War Board Method
Soul + strategy:
a practical framework for self‑authorship
Soul + strategy:
a practical framework for self‑authorship
War Board Method
Soul + strategy:
a practical framework for self‑authorship
Soul + strategy:
a practical framework for self‑authorship
The armory
The armory
Tools for the work: frameworks, templates, exercises, books, podcasts, and other resources chosen to help you build a life with greater clarity, courage, and intention
War Board Method
Internal resources
War board templates
Note: Each link includes template, mini workshop video, and companion guide. New workshops to be added regularly.
Journal prompts
Identity
Direction
Strategy
- Who are you when no one is watching?
- What do you keep returning to?
- What part of yourself have you abandoned?
- What deserves your attention?
Direction
- What problem breaks your heart or infuriates you?
- What future keeps calling you?
- What keeps trying to get your attention?
- What coincidences and synchronicities are you noticing?
- What would you pursue if success weren't guaranteed?
- What would a meaningful life require?
- What would you regret not attempting?
- What season of life do you sense you're in or nearing?
Strategy
- What's the next obvious step?
- What's one bottleneck that changes everything?
- What's worth saying no to?
- What is the smallest meaningful action you could take?
- What battle are you avoiding or pretending not to see?
Out and about
External resources
Assessment tools
Books
Purpose, vocation, & the second half of life
Creativity
Strategy
Productivity
Psychology
Philosophy & spirituality
- Viktor Frankl — Man's Search for Meaning
- Parker Palmer — Let Your Life Speak
- Bill Plotkin — Soulcraft
- Robert Greene — Mastery
- Jon Acuff — Soundtracks
- Wayne Dyer — The Shift
- Richard Rohr — Falling Upward
- Rob Bell — How to Be Here
- Elle Luna — The Crossroads of Should and Must
- Anything Pema Chodron (I'd start with No Time to Lose)
- Anything Thich Nhat Hanh
Creativity
- Twyla Tharp — The Creative Habit
- Julia Cameron — The Artist's Way
- Rick Rubin — The Creative Act
- Steven Pressfield — The War of Art
- Hannah Arendt — The Human Condition
- Elizabeth Gilbert — Big Magic
- Austin Kleon — Show Your Work!
- Seth Godin — The Practice
- Temple Grandin — Visual Thinking
Strategy
- Richard Rumelt — Good Strategy Bad Strategy
- Sun Tzu — The Art of War
Productivity
- Cal Newport — Deep Work
- Greg McKeown — Essentialism
- James Clear — Atomic Habits
- Oliver Burkeman — Four Thousand Weeks
Psychology
- Carl Jung — Modern Man in Search of a Soul
- Phil Stutz — The Tools
- Irvin Yalom — The Gift of Therapy
Philosophy & spirituality
- Marcus Aurelius — Meditations
- Seneca — Letters from a Stoic
- Epictetus — Discourses
- Rumi — Collected Works
- Eknath Easwaran translation — The Bhagavad Gita
YouTube & Podcasts
Films & documentaries
- The Shift on YouTube
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, & Amazon
- The Truman Show on YouTube, Paramount+, Hulu, Apple TV, & Amazon
- Dead Poets' Society on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, & Amazon
- The Pursuit of Happyness on YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, & Amazon
Courses & lectures
- The Science of Well-Being by Yale
- Meaningful Relationships by Donald Miller
Essays & newsletters
People worth studying
- Viktor Frankl
- Carl Jung
- Joseph Campbell
- Temple Grandin
Topics worth deep-diving
- Jungian psychology
- Stoicism
- Existentialism
- Systems thinking
- Visual thinking
- Strategic planning
- Spirituality
- Creativity
- Behavioral science
- Literature and poetry
Practical tools
