Living Forward
A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want
byMichael Hyatt, Daniel Harkavy
Book Edition Details
Summary
Life is a canvas, but are you the artist or merely a spectator? For those feeling adrift in the current of daily demands, "Living Forward" by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy offers a transformative blueprint for reclaiming your narrative. This isn't just another self-help tome; it's a manifesto for intentional living, crafted with the precision of a master architect sketching out your personal masterpiece. The authors invite you to envision your life's destination and map out a path with clarity and purpose. Packed with actionable insights, their guide empowers you to break free from passive existence and align every moment with your deepest aspirations. Step into a future where each day is a deliberate step toward the life you truly desire.
Introduction
How many mornings do you wake up feeling like you're simply reacting to whatever comes your way, rather than actively shaping your destiny? The truth is, most of us spend more time planning a week-long vacation than we do designing our entire lives. We drift through days, weeks, and years without a clear sense of direction, only to look back with regret at opportunities missed and dreams deferred. Yet imagine if you could wake up each day with crystal-clear purpose, knowing exactly where you're headed and why every action matters. This isn't about perfection or rigid control—it's about intentional living that transforms not just your future, but how you experience each present moment. The power to design a meaningful, fulfilling life isn't reserved for the lucky few; it's a skill anyone can learn and apply starting today.
Break Free from Life's Drift
Life's drift is like a dangerous ocean current—invisible, persistent, and capable of pulling you far from where you intended to go. It happens when we become unaware of what's truly at stake, distracted by urgent but unimportant matters, overwhelmed by competing demands, or deceived into believing we have no control over our circumstances. The consequences are real and costly: confusion about our purpose, wasted resources and lost opportunities, unnecessary pain from poor planning, and ultimately, deep regrets about the life we didn't live. Daniel learned this lesson firsthand while surfing off the Oregon coast. His friend Austin, new to those particular waters, was swept past a cape by a powerful riptide. Despite Austin's strength, he lacked the knowledge to escape the current that kept pulling him further out to sea. Daniel paddled to Austin's aid and guided him to safety—not by fighting directly toward shore, which seemed logical, but by swimming parallel to the beach until they escaped the current's grip. The rescue took thirty exhausting minutes, but it worked because Daniel understood the invisible forces at play. This ocean rescue perfectly illustrates how life's drift operates in our daily existence. We can find ourselves in our forties, fifties, or sixties, suddenly realizing we've been pulled far from where we thought we'd be. Perhaps our health is failing, our marriage feels distant, or our career has stalled. Like Austin in the riptide, we may be strong and well-intentioned, yet lack the awareness and strategy needed to reach our desired destination. The antidote to drift is intentional living through systematic life planning. This means becoming aware of your current location across all areas of life, deciding where you want to go based on your deepest values, and creating specific action steps to bridge that gap. Start by conducting an honest audit of where you are right now—physically, emotionally, relationally, professionally, and spiritually. Then dare to envision a better future and commit to the daily decisions that will make it reality. Remember, you can't change the past, but you have tremendous power to shape what comes next.
Design Your Legacy and Priorities
Your legacy isn't something that happens after you're gone—it's being written every day through your choices, relationships, and impact on others. The most powerful way to gain clarity about your life's direction is to imagine your own funeral and consider what you want people to remember about you. This isn't morbid thinking; it's strategic planning from the end backward. When you visualize how you want to be remembered by your spouse, children, colleagues, and community, you suddenly have a compelling vision to guide today's decisions. Daniel experienced this profound truth through his friendship with Mike, a physically fit, funny, and smart man who was diagnosed with late-stage cancer at thirty-eight. During their final hospital visit, Mike grabbed Daniel's hand and confessed his worst nightmare wasn't death itself, but feeling unprepared for it. The cancer had heightened Mike's awareness of life's brevity, and he wished he'd spent more time with the people who mattered most, starting with his beloved wife Gabby. Mike's parting wisdom proved prophetic: "Don't feel sorry for me. I could outlive you. None of us know when we will go." That sobering truth transformed Daniel's perspective as he flew home, watching both sunrise and sunset from his airplane window. He realized these weren't separate events but part of one continuous cycle, just like our lives. The question becomes: what happens between our sunrise and sunset? Most of us get so caught up in moment-to-moment activities that we never pause to ask where our current path is leading. Begin crafting your legacy by writing specific statements about how you want different groups of people to remember you. For your spouse, you might write about being their best friend and most trusted supporter. For your children, about being deeply involved and intentionally guiding them through memorable experiences. For colleagues, about serving their development and always telling them the truth with love. Make these legacy statements as specific and compelling as possible, using concrete details that engage both your mind and heart. Then let these envisioned memories become the North Star guiding your daily choices and long-term priorities.
