Hi Steve,
I asked your GPT tool this:
Can you give me some text that introduces the 8 steps to your Plan B, also known as the Significant S.T.O.R.I.E.S. system, explain the outcome for the user, and the power of it in someone’s life?
But the answer it gave me wasn’t quite right.
It leaned too heavily into financial framing and had a subtle “victim” tone, which isn’t how I want this positioned.
What I’m really looking for is:
- A less financial, more human and existential framing
- A tone aimed at people in transition — those questioning their lives, searching for meaning, purpose, and direction
- Positioning the process as one of revelation and self-discovery
- Helping people uncover:
- What they truly want for the rest of their life
- Who they really are
- What they love doing
- Where they fit in the world
- How their natural gifts align with what the world wants, needs, and is willing to pay for
- Framing it as a journey toward being who you are and getting paid for it, not “escaping” or “fixing” a broken life
- Emphasising alignment, coherence, contribution, and purpose — not scarcity, struggle, or financial anxiety
In short:
Can you write an introduction to the 8-step Significant S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System that frames it as a transformational life-design and purpose-discovery process — one that helps people find clarity, meaning, direction, and a values-aligned livelihood — and clearly explains the personal outcome and life-changing power of the system?
Thank you.
The Significant S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System™
A journey of self-discovery, purpose, and life design
Most people don’t fail to live the life they want because they lack talent or effort.
They struggle because they’ve never been given a structured way to discover:
- Who they truly are
- What they genuinely want from life
- What they love doing
- Where they belong in the world
- How their natural gifts can become a meaningful livelihood
The Significant S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System exists to change that.
It’s an eight-step, guided process designed for people who find themselves at a crossroads — in transition, questioning their direction, or sensing that the life they’ve been living no longer fits who they’re becoming.
This isn’t about “fixing” a broken life.
It’s about revealing the life that’s already trying to emerge.
What the S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System really is
At its heart, S.T.O.R.I.E.S. is a life-design and purpose-discovery framework.
It helps you surface the deeper narrative of who you are and what you’re here to do — then turn that narrative into a clear, grounded path forward.
Rather than starting with external expectations or practical constraints, the process begins with your inner compass:
- Your values
- Your passions
- Your curiosities
- Your strengths
- Your longings
- Your sense of meaning and contribution
From there, it gently guides you to:
- Articulate your favourite future
- Name the kind of life you actually want to live
- Clarify the work that would feel meaningful, energising, and authentic
- Identify the problems in the world you feel drawn to solve
- Discover how what you love overlaps with what the world wants, needs, and will reward
It’s a process of alignment, not optimisation.
Of coherence, not hustle.
Of becoming, not performing.
The outcome for the user
When someone completes the Significant S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System, they don’t just come away with a list of goals.
They experience a deep internal shift in clarity, confidence, and direction.
They gain:
- A clear sense of who they are now — not who they used to be
- A written, emotionally resonant life narrative they actually believe in
- A strong sense of personal purpose and direction
- A clearer picture of what they want the rest of their life to look like
- A short list of meaningful projects or paths worth committing to
- A grounded understanding of how their gifts can serve others
- A renewed sense of agency over their future
They stop drifting between options.
They stop outsourcing their life decisions to circumstance.
They stop shrinking their dreams to fit old identities.
Instead, they begin moving forward with quiet certainty.
The deeper power of the system
The real power of S.T.O.R.I.E.S. isn’t just practical.
It’s existential.
It changes the relationship a person has with themselves and their future.
1. It restores authorship
People stop living inside stories inherited from parents, culture, trauma, or past choices.
They start consciously writing their own story.
That alone transforms how they make decisions, take risks, and relate to opportunity.
2. It brings coherence to a scattered life
Most people carry fragmented identities:
- Who they are at work
- Who they are at home
- Who they wish they were
- Who they pretend to be
S.T.O.R.I.E.S. integrates those fragments into a single, coherent sense of self and direction.
Life starts to feel simpler, cleaner, and more truthful.
3. It turns confusion into clarity
Instead of asking:
- “What should I do with my life?”
- “Why do I feel restless even when things look fine?”
- “Why do I keep starting and stopping things?”
People begin asking:
- “What feels meaningful to me now?”
- “What kind of life am I actually here to live?”
- “What would it look like to be fully myself?”
And they start getting real answers.
4. It aligns identity with livelihood
Rather than chasing roles, titles, or money, people learn to design a livelihood that grows naturally out of:
- Who they are
- What they love
- What they’re good at
- What the world genuinely needs
- What people are willing to pay for
The result is not “work–life balance.”
It’s work–life integration.
Being who you are becomes the work.
And the work becomes an expression of who you are.
5. It replaces fear-based living with purpose-based living
Most people make major life decisions from fear:
- Fear of instability
- Fear of judgment
- Fear of being unrealistic
- Fear of wasting time
S.T.O.R.I.E.S. shifts the decision-making centre from fear to meaning.
People still act responsibly — but now they act from purpose, not pressure.
In one simple sentence
The Significant S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System helps people discover who they really are, what they truly want, and how to build a life and livelihood that feels meaningful, aligned, and worth waking up for.
Why this matters now
More people than ever are:
- Leaving old careers
- Re-evaluating their identities
- Questioning success as they’ve been taught to define it
- Searching for work that feels purposeful, not just profitable
- Wanting to contribute something real to the world
The S.T.O.R.I.E.S. System meets people exactly at that threshold moment.
Not with prescriptions.
Not with hype.
Not with shallow positivity.
But with a structured, grounded, humane way to design the next chapter of their life — consciously, creatively, and courageously.
Reference: Stand and Deliver! Discovering Your Money and Your Life, from AoLP.
Academy of Life Planning 