James Vaughan
Peggy Vaughan
Kelly Castor
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I'm James Vaughan, co-author of The Life-Planning Workbook and co-founder of the LifeDesign Company. I have an abiding interest in how people learn, make decisions and manage their lives.
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The seeds of my interest in life planning go back to my own decision process in choosing a career. I began college with the idea of becoming an accountant. Math was an easy subject for me, but after only two semesters, I felt it wasn't a field that was going to hold my interest. I decided to study for the ministry and pursued a degree in philosophy and religion. During my senior year, I took my first course in Psychology and was captivated by the possibility of learning more about why we do the things we do.
I had already accepted a fellowship at Yale Divinity School so I went to Yale for a semester before deciding to leave the ministerial track and pursue an advance degree in Psychology. That was a hard decision for me to make, and I was very fortunate to have an excellent faculty advisor who helped me think it through and make the right decision for me. I then took a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.
I taught Organizational Psychology for 8 years in the Graduate Schools of Business at the Univ. of Pittsburgh and the Univ. of Rochester. I was an Associate Professor with tenure in 1970 when I decided to leave the Univ. of Rochester and go into consulting fulltime. I still remember the shocked reaction I got from friends and colleagues. They couldn't believe I would leave such a secure position to enter a profession where I would be on my own with no guaranteed income. This event and the reactions of others crystallized my interest in life planning and how we make significant life decision.
Peggy (my wife) and I began immediately to create and run Life-Planning Workshops. In 1972, while running a Life-Planning Workshop for couples, we got clear on our desire to live in a warm climate near the water and decided to move to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. In the ensuing years, Peggy and I have run Life-Planning Workshops for groups as diverse as the National Council of Churches and the National Defense University. We have counseled hundreds of people in the life-planning process and used it consistently in our own lives.
After working with this process for over 40 years, I am more energized than ever about the prospects of using the life-planning process to help people live full lives of their own choosing. Most people never come close to realizing their full potential. This is partly due to the almost unlimited capability that every person possesses, but it's also partly caused by the reluctance of many to pursue their dreams. Too many people accept limits put on them by others.
We are living in challenging times. The information age has created many new opportunities, but it has not simplified the task of choosing among them. In fact, the task of choosing is probably far more complex today because of the increase in options. Despite the serious conflicts that rage around the world, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to enrich our individual lives and to build our communities. The life-planning process can be a powerful tool toward this end in the hands of motivated people.
I hope you'll add your energy to ours and help us make the world a better place to live.
James Vaughan, Founder
LifeDesign Company
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I'm Peggy Vaughan, co-author of The Life-Planning Workbook.
I believe in living your life by choice instead of chance—so that at the end of it you don't say, "if only."
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Life planning has been an important part of my life (both personally and professionally) for many years. It was 1970 when James resigned his job as a college professor and started his own independent consulting firm. Since our youngest child was entering first grade, I joined in his effort to launch this new organization. One of the projects that I worked on that first year was helping to develop a life-planning program.
The following year we began conducting workshops using this material, but it was not until another year had passed that we got around to actually participating in a workshop rather than leading them. In 1972 we decided to invite a small group of friends to our home for a weekend session to go through the entire life-planning process. James and I each worked through the entire workbook independently and shared our individual reflections on our life together.
At the end of the session, we looked at each other and said, "What are we doing in Pittsburgh?" It's not that we disliked Pittsburgh; we had great friends there and enjoyed many things about the city. But our lifestyle did Not reflect our "priorities" as revealed in the work we had just done with the life-planning process—which included living in a warm climate near the water with a small-town atmosphere where the kids could ride their bikes to get around.
A couple of months later we embarked with our kids on a journey "down South" to find a place that fit the bill. It wasn't easy or simple, but it was clearly the right thing for us to do at that time in our lives. So the following year we moved and started "living by choice instead of chance"—which is the subtitle of The Life-Planning Workbook.
Many of our friends thought we were crazy, and many of them thought we must have some kind of financial security, and made comments like, "I wish I could do something like that." The truth is that we had no such safeguards; it was just that we were willing to sacrifice in order to improve the quality of our lives and that of our children. It's easy for people to see the risk in taking action while failing to see the sometimes more regrettable risk of Not taking action. In weighing the pros and cons, it was clearly the right decision For Us. This is the key to life planning—that it is a deeply individual, personal process and that the only person who can know or decide how to live your life is You.
Having now "practiced what we preached," we were even more enthusiastic about making the life-planning process available to others. During all the years since that time, we have conducted workshops for thousands of people in all walks of life—from church groups to the military at the National Defense University.
Finally, we realized that this process was needed on a much wider basis than was possible through reaching people personally in our workshops, so we painstakingly went through all the material we had used for 30 years to organize a workbook that could be made available for independent use or in groups—without involving us personally.
My belief in life planning is far deeper and more profound than I can fully express. But I know that it has made (and still makes) a tremendous difference in the quality of my life. And I hope that you will discover this benefit for yourself.
Peggy Vaughan, Co-author
The Life-Planning Workbook
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I'm Kelly Castor, Partner in the LifeDesign Company and Founder of my own company, Practical Lessons. I'm passionate about this work because of my own personal experience with The Life-Planning Workbook and because of my observations of those who are closest to me, my parents, grandparents and a multitude of other friends and family.
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With over 25 years of business experience, I studied my trade from the inside out, focusing on what did and didn't work for me and others. My philosophies, principles and practices are all derived from personal experience. My first-hand observations and involvement in managing and leading people in many successful enterprises shaped my belief that how you perform is, in large measure, a function of who you are as a person and the environment within which you live and work.
I owned and operated several small businesses in the service industry, property management and educational development and training sectors. I honed my leadership and management skills in the telecommunications industry running a region for a leading telecommunications company in the Southwest.
In 1998, I co-founded NII Communications, a CLEC in San Antonio, TX with two other partners. Bringing to bear all of the lessons learned in my other ventures, in 3 short years, I successfully led the company from $0 to $20 million dollars in revenue. The company was later sold to Clear-Tel communications.
In 2002, I founded Practical Lessons as a means to bring my wealth of experience to the core issues of starting, growing and sustaining a successful business venture. My clients often refer to me as their "business therapist," but my common sense approach to achieving results doesn't resemble the soft approach associated with most therapists.
I have a knack for quickly grasping the issues my clients face and developing practical strategies for addressing them. My goal as a consultant is to always leave my clients stronger and better prepared for the inevitable challenges of running a business.
Have a great life! It's yours for the taking.
Kelly Castor, Founder, Practical Lessons
10769 Beaver Dam Rd.
Middlesex, NC 27557
(252) 314-0492
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