The Grasshopper usually delivers “How to” vs. “How not to” messages, but over the weekend he departed from the practice and said this: “You know you’re not going to make it if you’re waiting for your ship to come in and you’re not even at the dock.”

Translation: You’re lost!

We all get lost in something and some of those things have a deleterious effect on our future. The obvious ones come to mind – drugs and alcohol. I haven’t met too many substance abusers who weren’t waiting for something to happen without participating in the process to make it happen.

When you’re lost, you have lost your vision of what’s possible and you hope against hope that someone will come find you and save you. Here’s a mega dose of reality: No one’s looking for you.

That doesn’t mean people aren’t willing to help. They just need a little sign that you’re willing to help yourself.

It’s easy to spot someone who is lost. They have “no purpose” written all over them. They have a list of pie-in-the-sky dreams but never take their feet out of the clouds and walk the path on earth that will take them to their goal.

They tend towards gluttonous behavior and it’s always the next new thing that’s going to propel them to their dream, only to quickly lose interest when another new shiny thing comes along. They have a lot of starts and rarely finish.

For anyone familiar with the Enneagram personality typing system, the above description would be the downside of an Enneagram 7.

So how do we get found? The process begins by finding out who we are past the labels we accepted about ourselves. Behavior gets labeled; your core essence has no label that sticks, but when you find it, a purpose starts to form and your stick-to-itiveness kicks in.

Finding yourself is an inside experience and not another outside adventure. Inside there are not multiple things clamoring for your attention, just a still pond to reflect on.

It’s hard to convince someone who is lost that it’s not out there because that’s their conditioned belief. Your mission, should you accept it, is not to judge them, but rather point out, unemotionally, how their current belief isn’t working for them. Then point them in a direction that shows them how to go inside and quiet their mind, so they can leave lost and the limiting labels behind.

All the best,

John