What weedy areas of your life do you need to put out of their misery? What areas do you need to water and fertilize? We need a multiplication mindset. We need a multigenerational multiplication mindset. We need not only the mindset but also a plan of action. We are conditioned to live paycheck to paycheck or are consumed by the next child or household problem. We worry about the next financial quarter, the next 401k statement, or the next spousal or employment blowup. We have such a strong focus on the “near term,” the today, that we seldom devote a significant amount of time to planning a purposeful future. Quite possibly we do so financially, whether it be retirement or our children’s college education, but not so much with our family or our faith.

A multiplication effect is just waiting to be set in motion that will affect your family, your friends, your community, and future generations. The multiplication effect begins with your “perspiration”!

What do you want your life to be like five years from now? Ten years? Twenty years? How about your children? This book is about envisioning the future and then taking practical actions to move successfully toward it. The clock is ticking, and the years tend to slip away quickly. We must deal with the future, but we must also deal with the now in parallel. It is hard enough to have a “one-year mindset,” let alone a multigenerational multiplication mindset. Our problem is that we are overcome with the urgencies of the day. We are running faster but are more exhausted and less fulfilled. It is time to see the bigger picture of your future and deal with the vitally important things of now.

This is your life. Are you who you want to be?

People tend to fear the future and failure. We will look briefly at our past and how it affects our future, but most of this book will focus on the future. I truly believe that we are on the cusp of dynamic things in this country. It could involve a spiritual revival, a financial calamity, or another terrorist attack on our country. It could be all of those things. I don’t know or pretend to know, but almost everyone I talk to feels the same way. We all can sense the ticking and the tremors around us. All we can do is prepare our families for the future. We must plan now to protect, preserve, influence, lead, and deflect what is coming. We are really preparing for battle—spiritual battles, moral battles, and financial battles. Your future begins now.

Many tools to help you are available in A Lasting Legacy.