THE PATERSON LIFEPLAN PROCESS

Participating in the LifePlan Process allows individuals to better discover the unique, creative plan for their lives. The process involves completing a series of sequential exercises or modules designed to help clients uncover their own uniqueness.

The strategy for a two-day plan begins with perspective. A 360-degree life view provides a holistic perspective. The goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of one’s life.

The process is facilitated in a way that encourages self-discovery. Only when clients uncover the truths of their own lives will they take ownership of the resulting plan.

The “Journey to Live Life’s Purpose” diagram below illustrates the big-picture overview, including the general phases or stages of pursuing and living out one’s calling, from “Searching and Discovering” to “Awakening and Awareness,” and beyond.

The more Tom understood how God had shaped him, the more he became aware of God’s individualized plan for his life. Tom discovered more than 1,000 references in the Bible that refer to the fact that God has a plan for each of us in our lives. Tom’s process-oriented mind went to the next step: If God has a unique plan for each of us, why is it that so many do not know what their plan is. If we don’t know what it is, what hope do we have to live it?

At the same time that these events were happening to Tom personally, companies were benefiting from Tom’s strategic consulting processes. The president of one company that was benefiting from Tom’s collaboration called Tom and said, “I love what we’re doing for the company, but can you help me figure out what my own contribution is in life?” This conversation kick-started Tom’s journey towards developing a Strategic Operating Plan that could be applied to an individual: a process that Tom called a LifePlan.

One of the things that’s true about Tom’s life, is his never-ending commitment to contribution. In the late 60s, he sat outside Stanford Research laboratory on a Sunday afternoon. With no money in his pocket (literally, as he’d just returned from a trip), and the seed of an idea in his mind, he sketched out what became the base patent for the ATM Pin Process technology (the patent was awarded in 1971). For many of us, inventing something so significant might have put our life forever on pause (“I’m the guy who invented the ATM technology,” we might have been saying for the next 50 years). But Tom’s life and contribution didn’t stop there. Beyond wanting to help people access the money deposited in their bank accounts, Tom wanted to help people access something far more valuable — the unique talents deposited within them — and to guide those same people to invest their talents in ways which bring their hearts to life, and make the world better. Tom applied his abilities to create breakthrough process to the most valuable resource in the world: human potential.

Participating in the LifePlan process allows an individual to better discover the unique, creative plan for their life. The process involves the completion of a series of sequential exercises or modules intended to guide your client to discover their own uniqueness.

We start by gaining perspective – getting us to a vantage point where we can see beyond the valley floor. When we are in perspective, we are in focus. We discern our giftedness so we can converge our giftedness in His will for us. We see the pattern through which we got to where we stand right now. Further, we see the pattern which is unfolding. We know where our real interests lie: what we are doing which must be stopped; what we must start doing to make greater impact; and what we must continue doing because it is aligned with our LifePlan.

In a LifePlan, we do not use any of the current, commonly used diagnostic tools used by psychologists. The LifePlan tools have been designed for the LifePlan process, and they have proven to work well for providing a perspective which leads directly to action plans for each life domain. Standard diagnostic tools are an end unto themselves; they are not an integral part of developing life action plans. This is also true of popular personality tests that are readily available. These resources may bring perspective and affirm what is discovered in the process. These tools, however, do not link directly to LifePlan.

The LifePlan constructs have been designed for the LifePlan process, and they are proven for providing a perspective which leads directly to action plans for each Life Domain (personal, family, vocation, and community). There are at least 16 tools or constructs that we routinely use in developing a LifePlan. The visual roadmap below shows how these tools are used during the two day LifePlan. 

The redundancy in the process is intentional, yet the redundancy is never total. What these partial redundancies do is to provide further illumination, lighting up another facet. You might sometimes hear clients say, “Haven’t we covered this already?” In a form, we may have. But we know there’s more treasure to be uncovered. By making new aspects clearer, the redundancies become gateways to new insights. Thus, they help seekers to become believers in their own LifePlan. The behavioral scientists support this premise, about how change in our lives really happens.

By the end of the planning process, there has been considerable reinforcement of what becomes the focal points of the plan. Areas of significance are always multi-dimensional. Through circling, we gain a broader perspective on the core significant issues in a LifePlan. A 360-degree view is a total view. It allows issues that were too obscure to stand out at a first glance to fully emerge, and their solutions to be multi-dimensional.

The following graphics demonstrate these different approaches to problem-solving.

Each tool has a philosophical “why” to its reason for existence and its place in the order of the process. Seek to understand the “why” of a LifePlan tool before you seek to understand the process of the tool and how it is facilitated. The illustration below emphasizes getting the “why” right before you move onto the “what” and the “how.”

In the two-day LifePlan process, we spend almost a day and half gaining perspective before we begin planning because of the tremendous power inherent in gaining perspective first. Your role as a Guide is to facilitate your client through the proven tools and process of their LifePlan experience, helping them reach and discover truth from the peak of this ascending spiral.

