Radical Redirection: The Steps Towards the Life You Want
EVER FIND YOURSELF THINKING:
“There’s got to be more to life than this… but WHAT is it?”
Isn’t it strange that for most of us, big life goals simply END after a certain point?
Let me explain.
In high school, everyone around you is really concerned with your future. They want you to get into a good college, then get a stable job. In college, you do everything to get hired as soon as you graduate. Then, the goal is a solid career with steady growth. Eventually, and depending on your preferences, the next goals could be: secure housing, find a loving partner, save up for your retirement, maybe have children.
“I just need to get a job in my field! Then, life will be GOOD.”
But with that, the big goals end.
So after we achieve all this… do we just coast? “I made it!” Right? I achieved the “success” that all the older folks always wanted for me…
So now what?
At 25, I found myself quite lost and confused. I achieved “success.” I was on a leadership track at a great company, with good people and good pay. I paid off my student loans. I was in a great relationship, and we were quite certain about our future together. I took nice vacations and visited family multiple times a year.
My life was really, really good! I had NOTHING to complain about. And yet, inside me was a growing, gnawing emptiness. The question: “what now? What now? What NOW??” kept bothering me when I tried my best to be grateful for my good life.
“Ugh, what’s WRONG with me? Why can’t I just be grateful?”
Even after positive moments like: a big movie release, praise from my supervisor, a “thanks” from my team, or another affirmation of my career progress and impact, I still felt dissatisfied. I watched my coworkers celebrate the company’s accomplishments and wondered, “why is this not enough for me?”
I wanted every day to feel rewarding. Meaningful. Purposeful.
I wanted to wake up excited, and not just for my yoga class or for the morning latte, but for my whole life.
I wanted to do the things I loved RIGHT NOW, and not when I’m retired.
I wanted to feel alive more than just on adventures or hikes.
I wanted it all to be MORE than just about money (earning money, saving money, paying off debts, saving for a house).
I wanted my life to amount to something.
I wanted the inexplicable longing inside to end.
I can’t tell you if you need to change. You’re the one that decides that. But I CAN tell you what it feels like if you need a major life change.
It feels like something is off. Not right. Not ideal. Maybe your life is really good, like mine was, but late at night, when you’re alone with your thoughts, you’re not satisfied, and you want more - but more what? Or maybe you’re already in a crisis: a crisis of identity, a crisis of faith, a career crisis - maybe even at rock bottom, where the days feel so wrong that you can barely get through them.
“I’m where I WANTED to be… but I no longer like it here.”
And maybe you’re somewhere in-between. A stable, secure life on paper, but no excitement.
Or “living your dream,” the dream you’ve always had, but somehow anxious, stressed out, and still longing for something else.
Or: super busy with so many awesome things, but.. restless, and when you do stop, you can’t help but think: is this all that my life’s going to be?
When your life starts to feel like this, it’s a sign you’re ready for a big change. I call it: Radical Redirection.
Radical Redirection is a framework for going through life with meaning, purpose, passion, and easeful flow.
It’s a way to both navigate change and create aligned change, so that you’re always headed towards your ideal outcome while enjoying your current life.
You get both. The future that you want, and a meaningful, vibrant “now” that you can feel good about every day.
This is what I want to share with you. How to make this happen with the steps of Radical Redirection.
I believe that there’s more to this than simply quitting a job, switching careers, taking a course, or going on a soul-searching sabbatical. Those can be very helpful, but they’re a one-time quick fix. How long before you end up back where you started, asking the same big questions?
What I have for you is a FRAMEWORK that you can use again, and again, and again - whenever you find yourself in a crisis, or lost, or even mildly unhappy. We need more than just a new job or a sabbatical to figure out our big life questions.
We need a direction that leads us where we want to go (and a way to find it!) We need a plan, even just a rough one. We need to know what tools, resources, and skills we can rely on. We need a strategy for dealing with obstacles that get in our way (especially the inner ones, like low confidence or inner criticism).
