The greatest risk isn’t failing. It’s succeeding at building the wrong life.
A clear process for making life’s defining decisions and intentionally building what comes next.
Get the bookFor two years, success was clearly defined.
You had a purpose. A daily plan. A companion. A playbook.
Then you came home.
Now every major decision is yours. How do you know you’re making the right ones?
Welcome Home, Elder. Now What? gives returned missionaries a practical process for navigating life’s biggest decisions with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Your faith, identity, relationships, career, finances, and health are interconnected. The decisions you make in one area will influence every other area of your life.
This book does not prescribe one version of success. It helps you determine what a meaningful life looks like for you, test that direction against what matters most, build a practical plan, and follow through with consistent action.
And you will not have to do it alone.
The book gives you the process. The companion tools on this website help you put it into practice through guided exercises, assessments, worksheets, and planning tools designed to make difficult decisions clearer and your next steps easier to take.
The goal is not to have your entire future figured out. The goal is to stop drifting and begin making the decisions that shape your future on purpose.
What you’ll learn
Inside, you’ll discover how to…
01
Make the right decisions your future self will thank you for
Navigate the decisions shaping your identity, faith, relationships, career, finances, health, and future with greater clarity and confidence.
02
Build a life intentionally instead of letting life happen to you
Decide what a meaningful life looks like for you, then align your choices with the man you are committed to becoming.
03
Follow a step-by-step process for the choices that quietly shape your future
Use the Meaningful Life Framework to turn direction into a practical plan and consistent action.
The Four Steps
Apply the Four Steps to what matters most
One process, run seven times. The same Discover, Refine, Build, and Strive sequence works on every decision in the book — you just change what you point it at.
- 01Define your eternal identity
- 02Strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ
- 03Design a meaningful career
- 04Build a plan for financial freedom
- 05Prepare intentionally for marriage
- 06Choose friendships that strengthen your future
- 07Build a strong physical and mental health foundation
The Meaningful Life Framework
Four Steps for navigating the decisions that shape your future.
Chapter Two
The Four Steps to Building a Meaningful Life
Up to this point, I’ve spent a lot of time naming the problem.
Now it’s time to give you the solution.
Over the years of working closely with young adults and watching how their lives unfolded, I began to see a pattern. The ones who built meaningful, high-impact lives weren’t lucky, and they weren’t guessing their way forward.
They were living on purpose.
Whenever they faced big decisions about faith, career, money, marriage, friendships, or health, they weren’t reacting or guessing. Whether they realized it or not, they were moving through the same process every time to gain clarity and make sound choices.
This framework for decision-making didn’t come from a single book, seminar, or moment of insight. It took shape gradually through observation, experience, mistakes, conversations, and two decades of mentoring young adults. I paid attention to what actually held up once real responsibility set in, as well as to what consistently led to strength, clarity, and forward momentum.
It’s the same process I’ve relied on in my own life.
See it as your playbook, a way to slow down and make decisions on purpose when it counts. It is built for young adults who want to be men of action.
Not reckless. Not rushed. But intentional.
I call it the Four Steps to Building a Meaningful Life. The process has four parts, and each one answers a different question:
- Discover: What might be possible if I stop eliminating ideas too early?
- Refine: Which possibilities hold up when tested against truth and real life?
- Build: What plan will turn the strongest possibility into a path I can follow?
- Strive: Will I execute that plan, learn from setbacks, and keep adjusting?
Together, the Four Steps help you move from possibility to clarity, from clarity to a plan, and from a plan to a life built on purpose.
Figure 2.1 · Discover → Refine → Build → Strive
Discover
Understand what is possible.
Explore your options, ask better questions, gain experience, and clarify what you genuinely want before choosing a direction.
Refine
Test what you discover.
Verify what is true, discern what is right, evaluate whether it aligns with your Identity Standard, and seek confirmation through prayer.
Build
Turn clarity into a plan.
Create a practical, step-by-step plan with priorities, structure, and measurable actions.
Strive
Put your plan into action.
Move forward consistently, learn from setbacks, make adjustments, and keep becoming through disciplined effort.
The framework gives you direction. Following it is how you build a meaningful life.
About Ben
Ben H Roberts is a husband, father of five, entrepreneur, mentor, and nonprofit leader committed to helping people intentionally build lives of purpose and fulfillment.
Ben co-founded LoanPro and helped grow it from a startup in the back office of a car dealership into a financial technology company valued at more than $1 billion. After more than fifteen years helping lead the company, he stepped away from its day-to-day operations to focus more of his time on his faith, family, mentoring, and service.
- Honoree2023 Utah Business 40 Under 40
- NomineeWasatch Innovation Network WIN100
- NomineeMountain West EY Entrepreneur Of The Year
- NomineeSilicon Slopes COO of the Year
Today, Ben dedicates much of his time to Become More, the nonprofit he co-founded with initiatives in Cambodia and the United States. In Cambodia, Become More partners with rural villages to help communities move from extreme poverty toward long-term self-reliance. In the United States, its work focuses on personal fulfillment and helping young adults build their futures with greater clarity and intention.
For more than twenty years, Ben has mentored young adults through some of life’s most defining seasons. His experiences in entrepreneurship, faith, family, service, and mentoring helped shape the four-step process at the heart of Welcome Home, Elder. Now What? — Discover, Refine, Build, and Strive.
Ben wrote the book to help returned missionaries understand their eternal identity, define the man they are committed to becoming, and use that clarity to guide the decisions shaping their future. Through the Identity Standard and the Four Steps, young men learn how to create a practical plan, put it into action, and build a life their future selves will thank them for.
Ben lives in Utah with his wife, Trina, and their five children.
Ben H Roberts
The perfect homecoming gift
The mission taught you how to change lives.
This book teaches you how to build your own.
Give the returned missionary in your life more than encouragement. Give him a practical framework for making the decisions that will shape his faith, relationships, career, finances, health, and future.
Bulk & Gift Orders
Purchasing multiple copies for returning missionaries, families, wards, stakes, or institutes? Contact us to discuss quantities, pricing, and fulfillment.
Request a Bulk or Gift OrderStart now
You’ve read the book. Now build your life.
Start with your Identity Standard. Then choose the area of your life that needs your attention most. You do not need to complete everything at once or work through these areas in order — choose one important decision and take it through Discover, Refine, Build, and Strive.
Write or refine your Identity Standard
Define who you are choosing to be and the man you are becoming.
Strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ
Define the relationship you want with Him and build a Spiritual Rhythm that fits your life.
Build your Spiritual Rhythm →Design your career on purpose
Explore your direction and create a career plan that supports the life you want to build.
Build your career plan →Build your financial future
Run your numbers, establish your financial buckets, and begin building toward freedom and legacy.
Open the Money Toolkit →Prepare for your future marriage
Clarify the marriage you hope to build and begin becoming the kind of husband who can help create it.
Start preparing →Build your inner circle on purpose
Complete the Friend Audit and evaluate which relationships are strengthening or quietly redirecting your future.
Take the Friend Audit →Build your health foundation
Create physical and mental health habits that give you the strength, energy, and discipline to support the life you are building.
Build your health plan →