How to envision a positive future and make it happen
"If Your Life were a Business ....is a deeply reflective AND practical guide. It has a significant ROI for you and all the stakeholders in your life!"--Charlotte Roberts, co-author with Peter Senge of The Fifth Discipline Field book, and Co-author of The Dance of Change
"An easily digestible guide which affirms the messages of the heart, packaged in the language of the marketplace."--Peter Block, author of The Answer to How is Yes, Stewardship, and The Empowered Manager
"The Life Business metaphor is transformative. Thinking 'cash flow' rather than 'wealth creation' has changed our family's approach to our life, our money and our giving."--Peter Tavernise, Executive Director, Cisco Systems Foundation
"Memo to leaders, managers, and business people: If you want to lead your life as consciously and creatively as you manage your business, you should read this book."--Jeffrey L. Moe, Ph.D., Director, Health Sector Emerging Issues and Development, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
"Drs. Eckblad and Kiel's book teaches you how to take charge of the most essential aspects of your life. Its practical tools and clear concepts will help you to align your behaviors with your values, and put your efforts where your heart wants you to go."--Wayne and Mary Sotile, co-authors of The Resilient Physician and Marriage Skills for Busy Couples
"I have spent thirty years coaching physicians on how to balance their lives, yet felt some integrative money-value homework was missing. John and David's book is that super glue."--John-Henry Pfifferling, Ph.D., Director, Center for Professional Well-Being
Of course you would invest in your life if it were a business, but how would you invest? Do you feel you have to make a choice between financial security and the life you want to live? There is a way to do both. In this remarkably inspiring and instructive guide, you'll discover how to develop a plan that helps you live your dreams now while paying full attention to your financial realities. In this book you'll find a detailed step-by-step process for managing your life as if it were a phenomenally successful business. By using, and reusing, the authors' step-by-step approach, you will ultimately be able to live a life that is "independent of your finances."
At the time when many of us are rethinking what is truly important in our lives, this completely practical handbook shows single adults, couples, and growing families how to manage their lives more effectively by adopting the basic practices pioneered and time-tested by the best-run businesses. Following this 13-step Life Business Program, you'll discover how to identify and concentrate on your most essential goals; how to listen to and take seriously the concerns of those closest to you; and how to invest aggressively in activities that will help you achieve your central objectives.
You'll also learn how to develop strategies that will maximize your chances for success, set heartfelt goals, and envision and plan projects that will take your life in the direction you want it to go. You'll find helpful tips for building a plan-ahead budget that will ensure you the basic necessities while freeing up funds to finance your dreams. You will learn to think about money the way successful businesses do with potentially radical changes in your approach to savings, investment and retirement. This 13-step program will give you the tools you need to negotiate your own cash-flow agenda in a financial planning world that has been excessively focused on wealth creation. This book gives you the confidence to believe that the bottom line isn't how rich you are but rather how rich a life you lead.
More than helping you to realize your dreams, the concepts and tools introduced in this book will enable you to insulate your most cherished plans from the ups and downs of the financial markets. When life throws you a curve, or if you do decide to change directions, you'll have the knowledge and skills you need to make a smooth transition and give yourself a strong start in your new venture.
Don't sacrifice your dreams to an uncertain future. Read If Your Life Were a Business, Would You Invest in It? and start living your dreams today!
John Eckblad, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist and creator of the Life Business Program, which has helped thousands of individuals, in the United States and Europe, to develop focused and vision-based life plans.
David Kiel, D.PH. is an experienced organizational consultant and has taught management courses at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the University of South Carolina.
Their clients include: P&G, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, IBM, ICI, Zeneca, Westinghouse, Nortel, and GlaxoSmithKine. They have also worked with many small businesses, government, and nonprofit organizations.
