How a Simple Worksheet Helped Me Find My Life’s Purpose

There was a moment in my life when everything on paper looked right. I had built a career I was proud of—one that had taken me around the world and given me incredible experiences. I was the Coordinator of Travel Safety, a role I had poured myself into. I was the sole architect of a travel safety registry, collaborated with private organizations, helped guide new technology in the field, and became a sought-after speaker at conferences. It was exciting work—urgent, impactful, and dynamic. I was trained in risk management through real-world crises, and it felt like I was at the top of my game.

I traveled to places like Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Israel. I leapt across borders for work that mattered, and I was energized by the movement, the responsibility, the sense of forward momentum. I had a very bright future ahead of me. And for a time, I was thrilled by it.

But then, something started to ache. I couldn’t name it at first. I just knew something was missing. Part of it was the trouble of administrative life, needing to constantly bend the knee to an ever-changing set of leaders above me. There was also the lack of real connection, I kept feeling that I was more of a rubber stamp than an agent of true change.

That’s when I sat down with this deceptively simple worksheet—a life possibility planning template. It asked me to lay it all out. To imagine, without censorship, everything I might want to do with my life. So I did. I emptied the contents of my dreams onto the page.

I included the obvious paths: continuing in my travel safety role, or pivoting to a similar job elsewhere—maybe even abroad. I thought about getting a Ph.D. in creative writing and teaching as a professor. I considered becoming a life coach and working independently, building something of my own. These were ideas I had entertained before.

And then, buried deep in the list, I wrote: become a therapist.

That idea had followed me quietly for years. Even when I worked in government and university settings, people would stop by my office—not to talk about logistics, but to cry, to process, to share things they hadn’t told anyone else. It was always unofficial, always informal. But it happened everywhere I went.

This worksheet didn’t just ask me what I could do. It asked me to consider: what will it take? What will it give? I looked at the possibility of becoming a professor and asked: what kind of freedom, what kind of purpose would that offer me? I couldn’t find an answer that lit me up. I mostly wanted to become a professor because my father had been a professor. I was raced on Cole Trickle and the Days of Thunder but would I really want to become a racecar driver? But when I looked at the idea of becoming a therapist, something inside of me settled. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t high-profile. But it felt true. It gave me freedom. The idea of having a private practice I put in the notes section and I underlined it.

That worksheet helped me see something I had been orbiting for years: a life that aligned with who I had always been. It let me trace not just the practical path forward, but the emotional one—the one built on meaning, purpose, and connection.

And it was there, in the quiet honesty of that process, that I realized: I hadn’t been avoiding therapy. I had been slowly walking toward it all along. I kept that worksheet by my computer for months and it felt like a true way forward. Today I use it with my clients and it always seems to jog something in their own thinking which cuts through all of the feelings.

This is the very worksheet that helped me shift the course of my life—a simple but powerful tool that guided me to clarity during a time of uncertainty. If you're at a crossroads, feeling stuck, or simply curious about what else might be possible for you, I invite you to try it for yourself. You can download the Worksheet About Life below.

WorksheetAboutLife.docx

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