Six different people, six different shapes of plan. Each persona shows the values, purpose, life-area focus, active vision, Summit Goals, daily habits, weekly rhythm, year-1 timeline, day-in-the-life narrative, and the specific pitfall they had to navigate. Borrow the shape, not the content. Your plan will look different because you are different.
Top five values1. Family · 2. Growth · 3. Impact · 4. Honesty · 5. Adventure
PurposeThis year I am here to move into work that matters, hold my marriage and friendships steady through the transition, and stop treating my body like a side project.
Focus areasCareer (current 5, focus to climb), Health (current 4, focus to rebuild), Relationships (current 7, focus to preserve)
Active visionIt is May 2029. I am a senior PM at a Series B climate startup, leading a team of four. My partner and I just bought a small house with a garden. I run two mornings a week with a friend, and we hike on Saturdays.
Summit Goals· Career: Land a senior PM role at a climate-tech company by Dec 2027. · Health: Run a 10k in under 55 minutes by Sept 2027 with no injury setbacks over 2 weeks. · Relationships: 90 quality phone-down dinner conversations with my partner in 2026 (15 min each, tracked weekly).
Q1Audit current PM skill stack. Ship 1 case study on the portfolio site. Start the morning run habit (Mon/Wed/Fri).
Q2Take the climate-strategy course. Ship 2nd case study. Add a 4th run day on Saturdays. First friend-run set up.
Q3Reach out to 20 climate-PM contacts. Book 8 informational interviews. Run a 5k in under 28 min (training-race).
Q4Start applications. Ship case study 3 + 4. First 8k run (training milestone for the 10k Summit).
A typical Maya Tuesday
6:30am. Coffee. 20-min easy run with the dog (logs as one habit done in the Habit Garden, marks the second habit row green).
7:30am. Shower, breakfast, 30-min PM portfolio work at the kitchen table (drafts a case-study outline). Marks the morning portfolio habit done.
9:00am. Day job starts (current product role at a B2B SaaS, low-energy week so she leans on existing momentum).
6:00pm. Dinner with her partner, phone in the bedroom (Tuesday is a designated phone-down dinner night). Counts toward the Relationships Summit's weekly tally.
9:30pm. Two-minute Day reflection inside the app. Confirms tomorrow's three priorities: design-system audit at work, 30-min outline for next portfolio case study, 7pm pottery class.
What the plan does not show
Maya catches herself saying "climate" when colleagues at her current B2B SaaS job ask what she is working on. She has not told the team about the pivot yet. Her morning mug has a chip on the rim from a 2019 move; she likes how her thumb fits the missing piece. The app does not know about any of that. It just shows the case-study counter ticking up.
Pitfall Maya navigated. Her first draft of the Health Summit was "run a marathon by Dec 2027." She caught that it pulled too hard for a year-one rebuild, especially with the career-pivot stress. Downgraded to a 10k. The marathon goes in the 3-year horizon.
David, 42 · health rebuild after a year of slip
The shape of his plan
Plan A is active · 3 focus areas
Top five values1. Family · 2. Discipline · 3. Health · 4. Stewardship · 5. Adventure
PurposeThis year I am here to rebuild a body that can carry my kids on hikes for the next twenty years, while putting our household finances on a footing that will survive a recession.
Focus areasHealth (current 3, focus to rebuild), Finance (current 5, focus to harden), Family (current 8, focus to preserve)
Active visionIt is May 2029. I am 45. I finished a sub-3:30 marathon last fall. Our emergency fund is 6 months of expenses. The kids and I summit a real mountain together every May.
Summit Goals· Health: Sub-3:30 marathon at age 45 (October 2028) with full health workup clean (resting HR <65, all bloods green). · Finance: Emergency fund from $12k to $36k (6 months of household expenses) by Dec 2027. · Family: 50 Saturday mornings outdoors with the kids in 2026 (hiking, biking, climbing).
Daily habits· Easy run, 30 min, Tue/Thu/Sat (lazy day: 15-min walk + 10 push-ups) · 7-hour sleep window (lights off by 10:30pm) · Auto-transfer $400/week to savings (Mon, manual top-up on bonus days) · Phone in another room 6-8pm weekdays
Year 1 timeline
Q1Base mileage 15 km/week. Auto-transfer set up. First 4 Saturday outings logged. Full bloods baseline.
Q2Base mileage to 25 km/week. First 5k race (training, not a target). Emergency fund hits $18k. 12 Saturday outings logged.
Q3Half marathon training block starts (target Q4 race). Sleep window broken for 2 weeks during work crunch, recovered via Lazy-day habits. Fund $24k.
Q4First half marathon run in 2:05. Fund $30k. 48 Saturdays logged (just 2 short of Summit). Plan year 2 marathon prep.
