Creating a LifePlan™
Pablo Picasso once famously remarked, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” LifePlan™ facilitates both endeavors. It offers a journey of self-discovery, creating a path to uncover one’s unique talents and subsequently employ them in profoundly meaningful ways.
What Is Life Planning?
Every one of us is uniquely designed and equipped to do things that no one else can. When we identify our inherent gifts and discern how to share them, we move toward a life of significance.
LifePlan™ is a transformational process designed to help organizational leaders discover clarity, direction, and purpose in their personal lives. Based on the Paterson Process, the participant is led through a structured framework of self-discovery, helping them gain insights into their core values, passions, strengths, and aspirations.
Through a series of guided exercises and reflective questions, LifePlan empowers individuals to articulate their life’s purpose, set meaningful goals, and develop actionable plans to achieve a life of significance.
Questions that Creating a LifePlan Can Help Answer
At various times in life, we come to a point where we need or want to make changes. But too often we don’t know what those changes should be. Perhaps you have found yourself asking questions such as:
- Why is what I’m doing draining me more than it’s energizing me?
- Am I making the right contributions? If so, why am I so frustrated?
- Why is it such a struggle for me to figure out my life’s mission?
- I’m considering a change, but what should I do?
- Why am I feeling out of balance and stressed?
LifePlan offers a pathway to address these inquiries by providing profound clarity and self-awareness that pave the way for genuine life transformation and fulfillment.
What Are the Benefits of Making a LifePlan?
The most significant benefit is finding your purpose and discovering what it is that makes you feel most alive. Knowing your life purpose — and how to get there — exponentially adds meaning and clarity to everything else you do. Creating and pursuing a life that matters (not just going through the motions) is a massive paradigm shift, and its benefits are wide-ranging.
Some of the benefits of having a LifePlan are:
- Improved self-assurance, deeper relationships, more effective communication skills, and smarter time management
- Elevated performance across various life domains: personal, family, vocational, spiritual, etc.
- Uncovering gifts and talents (sometimes hidden) that can give your life additional joy and meaning, naturally decreasing stress and anxiety
- Learning the art of discerning attainable objectives and executing them with steadfast determination
- Built-in accountability, keeping your feet to the fire as you live out your life plan
Life Planning with the Barzel Group
As LifePlan facilitators, we bring the process; the participant brings the content.
For over two decades, our facilitators have been coming alongside people from all walks of life to help them move along the journey to where they can be. Our approach is to ask questions, make observations, and throw in a story here and there. This process allows the participant to uncover their own narrative. We serve as guides, helping the LifePlan participant on the journey toward significance.
In preparation for the two-day LifePlan session, your facilitator will engage in conversations with each participant, either through phone calls, Zoom meetings, or face-to-face interactions. These discussions serve to build rapport and deepen our understanding of each another. Additionally, participants do some preliminary “pre-work” exercises to help clarify their goals for the LifePlan experience.
Throughout the two days of the session, we’ll facilitate conversations using prepared tools on flip charts. As our conversation progresses, your facilitator will capture key insights and details on these charts, which we then display on the walls. By the end of the session, the collection of charts forms a comprehensive visual narrative of the participant’s LifePlan.
Following the session, we photograph each chart and upload them for transcription into a digital playbook. Participants typically receive their personalized playbook approximately one week after the LifePlan sessions. Subsequently, follow-up coaching calls may be arranged to ensure accountability and support in implementing the LifePlan.
Who Needs a LifePlan?
Practically anyone can reap the benefits of having a LifePlan. While our expertise extends to guiding individuals at any life stage, our main focus caters to the following groups.
Executives and Business Leaders
A wise colleague once shared, "Success at work need not equate to failure at home." Unfortunately, many business leaders find themselves prioritizing work over personal life, leaving scraps for their loved ones. With LifePlan, this dynamic shifts, fostering growth and fulfillment both professionally and personally.
Business Owners
It's startling to learn that within a year of selling their businesses, a staggering 75% of owners regret their decision. Why? They struggle with the void left behind, having allowed their business to define their very identity. LifePlan steps in to prevent such post-sale regrets, guiding business owners towards a fulfilling entrepreneurial life.
Career Professionals
Much like executives, career professionals feel immense pressure to ascend the corporate ladder. LifePlan offers invaluable insight into navigating the professional journey, fostering balance between short-term goals and long-term aspirations.
Those Facing Transition
Life is a series of twists and turns, and navigating these transitions can feel overwhelming. A LifePlan serves as a beacon of clarity, offering a structured decision-making framework during these pivotal moments.