Plan the Work, Work the Plan

As Tom continued to develop this new strategic approach, he discovered that the details of the plan then flowed naturally out of the newfound perspective. Lou Holtz, the great Notre Dame Coach, coined the acronym “WIN” standing for “What’s Important Now.” “We designed a core plan called W.I.N.’s for those few things we decided to focus on. We win because we work on what’s important now. Plans don’t self-execute,” says Tom, in one of his classic, memorable lines. Consequently, the details of each core W.I.N. are fleshed out into action initiative plans, reducing all activity into focused, accountable delivery timelines.

Each action initiative is measured with a red, yellow, or green status: red means something wasn’t done or that it is not in good order, yellow means that there are glitches, and green means the initiative was accomplished as planned or is progressing well. “We have to know where we stand at all times,” says Tom. “The plan must be managed to ensure that in the end we accomplished what we said we would accomplish. The accomplishment is not the plan. The accomplishment is in managing the plan to get the results we set out to accomplish.” This process is worked over and over again in a cyclical manner: planning the work and then working the plan, planning the work again, and then working the plan again. And so we say, “If you plan your work and work your plan, your plan will work.”

Facilitation, Not Consulting

“The facilitator is process. The individual is content,” Tom emphasizes. We guide a process that orchestrates a process that navigates the past, present, and future realities of the individual. As a Guide, this also means that your wisdom – or lack of wisdom! – is not the determining factor in the LifePlan process. Rather, your ability to trust the process is tantamount to the success of the plan.

The LifePlan process is a “behaviorally correct plan,” says Tom. The process must be facilitated in a way that leads to self-discovery for the client. Only when the client self-discovers the truths of his or her life will he or she then take ownership of the resulting plan.

When we’re learning something for the first time, our tendency can be to change it, so it makes more sense to us. We put those tendencies to one side in this journey, instead seeking to receive the LifePlan process (from Tom, Pete Richardson, and other Masters) with a sense of respect and gratitude.

THE SEARCHING AND DISCOVERY PHASE is when we pursue the answers to why we exist. Searching is about movement. In searching, we pursue mentors and respected people known for their wisdom. Time is spent looking for added insight into our life calling. We converse with people differently. We read to discover. Our prayers are filled with questions craving deeper insight and answers. In our searching, we begin to discover and face the truth about where we are, where we want to go, and how we’ll get there. Here we discover what we were created to do and what we shouldn’t do. Here we discover imbalances, misappropriated energy and talent, and identify what really matters…and what doesn’t. Macro discoveries hold the potential to recreate our life and redefine the path we travel. Micro discoveries hold the potential to optimize and refine what and who we invest our energy and time into. This is the phase where the majority of people find themselves when they seek out our guidance.

THE SURRENDERING AND OWNING PHASE is about facing our fears, releasing things not in our control, trusting God as we activate our life calling, and experiencing the freedom from doing so. Surrender is a spiritual transaction between the human spirit and God’s Spirit in which we release all that we know to be true about our self to all that we know to be true of God. The result? Peace, joy, and contentment replace anxiety, worry, and fear. New life and freedom replace paralyzing messages from our past and destructive self-sabotaging practices. Surrender can be a life-transforming point in time, but it must also become a way of life. Consequently, we begin to fully embrace the truths discovered about who we are (and who we’re not), why we were created, who we’re to become, and what we’re to do. Ownership follows surrender. Our life calling is no longer merely words on paper but is now foundational to the way we think, live and relate. Here the truth of what God has called us towards becomes our truth. It is now embedded in our head and heart. A LifePlan discovered and owned through surrender is beautiful and exhilarating to witness.

So where are you in this process to live your life’s calling? Have you discovered the core truths of who you are, why you exist, your life contribution, where you’re headed, and what you need to do to get there? Have you surrendered to these truths and owned them for yourself? Are you in a season of sifting and testing? Or perhaps you’re enjoying the fruit of a focused life? Are you needing to adapt to change or needing to push the pause button on your life for a time of renewal?

If you’re serious about living your life’s calling, the process never ends. The first pass through these phases is foundational. But once you pass through them once, you’ll discover that there are deeper layers in each phase. Think of the process as an ongoing spiral forward. You’ll be awakened to new adventures, prompting more searches and discoveries. With each new discovery, surrender will knock on your door. As you surrender, expect deeper ownership and new siftings and focus to follow. As change continues to happen, you’ll be faced with the choice to adapt. And as you navigate the seasons of life, you’ll feel the invitation for renewal.

The discovery, and active living, of one’s life calling is never accidental; it’s always intentional. It’s reality is a series of choices, decisions, risk-taking, adventures, searches, pursuits, discoveries, siftings, and surrender decisions. Early perspective is gained in understanding where your client is on this pathway. As mentioned earlier, the majority of your clients are in the searching and discovering phase. Many will face the portal of surrender during their two days with you as they seek to own what they discover. Some will be in the filtering and focusing phase, primarily needing your guidance to filter through opportunities that exceed their capacity. As you build your clientele over years, many of them will return for your guidance in the adapting and renewal phase when they move into a new life season.

Effective LifePlan Guides are actively living their life purpose. Though a session is never focused on us as Guides, appropriate and timely transparency into your own journey to live your God-created purpose is essential to bonding and creating an authentic conversation with your client. If we are not actively navigating this journey for ourselves, our clients will discern the disconnect. When we are, our guidance is trusted. We are Guides who actively travel the path, inviting others to journey alongside.