My Experience with LifePath
By David Jones, a LifePath client
I recently completed the Life Path program and thought it would be useful to create a brief Q&A doc for others who are considering taking it and have questions about whether it is right for them.
Who would benefit from this program?
• If you are feeling “stuck” in life, whether in your career, relationship, or any other aspect of life, this program can help you get unstuck and back on the right path.
• If you don’t know what you want in life, or are feeling lost or aimless, this program can help you find your path and start down it.
• If you think you have your life all figured out, and aren’t sure what you will gain from this, this program will help you build confidence in your plan, ground it in a solid decision-making framework, define a concrete plan towards achieving any goals you haven’t yet met, and accelerate your progress towards achieving them.
What is the program?
• The program is essentially a 5-stage design thinking process that helps you uncover your deep-felt purpose in life, define your life goals, and build an actionable plan to achieve them. It sounds big, but that’s because it really is. Imagine if you hired a world-class design agency to help you develop a plan for your life – this is basically what the program is.
• A key thing to understand, of course, is that YOU actually do all the work. Your coach simply guides you through the process, and provides the appropriate level of input or challenge to ensure that you get the most value out of your effort. It’s like having an experienced personal trainer in the gym who tells you exactly what exercises to do, how heavy to lift, and ensures you are using the correct form. This frees you up to focus 100% on the exercise itself.
• There are 5 steps in the program:
The “Person” section asks, “how come you are who you are, and how come you are facing the questions you are facing today.” You examine your life to date, and ask of your current situation: what’s good, what’s missing, and what needs to change. You also locate yourself on the cycle of change to see what type of change is called for.
The "Purpose" section identifies your life’s purpose, grounded in your passions, values and strengths. Here you learn to understand what is important to you, and what really drives you. This becomes a framework that helps you evaluate potential paths later on.
The "Obstacles" section explores reasons you give yourself for not pursuing the new path, or for staying “stuck”. Here you identify your obstacles and ways to overcome them. You will find ways to let go of what holds you back and manage the negative voices. You end by writing a letter to yourself from the end of your life, giving yourself further perspective on what is important, and to cheer yourself on.
The "Vision" part sets a concrete vision and explores potential paths forward, things you’d like to do or be in life. You then evaluate these different paths using a framework built from the self-knowledge you uncovered earlier.
The "Launch pad" section solidifies your plan into a concrete set of actionable steps that move you towards the goals you have identified and can be sustained over time.
• One of the most powerful exercises in the program for me was the writing of the letter to myself from the end of my life. Armed with expanded self-knowledge and my newly defined goals and purpose, I was able to give myself exactly the message I needed to hear to motivate me to be successful in the way I want to be.
Do I really need a coach to do this?
• Do you need a personal trainer at the gym? Do you need an architect to build a house? How serious are you about what you want to achieve with your life?
• Life planning is not rocket science. Theoretically it should be possible to do something like this all by yourself. But if you’re reading this, chances are you haven’t. You probably aren’t in the best shape of your life either, nor have you designed and built your ideal home, or realized all your life’s goals. The truth of the matter is that it’s hard to do things like this well on your own. It’s almost impossible to go deep into the very personal material while at the same time maintaining the right overall perspective across the different modules. It also really helps to have an expert to talk to while you are going through the process, helping you identify key insights, sometimes challenging them, but always guiding you through what can be a very intense and personal process.
• This reminds me of the time one of my direct reports joined an expensive health program (20/20 at the ProClub) and proceeded to lose 100lbs in just 4 months! I meanwhile, had been trying to lose the same 20lbs for 20+ years. It really drove home the point that when it comes to making important changes in your life, it usually pays to work with someone experienced who can help you get the best possible results. If you could have done it by yourself, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
How to get the most out of it?
• With all internally-focused exercises like this, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. I recommend getting the workbook at least a week beforehand and doing some of the exercises by yourself. It takes time to go deep, and it’s worth doing it. If you want to build a tall building, you need to dig a deep foundation. It’s the same with life planning.
Is it worth it?
• Is it worth having a plan for your life? What is it worth having the best possible plan to build the exact life you want to live?
• Remember, you get out of it what you put into it. What are you willing to put into it?
• I’d only say it’s not worth it if either (a) you aren’t willing to put in the effort to make it worthwhile, or (b) aren’t able to or don’t have the life experience required to go deep enough inwards to understand yourself.
What did I get out of the program?
• I had what in retrospect was a rough outline of a life plan going into the program, so I wasn’t expecting anything earth shattering to come out of it, but I found the program to be extremely valuable.
• For one, I completely fleshed out and solidified my life plan. I also gained complete confidence in it, which in retrospect is a deeply satisfying and powerfully motivating thing.
• I also developed concrete next steps for several parts of my plan that I had determined were important to me, but I had made no progress on. And, I also know what part of my personality was responsible for me not making progress on it, so I can monitor that going forwards.
• In the week after the program, I had already set multiple work streams into motion that had an immediate positive impact on my life. Once you get clarity on what you want and what you need to do to get there, it’s hard to not make progress towards your goals.
• Even thought I was not feeling “stuck” in my life when I went through the program, I still found it highly valuable. I can only imagine that someone who was feeling stuck would find it even more so.
