Michael Hyatt Convocation

New York Times Best Selling Author Michael Hyatt challenged students at Convocation Friday, Feb. 26 to “stop drifting and stop being driven” and instead live their lives with intentionality and purpose.

Hyatt, the author of “Living Forward” and the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, began by describing his “idyllic” childhood and times he spent with his father.

“He taught me to pitch and to catch and to bat, and … I don’t remember my dad ever missing a (baseball) game,” Hyatt said. “My dad was my constant companion, my ever-present friend, my guide, but then as I moved into my teenage years, something happened.”

Hyatt’s father took a job as a traveling salesman, and during that time, his father’s life began to spiral out of control due to a drinking problem. One night, Hyatt and his sister came home and found their father passed out outside of their home, and they picked him up and carried him inside.

“I stood in the shadows looking at my father, and I said to myself, ‘I will never be like that,’” Hyatt said. “That silent vow became the driving force of my life.”

He attended Baylor University, and his first job after college was working as a salesman, where he was very successful and earned more money in his first year than his father, also a businessman, ever made in a single year. His drive to create a better life for himself caused his personal life to deteriorate.

“My family floundered, and my health faltered,” Hyatt said. “I was in a place where something had to change.”

Hyatt contrasted the lifestyles of himself and his father, describing himself as being very driven while his father chose to drift. He said these two mindsets are two sides of the same coin, as both of them are “unconscious ways to live” that lead to destinations they would not have chosen.

“Fortunately, there is a third alternative, and the third alternative is the designed life,” Hyatt said. “It’s a life where you live with intention, you live with purpose, and you choose the destinations where you want to end up.”

He posed three questions to students that could help them live a designed life. The first question provided clarity to students about their legacies.

“How do you want to be remembered?” Hyatt asked. “When you and I die, there are going to be conversations about us — what we meant to the various people in our lives who matter the most, and the cool thing is we can begin to engineer those conversations now … by who we become.”

Hyatt also asked students to think about what is important to them and what their priorities are. He said students’ lives are a total of the choices they have made, and priorities are a “great filter for the decisions (they) make.”

His final question encouraged students to think about a brave decision they needed to make that day. He said culture tells them they need to be able to see the whole picture before taking a first step. In reality, they often just need to know what the next right thing is, and do it. Those decisions will bring students outside of their comfort zones, but Hyatt said that is exactly where they should be.

“Outside of your comfort zone is where all the great stuff happens,” Hyatt said. “That’s where your prayers are answered. That’s where you develop new capabilities. That’s where you achieve your dreams.”