For years we struggled to see the future the same way, and this led to lots of frustration and wasted energy. I liken it to trying to build a house without a blueprint. Lots of discussions about should the kitchen go here or there? Should we go make the closets bigger or add another bedroom? Even bigger questions, do we want it to look like a lodge in the mountains or a cottage at the beach? Can you imagine if a contractor was responding every time we had a new idea? We would end up with a hot mess of a house, we would be way over budget and it would never get finished. These design forces simplicity & cohesion to get what we really want.

Except this wasn't building a house, it was building a life! Can you imagine if we didn’t design our lives holistically and we just added one room at a time? Sometimes it can feel like we are building two different versions of a family. Nothing would be cohesive, something would get short changed, and we wouldn't end up with what we really wanted.

This is where The Family Blueprint^© helps you design your life! Download the blueprint and other tools here.

Step 1: Discover your Purpose & Principles

What do you feel is your unique calling as a family? How are you going to make decisions together? What needs to be true today, tomorrow, and the day you die? Have you ever documented your vision for your life?

We recognize this can be overwhelming to think about, but please start! It took us years to fall in love with the idea, and even more years to fall in love with the words and we are still figuring out how to apply this to day to day life. But we started. Do not delay, start talking about the long term vision for your family. Without a vision, the people will perish.

Step 2: Decide on your Priorities

What are things you know you want to do or need to do, but if you do not write it down, you know you probably won't do it? There is something magical about writing things down, prioritizing them, focusing on them, sharing with others… that has you achieve your goals.

I like to think of bigger things for the year, and then break it down into small chunks, usually monthly, so I know what a small win would look like. If I can stack lots of small wins together, it’s amazing what can be accomplished over a long period of time.

Step 3: Document your Problems & Possibilities

There are probably some things you are dreaming about, but you know it doesn’t make sense this year. Put it down on a bucket list and maybe it will next year! If you go a few years with it on the list, maybe it will fall off, or maybe it will get added to a priority. Golf trip to Ireland just got added to my list after listening to a good friend share about his trip.

There are also some things you know are holding you back, document it. The Obstacle is the Way. Not really, but writing it down, you usually start to realize you can break things down into smaller chunks to help see the progress you want to make.

The Family Parking Lot^© has been a great placeholder to keep all of these ideas in one place!

Step 4: Flush out the details

Over time, there are a lot of different areas to flush out with The Family Blueprint© . Just like when you build a home, you don't just design the elevation plan for the front of the house, but you have to design each room.

With The Family Blueprint^© we encourage you to build out each of the Core Pillars with principles you can operate together and both long-term and short-term plans.

Let me warn you, this takes LOTS of time to get right. However, the investment on the front end is a lot better than regret on the backend.

Step 5: Follow Through

It’s not enough to go away and put everything on paper, you have to do something! There are thousands that have a mountain top experience, only to go home and keep doing the exact same things.

I like to follow through weekly, adjust quarterly, and share with others regularly.
Weekly Connect Time^© is a great way to make sure we are making incremental progress and Cohorts provide a great rhythm to adjust The Family Blueprint© together.

Finally, I like to share regularly with others. Sometimes it is informal during conversations, but saying things out loud helps keep me committed. Sometimes it is sharing the entire Family Blueprint© with a small group or a mentor so they can get a holistic picture of my life. Sometimes they are very encouraging for all of my intentionality, sometimes they remind me that I am falling into a bad pattern of doing too much, sometimes they notice something that seems to not align with our core values.

Your Path to an Intentional Year

By filling out The Family Blueprint^© together, your family can align on values, set meaningful goals, and create a clear plan of action. There are 2 simple ways to get started:

Download the tools here.
Join us for the FamilyOS Summit November 8-9th in Dallas, TX where you will achieve Steps 1-3!

Live intentionally,

Ryan & Allyson