How I Found My Life Purpose: My 10-Year Journey of Self-Discovery and Personal Growth

Almost exactly ten years ago, I started figuring out what I really wanted to do with my life.

The story you’re about to read is the journey of what has happened since.

Today, I’m following my purpose every day. I know exactly who I am, what I want, and where my life is going.

I know my higher purpose, my passion, my calling, and my mission, and I’m following them.¹

I know who I want to help and how I want to help them, and I’m helping them. I also know my ikigai, and I live it all the time.

I’m doing the work that makes me the happiest and fulfills me the most. I love what I do, I do what I love, and I give myself permission to do more of it (in and out of my work).

I have goals and dreams that excite me, I have a clear vision of the future and of my future self, and I’m working toward that vision with passion and enthusiasm.

And I’m working on myself all the time to become a better version of myself, to align further with my purpose, and to experience more joy, excitement, and fulfillment in my life.

It’s easy to say all of this now, but the journey to get to this point, where I not only know my purpose in the many layers of life that are important to me but I’m also acting in alignment with it, has been a deep journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

I have overcome many challenges on this journey. I took big leaps of faith that required me to dig deep into my heart to find the courage I needed to move forward. (You will read about many of these moments soon.)

I stumbled many times, but I picked myself back up and kept going, as well.

Along the way, I had some life-changing experiences and learned some profound lessons. My intention is to share this story and those lessons with you in the hope that it might inspire you to start or continue your own journey of self-discovery.

These journeys are not always easy. Learning, growth, and introspection can be incredibly difficult and uncomfortable.

But what I’ve found, through years of personal development, is that on the other side of that discomfort lies everything our hearts are truly calling for.

No matter how old you are or where you’re from, no matter the challenges you may have faced until this point, no matter how lost, confused, or frustrated you may feel…

I believe that you can do whatever you truly want to do in life. That includes finding, following, and living your purpose, whatever that means for you.

Hopefully, this story will help you believe this too and give you some ideas to empower your journey.

I’ve divided the story into stages similar to the stages of the hero’s journey from Joseph Campbell, as my journey has followed this story arc almost perfectly.²

By the time you’re done reading, you will learn:

• How I began in my “Ordinary World” and learned that the path I was on wasn’t for me (and how the path that led me to my purpose revealed itself).
• How I accepted my “Call to Adventure” and made a decision that changed my life forever.
• How I met my mentors from afar who helped guide me in the early days of my journey.
• How I overcame a series of tests, challenges, and enemies who would help me develop into who I am today.
• How I flew to a foreign country, met my allies, and how we supported and empowered each other on our journeys.
• How I overcame my self-worth issues after almost refusing to continue down the path of my highest purpose.
• How I found my higher purpose on a warm Sunday evening in Saigon and eventually built the courage to follow it.
• How I faced my greatest challenge in the same year I found my life purpose (and how I overcame that challenge).
• How I clarified the rest of my purpose, started following my calling, and chose my life’s mission.

And much, much more…

As you read this story, keep in mind that it was driven by love.

I went through all of what you’re about to read because I loved myself and my life enough to go through everything I went through, to go after what I truly wanted in life, and to be here now sharing this story with you.

Let the journey begin!

Stage 1: The Beginning (My Ordinary World)

Every hero’s journey begins in the hero’s “Ordinary World.”

Many books and movies start off exactly like this. Frodo began in The Shire. Luke Skywalker began on Tatooine. Neo began in The Matrix. Harry Potter began at his aunt and uncle’s house on Privet Drive.

(Damn muggles!)

In the Ordinary World, the hero doesn’t know they are the hero yet, but there’s something different about them. They’re not quite like everyone else, and they’re not sure why (yet).

Little do they know, a glorious journey of adventure awaits them.

My ordinary world wasn’t necessarily an ordinary place. It was more like an ordinary path.

Up until the winter break of my senior year in college, almost exactly 10 years ago, I found myself on the same path as just about everyone else.

You know this path. It’s the “go to college, get a degree, get a job” path. And not necessarily a job I loved or even liked.

I found that this path may have been well-trodden, but it wasn’t well-lit.

I, like many others, chose a degree because I liked the subject, but I didn’t do any introspection or research beyond that.

I studied economics, but I had no clue what it would be like to actually work in that field until I got an internship during the first semester of my senior year. Just two semesters away from graduating, I quickly learned this wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.

Studying economics was nothing like the work itself. I didn’t want to work in a cramped office staring at spreadsheets all day. I didn’t want to waste my life sitting in meetings, stressing over deadlines, and climbing the corporate ladder.