Create Your Written Life Plan
A life plan is your personal GPS system—a short, written document that describes how you want to be remembered, articulates your priorities, and provides specific actions to get you from where you are to where you want to be. Unlike corporate strategic planning with its thick binders and complex charts, an effective life plan is typically just eight to fifteen pages long. Its power lies not in length but in clarity, focus, and regular review. Michael discovered this truth during a career crisis as CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers during the Great Recession. Book industry sales dropped 20 percent, the company went through multiple layoffs, and the pressure was overwhelming. When his boss demanded he cancel a much-needed vacation with his wife Gail to attend an unexpected meeting, Michael faced a defining moment. His life plan gave him the clarity he needed to make a difficult decision. Work was important, but it was only one category in his life—not worth sacrificing his marriage and health. Michael replied to his boss's email from the airport: "I'm sorry, but I just landed in Dallas. Gail and I are headed to the mountains for a much-needed week of vacation. We need to try and find an alternative time for your visit." It wasn't easy, and his boss wasn't happy, but Michael knew he was making the right choice. His life plan had given him the framework and confidence to protect what mattered most. Your life plan should answer three fundamental questions: How do I want to be remembered? What matters most to me? How can I get from here to where I want to be? For each major life area—whether spiritual, physical, marital, parental, financial, or professional—create an action plan with five key elements: a purpose statement defining your role, an envisioned future written in present tense, an inspiring quote that motivates you, an honest assessment of current reality, and specific commitments with measurable actions. Remember that your life plan is a living document, not a static monument. Schedule regular times to review and revise it, adjusting for changing circumstances while staying true to your core values and deepest desires. The goal isn't perfection but progress—creating a framework that helps you make better decisions and live more intentionally every single day.
Implement and Keep It Alive
Creating a life plan is meaningless unless you implement it consistently, and implementation requires margin—the breathing room to actually pursue what matters most. Most of us feel like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory, frantically trying to keep up with life's conveyor belt of demands. The solution isn't working harder but working smarter by triaging your calendar, scheduling your priorities, and learning to say no with grace. Rachel, a dedicated educator turned sales representative, faced this challenge when trying to balance her demanding career with her deeper calling to serve others. Her life plan revealed that while she excelled professionally, she was struggling to find time for the relationships and service opportunities that brought her the greatest fulfillment. She realized she needed to create boundaries and systems that protected her most important priorities from being crowded out by urgent but less meaningful tasks. Rachel began by conducting a ruthless audit of her commitments, asking which activities truly advanced her toward her envisioned future and which were merely consuming precious time and energy. She learned to use the "Yes-No-Yes" formula when declining requests: affirming the person making the request, clearly declining with specific reasons, then offering alternative solutions when possible. This approach preserved relationships while protecting her priorities. The key to keeping your plan alive is establishing a rhythm of regular review. Read your plan daily for the first ninety days to embed it in your heart and mind. Then conduct weekly reviews to ensure you're staying on track, quarterly reviews to make strategic adjustments, and annual reviews to revise your plan as life circumstances change. Schedule these reviews far in advance, treating them as non-negotiable appointments with yourself. Success in life planning isn't about perfection but about progress and intentionality. Create margin by saying no to good opportunities so you can say yes to great ones. Protect your priorities by scheduling them first, then fitting other commitments around them. Remember that every yes to one thing is a no to something else—make sure your choices align with your deepest values and long-term vision for your life.
Summary
The choice between drifting through life and living with intention ultimately rests in your hands. As the wise old man in the Himalayan story told the young boy holding a bird: "The bird is as you choose it to be." Your life, like that bird, will be exactly what you decide to make it through your daily choices and long-term planning. The tools and strategies in this approach aren't just theoretical concepts—they're proven methods that thousands have used to transform their lives from reactive to proactive, from accidental to intentional. The most compelling evidence isn't in the research but in the changed lives of people who dared to take control of their future. Take one full day within the next two weeks to create your written life plan, following the framework of designing your legacy, identifying your priorities, and crafting specific action steps. That single day of focused planning could become the most important day of your year—and the beginning of the life you've always dreamed of living.
Related Books
Download PDF & EPUB
To save this Black List summary for later, download the free PDF and EPUB. You can print it out, or read offline at your convenience.
By Michael Hyatt
