About three months ago, I purchased Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. The book helps everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs down to meager web developers like myself stop drifting and pursue a life plan. The book has been the best $15 I’ve spent (I preordered it), and although I receive no commissions of its sale, I recommend getting it.
Anyway, it’s been three months and part of implementing a life plan involves reviewing and revising it, which Michael and Daniel recommend doing every quarter. I literally have a written (or printed) out life plan, tucked in my journal, that is staring at me in the face every morning so I remember why I’m here and reminds me to stop drifting. I thought I’d share with you some of the ways this book has helped me.
My struggle with drift
I struggle with drift. Call it ADHD, call it lack of focus. I am prone to drifting. It usually happens in the evening at around 7 o’clock, when I’m tired and I want to withdraw from family and everything, vegging out either playing video games or worse, watching videos about video games. I know, that just shouts “NERD!” like nothing else. Drift keeps happening, where I just don’t want to think anymore but just float along.
Sometimes drift happens in the morning too. I can wake up, and for some reason, I have to check my emails and think for a half-hour about how to respond, only to just end up deleting my draft. Then I glance at the clock, and think “Oh crap! I have to go to work!” and so I race at light speed and arrive anxious and out of breath.
It’s not like I don’t have goals or dreams, but at the end of the day, I’m tired of swimming and would rather float and go where the waves take me. Even if it took me out to a bunch of hungry sharks. That’s how lazy I feel sometimes.
Anyway, so I bought Living Forward and decided to try it out and commit to the guidelines it lays out, some of which I hope to share with you. I didn’t buy it expecting a miracle, in fact, I’ll be honest that it hasn’t miraculously changed my life and some of the struggles I’ve had trying to implement my life plan this quarter. But it did make me more aware of my tendency to drift, which has been a game changer.
Tomorrow, I hope to go a little deeper into why I bought this book from these authors and not someone else, and perhaps give a quick outline of what a life plan looks like.