A typical David Saturday
6:15am. Coffee, then 60-90 min long run on the trail behind the house. Saturday is the only run day with no Lazy-day option; the long run anchors the week.
9:00am. Pancakes with the kids.
10:30am. Outdoor outing with the kids (hike, beach, bike trail). Logs Saturday morning toward the Family Summit. The 4-week rolling average on the dashboard tells him if he is on pace for 50/year.
2:00pm. Family nap window. He checks the Insights view in the app: execution-score chart shows green for the last 4 weeks across all three focus areas.
9:00pm. 10-minute Sunday-style week reflection (Saturday-night for him, since Sunday morning is church). Wins: long run + bloods came back green. Challenge: dropped the sleep window twice this week. Next week's priorities: same training plan, sleep window non-negotiable.
What the plan does not show
The Saturday long run takes David past the high school track where his father, a runner who never finished a marathon, used to do speed work. The bloods-clean clause in the Summit carries more emotional weight than the time target. He has not written that down anywhere. The kids' outdoor-mornings count is also tracked on a sticky note on the fridge in his handwriting, a paper redundancy in case the app ever loses the year.
Pitfall David navigated. First-year Summit was "run a marathon." His coach made him add "with bloods clean and no injury > 2 weeks." That second clause is what protects the rebuild from becoming a re-injury cycle.
Sara, 28 · creative launch (first novel)
The shape of her plan
Plan C is active · 3 focus areas
Top five values1. Creative work · 2. Mastery · 3. Honesty · 4. Generosity · 5. Quiet
PurposeThis year I am here to finish the novel I have been carrying around for three years, become a better reader and editor than I was last year, and keep my day job from eating the practice.
Focus areasCreative (current 5, focus to ship), Learning (current 6, focus to deepen), Career (current 6, focus to maintain not grow)
Active visionIt is May 2029. My first novel was published in 2028 by a small indie press. I am 18 months into a second. I teach a workshop twice a year. My day job is 32 hours instead of 40, by choice.
Summit Goals· Creative: Submit finished novel manuscript (80,000 words, third draft) to ten literary agents by July 2027. · Learning: Read 36 books in 2026, write a 300-word reflection on each in the reading log. · Career: Keep day-job hours at 40 (no overtime accepted) for all 52 weeks of 2026.
Q1First draft writing block. Target 25,000 words by end of Q1. Read 8 books, log each. 13 weeks of 40-hour day-job.
Q2First draft pushes to 55,000 words. Read 8 more books. Day-job: 2 weeks where overtime was hard to refuse, said no, banked the boundary.
Q3First draft finishes at 82,000 words. Two weeks off writing. Second draft starts. Read 10 books. Take the local short-fiction workshop.
Q4Second draft to 70% complete. Read 10 more books. Year-end: 36 books logged, 40-hour cap held for 50 of 52 weeks (2 weeks lost to launch-week of a big client).
A typical Sara Wednesday
5:30am. Light, tea, desk. 90 minutes of writing before the world wakes up. Hits 1,100 words.
8:00am. Walk to coffee. Day-job from a cafe 9-5.
5:00pm. Laptop closes (calendar blocks 5-6 as "writing reset"). Walk home.
7:00pm. Dinner with her partner, no phone.
8:30pm. 30 minutes reading the current novel. Logs it in the reading list.
10:00pm. Two-minute Day reflection. Confirms tomorrow's three priorities: 1,000 words at 5:30am, the design review at 11am, dinner with her sister at 7.
What the plan does not show
Sara writes before she can convince herself the chapter is bad. The cafe she works from has a corner table she counts as hers; if someone is already in it she walks out and comes back later. Her partner stopped asking when the novel would be done about six months ago, which turned out to be the gift she did not know to ask for. The 1,000-word counter is the only metric she trusts.
Pitfall Sara navigated. The Career Summit ("no overtime") felt fake until she literally blocked the 5-6pm hour as "writing reset" on her shared calendar. The visible block changed her colleagues' meeting-scheduling behavior. Without the block, the boundary was a wish.
Alex, 39 · sabbatical year, no day job
The shape of their plan
Plan C is active · 2 focus areas (single-focus year)
Top five values1. Curiosity · 2. Solitude · 3. Mastery · 4. Friendship · 5. Movement
PurposeThis year I am here to find out what I actually want to do next, while staying physically and mentally well enough to do it. No income pressure, no urgency. Build the data, then decide.
Focus areasLearning (current 5, focus to explore), Health (current 6, focus to deepen). Career deliberately not a focus.
Active visionIt is May 2027 (one year out, not five). I have spent 12 months exploring three career directions in depth. I have a notebook of 50 reflections on what energized me and what drained me. I know what I am building next, and I am physically stronger than when I started.
Summit Goals· Learning: Complete 3 deep dives (one per quarter, weeks 1-12 each) into different career directions. Each dive ends with a 1,500-word "what I learned" essay. · Health: Daily 60-min walk OR strength session for 300 of 365 days.
