The Ascent: A Twelve-Month Journey
Business was never supposed to become the center of your life.
It happens gradually.
Your business simply keeps asking for more.
More of your time.
More of your attention.
More of your energy.
And the things that matter most are often the things willing to wait.
The Ascent is a 12-month journey designed to help you live, lead, and build with greater intention across every area of your life.
Drift Happens Gradually
What matters most rarely demands the most attention.
Business is loud.
Clients need answers.
Problems need solving.
Opportunities need decisions.
People need you.
But the most important areas of your life rarely compete for your attention the same way.
Your relationship with God.
Your marriage.
Your kids.
Your health.
Your finances.
The future you're preparing for.
They can wait.
Until they can't.
Nothing has to be falling apart for something to be out of alignment.
That's how drift happens.
WHY I BUILT THE ASCENT
What matters most is rarely what demands the most attention.
For years, I believed that if I could just get the business where I wanted it, everything else would eventually fall into place.
I'd have more time.
More margin.
Less stress.
I'd become more intentional with my wife.
More present with my kids.
I'd finally prioritize my health.
I'd deepen my relationship with God.
The problem was...
Business never stopped asking for more.
There was always another season.
Another goal.
Another opportunity.
Eventually, I realized something that changed the way I looked at my life:
Becoming more successful in business doesn't automatically make us more intentional in the areas that matter most.
Those areas require their own attention.
Their own discipline.
Their own intentionality.
That's why I built The Ascent.
Not because men need another mastermind.
Not because they need another business coach.
But because I wanted to create the kind of structure I needed myself—a way to step back, see my whole life clearly, decide what matters most, and then actually live accordingly.
Not for a weekend.
Not when something goes wrong.
For an entire year.
The Ascent is the result.
THE PREPARATION REQUIRED
The man you become won't happen by accident.
The areas of your life that matter most deserve more than good intentions.
The Ascent is built around six domains that help you step back, see your life more clearly, and become increasingly intentional about where you're going and how you're living.
Not every domain will require the same attention in every season.
But together, they give you a way to look at your whole life—not just the part demanding the most from you right now.
Faith
Conviction Before Pressure
Your relationship with God isn't just another area of life.
It's the foundation beneath every other domain.
Faith is about deepening your relationship with Christ, learning to hear His voice more clearly, and developing convictions that aren't shaped by culture, convenience, or circumstances.
Because when pressure comes, you don't rise to your intentions.
You fall back on your foundation.
Family
Leadership Begins at Home
Your greatest leadership responsibility isn't in your business.
It's at home.
Family is about becoming more intentional as a husband, father, and spiritual leader.
More present.
More connected.
More engaged with the people who matter most.
Because success means very little if the people you love most receive what's left of you.
Fitness
Capacity for the Assignment
Your body affects your capacity to show up everywhere else.
Fitness is about building the strength, energy, resilience, recovery, and health required to live and lead well.
Not simply for appearance.
For capacity.
Because the life you're building requires a body capable of carrying it.
Finances
Building for Freedom
Money should create more than options.
It should create freedom, margin, and the ability to steward what you've been given well.
Finances is about becoming increasingly intentional with your business, income, investments, spending, and resources.
Whether you're building wealth, rebuilding financially, or deciding what enough looks like, the goal is the same:
Money serving your life and calling—not quietly controlling them.
Focus
Attention Is the Battlefield
What captures your attention eventually shapes your life.
Technology.
People.
Problems.
Opportunities.
Noise.
Everything is competing for it.
Focus is about becoming increasingly intentional about where your attention goes so your best energy is available for what matters most.
Because distracted men rarely lead anything well for very long.
Future
Preparation Before Necessity
The future doesn't announce what it will require from you.
Future is about continually learning, adapting, discerning, and preparing for what may be ahead.
Not because you can predict the future.
Because you can prepare yourself to meet it well.
The goal isn't to know exactly what comes next.
It's to avoid waiting until life demands change before you begin preparing for it.
The 12-month Ascent Journey
Built to create intentional progress.
The Ascent isn't a year of consuming more information.
It's a year of deciding what matters, turning those priorities into meaningful commitments, and creating a consistent rhythm for actually moving them forward.
The 12-month journey is organized into four 12-Week Impossible Games.
- 01
4 × 12-WEEK
Impossible Games
Every 12 weeks, you step back and decide what would make the next 12 weeks meaningful.
