08/09/2026
The book has been written.
Well, the draft crafted over the last two years. Without AI. Although I did have a play with ChatGPT to visualise what the cover might look like (above).
The next step is to approach literary agents with the intention of creating a partnership to secure a deal with a publisher.
There’s just one problem. Getting across the seismic message of the book in an email submission to agents with sample chapters.
I’m convinced, and so are my clients, who have used this framework for designing their lives for 12 years now.
As is everyone else I talk to, convinced about the power of a three step process of being clear on what motivates you, creating a vision aligned with that, and then having a focus for action to get started, keep going, and staying on track regardless.
Reading the classic book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari, on the history of humankind, I can see the benefits of this concept also on a global scale.
Many of us live our lives by winging it. There’s no manual, we do the best we can and hope that it turns out alright. Imagine that multiplied several billion times by the world’s population, each doing their own thing, and no wonder we now have a planet by default.
Since the agricultural revolution we started living together in larger communities and went from simple hunter gatherers to having to work.
Then the industrial revolution accelerated the stampede for growth and productivity, regardless of the toxic trail on the planet and on its other unfortunate inhabitants.
In the absence of a manual, humankind has also winged it the best we can. We’ve tried to create some frameworks to guide us, with for example the bible, the Lord’s Prayer, and the American Declaration of Independence. How many people, if they align with these, check in on a regular basis and use them to create visions and guidelines to live life by? Not just for the individual’s benefit, but in the context of the bigger picture of the benefit for the planet.
There is no one framework to act as a guide and reference point, so we now have that planet by default, as opposed to arriving, or heading toward, something we all want, and have visualised.
The same applies for an individual shaping their life as opposed to being shaped by circumstances, communities, countries, and now with the internet, the world.
Unless we do the work to be clear on such things as core values, a manifestation of those values in a vision, then we, as well as the planet, will continue to go with an undirected flow.
I’ve been researching and playing with this for 12 years, and now find myself going around in circles.
All the advice I see about being clear on a Why fits into the first step of having purpose.
Everything you hear about being clear on a destination, Stephen Covey’s principle of beginning with the end in mind, is the second step for creating a What, a vision or manifestation of that Why.
All the self-help books and on-line content for the best habits, disciplines, and routines are the Way. And you keep on track by continually checking that the actions on the Way are aligned with the Why, and the What.
I like the assertion attributed to Einstein, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
I’ve stopped looking to improve on this three step concept. If I discover a more powerful or simpler framework for living life, I’ll adopt it.
So it’s time to put pen to paper to capture and share this.
If anyone has the ear of a publisher who would be interested in this book, I would be very pleased with ‘an assist’. As opposed to trying to convince people who have not experienced the benefits that I have seen for myself and my clients of living a Life by Design.
And when the book is published it can start to be widely adopted, taken into schools (a great place to start), and then expanded into communities, towns, cities, countries, and even a Planet by Design.
Let me know what you think please.
Or if you can help, with a step up to a publisher, to stop me from going small scale and self-publishing...