Retirees
Often dubbed as the "Third Half of Life," retirement doesn’t have to be approached with trepidation and uncertainty. LifePlan empowers retirees to embrace this phase with confidence, helping them realize the fulfilled life they've long envisioned.
Why Choose the Barzel Group?
The Paterson LifePlan is a facilitator-led discovery that provides insight into how one is wired, what one is being called to, and how to build a life of significance. The process includes the following phases:
- Perspective: Reflecting on your life’s story, perspective is gained to help answer the question, “Where am I now?”
- Planning: Developing an action plan with specific goals and steps for movement toward significance in each area of life
- Management: Predictable patterns for regularly assessing how you are doing in living out your LifePlan
- Renewal: The annual process of asking, “What must change?”, giving you what you need to renew and refresh your plan
There are many good life planning processes available today, so why do we use Paterson’s LifePlan? There are a few reasons:
- It prioritizes perspective. Tom Paterson once said, “If you gain the proper perspective, the plan almost writes itself.” The Paterson Process for gaining perspective is better than any other process we’ve seen. Participants review their life stories, motivations, modes of thinking, talents, and so much more.
- It’s one-on-one. The LifePlan process is a one-to-one dynamic: one person, one facilitator. As opposed to a group session or workshop, this allows the participant to have 100% of the time focused on them.
- It’s digital. After the LifePlan session, each participant receives a digital playbook that they can reference online at any time. The playbook can be updated in real time as the LifePlan is renewed and refreshed.
- It works. The Paterson LifePlan methodology has a proven track record of delivering tangible results for individuals across diverse backgrounds and circumstances.
Schedule Your First Session
The first step on your LifePlan journey is contacting us. We’ll have an unhurried phone chat about your life and your expectations, with a chance to ask each other questions about the process.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably eager to maximize your potential and take your future to the next level. Now it’s time to sit down with an action-oriented guide who’ll help chart your course—and have a good time doing it!
See What Our Clients Have Said
As the Executive Director of a global non-profit ministry, it's been extremely valuable to have Jay as a Leadership Coach. since July 2017. I've found Jay's straightforward approach beneficial, inspiring, and rewarding. He's helped me identify key performance gaps, create plans for improvement, and implement lasting change. Personally, I admire Jay for his generous, caring heart and dedication to relationships. He truly cares about the individuals he coaches and wants his clients to flourish in all aspects and areas of his/her lives.
Cindy Bultema
Jay has this unique gifting to sit with you, listen to your situation/issues and then, he hits you with it...this laser-focused, pin-pointed, exacting diagnosis as to the core issue(s) that you're dealing with. His ability to identify not the symptoms, but the cause of my issues, has been so helpful. I would highly recommend Jay to anyone looking for some self-awareness growth as well as outside eyes on business improvement.
Hunter Hall
Jay brings a wealth of wisdom and leadership principles. As a CEO, Jay gave me a set of tools that I can use in multiple situations to help with decision-making and leadership. I would definitely recommend him!
Jon Verlee
Jay has been an invaluable coach and resource for the continued success and growth of our business. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to take their business to the next level.
Ross Haan
Additional Services
Executive Coaching Services
Our executive coaching services empower leaders to enhance their skills, improve team dynamics, and achieve strategic organizational goals.
Strategic Planning
The Barzel Group’s Strategic Planning service guides organizations in crafting actionable plans to achieve clarity, alignment, and long-term success.
More Resources
Discovering the hidden treasures in your business. Client Interview: Ross Haan
As a boy, I dreamed of finding buried treasure. In my mind, a tattered treasure map could lead me to untold riches. You know the fantasy: Fifty paces from skull rock, turn left at monkey cave, walk until ‘X’ marks the spot. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, et cetera. Just one problem. There’s no…
Inertia
One of the aspects I love about the StratOp strategic and operational planning is witnessing the transformative impact of the Paterson Process on individuals. Sometimes it’s a leader realizing their team’s untapped potential, or a manager finding a more efficient way to manage their time. Occasionally, it’s the surprising discovery of an unknown talent. These…
Six Ideas for Strategic Planning Sessions & Tools to Implement Them
These ideas for strategic planning sessions can help multiple types of businesses define their goals and develop a roadmap for reaching them effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have Questions? Let’s Talk
Fulfill your potential with a life plan that emphasizes clarity, cohesion, and growth. Schedule a consultation with The Barzel Group today to discover how our proven LifePlan process can guide your team to success.