Daily habits· 60-min walk OR 45-min strength, daily (lazy day: 20-min walk) · 2 hours focused study (whichever direction the quarter is exploring), Mon-Fri (lazy day: 30-min reading on direction) · Evening reflection journal, daily (lazy day: 2-minute voice memo)
Year 1 timeline
Q1Deep dive 1: machine learning research. Read 6 papers per week. Talk to 4 ML researchers. End-of-quarter essay.
Q2Deep dive 2: outdoor education / wilderness guiding. Get the WFR cert. Apprentice with two guiding outfits. End-of-quarter essay.
Q3Deep dive 3: publishing / editorial work. Volunteer-edit at 2 small presses. Pitch one column. End-of-quarter essay.
Q4Synthesis. Reread the 3 essays. Spend 8 weeks living "as if" doing the chosen direction. Decide. Make the leap.
A typical Alex Thursday in Q2 (wilderness-guiding dive)
6:00am. Walk in the woods, 60 min. Logs Health habit.
7:30am. Breakfast, study time. Wilderness-first-aid course material for 2 hours.
10:30am. Coffee, then drive to the guiding outfit for an unpaid apprentice day.
4:00pm. Home. Notebook entry: what surprised me today (clients asked far more interpersonal questions than wilderness ones; the outdoor part is the easy part).
7:00pm. Dinner. Read for an hour.
10:00pm. Two-minute reflection. Notes that today felt energizing, especially the client interactions.
What the plan does not show
The wilderness-guiding apprenticeship pays zero plus a packed lunch. Alex keeps a notebook column titled "what surprised me today" that does not exist anywhere in the app, because some of it is too personal to type. They have not told their parents the sabbatical does not have an obvious end. The data the year produces is for Alex, not for the explanation Alex eventually owes other people.
Pitfall Alex navigated. First instinct was to focus on five things (read more, exercise, travel, learn a language, write a book). They forced themselves to two focus areas. The sabbatical year is for one big question (what next?), not five small ones.
Priya, 31 · debt-free + emergency fund in 24 months
The shape of her plan
Plan A is active · 3 focus areas
Top five values1. Independence · 2. Discipline · 3. Family · 4. Health · 5. Craft
PurposeThis year I am here to get out of consumer debt, build a 6-month emergency fund, and keep my career on a steady upward arc without burning out the relationships and the running practice that hold me together.
Focus areasFinance (current 3, focus to fix), Career (current 6, focus to compound), Health (current 7, focus to preserve)
Active visionIt is May 2029. I have zero consumer debt. My emergency fund is 6 months of expenses. I was promoted to staff engineer in 2028. I ran a half marathon at the Berlin event last fall. My mom and I take an annual trip together.
Summit Goals· Finance: $14k consumer debt to zero AND emergency fund from $0 to $24k (24 months total). Year 1 target: debt to zero, fund started. · Career: Get promoted to staff engineer by end of 2027 (one promo away). Year 1: lead one cross-team project + ship 3 internal-tech write-ups. · Health: Maintain weekly running (3 runs, 25 km total) for 50 of 52 weeks in 2026.
Daily habits· Auto-transfer 30% of paycheck to debt-payoff, every paycheck (no Lazy-day; this one is automated) · Cooked dinner at home, Mon-Fri (lazy day: leftovers count) · 30-min run, Tue/Thu/Sat (lazy day: 15-min walk) · 1 weekly tech write-up (Friday afternoon, lazy day: skeleton outline saved)
Year 1 timeline
Q1Debt down from $14k to $9.5k. Cross-team project scoped. 13 runs logged. Weekly write-up streak: 11 of 13.
Q2Debt to $5k. Cross-team project shipped. 12 runs (one week traveled). Write-up streak: 12 of 13.
Q3Debt to zero by Sept 30. Fund jumps to $3k (Sept). Half marathon training block starts. Write-up: 13 of 13.
Q4Fund to $9k. Berlin half marathon DONE (2:01). Promo conversation scheduled for Q1 next year. Annual wrap-up in the app.
A typical Priya Friday
7:00am. 30-min run before work.
8:30am. Cook breakfast (cuts cafe spend, also one of the daily-cooked-meals habit ticks).
9:00am. Day at work. Friday afternoon blocked for the weekly tech write-up.
4:30pm. 60 min of write-up time (publishes a short post on the internal tech blog).
6:00pm. Cooked dinner with her partner.
8:00pm. Looks at the app: this week's habits all green except one missed cooked-dinner Monday (takeout). Two-minute reflection: "the Tuesday tech write-up was the hardest, but I have it banked for next week's review."
