How to find what you’re looking for

Life purpose can feel elusive. One of the best ways to find it is noticing when you feel lost.

This came up on an episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast when he hosted famed life coach Martha Beck, in a discussion about their mutual friend Boyd Varty.

Boyd is a lion tracker whose family runs a safari game reserve in South Africa. He grew up tracking animals and now applies the principles to coaching people toward finding their life purpose.

His work is fascinating.

One of the ideas he talks about is “The path of ‘not here.’”

This refers to the experience of getting lost, and specifically how getting lost is an intrinsic part of ultimately finding what you're looking for.

In animal tracking, discovering that the path is "not here" is actually a great thing—you now have new information to help steer you onto a better course.

In life, when we discover the path we're on isn't going where we want it to, we tend to feel anxious and start blaming ourselves for choosing unwisely.

This can have the paralyzing effect of stagnating in whatever isn't working, out of fear of making a decision that puts you on another wrong (or even worse) path.

Imagine if a lion tracker did the same thing—discovers they're on the wrong path and decides to stand still.

If you can relate to knowing you’re in the wrong place but feeling too defeated or scared to go in a different direction, try this reframe:

When the joy, challenge, meaning, or whatever else you're seeking disappears from your life, it doesn't have to be a problem. It's just information.

It means that particular thing is no longer aligned with your purpose and it's time to go looking for it again.

The not knowing is a defining characteristic of any tracking journey.

Finding your purpose doesn’t mean never getting lost.

It means noticing something, taking a few steps in that direction, realizing you're going the wrong way, finding a new path, and doing that over and over again until it no longer makes you feel anxious and stuck.

When you build this tracking muscle, you become more available to receive the information you need to find exactly what you’re looking for.