When you’re ready to make a big change in your life, pivot towards something new and exciting, and find out what would make your life more fulfilling and fun,
here are the steps to figure it all out and make it happen:
Vision
This is your life direction! Bigger than most typical goals, your vision is the ULTIMATE goal. How do you want your life to look like and feel like? What’s the ideal picture? What would feel AMAZING to wake up to every day? This is your vision!
Your vision changes as you change. This is normal AND good. The more you learn about yourself and your values, the more you grow and change, the more your vision will shift. You might want MORE (a bigger family, more traveling, a better house)! Or less (simplify everything, go on retreats, become a digital nomad). Or simply something different. This is the “moving target.” Tune in to your wishes often to make sure you get all the “updates!”
Vision is always step 1. It puts you in the driver’s seat. You’re no longer coasting through life - you’re actively setting the direction.
( Create a beautiful vision for your future for free here! )
2. Your IDentity & Core Foundation
This is who you are. You might be surprised - who you think you are may not be the truth at the core! It may be a combination of what your parents wanted you to be, what your school valued, what your friend circle enjoys, and what society deems appropriate. Whereas who you are at your core might yet need to be discovered!
Your core foundation consists of your identity (who you are, your roles, your self-expression), your values (what you find important), and your strengths (the natural talents and innate qualities that have always been with you).
Being sure in who you are is vital for confidence (and therefore, confidently changing your life to head towards your vision). Your values and strengths help you make decisions that feel good - from big life-changing decisions to daily choices and habits. They’re also the tools you need to redirect when something in your life feels off track.
All together, your core foundation is exactly that - a foundation that stays solid and reliable in an ever-changing world and helps you navigate uncertainty and crisis.
3. your strengths & power
Strengths are not just a part of your core self - they’re also the source of your power. Your innate qualities, character strengths, and natural talents are how your soul wants to express itself. This is also what makes work easeful. When we use our strengths, we’re in a flow state and get things done really quickly. When we use our weak areas, it’s difficult, boring, “doesn’t come naturally,” we struggle and resist (and often get impostor syndrome).
And most of us rely on our weak areas for work on a daily basis! No wonder so many people feel unfulfilled, bored, or bad at their job!
Strengths also include our interests and passions, and often hide in the activities we do for fun. Ever wish you could do your hobby all day (“if only I could get paid for this!”)? Well, you’re closer to the truth than you realize!
Your strengths are the fastest and easiest way towards your vision. When you think of your vision and wonder, “how?” - the answer is always in your talents, personality qualities, and abilities.
4. Your mission & purpose
Similar to your vision, your mission is the big picture goal. But if the vision is what you want for yourself (it’s not selfish!), your mission and purpose is what you want for the world. The impact you want to have. The change you want to see.
This doesn’t have to be big! Your mission may simply be: being a compassionate human that spreads kindness. That’s enough. Motherhood, living sustainably, creating art, gardening for your family, being an example of something you stand for - these missions are just as important as missions of solving climate change or stopping wars.
The world needs ALL of these missions. So if it feels true for you, if your soul burns for it and yearns for it - then it’s yours. And it’s valuable and needed. And combined with your vision, your mission will give you a life-long sense of meaning and satisfaction.
5. strategy
This is all about how you’ll get there! Your desired point B, your vision for your life, your highest mission. What are the steps, big and small? What’s the most direct way to your ultimate goals of how you want to live? What, or who, can help you along the way? How will you know that you’re on the right track?
Following a plan feels better than stumbling in the dark. While it’s perfectly fine to just “follow your heart,” this method can feel random, uncertain, or too meandering. And having a big vision can feel overwhelming without a clear plan of getting there! Having a strategy (where following your heart CAN be a tactic you use!) helps the path feel more direct, intentional, and realistic. Plus, it gives you a way to measure your progress, because you’re aiming at concrete milestones.
Going about life without a strategy is like exploring the woods without a map or a set of directions. Perfect for some people, absolutely! But having the strategy, the set of directions (that you create yourself based on everything above), helps you avoid going in circles, getting lost and frustrated, becoming discouraged or losing faith in yourself.
