When I was about 13 years old, my mother attended a weekend spiritual retreat, and I tagged along with her. While on the retreat I had a powerful experience in the woods and these words came to me: “You will become.” 30+ years later, I am reminded of that experience and focused anew on what I will bring to the world.
Over the past couple months, I have had the good fortune of attending two training courses led by the Kinder Institute for Life Planning; first the 7 Stages of Money Maturity and then a four-day EVOKE Life Planning training. To say these experiences were powerful is an understatement. The training process is specifically designed for financial planners and promises to help “uncover your clients’ most exciting, meaningful, and fulfilling aspirations and engage them in the work of creating their own vibrant futures, based on a solid financial architecture.”
One of the key components of the life planning process is to answer George Kinder’s 3 questions:
1) I want you to imagine that you are financially secure, that you have enough money to take care of your needs, now and in the future. The question is, how would you live your life? What would you do with the money? Would you change anything? Let yourself go. Don’t hold back your dreams. Describe a life that is complete, that is richly yours.
2) This time, you visit your doctor who tells you that you have five to ten years left to live. The good part is that you won’t ever feel sick. The bad news is that you will have no notice of the moment of your death. What will you do in the time you have remaining to live? Will you change your life, and how will you do it?
3) This time, your doctor shocks you with the news that you have only one day left to live. Notice what feelings arise as you confront your very real mortality. Ask yourself: What dreams will be left unfulfilled? What do I wish I had finished or had been? What do I wish I had done? [Did I miss anything]?
I’ll be honest; I had heard these 3 questions many times before in podcasts and articles about life planning. I didn’t feel particularly compelled by the questions. In the course of the training, I sat down and actually answered each of the questions for myself. It was question 3 that had the biggest impact on me. My answer, simply, was “I’m not done becoming!” Actually there was a bit more to it than that, but the basic message was to continue the work I am doing with Xena Financial Planning and help my clients live their most fulfilled lives.
In the four-day, intensive training each of us was paired with another planner. We spent the next several days guiding each other through the EVOKE (Exploration, Vision, Obstacles, Knowledge & Execution) process. Each member of the group was able to fill the role of both client and financial planner.
My experience was exhilarating. Every single member of our group left feeling energized and inspired. Not only am I motivated to go live my own life plan, I am thrilled to bring this into practice with my clients.
Investments, tax planning and cash flow are certainly part of this process; but they are usually less important than your family, friends and true passions. With a more profound understanding of your goals, we can devise finely tuned strategies to help you make those goals a reality.
In our next meetings, I will work with each of my clients to design the life you want to live and take steps to start living it right now.
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