What the plan does not show
Priya's coffee is from a French press, not a cafe; the saved $5 a day is already inside the auto-transfer math. The line chart in Insights showing the debt curve flatten and then invert is her favorite screen in the app; she opens it more often than the Day card. She has not told her manager that the staff-engineer conversation is partly about leverage to negotiate two remote days. The Summit is real; the second motive is also real.
Pitfall Priya navigated. Almost split the Finance Summit into two ("zero debt" + "start fund"). Reframed it as one combined 24-month Summit with a year-1 checkpoint. Cleaner. One Summit per focus area.
Tom, 47 · comeback year after divorce and burnout
The shape of his plan
Plan B is active · 2 focus areas (light year)
Top five values1. Honesty · 2. Health · 3. Friendship · 4. Craft · 5. Calm
PurposeThis year I am here to rebuild a baseline. Body, mind, and a few real friendships. No big ambitions. Just steady reps.
Focus areasHealth (current 2, focus to rebuild), Relationships (current 4, focus to rebuild). Career deliberately not a focus this year.
Active visionIt is May 2027 (one year out, comeback year). I am sleeping 7 hours most nights. I have a small steady running practice. Three friends I see monthly. I am back to enjoying my work, not consumed by it.
Summit Goals· Health: Sleep 7+ hours for 250 of 365 nights AND walk or run 4x per week for 40 of 52 weeks. · Relationships: 50 logged conversations with three specific friends in 2026 (rotating monthly).
Daily habits· Lights off by 10:30pm, daily (lazy day: 11:00pm) · 30-min walk or run, Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat (lazy day: 10-min stretch) · Send one text to a friend, weekday mornings (lazy day: a thumbs-up reaction counts)
Year 1 timeline
Q1Sleep window held 8 of 13 weeks. 12 weeks of 4 walks. 35 friend texts. First in-person friend hangout in 6 months.
Q2Sleep window held 11 of 13. Therapy starts. 13 weeks of 4 walks. 40 friend interactions. 3 in-person hangouts.
Q3Mix of walk + light runs. 12 of 13 sleep weeks. 5 in-person hangouts. Considers adding work as a focus area for Q4 (decides not yet).
Q413 of 13 sleep weeks. Solid running base. Annual wrap-up: feels ready for year 2 with Career added as a third focus area.
A typical Tom Monday
6:30am. Up before alarm (the sleep window habit is working). Coffee. Sends a check-in text to a friend (Monday's text-friend habit done).
7:30am. 30-min walk along the river. Marks the walk habit done in the Habit Garden.
9:00am. Work. Steady, no overtime. The Career focus is off this year by design.
6:00pm. Dinner alone. Reads.
9:45pm. Wind-down. Phone in another room.
10:25pm. Lights off. Sleep window habit logged.
What the plan does not show
Tom realized in month 2 that he skips the text-a-friend habit on Sundays because Sunday is when he most wants to talk and least knows how. The walk-route has a bench he sits on for two minutes most mornings. One of his Friday-text friends keeps asking why Tom has been quiet for a year; Tom has not said the word divorce to him yet. The Relationships Summit's counter still rises. The hard parts are not in the count.
Pitfall Tom navigated. First-draft plan had four focus areas. He realized he was trying to "make up for lost time." Cut to two. The comeback year is not a normal year; the plan is allowed to be small.
How to use these scenarios
If you are stuck on your own first session:
Find the persona closest to your situation.
Read the shape of their plan, not the words.
Notice that every Summit Goal is one sentence, dated, and measurable.
Notice that every focus area has one or two habits, not five.
Notice that the lazy-day version exists for every habit.
Now write your own. The shape is the lesson.
Common variations to consider
One focus area instead of three. Valid for someone doing a single huge transition (sabbatical, recovery, full-time creative project). Just one Summit, two or three habits feeding it.
Two-year Summit instead of one-year. Useful for creative work where the output is uncertain. Maya's "land a senior PM role" is 18 months out for exactly this reason.
No active vision yet. Skip Vision and come back to it after the first month. Summits and habits still work without one; you just lose the framing prompts at the quarterly check-in.
All habits at the same cadence. Many beginners pick "all daily" for everything. Better: stagger them. One daily, one 3-times-a-week, one weekly. Less crushing on bad days.
Maintain-not-grow Summit. Sara's Career Summit ("no overtime") and Tom's deliberately-not-a-focus Career are valid. Some areas need protecting, not growth, in a given year.
Combined Summit across two horizons. Priya's "zero debt + start fund" is one 24-month Summit with a year-1 checkpoint. Cleaner than splitting it.
What none of these personas does
None has five focus areas. The cap is three.
None has a Summit that is really a habit. Every Summit is an outcome.
None skips the lazy-day version. Every habit has one.
None tries to fill in every cadence tab on day one. Year + Quarter + Week is enough.
None writes a Summit without a date. Every one has a target year-month.
Open the Walkthrough when you are ready to do your own. Use these six as the shape library you reach for when stuck.