Embracing Directionlessness: Finding My Way Home

Those common themes that keep echoing, I am learning, are the very things we should be leaning into. For me, right now, it's direction. Recently, I took a trip to visit family in the north woods of Wisconsin. Before I left, I had a coaching session where we discussed my feelings of being directionless in this current season of life—feeling as though I'm simply going through the motions, not fully living.

While on vacation, I found myself walking with my littlest one on an unfamiliar street, without a real sense of direction. I looked up and saw a road sign, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. How ironic that in a season where I feel completely directionless, I would find this sign along the path—a landmark to know which way to go when heading back to the house. I’m so used to being on autopilot, knowing my way without needing directions, but this time was different. From the airport to my mom's house and back, I needed navigation. Without it, who knows where I would have ended up?

This experience was a reminder of the season I’m in. Some days, it feels overwhelming and exhausting to not know where I’m headed or what I’m doing with my life. But more and more, I’m learning to lean in and embrace this season because I believe it’s leading me where I’m supposed to go. It’s both revealing and unraveling—unraveling the parts of myself that no longer serve me and actually hold me back, and revealing the direction in which I’m meant to go. It's showing me where I’m misaligned so I can realign. I got lost for a moment and just needed to find my way back to the path. Yes, I took a few wrong turns, but I also learned and experienced things that will be useful when I get realigned and head in the direction I was always supposed to be going.

To be honest, when my coach and I started talking about my feeling of being directionless, I was frustrated and annoyed—not with her, but with myself for allowing this to happen. Perfection showed up and wasted no time in ridiculing me. How could I have gotten lost? I should have used the navigation and never veered off path. She’s good at making me feel like I failed. But I didn’t fail. I simply lost sight of my purpose and direction. I got caught up in life’s circumstances and the needs of those dependent on me, and in the process, I forgot to take care of myself. For a moment, I veered off course and forgot where I was going, taking a few wrong turns.

What I’m learning is that life is a series of wrong turns that eventually lead us back home—to ourselves. Initially, I assumed I’d find direction once I started doing the right thing (whatever that is), but lately, I’ve realized it’s less about doing and more about coming home to myself—finding my landmarks. It’s about remembering my “why,” realigning it with my values, and then mapping out the path to get there. Being directionless for a season isn’t necessarily bad. Wandering that path can lead to new discoveries about ourselves that guide us toward our intended purpose on earth.

Amanda Lovelace captures this beautifully in her book Break Your Glass Slippers: “You are never directionless. The universe is always guiding you.” Sometimes the universe forces us to run into a dead end so we can turn and head back toward the direction we were always meant to go. Sometimes it allows us to go off course, using that detour to lead us toward our purpose. But we are never truly directionless, even when it feels like we’re lost with no hope of ever getting home.

Sometimes we have to wander in the wilderness to remember who we are and what’s already inside us. And sometimes, we have to make a pit stop to fill up our tanks. A few weeks ago, I would have fought against feeling directionless, but today, I’m embracing it and all the unknowns along the way so I can come home to myself and do what only I was created to do on this earth, whatever that may be.