Living Wise
Most people spend their lives answering the loudest voice in the room. Living Wise helps you hear the right one.
An operating system for the decisions that compound hardest — written in public and released one chapter at a time.
One email a week with each new chapter. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
Not ready for the book? Start with the free Gap Assessment.
A short self-assessment that surfaces where your decisions, attention, and relationships actually are right now — and where the next chapter of Living Wise can help most.
Free · About 5 minutes · Your report at the end
Ten chapters. Released one at a time.
I'm writing this book in the open. You don't wait for a publication date — every chapter ships the week it's finished, and you can begin practicing the ideas now, while the manuscript takes shape.
“The Three Voices (And the One That Almost Destroyed Me)”
“The Four-Zone Framework”
“The Life Map (You're Already On It)”
“The Gap (How to See What's Missing)”
“The Three Cups”
“The Intimacy Ladder”
“The 90-Day Sprint”
“The Stronghold (And How to Break It)”
“The Wrong King”
“The Destiny Test”
You learned how to grow money. Nobody taught you to grow judgment.
The salary, the 401(k), the mortgage, the title. You know how to build a portfolio. You were never handed a system for building the person who manages it.
That distance has a name. It's the gap — the space between what you're accumulating and who you're becoming. It doesn't close by accident, and it doesn't close by earning more.
Meanwhile the machines got very good at answers. Ask one anything and you'll have a response in seconds. Answers are cheap now. Judgment isn't — and no model on earth will make your decisions for you.
Living Wise is an operating system for making those decisions well, in the decade they compound hardest.
Four movements you'll walk every single day.
Not a theory to admire. A rhythm to keep.
God
Start where wisdom starts. A short passage, read slowly, before the day starts making its demands of you.
Gap
Name the honest distance between what you just read and how you actually operate. This is the part most people skip.
Application
One decision, today, in one of the four relationship zones. Small enough to do. Specific enough to count.
Café
Wisdom that stays private stays theoretical. Take it to a table with someone who will ask you about it next week.
Written for people in the middle of building something.
“These are your earning years. They are also your deciding years. Every choice you make now compounds — in your money, your marriage, your character.”
If you are somewhere between thirty and fifty-five — earning, investing, raising kids, leading a team, or some combination of all of it — this book is written for you.
You're in the years where compounding does its quiet work. Money compounds. So does character. So does whatever you keep avoiding. Every week hands you decisions whose bill doesn't come due for years, and the habits you set in this decade are the ones you'll be living inside of for the next three.
Written from 25 years of federal program leadership, corporate engineering, graduate instruction, and coaching people through exactly these years.
Early reader reflections coming soon.
Living Wise is being written in public, one chapter at a time. Once the first readers have lived with it, their reflections will live here.
Charles A. Harewood
Charles is the founder of GapCafe, a nonprofit coaching and human formation practice serving founders, professionals, and faith-based leaders.
His career spans more than 25 years across the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, General Electric, and the university classroom — environmental engineering, federal program leadership, and graduate-level curriculum design. Somewhere along the way he noticed that the smartest people he knew were rarely undone by a lack of information. They were undone by the gap between what they knew and how they lived.
He writes and teaches from Long Island, New York, where he serves at Calvary Tabernacle.
Don't wait for the finished book. Experience Living Wise as it is being written.
Founding Readers walk the whole manuscript journey — reading each chapter as it is released, reflecting on it, and offering feedback that can shape the book before it is done. It is a relationship with the work, not just a download.
Early access to each new chapter
Every manuscript installment lands with you first, the week it is finished — before it goes anywhere else.
Weekly Founding Reader reflection guides
A short set of questions with each chapter — enough to turn reading into practice, not just consumption.
Share written chapter feedback directly with Charles
Share written feedback on each chapter as the manuscript develops. Your reading can quietly influence what ships next — delivered straight to Charles as the book takes shape.
Three private Founding Reader conversations with Charles
Direct, small-group conversations over the course of the manuscript journey — not a webinar, a table.
Final manuscript review experience
Walk through the completed manuscript with Charles before it is published, and see how the pieces fit.
Completed Living Wise digital manuscript
The finished, kept, mark-up-able edition — every chapter, every section, in one place.
Optional recognition as a Founding Reader
Your name in the acknowledgments, if you choose it. A quiet record that you were there from the beginning.
One-time. No subscription. You stay for the whole manuscript journey — from the first chapter through the completed book.
From a single free chapter to the finished book.
You don't commit to the whole book up front. You start with one free chapter, then decide how deeply you want to participate.
Chapter 1 is out now. Start reading today.
It arrives in your inbox in about a minute. One email a week with each new chapter as it is released.
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Every chapter goes up on YouTube at no cost — and always will. Full access buys you the PDFs, the audio, and the finished manuscript: the version you can keep, mark up, and carry with you.
Three ways to read. One free chapter to start. Decide how deeply you want to participate.
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- Chapter 1 — PDF, audio & video
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The best first step if you're new.
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Everything, forever. No subscription.
- PDF download of each chapter as it is released
- Audio version of each chapter
- Access to every previously released chapter
- The final completed digital manuscript
Beyond YouTube: the PDFs, audio & manuscript you keep.
Walk the journey
Experience the manuscript as it is being written.
- Early access to each new chapter
- Weekly Founding Reader reflection guides
- Opportunities to provide manuscript feedback
- Three private conversations with Charles
- Final manuscript review experience
- Completed digital manuscript
- Optional recognition as a Founding Reader
For readers who want to participate, not just purchase.
Not what you hoped for? Reply to any email within 30 days and I'll refund you in full — and you keep the chapters.
Questions, answered plainly.
A ten-chapter book on making decisions well during your peak earning years. It is written and released one chapter at a time — read it, listen to it, or watch it, in the order you actually live it.
A new chapter ships every week from October 25 through December 27, 2026. Each one is free on YouTube the day it is finished. Full-access readers receive the PDF and audio download for every chapter too.
Yes. The first chapter is free in all three formats — PDF, audio, and video. Enter your name and email and it lands in your inbox in about a minute.
Every chapter is free on YouTube, always. Full access — $19, one time — buys you the PDF and audio downloads for all ten chapters, access to every previously released chapter, and the finished manuscript when it is complete. It's the version you can keep, mark up, and carry with you.
Founding Readers walk the whole manuscript journey — early access to each new chapter, weekly reflection guides, opportunities to give feedback that can shape the book, three private conversations with Charles, a final manuscript review experience, the completed digital manuscript, and optional recognition as a Founding Reader. It is for readers who want to participate in the book as it is being written, not just purchase the files.
The ideas should reach anyone who wants them. YouTube keeps every chapter free, always. The PDFs, audio downloads, and finished manuscript are for readers who want a version they can keep and return to.
Enter your name and email to receive Chapter 1 free in PDF, audio, and video. You'll get a short note each week as each new chapter is released.
Professionals in their peak earning years — founders, operators, investors, and parents who are earning and deciding more than ever, and who want a system for judgment, not another list of hacks.
Reply to any email within thirty days and I will refund you in full — and you keep the chapters. No questions, no friction.
Still deciding? Start with the first chapter — it is free, and it takes about nineteen minutes.
Chapter 1 · out now