I wanted to do work I loved! I wanted to do work that made me happy!

I wanted to be creative! I wanted to be free! I wanted to go on adventures and make a meaningful impact on the world!

And the current path I was on provided none of that for me.

Luckily, during that fateful winter break, a new path showed up that could offer me everything I wanted.

I had gotten into personal development during my sophomore year, and during my senior year I was consuming a lot of this information. I loved it. It resonated with every fiber of my being.

So during that winter break, I bought an ebook from Mark Manson called Escape Plan: Ditch the Rat Race, Discover the World, Live Better for Less.³

Perfect! That’s exactly what I wanted!

I wanted to ditch the rat race (before I’d even gotten into it), travel the world, and live my dream life.

But…how??

The book described many ways to do this, but the one that stood out to me the most was building a location-independent online business.

This excited me. I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to make my own decisions. I wanted to create my own schedule and manage my own life (not have it managed for me).

I wanted to travel the world, absorb new cultures, eat new foods, learn new languages, have new experiences, and expand my worldview.

I wanted the freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted. And I wanted to choose work that fulfilled me and excited me the most.

And I wanted to live on tropical beaches dammit!

A new path had been laid out before me. All I had to do now was accept it.

Stage 2: The Decision That Changed My Life (Answering My Call to Adventure)

While still in their Ordinary World, the hero receives what’s called “The Call to Adventure.” This is the call to take their hero’s journey.

The call can come from within, through some sort of desire or goal the hero wants to achieve, or it can come from someone else presenting the hero with an opportunity.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s call to adventure comes from Gandalf asking him to take the ring to Mordor and destroy it. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s comes from Obi-Wan Kenobi asking him to come with him and train to be a Jedi Knight.

Harry Potter’s comes in the form of thousands of letters from Hogwarts inviting him to attend the school and learn magic (Hagrid eventually had to bust through the door of their shack and forcefully hand Harry the letter so he could read it and answer his call to adventure).

My call to adventure was the call from within to take a chance on myself, take the leap of faith, build a location-independent online business, and live my dream of traveling around the world.

Yet, at the same time, I knew no one else who was even thinking about doing something like this or had done it before.

When I told people what I was thinking about doing and its potential, no one jumped on board with me. They were all going to continue down the same path I was strongly considering leaving.

If I was going to go down this path, I would largely be alone (or so I thought).

At this point, the hero always has two choices. They’re never forced to answer the call.

They can answer their call to adventure, a journey in which the hero knows they’ll be faced with incredible challenges that will test them at every turn, a journey for which the hero typically feels they aren’t ready or capable of accomplishing yet.

But through those challenges they will grow, they will expand, they will see the world beyond the ordinary one they’ve known their whole life, they will discover hidden talents and abilities they never knew they had, and they will meet new allies on a similar path.

And, perhaps, even save the world in the process.

Or…

They can stay in the safety and predictability of their Ordinary World, a world they’ve known their whole life, yet a world that offers little promise of adventure or deeper self-discovery.

I had these same two choices.

I could go the predictable route. The “safe” route. The route everyone I knew was taking. A route that would be easily accepted and understood by others.

Or…

I could answer my call to adventure. I could follow the path of my highest happiness and growth as a person. I could follow the path of the challenges I chose to accept, as opposed to the challenges that would’ve been forced upon me.

I could follow the path that would force me to become the best version of myself and dig deeper into my storehouse of potential than I ever had before, or I could continue down a traditional path I knew wasn’t right for me.

It’s usually at this point that the hero initially refuses the call to adventure, feeling like they aren’t worthy or ready yet. But my refusal of the call comes later in this story.

At this point, after having such a clear experience of what I didn’t want and being presented with an opportunity to follow a path containing exactly what I wanted, and with the confidence I’d built over my previous few years of personal development…

I quickly answered my call to adventure with a resounding “YES!” and started preparing to launch my business after I graduated.

However, no hero can take their journey alone. First, I would need some help…

Related: Don’t Be Realistic

Stage 3: Meeting My Mentors

After accepting the call to adventure (or sometimes before), the hero meets their mentor.

The mentor is usually an older, wiser figure. It’s a guide or teacher that can impart wisdom and help the hero along their journey.

Frodo had Gandalf. Luke Skywalker had Yoda. Harry Potter had Professor Dumbledore. Neo had Morpheus.

My mentors in the early days were “mentors from afar.” These were people whose books and blogs I was reading to help open my mind to the possibilities of life and take action on those possibilities.

