3 Steps to Find Direction in Life
One of the challenges that a lot of us face is picking a direction in life. It can be so overwhelming because a lot of us want to accomplish so many different things in our lives, but have no idea where to start. Unfortunately a lot of the time we end up putting all of our ideas off because we simply can’t pick one to get started on.
I have been guilty of this myself in the past and I can tell you that it is definitely not a good feeling. At one point in my life I was experiencing complete analysis paralysis and I felt completely stuck and worried that I would never make a big move in my life again. It was at that point that I decided to dump all of the garbage negative thoughts I was having, and figure out what my next move would be.
That next move led to the creating of this blog and to this day I believe it was one of the best moves I’ve ever made in my life. When I started learning new strategies for breaking down people’s thought patterns, I decided that it would be a good idea to break down the pattern that I used to find direction in my life and share it with you guys!
Check out these three steps that I took to find direction in my life and start living the life I wanted. If you like them, feel free to use them for yourself and make sure you let me know how it goes in the comments section! 
Step 1: Find Your Voice
The first step that I took to help me find direction in life was finding my own voice. I was completely miserable working at my job and I wanted to quit. So I did what most people would do and leaned on those closest to me. I asked friends, family members, mentors and pretty much anyone else who would listen for advice.
The advice that I got was not bad advice. Some people told me to stick it out longer and see how I liked it over time, others said to apply for similar jobs because it might be the place I was working at that I didn’t like, and a few people said to quit and look for a job that had something to do with my college major. All sound advice that wouldn’t do any irreparable damage to my life, but I wasn’t satisfied.
Every time I tried to make a decision about what to do, all I could hear in my head was everyone’s opinion that I had asked for. It was dizzying. It wasn’t until I was walking back from a meeting with one of my best friends (and co-worker at the time) that it really hit me.
I kept telling him that I wanted to leave but then kept saying, “I don’t know” at the end of every sentence. He stopped me and said “Why do you keep saying you don’t know? You do know.” These words floored me. All this time, I did know. I knew that I wanted to leave my job. I knew that I wanted to do something that was more meaningful to me. And I knew I wanted to do it ASAP. I just wasn’t listening to myself.
When you find yourself seeking advice from a bunch of different people, and you aren’t satisfied with any of the advice you get, then that is a good indication that you already know what you want to do.
Instead of confusing yourself by asking everyone for their different opinions, or worrying about what others will think when you make your next move, just trust yourself and make it.
Being scared or hesitant is normal before making any big move in life, but if you listen to yourself, have a clear picture of what you want, and feel like it’s right, what other confirmation do you really need before you decide to go for it?
The real key to finding your own voice is trusting yourself. When you find your voice and start to listen to it and trust it, amazing things start to happen.
Step 2: Control Your Thoughts
Controlling your thoughts kind of goes hand-in-hand with finding your voice. Once you master the skill of listening to yourself, it is now your responsibility to make sure that your thoughts are allowing you to get what you really want.
I’ll use myself as an example for you. When I realized that I wanted to quit my job to start a blog (which I knew nothing about at the time) and become a life coach (which I had no previous experience in) I wanted to quit and do it, but I just couldn’t.
I would imagine myself failing, losing all of my money, ending up homeless in the street and, well, I think you get the picture. As you can imagine, this didn’t exactly make me want to run into my bosses office and give my two weeks notice.
So how did I get over this? I stopped imagining this terrible scenario!
Have you ever had a terrible thought or worried about someone that you cared about, and it was so strong that even though you just imagined it, it made you sick to your stomach? I bet you were able to shake it off and stop yourself from thinking about it almost immediately because it was serving no purpose…
Well that’s what you have to do here! Stop imagining yourself failing and start imagining what it will be like when you are thriving! I started to picture myself doing what I love, writing and connecting with readers, coaching people to go after their dreams, and you know what? I’m doing exactly that right now.
You see, if you build up all of these negative thoughts in your head, you will definitely stop yourself from getting what you want. But when you recognize that you control your thoughts, you can change them until the idea of going for it becomes so exciting that you have to get started right away!
This isn’t just a one-time thing either.
This is an ongoing process that continues when you finally take action and start working towards what you really want. If doubts start to creep in, it is your responsibility to take control of your thoughts and imagine what the end result you want will be, and it will keep you moving forward.
Step 3: Choose Your Direction
When you figure out what you want to do by finding your own voice and controlling your thoughts, the next step is to choose your direction. No matter what your next big move is the odds are that there are a few different ways to get where you want to go.
The best way that I’ve found to sort through your different options is to research them and then decide what is best for you. By research I don’t just mean look things up online and visit forums that answer your question.
Those are definitely good ways to get started, but I recommend reaching out to people who have already done what you want to do, see how they did it and what worked best for them, and then use that information to help you get even clearer on what approach you want to take.
The biggest stumbling block that people face when choosing their direction is changing their mind. They choose their direction and then once they hit a bump in the road, they panic and do a complete 180.
While I definitely understand the value in being flexible and being able to tweak your approach as you go, overall I believe you should be consistent in your approach and only make minor changes until you get a result. Whether or not the result is what you are looking for will really be the only way to tell if you took the right approach.
The good news is that once you have your result, you have either accomplished what you set out to, or you have some valuable information on what not to do for your next approach. Either way, if you are consistent in your approach and see it through, by the time you get your result, you will have taken a major step towards what you really want.
Make Big Moves
Now that you know my secret strategy for finding direction in life, feel free to copy it. All I ask in return is that you let me know how awesome your life is after you take charge of it and start living the way you want to live, and pass it on to anyone who you think it might help
Make sure that you SUBSCRIBE in the sidebar if you haven’t already and I would love to hear your thoughts about this strategy, or one that you might have yourself in the comments section!
