In the last few weeks I’ve shared with you some key life planning questions, the strategic 3/3/50% question, and challenged you to carve out some unrushed time for thinking about the direction of your life.

Now let me encourage you to do something that will help your planning process immensely, but something which is rarely done by people who want to move ahead: Look Back. That’s right, look back.

Since you are a person interested in life planning, I know that you are forward looking, passionate about accomplishing something significant, desiring to reach your full potential. I’m with you! But before you can plan the forward course you need to gain a sense of where you’ve come from.

In the book Release, I describe this step as Harnessing Your History. Everything in your past has shaped who you are today. And if your past is like mine, there are good things and bad things, great pain, great joy, success and failure.

In the next several posts, I will explain to you how you can Harness Your History. To prepare yourself for this very important step, take about 10 minutes in the next week to answer this question: What are the key events of my life, good and bad, that have made me the person I am today?

Simply make a bulleted list of the events, relationships and experiences that immediately come to mind. Next time, I’ll begin to show you how to capture the momentum of those events to move you ahead!

This is not easy, and is in fact the reason most people do not have a sense of direction or purpose. Where can you find some unrushed time in your already full life to answer some of those important questions?

There are two areas almost everybody I know can can utilize for reflection:

1) Time already allocated to “leisure.”
The truth is, many of us work hard and then we play hard. What I’m suggesting here is to hit the pause button on some of your playing time and use it for reflection: Take a night off from the team, or the gym, or the club or the _________ (you fill in the blank.) And then use that time to answer some of those big picture questions I’ve already shared with you, or other important questions you already know you need to answer.

2) Meal Time.
Okay, I admit this is going to sound a little extreme, but if you don’t have a life plan you are in an extreme situation that calls for extreme measures. Here it is: Don’t Eat. Fast. Spend one meal time thinking instead of eating. Pick a meal in the week ahead that you can skip, which will not interfere with your ability to function in what comes after that meal. This should probably not be breakfast- in fact there’s a good chance you already skip breakfast. Don’t do that. The best is either a lunch that comes before an afternoon with no meetings and no physical exertion, or a dinner followed by an early bedtime.
Pick one or two key questions and take that time- 30-60 minutes- to thoroughly reflect and write out your answers.

Even better than either of these ideas is my habit of a two-night quarterly retreat. I often fast during that retreat, which frees up a ton of time, and actually helps me think more clearly. If you do this, be sure to drink lots of water, tea, fruit juice. And consult with a physician if you have any medical condition likely to be complicated by fasting, such as diabetes.

In future posts I’ll share with you a key component often missed in a life planning process.

Here’s another good one that I heard from one of my mentors, Bobb Biehl:
What 3 things can you do in the next 3 months that will make a 50% difference in the key areas of your life?

This is one of the highest leverage questions I’ve found. Three months is long enough to do something significant but short enough to keep it in my face! I always have three 3-month goals on the go, and whenever one is completed, I add another.

If this kind of thinking gets your wheels turning, I know you will benefit from the personal development process I call Release. I teach it through my book Release: A Wilderness Adventure of the Soul, which uses the fictional story of a person sent out on a 3-week solo wilderness trek to communicate the different phases of the process.

What I’ve discovered from my readers is that it really connects with:
1) People who are in any kind of life transition
2) People who already have a propensity for personal growth and development
3) People who find themselves in a foggy headspace for various reasons.

The Release system is designed to bring clarity and motivation, helping you both uncover and move toward your dreams.

My Top Ten Dream Questions

1. What is your greatest strength or uniqueness as a person?
2. What is the most significant roadblock holding you back?
3. What three things, if you did them, would make your life a success?
4. What would you be willing to die for?
5. If your life was absolutely perfect, what would it look like?
6. What is your primary loyalty?
7. What are you looking forward to?
8. What three things are you most grateful for?
9. Do you like yourself at this point in life? (If not, what needs to change?)
10. What am I truly passionate about?

Additional Reflection Questions:
Am I missing anything in my life that’s important to me?
What do I want to be doing ten years from right now?
What do I want to be remembered for?
How much money is enough? What will I do with the excess?