The perfect homecoming gift
The mission taught you how to change lives.
This book teaches you how to build your own.
Whether you have just returned home or you are welcoming home someone you love, this book provides a practical framework for making the decisions that will shape faith, relationships, career, finances, health, and the future.
Available in print on Amazon and as an audiobook on Audible.
Bulk & gift orders
Purchasing multiple copies for returning missionaries, families, wards, stakes, institutes, or other groups? Contact us to discuss quantities, pricing, and fulfillment.
Request a bulk or gift orderComing home changes the assignment
For two years, success was clearly defined. Then you came home.
You had a purpose, a companion, a schedule, and a clear standard for success. Then you came home, and nearly every major decision became yours.
What should you study? What career should you pursue? Who should you marry? How should you manage money, protect your faith, choose your friends, and care for your health?
The greatest risk is not that you will stop working hard. It is that you will work incredibly hard building a life you never intentionally chose.
The greatest risk isn’t failing. It’s succeeding at building the wrong life.
More than encouragement
A practical playbook for what comes next.
This book helps returned missionaries turn the faith, discipline, and perspective developed during missionary service into an intentional plan for adulthood.
Clarity
Understand who you are becoming and what you want your life to represent.
Better decisions
Evaluate important choices against your faith, values, Identity Standard, and long-term direction.
A practical plan
Turn ideas and intentions into priorities, structure, and measurable action.
Consistent progress
Move forward, learn from setbacks, make adjustments, and keep becoming.
The Meaningful Life Framework
Four Steps for navigating the decisions that shape your future.
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 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.
What you will work through
The decisions that quietly shape your entire life.
The book applies the Meaningful Life Framework to the areas that carry the greatest long-term consequences.
- Identity
- Create an Identity Standard that defines the man you are committed to becoming.
- Faith
- Build a personal spiritual rhythm centered on Jesus Christ.
- Career
- Choose work that supports the life you want to build.
- Money
- Develop a plan for financial freedom, generosity, and long-term impact.
- Marriage
- Prepare to build a strong marriage and family culture.
- Friendships
- Choose relationships that strengthen who you are becoming.
- Health
- Build the physical foundation your future requires.
Twelve chapters, a guided Start Now section, and free companion tools available on this website.
Who this book is for
Written for the season after the mission.
If you just came home
This book is written directly to returned missionaries navigating the transition from a highly structured mission into adulthood.
It is especially relevant for someone deciding what comes next in his faith, education, career, money, marriage, friendships, or health.
If you are welcoming someone home
It is also a meaningful homecoming gift from:
- Parents
- Grandparents
- Bishops
- Mission presidents
- Ward & stake leaders
- Institute teachers
- Friends & mentors
Give him more than encouragement. Give him a process he can use for the rest of his life.
What readers are saying
“You’re holding this book at exactly the right moment — this season you’re in right now is one of the most important you’ll ever walk through, whether it feels like it yet or not.
I’ve known Ben for years, and I’ve watched him mentor young men through exactly this season. He doesn’t just teach this process — he uses it, in his own career, his marriage, his faith. I’ve watched it hold up under real pressure.
Do the work in these pages, not just the reading. This isn’t a book about surviving your twenties. It’s about which man you become — and you get to build that man on purpose, starting now.
Welcome home. Now let’s go build something.”
Steven Sharp Nelson
“When our son came home, he was excited about his future but unsure where to begin. This book helped him slow down, think clearly, and create a direction for his life. It also gave us a better way to talk with him about what comes next without trying to make the decisions for him.”
“I wish we could have given this book to our son the day he came home. It addresses the questions returned missionaries are quietly carrying and gives them practical steps for moving forward. We watched him become more confident and intentional about his faith, education, and future.”
“I came home from my mission knowing how to work hard, but I didn’t know what I was working toward. Writing my Identity Standard helped me decide who I wanted to become before making decisions about school, work, and relationships. It changed how I think about my future.”
“This book helped me realize that choosing a career wasn’t just about finding a job or making money. It was about deciding what kind of life I wanted to build. The process gave me the confidence to stop drifting and make a real plan.”
“The Friend Audit forced me to look honestly at the people influencing my life. I didn’t cut everyone off, but I became more intentional about who I spent my time with. That decision has already changed the direction of my life.”
The book doesn’t end on the last page
Use the free tools to put the book into action.
Every reader receives access to the website’s worksheets and interactive tools. Use them to create your Identity Standard, work through important decisions, evaluate the major areas of your life, and build your plan.
Identity Standard
Create or revisit the standard that defines who you are becoming.
Build my Identity StandardMoney Calculator
See what it will take to build financial freedom and leave a meaningful legacy.
Open the Money CalculatorWelcome home. Now build what comes next.
Build a life your future self will thank you for.
You do not need to have your entire future figured out. You need a reliable process for making your next important decision and the courage to take the first step.
Request a bulk or gift order →