regular review quickly becomes irrelevant. For the first three months, read your Life Plan daily. This helps you internalize its content and keep your goals top of mind. Set aside time each week to review your progress and adjust as needed. Every quarter and year, do a deeper review to see if your plan still fits your evolving goals and life circumstances. Make necessary changes to keep your plan aligned with your journey.
Taking Action
Finally, the authors stress that a Life Plan is only effective if it’s put into action. They encourage readers to commit to their plan and take consistent steps towards their goals. This might involve making difficult decisions, such as saying no to opportunities that don’t align with your plan or cutting back on activities that aren’t contributing to your vision.
Implement Life Planning in Your Organization
Life planning isn’t just personal; it can transform organizations. As a leader, creating and living your Life Plan will inspire others to do the same. Encourage employees to create their own plans and provide the resources they need, emphasizing holistic well-being over mere productivity. By creating a culture where people are aligned with their personal goals, you can foster a more productive and engaged workforce.
By following the steps outlined in “Living Forward,” you can take control of your life, live with purpose, and leave behind a meaningful legacy.
About the Author
Michael Hyatt is a bestselling author, speaker, and entrepreneur renowned for his expertise in leadership and productivity. Formerly the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Hyatt has authored several successful books on personal development. He runs a leadership development company, sharing insights through his popular blog and podcast.
Daniel Harkavy, co-author of Living Forward, is an executive coach and CEO of Building Champions. His expertise lies in providing coaching and resources for business leaders, helping them achieve their personal and professional goals.
Question you may ask
What’s “Living Forward” about?
“Living Forward” by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy is about creating a Life Plan to help individuals live intentionally with purpose. It encourages readers to stop drifting through life and instead actively design their future to align with personal values and aspirations. The goal is to build a roadmap for greater fulfillment and success.
Why should I read “Living Forward”?
- Clarity and Direction: Gain insight into what truly matters in life and how to prioritize it.
- Avoiding Drift: Avoid drifting through life and the resulting unfulfillment and regret.
- Practical Guidance: Step-by-step approach to creating an actionable Life Plan.
- Personal Growth: Encourages reflection and intentional choices aligned with your long-term goals.
What are the key takeaways of “Living Forward”?
- Life Planning is Essential: A Life Plan is key to living a purposeful life and avoiding drifting.
- Three-Part Process: The book outlines three steps: understanding the need, creating the plan, and implementing it.
- Regular Review: Life Plans require regular reviews to remain relevant and effective.
- Holistic Approach: Considers all life areas such as personal, professional, and relational aspects.
How do I create a Life Plan according to “Living Forward”?
- Dedicate a Day: Set aside an entire day to create your Life Plan, free from distractions.
- Write Your Eulogy: Clarify the legacy you wish to leave by writing your own eulogy.
- Identify Life Accounts: Identify and assess key life areas like health, relationships, and career.
- Set Specific Commitments: Develop actionable steps for each Life Account to achieve your ideal future.
What is the “drift” as described in “Living Forward”?
- Definition: “Drift” refers to living life without direction, leading to unintended outcomes.
- Causes: Drift occurs due to distractions, overwhelm, or false beliefs.
- Consequences: Drifting causes confusion, missed opportunities, and regret.
- Solution: Creating a Life Plan combats drift by providing a clear purpose and direction.
What are the benefits of having a Life Plan according to “Living Forward”?
- Clarifying Priorities: Helps you focus on what truly matters to you.
- Maintaining Balance: Ensures all areas of life receive proper attention.
- Filtering Opportunities: Enables you to choose opportunities that align with your goals.
- Avoiding Regrets: Living intentionally reduces the chances of regretting missed opportunities later in life.
How does “Living Forward” suggest implementing a Life Plan?
- Triage Your Calendar: Eliminate non-essential activities to make room for your Life Plan.
- Schedule Priorities: Use tools like Ideal Week and Annual Time Block to focus on priorities.
- Learn to Say No: Decline requests that don’t align with your Life Plan to preserve time.
- Regular Review: Continuously review your Life Plan through weekly, quarterly, and annual check-ins.
What are some of the best quotes from “Living Forward” and what do they mean?
- “Success doesn’t just happen.” Emphasizes the need for intentional planning to achieve success.
- “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” Reminds us that life is finite, so we must use our time wisely.
- “You can’t improve what you won’t face.” Encourages confronting reality to make meaningful changes.
- “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” Promotes action to move forward in life.
How does “Living Forward” address work-life balance?
- Dynamic Tension: Balance means giving appropriate attention to different life areas, not equal attention.
- Self-Leadership: Personal balance impacts professional effectiveness, emphasizing the importance of self-leadership.
- Life Accounts: Encourages managing various Life Accounts to ensure no area is neglected.
- Intentional Living: Helps you manage time and energy between personal and professional life.
What role does regular review play in “Living Forward”?
- Daily Reading: Read your Life Plan daily initially to internalize it.
- Weekly Review: Conduct a weekly review to assess progress and make adjustments.
- Quarterly and Annual Reviews: Perform deeper reviews quarterly and annually to keep the plan relevant.
- Continuous Improvement: Reviews ensure your Life Plan evolves with your changing goals and circumstances.
How can “Living Forward” benefit organizations?
- Employee Engagement: Life Planning can increase employee engagement and productivity.
- Holistic Support: Shows that the organization cares about employees’ overall well-being, not just their work output.
- Cultural Advantage: Encourages a workforce that lives intentionally, improving company culture.
- Implementation Process: Provides a framework for organizations to help employees create and follow Life Plans.
What is the “Life Assessment Profile” in “Living Forward”?
- Assessment Tool: An online tool to evaluate the health of your Life Accounts.
- Passion and Progress: Measures both passion and progress in each Life Account.
- Four States: Categorizes accounts into Drift, Lift, Shift, and Gift based on progress.
- Guidance for Improvement: Provides insights to help improve areas that need attention to achieve your future goals.
Notable Quotes
- A Life Plan is the app you need to stay on the path to the life you desire.
- Your life is a collection of accounts and each of them requires the right attention.
- If you can delegate, delay, or drop it, it may not be a priority for you.
- A plan is worthless unless you review it on a regular basis.
- Self-leadership always precedes team leadership.
How to get the best of the Book
To maximize the benefits of Living Forward, actively engage in the exercises provided, dedicate time for reflection, and commit to regular reviews of your life plan. Align your daily actions with your long-term goals for meaningful progress.
Conclusion
Living Forward equips readers with the tools and strategies necessary for intentional living. By creating a life plan, individuals can navigate their personal and professional journeys with clarity, ensuring their actions align with their ultimate goals. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to enhance their life’s direction and purpose.