PROBLEMS YOUR LIFE PURPOSE CAN SOLVE: #2. FEELING LOST
Is the need to know where you’re going getting you off track?
BEING CONNECTED TO YOUR DESTINY, NOT YOUR DESTINATION, KEEPS YOU CENTRED
Have you ever judged an Uber Driver for using Google Maps?
It’s embarrassing to admit, but I have.
Once while travelling in a different city, I jumped in an Uber for a 10-minute trip to a popular tourist destination. The driver used Google Maps, complete with voice instructions.
I was bewildered.
Doesn’t he know where he’s going? Surely, he’s been there a million times? Why would you listen to that annoying voice if you know the route?
My judgemental mind chatter went wild.
I consulted friends and family on this annoying matter and was informed of the logical reasons for the use of Google Maps for short and familiar trips. e.g., staying informed of traffic conditions and protection against fare disputes.
Yet, I still wasn’t satisfied.
What was wrong with me? Why did I judge the use of Google Maps as passive at best and lazy at worst? Deep within me I had a serious aversion to this convenient technology.
I needed to investigate.
I found that for some reason, Google Maps transforms me into a Rebellious Control Freak, highlighting my insistent need to figure everything out myself and an inherent resistance to following directions.
Somehow, I deemed handing over navigation to a computer program an affront to my intellect. Do no thinking? Do no planning? Shut up and listen to directions? Just get in the car and drive...without a care? That’s RIDICULOUS.
It became obvious that my intellect feels rejected, usurped, and rendered useless by technologies that replicate its skillset (let’s not get started on Chat GPT!). And while this initially seemed trivial, I realised that it made sense. After all, for most of my life my intellect has been “in charge” of everything – or at least, it thinks it has.
Your intellect doesn’t easily surrender to a place of passivity, openness, and receptivity to guidance.
And this is exactly what I felt Google Maps was asking me to do.
Surrender. Trust. Stop trying to figure it out. Just follow the signposts, literally.
This was a major spiritual lesson if ever I spotted one.
The lesson of letting go of the Rebellious Control Freak is an invaluable one when it comes to navigating your life’s path. It’s particularly useful when a personal crisis of some sort makes your planned path suddenly or shockingly impassable and you are forced to change direction.
It’s in those moments when you feel completely lost, directionless, disorientated, confused, and overwhelmed that you’re invited by the Universe to surrender. To drop your intellectual insistence on figuring things out, searching for answers and planning action.
The thing is, when you’re lost and confused, you’re SCARED. You’ll do ANYTHING to stop that dizzy, disorientated feeling. You’ll do ANYTHING to feel calm and centred again.
Anything.
Except...
Surrender.
Instead, the Intellect grabs a hold of the situation and begins insisting that you must know exactly where you’re going and how to get there.
It begins habitually employing its array of coping mechanisms, such as:
Trying to do your way out of overwhelm – “If I just finish this to-do list, I’ll get to calm.”
Trying to think your way out of confusion – “If I just analyse this a bit more, I’ll get to clarity.”
Trying to plan your way out of inaction – “If I just devise strategies and steps, I’ll get moving.”
Trying to research your way out of ignorance – “If I just know it all, I’ll know what to do.”
The Intellect, in its intense effort to get you out of feeling lost, brings MORE energy up INTO YOUR HEAD, which ultimately gets you even MORE OFF-TRACK. This ‘heady’ search for direction often comes with a set of unhelpful consequences, such as:
Creating dependencies on experts and authority figures
Getting stuck down YouTube rabbit holes
Clogging your hard drive up with free PDFs
Spending a lot of money on resources that promise “the answer”
Suffering from Dr. Google-induced panic attacks
These wild-goose chases are designed to teach you one thing: when the energy is in your head, you are easily misled.
God knows I’ve spent days, months, even years in the self-help wilderness due to my Intellect’s incessant searching for direction. Until I asked the seemingly illogical question: To stop feeling lost, do you need to know where you’re going?
In answering this, I realised just how attached you can get to always needing to know where you’re going. Falling into the trap of insisting that you must be clear on your desired outcome and committed to a specific destination before you can feel safe, assured, and motivated to move forward.
But how often are you 100% sure where you want to go? Especially when you’re in the thick of a life-changing crisis. And could it be that the unyielding necessity to know your destination just creates stress and pressure that blinds you from being able to find your path?
When you’re feeling lost, what do you really need first?
You need to know where you are.
You need to remember who you are and what you want.
The question of where you’re going is secondary. Think about it. A dizzy and disorientated feeling doesn’t simply stop with the knowledge of your direction or destination. It stops naturally when you centre yourself, ground yourself, and reconnect with your current position. When you become present enough to tune in to your true needs and desires.
Centring yourself means coming back to the core of who you are. Who are you in essence? What is your Heart’s greatest desire? What are your values? Why are you here? What is your purpose?
It is your purpose that anchors you with a sense of safety and stability. When you shift your awareness away from the changing environment to the unchangeable essence within you, your sense of equilibrium is restored.
Your purpose is your CALLING. And when you connect with your calling, your PATH CALLS YOU. It is your purpose that gives you clarity about what you are CALLED to do and where you are CALLED to go. You are shown the direction you need to take by your inner guidance system.
Being called along your path is the opposite of the Intellect’s incessant searching, planning and analysis. You no longer need to obsess about goals and outcomes because staying connected to your purpose allows you to focus on your destiny instead of a destination. Your purpose centres and orientates you – even when you don’t intellectually “know” where you’re going.
What does this this connection to purpose look like in practical terms?
It is simply about making it a priority to come back to your centre. To get the energy out of your head by shifting your mind’s awareness to your core. By reconnecting with your body and tuning into the embodiment of who you are, where you are and why you’re here. And this is what ‘surrendering’ really means. It means letting go of the Intellect’s need to ‘be in charge’ and dictate where you’re going. It means withstanding the discomfort of feeling lost and confused as you reconnect with yourself. It means being open and receptive to following the direction of your calling.
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