“I know what I want. I haven’t decided what has to give way for it.”
Naming what you want takes about ninety seconds. Deciding what gets the final say over the next two years, and what gives way for it, is harder, because every claim on your week is a good one you chose. That’s the work of the room.
Authority Foundations is where you choose the core values that get the final say over your next two years, and start making decisions by them. You leave with five core values read from your own last twelve months, one real decision worked through in writing, observations from one change tried in your week, and a written standard you decide from for the next year.
Four live sessions on Zoom, Wednesdays at 7:00pm Eastern, starting 14 October 2026. Five seats. $97.
Where you wake up, what the morning is for, who’s at the table that night, the trip that finally happened. That picture is the easier half. The harder half is deciding what it’s built on, and what gives way to make it fit.
Over four Wednesday evenings you work backward from that picture.
Two years out. The core values you want those years built on, grounded in your own last twelve months.
Twelve months out. What those core values ask of your calendar, written into My Foundations Summary, the reference you decide from for the year.
Seven days out. One change you test in your real week, starting after the third evening.
The work starts with your actual calendar, not a vision board. You reduce before you add, protect what matters while you change something else, and test the change in your ordinary week before you commit to more.
A calendar can carry two chapters at once: the one being lived, and one that ended years ago but still fills the week. We call that Inherited Momentum: priorities set for an earlier life that nobody has chosen since. Left alone, the next chapter gets inherited.
Nothing in the Practice asks you to leave a role or end a commitment. It asks you to decide what should lead, and to test it small, in your real week.
Four evenings away from the table, so the rest of them aren’t what’s left of the week.
Four Wednesday evenings on Zoom, at 7:00pm Eastern Time. Each session lasts up to ninety minutes.
Read the evidence. Your last twelve months, and what your moments of pride, frustration and regret, and the things you keep being drawn toward, say about what matters to you.
What should lead. The evidence becomes the five core values you want your next two years built on, each with a clear reason it belongs on your list.
What no longer fits, and the move. A real decision worked through a set of written questions, and one small change planned to try responsibly over the next seven days.
The proof. What your experiment has shown so far, and work on My Foundations Summary: your core values, what you learned, and the next step you’ve chosen. If your seven days are still under way, finish recording and reviewing them afterward before completing the Summary.
You choose a start date after Session 3 and record seven consecutive days. Pick an action that fits your responsibilities and schedule, then use the record to notice what helps, what gets in the way, and what you want to adjust. Between the earlier sessions nothing is assigned except noticing how the ideas show up in your week. The workbook exercises are done in the sessions.
The workbook is the instrument. James teaches from it, and you write in your own copy as you go.
Every page is worked in session, with time set aside for private writing. Nobody is called on. Speak if you want to, write a line in the chat, or keep it on your own page. Your workbook answers aren’t collected. There’s no sales pitch in the sessions.
The group is asked to keep personal contributions confidential. Sessions are recorded so a man who misses one can catch up, and so James can study and improve the teaching. You choose what you share aloud or in the chat; the recording details are in the questions below.
Five seats. Enough to hear yourself in another man’s answer, with no one required to speak.
A family evening, a long-postponed project, another professional commitment: each can have a good claim on your time. The work is deciding which should lead now, and what needs to change to give it that place.
Bring a choice that matters to you. The first two evenings help you identify one worth examining. In the third, you work through what it supports, what it costs and what deserves protection, then plan a small test. In the fourth, you read what happened and use it to choose your next step.
You leave with five core values you can explain, a real choice examined against them, and experience to draw on before you commit to more. Your Summary connects what you wanted, what you tried, what you learned and what comes next. A decision that needs more information leaves with a way to find it and a date to return to it.
Men who’d rather do this work in a room than alone.
Same method. Same core workbook. Same $97.
The Authority Practice is the live format: four Wednesday evenings with James and a small group. The Practice edition of the workbook follows those sessions.
Authority Foundations is the self-paced format: the workbook and three video sessions with James, done privately on your schedule. You can choose it now and join a later Practice group if you want to work through the material live.
This run is The First Room, the first group to work through Foundations live. After the fourth session, James invites you to give candid feedback in a private fifteen-minute conversation. What you tell him shapes the rooms that follow.
Choose the format that fits the way you want to do the work.
After nearly twenty-five years as a U.S. military officer and helicopter pilot, I changed my life and kept the high tempo. The new one filled up as fast as the old one. It took me a while to see I didn’t need another change. I needed different rules.
I’ve done this work on my own life more than once since. Every time, the part I couldn’t do alone was saying it out loud and hearing it back from men doing the same work.
That’s what these four evenings are for. Not group therapy. Not a mastermind. One workbook, time to think and write, and a handful of men working the same questions at the same time.
Life rewards participation. Not preparation.
Four live sessions starting Wednesday 14 October 2026, at 7:00pm Eastern Time. Up to ninety minutes per session. Five seats.
Includes the Practice workbook and The Four Signals Guide at enrollment, the self-paced edition after the final session with its three videos as they’re released, and a private fifteen-minute feedback conversation with James.
Enrollment closes Tuesday 13 October. Once your seat is confirmed and the workbook has been delivered, the purchase is final. See the Refund Policy.
Want to talk it through before you decide? Email [email protected] with your question. James replies personally, and if a short call would help, he’ll send a time.
Right after checkout, an email brings the four dates, the Zoom link (one link for all four evenings) and your library, where the Practice workbook and The Four Signals Guide are waiting.
The Four Signals Guide is our short guide to reading your values from four kinds of moments in your life. If you can, spend about twenty minutes with it before Session 1 and bring your examples. It’s recommended, not required: the workbook covers the same four kinds of moments, so come anyway. If you’ve done the Guide before, bring those answers; there’s no need to copy them out again.
No. The Practice is Authority Foundations delivered live. It stands on its own.
Yes, for two uses only: participants can catch up on a missed session, and James studies the recordings to improve the teaching. They’re never shared outside the group, published, or used for marketing. If you’d rather talk than watch a missed session, a twenty-minute private catch-up is available.
Only if you want to. Nobody is called on. Most of the work is private writing. You can use the chat when you’d rather type than speak, or keep your response in your workbook.
It’s better to join a run you can attend in full; the next room is in January 2027. Until then, self-paced Authority Foundations offers the same work on your schedule. If an unexpected absence comes up after you’ve enrolled, you can catch up through the recording or the twenty-minute private conversation.
You receive the self-paced edition for reference, and its three videos are added as they’re released, with an email when they’re in. James also invites you to a private fifteen-minute conversation about what you learned and your feedback on the four weeks.
The Practice is complete in itself. These are here if you want to explore a different question or work privately with James.
The Life Fit Assessment scores five areas of your life in about thirty minutes and shows what supports the life you want and what needs attention. It costs $67. You can take it on its own; neither it nor Foundations requires the other.
Precision Realignment is one month of private work with James to choose your first move toward the life you want, and start making it in your actual week. You test it for fourteen days as one manageable change, and James writes you a Realignment Report about your situation and that move. It costs $997.
Authorship by Design™ is the fuller sixteen-week private program for planning and beginning the next chapter, by application. Your Foundations Summary can provide a starting point for either program.