Besides, the strategy evolves as you evolve! You come back to it again and again as you adjust your vision and uncover more about yourself. Having it as a tool will always help you get from any point A to any point B.
6. ways to overcome challenges
If you’re going to pursue the path of growth and fulfillment, you’ll need tools and resources that help you overcome challenges. Challenges arise no matter what, so learning what methods work best for you in tackling them is key to making your journey smoother, easier, and faster.
There might be external challenges, such as lack of time, low energy, not enough money, people who judge or try to dissuade you, constraints based on your job, where you live, or your family situation. There may also be internal challenges: fears, resistance, self-doubt, inner criticism, procrastination, guilt, overwhelm, shame, stress.
While these feel big and impassable in the moment, every human has the capacity to rise above them. Given the right tools, resources, and support, anyone can learn to overcome these obstacles and not be hindered by them. Building in ways of dealing with setbacks and barriers into your strategy makes it foolproof and ensures that you’ll achieve your goals!
7. Personal Leadership for Ongoing Growth
In addition to ways to overcome challenges, you’ll also need certain personal qualities that help you through tough times. The biggest difference between those who get disheartened, overwhelmed, and talk themselves out of their dreams, and those who keep going and create their best life is: inner strength. Confidence, resilience, faith, trust, self-worth, self-compassion.
Luckily, these qualities can be acquired and trained, like building muscles at the gym! Just because you feel that you lack some of these now, doesn’t mean that it’s a life sentence. No, that’s not “just the way you are” - it’s your current state, which you have the power to change. Confidence and belief in yourself increase the exact same way that your glutes or biceps do - through repetitive practices aimed at improving them.
This is personal leadership! The ability to train yourself (mentally, emotionally, physically) to be your best self in any situation. It’s an ongoing process, just like your growth is. Personal leadership is vital to creating your dream life because it ensures a scaling foundation under you. Your vision grows, your strategy develops, and you evolve, too.
Your dreams need you to be your best self. Knowing how to lead yourself through inner and outer growth is how you do that.
These steps can be applied to any goal, from something huge, like a brilliant and influential 30-year career, to something specific, like becoming a triathlete after 50.
Is it that simple? It can be! We’re just not taught this: not in school, in college, at home, or in leadership trainings at work.
This is why we have so many unhappy adults with long-forgotten dreams. We’re simply not taught the true way of creating lives that feel good!
If you’ve been stuck, lost, dissatisfied with life, feel like you have untapped potential waiting in you, or know that there’s something greater for you out in the world - the Radical Redirection method helps you find that bright, shining “lighthouse” goal and pivot yourself towards it.
My wish for you is to pursue your own happiness and fulfillment, because that automatically makes the world better.
Make self-discovery a lifestyle with the Radical Redirection steps. I KNOW you have wishes and goals that have been on the back burner for way too long!
Whether this framework feels too simple to be true, or too much and too difficult to dive into alone - check out my FREE WORKSHOP where I go over these steps in detail and explain how to apply them to your life!
There’s a lot more to each of these 7 steps! If you’re ready to step onto your path of growth and purpose, find the “lighthouse vision” that calls your name, and design a foolproof strategy of making it happen, I’d love to guide and support you in this.
My one-on-one coaching program takes you through these steps, in depth and detail, applying them to your situation and your goals.
In the process, we get you closer to your innermost truth. Revealing who you truly are, underneath layers and years of conditioning, defenses, and masks. Diving deep into these steps, envisioning, redirecting, and strengthening your foundation, you reconnect with what your soul came to Earth to do. And that’s what feels truly amazing - embodying that purpose, walking that path.
In 4 months, you can be on a totally new trajectory - steadily moving towards that dream that seemed impossible up until now.
You can do this, and you deserve it. I’d be honored to help you along the way. Email me to explore Radical Redirection one-on-one coaching.
Also - have you downloaded my FREE guide to getting UNSTUCK?
