Harris’ Life Plan Teaches How to Replace Default Choices with Mindful Decisions.
After thirty years in commercial real estate, Rich Harris pivoted to writing and consulting to share the life planning framework he has been working on for nearly three decades. That long-running practice became the foundation for Life Plan: Living by Design, Not Default, his new book about living with greater purpose and clarity. Harris wanted to explore the question of why people spend so much time developing professional skills while devoting relatively little structured time to the direction of their lives as a whole.
Many people do not consciously design their lives. They drift into routines and patterns shaped by habits, past experiences, and external expectations. Over time, those unexamined patterns can create a quiet but persistent sense of misalignment, even as their lives generate meaningful external validation. In Life Plan, Rich Harris provides a practical framework for living with greater balance and intention.
“A thoughtful invitation to know yourself more deeply and to live more deliberately as a
result. Rich helps the reader move from insight to action, which is the hardest and most important step in any growth process.”
— Rebecca Merrill, President of Merrill Leadership
“If you’ve ever closed your laptop on a strong quarter and quietly wondered whether the rest of your life is keeping pace, then this book is for you.”
— Doug Cook, Vice Chair of Cushman & Wakefield
“Every year since 1999, I have completed a written life plan, often more than one hundred pages long, as part of an annual process of stepping away from the demands of work and daily life to examine where I am headed, what matters most to me, and whether my investments of time and energy align with my latest priorities. The practice accompanied me through a 30-year business career and ultimately helped compel a major career change. I ended up writing a book because of how impactful these exercises had become in my personal and professional life and how much they had girded me during times of significant change or challenge,” explains Rich Harris.
Rather than encouraging readers to make dramatic changes, Life Plan offers a structured life-planning process designed to help individuals identify priorities, interrupt autopilot thinking, and align daily actions with deeper values and long-term goals. Through accessible behavioral science, personal stories, real-world examples, and end-of-chapter “Thought to Action” exercises, Harris helps readers examine the beliefs and patterns influencing their decisions, identify their priorities, and translate reflection into action.
One of the book’s central ideas is that intentional living does not require us to blow up a successful life or chase some elusive idea of our “life purpose.” For Harris, it is more often about recalibration: periodically asking whether you are consistently allocating your two most finite resources in life—your time and energy—in ways that support the life you are actively building.
Life Plan moves beyond insight alone and offers a practical path forward for readers who want to live more intentionally. More than motivational sound bites or traditional self-help platitudes, Life Plan offers a grounded, thoughtful guide to designing a life that reflects what matters most to each reader. To learn more about the book and the author, please visit: LifePlan-RichHarris.com.
About the Author
Rich Harris is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and longtime practitioner of intentional life planning. He has completed an annual written life plan every year since 1999, a practice that became a cornerstone of how he approaches his personal and professional life.
After a 30-year career in commercial real estate, Harris stepped away to pursue writing, entrepreneurship and work focused on helping people and organizations live and lead more intentionally. His first book, Life Plan: Living by Design, Not Default, blends personal experience with insights from neuroscience, psychology and decision-making to help readers become more deliberate about how they spend their time and shape their lives. Harris currently lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. with his wife and twins. Learn more at LifePlan-RichHarris.com.
About the Book
Title: Life Plan: Living by Design, Not Default
Author: Rich Harris
Release Date: September 29, 2026
Publisher: Whitefox Publishing
Price: $20.00 USD (paperback) $6.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 9781918661330 (paperback) 9781918661347 (ebook)
Pages: 232
Contact:
Catherine Kennedy
CK Publicity
(732) 737-7334
