Clarity Has a Look

​ For the first time in a long time, I don’t just recognize the man looking back at me. I recognize the future he’s committed to creating. Through everything I’ve been through over the past nine months, seeing clarity, confidence, and the next phase of my life come together in one photograph means more to me than I can put into words.

Nine months ago, I could not have imagined this moment. There were days when the book and everything I had been building toward had to take a back seat to getting through the next treatment, the next doctor’s appointment, and the next scan. When your health becomes uncertain, the questions begin to change. You stop asking only what you want to accomplish and start asking who you want to become, what matters most, and how you want to live the life you’ve been given.

Those questions brought me back to where this journey began.

Fifteen years ago, I wasn’t trying to write a book. We were $842,000 in debt, had lost our home, and were living in a client’s house. I had worked hard, accomplished a lot, and somehow still ended up living a life I never would have intentionally chosen. I didn’t need another goal. I needed clarity.

A few days after pulling my Jeep to the side of the road on a rainy January morning, I sat down and wrote a letter to myself ten years into the future. I wrote about the life I wanted to live, the person I wanted to become, and the future I wanted to begin creating. I reviewed that same letter every year for the next ten years. Then, ten years later, I opened it and realized I had lived much of what I had written.

For years, I believed that letter changed my future. Today, I believe it changed me, and changing me changed my future.

That’s what I see when I look at this photograph. The books are simply the evidence. The real story is what it took to become the man sitting beside them. Fifteen years of decisions, mistakes, lessons, relationships, difficult seasons, and continuing to move forward when I couldn’t always see what was ahead.

I’m still becoming that man. I believe I always will be. The difference today is that I’m clear about who he is, confident in the work he’s here to do, and excited about where he’s going.

Tomorrow, The 10-Year Letter officially launches.

It’s surreal to write those words. Something that began as a deeply personal letter during one of the hardest seasons of my life is now a book that may find its way into the hands of someone facing a season of their own. Someone who has built a life but is no longer clear about what comes next. Someone who is ready to begin authoring the future again.

That is what tomorrow means to me.

If you’ve encouraged me, prayed for me, challenged me, read an advance copy, shared this message, or walked beside me through any part of this journey, thank you. You are part of this story.

Tomorrow, I’d love your help bringing this book into the world. You can pick up a copy, share a photograph with it, tell someone what it meant to you, or leave an honest Amazon review after reading it. Every one of those actions helps this message reach someone who may need it right now.

The greatest gift this photograph gave me wasn’t seeing the book.

It was recognizing the man looking back at me.

Get The 10-Year Letter on Amazon.

Write a future you’re excited to live.

GET THE 10-YEAR LETTER

Ready to write yours? Explore an upcoming 10-Year Letter workshop.