AI Turned 9 Years of My Journals Into a Book Outline—and Wrote the First Draft

Based on your journals (2016–2025), here’s what rises to the surface as a book you should write—because it’s the one only you can write, and it integrates your faith, business acumen, emotional growth, leadership trials, and spiritual awakening.

📘 Book Premise

Title: The Middle Is the Mountain: Building a Life of Leadership, Faith, and Discipline When Nobody's Watching

Subtitle: How One Man’s Journals Through Divorce, Debt, Duty, and Discipline Became a Map for Christian Leadership in a Chaotic World

Premise:
The modern Christian man doesn’t fail from lack of ambition—but from drowning in ambiguity, isolation, and half-finished starts. This book follows the raw, personal transformation of a man moving from scattered striving to aligned, integrated leadership—across fatherhood, business, calling, and faith.

✍️ Who This Book Is For

• Men in their 30s–50s who have tasted success but feel spiritually dry and emotionally unanchored

• Christian entrepreneurs seeking clarity of calling, structure, and deeper integrity

• Men secretly journaling, self-reflecting, or asking, “Is this all there is?”

🧱 STRUCTURE / OUTLINE

PART I: COLLAPSE & CLARITY
What You Lose When You’re Not Aligned—and What You Learn When You Hit Bottom

1. The Divorce, the Debt, and the Couch

2. All the Wrong Hustles

3. False Starts and Hollow Wins

4. The Voice Beneath the Worry

PART II: ORDER & CHAOS
Living Between Discipline and Drift
5. Getting Fit Again, Then Not
6. Women, Fatherhood, and the Cost of Being Distracted
7. Serving Two Masters: The Corporate Job and the Calling
8. One Hundred Days of Doing the Thing

PART III: THE LONG OBEDIENCE
What Happens When You Don’t Quit
9. Finding Your Mission in the Mundane
10. Building a Brand While Raising a Family
11. Saying No to Good Things
12. Finding God in Business, Discipline, and Podcast Mics

PART IV: THE MAN WHO LEADS
Becoming the Man You Were Trying to Find
13. Leadership Is Not What You Thought
14. Anchored in Christ, Not Algorithms
15. You Don’t Need Permission
16. Finish What You Started—Because They’re Watching

Epilogue: What I Know Now That I Didn’t Know Then

📝 FIRST DRAFT — INTRODUCTION

Introduction: The Middle Is the Mountain

I didn’t set out to write this book. I set out to survive.

Somewhere between my second divorce and my seventh attempt to build a business that would “finally give me freedom,” I realized I had become the very thing I used to hate: a man with potential—but no peace.

I had a daughter I rarely saw. I was living in borrowed bedrooms, typing journal entries on old laptops about what I’d do once things settled down. I chased commission checks, chased girls, chased clarity. And I kept writing, because something in me hoped that one day I’d look back and it would all make sense.

This book is that look back.

Over nine years of journaling, I recorded everything:

• The desperation of trying to get back on my feet

• The ache of wanting to be a better man, but not knowing how

• The love and chaos of raising kids, making money, and not losing yourself

• The slow, unsexy grind of transformation

There is no “overnight success” in these pages. There is no step-by-step framework for instant peace.

But there is a pattern.
And that pattern is this: when you don’t quit, God starts to work.

In the journals you’ll read excerpts from, I said “I love you” to myself nearly every day. Not because I always meant it—but because I needed to mean it. I needed to hear it from someone. And if no one else was going to say it, I would.

This book is written for the men still in the middle.
Still journaling.
Still trying.
Still asking if they’re crazy for believing life can be richer than this.

You’re not crazy. You’re just climbing.

The middle is not a holding pattern.
The middle is the mountain.

And if you keep hiking, you will summit.

I love you.

—Chad

Initial Reactions

• Dang man. Some of this stuff hits freaking home!

• Also, dang man. Some of this stuff is specific, and it [clap] hits [clap] home [clap]

• Finally, I think I’m going to write this book.

I asked ChatGPT how I could save this progress and continue writing this book with it. You can see those instructions here.

