Direction & Meaning.

Either too many possible paths and no way to commit, or no reason that still genuinely pulls. The engine runs, but there is nowhere it truly wants to go.

Sounds like you?

• Too many ideas, no priority
• I’ve lost why I’m doing this
• Bigger questions about vocation
• The work no longer feels like mine
• I keep switching direction

What is often underneath

Drained motivation, or a values and identity question the work alone cannot answer.

What usually helps

The evidence favours action over further reflection, which is counter-intuitive for a problem that feels like it needs more thinking. Choosing a direction imperfectly and committing to it for a bounded period usually teaches you more than another month of weighing options. Put an end date on the exploring. Notice which thing you keep returning to when nobody is watching. The aim is to lower the cost of choosing, not to find the one correct answer, which rarely announces itself in advance.

Direction is hard to settle alone, because the thinking loops. Creative coaching online gives it somewhere to land.

One of the 7 + 1 domains in our blocks’ map. A starting hypothesis, not a diagnosis.

Read more on this block

• Too many interests is not the problem. Being told to pick one is. 6 min read
• You can execute fine. You just don't know what to make. 8 min read
• Finishing something big can block the next thing. 8 min read

The other blocks

Starting & DoingConfidence & ExposureEnergy & RecoveryThe Work ItselfStructure & WorkflowContext & SupportA Skill Gap