“A profound passion project that brings joy and meaning to life.” It is transformational rather than transactional, something chosen rather than imposed.

A way of looking at life through the lens of meaning, fulfilment, contribution and what comes next. Not simply having a passion project, but developing the awareness to recognise why you might need one.

The formative phase. Foundations, influences, education, experimentation, early passions and learning the rules of whatever game you have chosen to play. The book associates this phase with the what.

The achievement phase. Career, mastery, building, competing, accumulating and proving yourself. The how years. Necessary, often exhilarating, occasionally all-consuming.

Cornerstone → Keystone → Capstone. The architectural arc through which the book examines a career and life. Not everyone follows it neatly. That is rather the point.

The evolution beyond fixed and growth mindsets towards using your abilities for the wellbeing of others as well as yourself. The shift from wanting to be best in the world towards becoming best for the world.

The space between chapters. Borrowed from Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the book uses bardo to describe an intermediary state between life's journeys, where pausing rather than immediately doing can create the conditions for genuine transition.

Possibly the most expensive word in the book. The point at which the question changes from “How do I get more?” to “What do I strive for next?”

Possibly the most expensive word in the book. The point at which the question changes from “How do I get more?” to “What do I strive for next?”

1. Awareness
   The first part of the blueprint. Understanding yourself, your situation, motivations, passions and whether something important might be missing.

2. Action
   Where introspection meets execution. Ideas are cheap. Building something meaningful is rather harder.

3. Amplification
   The third stage. Telling the story, extending the impact and allowing a personal project to influence people beyond its owner. Awareness, Action and Amplification form the overarching blueprint of the book.

The process of peeling back the layers of what you think you are passionate about until you reach the more interesting question: why? The book explicitly identifies “peeling of the passion onion” as part of its toolkit.

Calculated audacity. The willingness to attempt something unusual, improbable or slightly mad, without abandoning discipline altogether. There is an entire chapter devoted to balancing discipline with derring-do.

The trusted person beside the Capstone owner. Not necessarily the star of the project, but frequently essential to getting the thing off the ground and keeping its owner grounded.

The person whose passion, agency and commitment sit at the centre of the project. Ownership here means rather more than whose name appears on the paperwork.

Is the path you have to stay on where as motivation is the first step 

The Sybaritic Spectrum: at one end you have denying pleasure and at the other end you have being consumed by it. Sybaritism is the sweet spot in between. Where pleasure meets purpose. A Capstone project can help us find that balance, turning enjoyment and indulgence into something meaningful, especially for others.

The french term that many have used to explain a moment when someone is hit by a bolt of lightening for their Capstone. The term means lightening, electrical flash, making something lighter. A Capstone often begins with a coup de foudre: the moment someone sees not simply what something is, but what it could become… and feels compelled to be the person who makes it happen.