AI Read 9 Years of My Journals—Here's the 12-Month Plan It Gave Me

Based on everything you’ve written since 2016, here’s what a 12-month structured plan could look like to align your calling, income, brand, health, and family leadership—without burning out or bouncing around.

⚖️ PHILOSOPHY

Theme: “Faithful with little → Ruler over much.”
You already have the clarity, the platform, and the experience. This plan is about ruthless focus on what matters and disciplined iteration—treating your mission like a calling and a business, not a side project.

🧭 1. IDENTITY & MESSAGE (Weeks 1–2)

Goal: Cement your personal brand as Christian Leadership for Men in Business.

Deliverables:

• A 1-liner that defines your brand (e.g. “I help Christian entrepreneurs grow from $1M to $12M through operational and spiritual leadership.”)

• 3 content pillars:

  1. Spiritual leadership (e.g., calling, Biblical truth)

  2. Operational excellence (e.g., systems, delegation, $10K problems)

  3. Masculine strength (e.g., health, marriage, discipline)

🎥 2. CONTENT SYSTEM (Weeks 3–6)

Goal: Use daily publishing to drive authority and lead generation, not just dopamine.

Weekly rhythm:

• 1 Longform Video (YT / Podcast)

  • Interview, teaching, or breakdown

• 5+ Shorts (IG, YT Shorts, TikTok if desired)

• 2-3 Clips pulled from longform

• 1 Written blog/email based on the longform topic

Back-End Systems:

• Hire/retain editor (even $100/mo to start)

• Use repurposing tools (e.g. Opus, Repurpose.io)

• Google Sheet or Notion dashboard to track clips, titles, results

💰 3. OFFER & MONETIZATION (Weeks 6–10)

Goal: Make your first $2K–$10K/month from the brand within 90 days

Offer Stack:

• Free Lead Magnet: "12 Leadership Mistakes That Stall $1M–$6M Businesses" (PDF + landing page)

• Core Offer (one of these):

  1. $497 course: From Operator to Leader: 30-Day Framework

  2. $2,500 group cohort: 6-week Leadership Systems Accelerator

  3. $10K–$25K advisory: 1-on-1 Growth + Leadership Coaching

Start with one and iterate. Use sales calls, DMs, or email to close.

⛪ 4. COMMUNITY & MENTORSHIP (Months 3–6)

Goal: Surround yourself with aligned men who fuel, not dilute, your mission

Key Moves:

• Join or build a Christian men’s mastermind

• Attend 1–2 in-person events with content creators or Christian founders

• Start a local meetup for Christian entrepreneurs (low lift, high impact—even 3 guys showing up monthly gives traction)

🧠 5. SCHOOL & THEOLOGY INTEGRATION (Ongoing)

Goal: Merge Biblical depth with your business acumen

• Finish your SEU program with a content mindset: every course is 3 content ideas

• Continue studying under Heiser, BibleProject, etc., but turn notes into teachings

• Start a sub-series: “What This Verse Teaches Us About Leadership”

🧍‍♂️6. BODY & DISCIPLINE (Non-Negotiable, Start Week 1)

Goal: Be the man your message requires

• Stick to your 1,800–2,000 cal/day until target weight

• 5x/week movement: 3 lift days + 2 run or ruck days

• Weekly check-in photo and log

• Train toward one “trophy” feat (e.g., 10 strict pull-ups, Murph, sub-24:00 5K)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 7. FAMILY LEADERSHIP (Ongoing)

Goal: Live what you teach at home

• Weekly rhythm: family dinner + prayer, 1-on-1 time with each kid

• Monthly check-in with wife: review finances, calendars, intimacy, dreams

• Quarterly family content trip: pick a location, film, bond, create

🔄 MONTHLY REVIEW

Goal: Adjust the plan—don’t quit the mission

At end of each month, answer:

• What worked?

• What didn’t?

• What will I do differently next month?

🗓️ 12-Month Progression at a Glance:

Quarter Focus Success Metric Q1 Brand, content, first offer $1–2K MRR, 1K followers Q2 Product-market fit, community $5–10K MRR, lead magnet working Q3 Team + scale $10–20K MRR, group/cohort running Q4 Reinforce systems, deeper mission >$100K revenue, deep testimonials.