Your Impossible Game creates the larger focus for that season—giving you clarity around what you're pursuing and why it matters.
Not another list of goals.
A focused game worth playing.
- 02
12 × MONTHLY
Monthly Missions
Every Impossible Game is broken into three 4-week Missions.
Your Monthly Mission takes the larger vision and brings it closer.
What matters most this month?
What needs your attention now?
What meaningful progress needs to happen before you move forward?
- 03
48 × WEEKLY
Weekly Wars
Every Mission is broken into four Weekly Wars.
This is where intention becomes action.
Each week, you identify the commitments, conversations, decisions, and actions required to move the Mission forward.
Not everything deserves to become a War.
Only what matters enough to fight for.
But knowing what you're pursuing isn't enough.
You also need rhythms that keep you aligned while you're pursuing it.
- 04
DAILY
Communion
A daily rhythm of slowing down, seeking God, listening, reflecting, and staying connected to what matters most.
- 05
WEEKLY
Council
Every week, you gather with other men making the journey alongside you—to tell the truth, share perspective, challenge one another, pray together, and stay engaged in the work.
- 06
MONTHLY
Compass
Every month, you step back from the activity of life and evaluate where you are.
Two months of every Impossible Game include a Compass Conversation—a 60-minute one-on-one with Lars.
The third month includes a Compass Workshop with the group to reflect on the previous Game, recalibrate, and establish the next 12-Week Impossible Game.
The Game gives you direction.
The Mission gives you focus.
The War gives you action.
Communion keeps you grounded.
Council keeps you connected.
Compass keeps you aligned.
Together, they create the rhythm of The Ascent.
A PERSONAL INVITATION FROM LARS
A Personal Invitation.
I built The Ascent because I needed it too.
I've spent most of my adult life building.
Businesses.
Teams.
Systems.
Wealth.
Freedom.
And I'm grateful for all of it.
But one of the things I've become increasingly convinced of is that the areas of life that matter most don't become extraordinary by accident.
Neither does our relationship with God.
Neither does our marriage.
Neither does our health.
Neither does the way we lead our families.
Neither does the impact we ultimately have with our lives.
They require intention.
And I don't believe intention alone is enough.
We need structure. We need truth. We need other men. And sometimes we need someone willing to see what we can't see ourselves.
That's what I want The Ascent to provide.
For 12 months, I'm going to be deeply engaged in this journey with you.
We'll meet every week in Council.
Every month, we'll step back through Compass—either in a one-on-one conversation together or in a Compass Workshop with the group.
And between those conversations, you'll have real access to me.
Not because I have all the answers.
But because I've reached a point in my life where helping other men become more intentional about theirs is work I feel deeply called to do.
I'm not looking for hundreds of men.
I'm looking for the right men who are ready to take the next 12 months seriously.
If something in you is telling you this may be the right time, let's have a conversation.
No presentation.
No pressure.
We'll spend an hour together, and by the end of it, I think we'll both know whether The Ascent is the right journey for you.
— Lars Hedenborg
THE INVITATION
The Ascent isn't for every man.
It's for the man who knows there are areas of his life that deserve greater intention.
A man willing to tell himself the truth.
Willing to be challenged.
Willing to do the work.
Willing to invest in his faith, family, fitness, finances, focus, and future—not someday, but now.
You don't need to have everything figured out.
You don't need to be at a particular level of financial success.
But you do need to be ready to take the next 12 months seriously.
THE COMMITMENT
A year you won't get back.
The Ascent isn't designed to add another heavy commitment to your calendar.
The rhythm is intentionally simple: daily Communion, weekly Council, monthly Compass—and the focused work of your Impossible Games, Missions, and Wars.
The rhythm is light. The expectation is not.
You have to be willing to tell the truth, do the work, keep your commitments, and stay engaged when life gets busy.
The goal isn't to make the next 12 months busier.
It's to see what becomes possible when you approach one year with the intention of creating four years of progress.
Total investment for the 12-month journey is $18,000, payable with a $3,000 commitment deposit followed by ten monthly payments of $1,500 beginning October 1st.
BEGIN THE CONVERSATION
Don't make this decision from a website.
Let's spend 60 minutes together.
We'll talk about where you are, what you want from the next 12 months, and whether The Ascent is the right fit.
No presentation.
No pressure.
By the end of the conversation, I think we'll both know.