Designing Your Life Backwards W/Nick Stromwall

Apr 16

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Episode Description

In this solo episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall shares a framework that changed the way he approaches his life, his marriage, his parenting, and his business. Inspired by Michael Hyatt's book Living Forward, Nick walks through the practice of designing your life backwards — starting with the end in mind, writing your own eulogy, and then building specific, scheduled commitments that close the gap between the life you are currently living and the life you actually want. He grounds the practice in Scripture and offers a clear, practical starting point for any leader who is productive but drifting. A concise and deeply personal episode that is worth sharing with anyone who is building a successful life but starting to wonder what it is all for.

Summary

1. You Can Be Productive and Still Be Drifting Nick opens with a confession — he was the most productive, unintentional person he knew. A packed calendar, a growing business, a family he loved, and a faith he claimed. But if someone had followed him around for a week and mapped where his time actually went, the map would not have matched his values. Busyness is not the same as direction.

"Somewhere along the way, you probably stopped choosing your life and just started responding to it. That was the problem."

2. Most People Plan Their Vacation Better Than Their Life The central insight from Michael Hyatt's Living Forward is both simple and convicting — we plan vacations because there is a deadline and clear consequences for not planning. With our actual lives, the consequences for drifting are slow, quiet, and felt years later — in a marriage that became polite but not intimate, in kids who grew up while we were busy elsewhere.

"The consequences for not planning your life are slow and quiet. You feel it when your kids are teenagers and you barely know them."

3. Write Your Eulogy Before You Need One The exercise that anchored Nick's life planning practice was writing his own eulogy — imagining the end of his life and asking what he wanted the people he loved most to say about him. Not a morbid exercise. A clarifying one. The gap between what he wrote and what was currently true became the work.

"I wasn't living the life that I hoped my wife and my kids and my friends would say about me. The gap between what I wrote and what was currently true — that gap is the work."

4. Assess Every Life Account Honestly Hyatt's framework asks you to evaluate your life not just financially, but across every major account — faith, marriage, parenting, health, friendships, work, and finances. For each one, you write an honest assessment of where you are, a vision of where you want to be, and a specific commitment about what you are going to do about it.

"Where am I making deposits? Where am I overdrawn?"

5. Intentions Without a Schedule Are Just Wishes The part that most people skip — and the part that actually creates change — is converting general intentions into specific, scheduled commitments. Not "I want to be more present with my kids." Something more like: home by 5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday, phone in a drawer after dinner, one one-on-one trip with each child per year. Measurable. Calendared. Real.

"Wanting is not a plan. The plan forces you to get specific. This is how intention becomes reality."

6. Life Planning Is an Act of Stewardship, Not Self-Help Nick grounds the entire practice in Psalm 90:12 — Moses' prayer that God would teach him to number his days so he could live with wisdom and purpose. Designing your life is not striving. It is faithfulness. It is asking God how to make the one life, the one family, and the one season He gave you actually count.

"Life planning done right is really an act of stewardship. You are asking — Lord, how do I make this count? How do I invest these days so that when I give an account, I can say I did not waste the time you entrusted to me."

7. Financial Freedom Is the Starting Point, Not the Destination For the investors and business owners in the audience, Nick reframes financial independence as a launching pad rather than a finish line. The real question is not what number unlocks freedom — it is what you do with that freedom once you have it. Legacy, generosity, mentorship, and community are built by design, not by default.

"Financial freedom is just the starting point. What kind of legacy do you want to leave for your spouse, your kids, your community, your church, and ultimately the world?"

8. Your First Life Plan Is Just One Page Nick's practical challenge to every listener is not to wait until the conditions are perfect. Block two to four quiet hours this week, go somewhere away from the noise, start with the eulogy, write one honest sentence about where you are in each major life account, and make one specific commitment with a schedule attached to it. Draft one. One page. One hour of honest reflection.