The first was Mark Manson, whom I’ve already mentioned. He introduced me to the idea of running an online business and traveling around the world, and he provided an excellent example of the type of business I wanted to run.⁴

He was writing for his blog, doing what he loved, selling books and courses, helping people, and living an adventurous life all over the world. That’s what I wanted, but he didn’t teach online business.

To learn how to build a location-independent business, I had to go elsewhere, and the first person I went to was Sean Ogle.

Sean Ogle ran a blog called Location 180 (now called Location Rebel) teaching people how to start and run their first location-independent online business. One of the main businesses he taught people how to start was freelance writing.⁵

I had been a good writer all my life. I knew it was one of my strengths, and I loved it. I’d also been a newspaper columnist in college, so I decided this was a good first business to start.

Yet, at the back of my mind, I knew I really wanted to run a business like Mark’s, but I had no roadmap on how to do that, so I started with the roadmap I did have and decided to start a freelance writing business.

I ended up having many mentors throughout my journey, but Mark and Sean were the two who got me started, and I’m grateful for both of them.

With my mentors from afar to aid me, it was time to commit to what I wanted, begin my new path (a path that would eventually lead me to my purpose in life), and enter a whole new world of adventure…

Stage 4: Crossing The Threshold (Committing to My Path)

After meeting their mentor(s), the hero “crosses the threshold” between their ordinary world and their new world of magic, mystery, and adventure. This is when the hero’s journey really begins.

Crossing the threshold resembles the hero committing to the journey and whatever happens along the way. This takes courage, bravery, and commitment.

At this point, there is no turning back. It’s time for the hero to accept their path and begin fulfilling their destiny.

In Harry Potter, Harry takes the train with the rest of the Hogwarts students from Platform 9¾ and lands at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo leaves The Shire and begins his journey to Mordor. In The Matrix, Neo takes the red pill.

Neither Harry nor Frodo return until their hero’s journeys are complete, and Neo never really returns to his “Ordinary World.”

For me, I crossed the threshold when I decided to stay with my parents for four months after college to focus on building my business. These four months would prove whether or not I was truly committed to the path I’d chosen.

For the next four months, I put myself through an online business “boot camp.” I read as many books and blogs as I could, learned as much as I could, and implemented that knowledge to the best of my ability.

In the beginning, my dreams were big but I kept my goals small and manageable. My first goal was to make just one dollar online. I knew if I could make just one dollar, I could make more, and that would start the momentum I needed.

I got my first freelance writing gig by posting a job on Fiverr saying I’d write 500 words on any topic for $5. My friend bought the gig, and I wrote him an article about our experience at Outside Lands that summer (his request).

Just like that, I made my first dollar online. I had proven the concept to myself. I had proven that it was possible. Now I just needed to ramp things up.

I got my first long-term clients by Googling “digital marketing agency” and emailing 100+ agencies telling them I’d write articles for their clients.

A handful of them got back to me, and soon I was making around $1,200 per month writing articles in a bunch of different (and weird) niches. I was a 22-year-old recent college grad and a first-time entrepreneur taking a chance on myself and going solo, and I was starting to make some money online without an office, boring spreadsheets, or a boss.

Many of my friends were still trying to find their first jobs after college, so the fact that I was already doing this just a few months after graduating was proof that it could work. It was exciting.

In addition, as I was putting myself through my online business boot camp and reading everything I could get my hands on, something kept coming up again and again:

Thailand.

For some reason, Thailand seemed like the Mecca for digital nomads and internet entrepreneurs. Everyone seemed to either live there or had spent time there at some point. They were always mentioning Thailand.

I had started my business and gained some momentum, but now I needed a clear goal to aim for. A BIG goal.

“Travel around the world” was a little vague, so I needed something more specific. Where did I want to start my travels?

Thailand, maybe? Why not? Everyone keeps talking about it. It sounds amazing. So I set my sights on being in Thailand within the next four months.

Long story short and spoiler alert…

That didn’t happen (not in four months, anyway) 😂

I didn’t know I was on my hero’s journey back then, which meant I wasn’t anticipating the tests that would arrive, along with the allies and enemies I would get to know along the way.

All of which would help me develop into a stronger and more empowered person than I ever could’ve imagined.

I was committed to my journey. Now it was time to face the next stage.

Related: The Action Formula: Why People Do (or Don’t) Act on Their Goals, Dreams, and Desires

Stage 5: Tests, Allies, and Enemies

After the hero crosses the threshold and commits to their journey, the hero is tested.

The hero is tested in ways that help them understand who they are, expand their capabilities, grow as heroes, and prepare them for what they need to do in the rest of the journey.

These challenges and obstacles help the hero develop into who they need to be to actually accomplish their goal.

Tests are not evil. They’re not bad, as onlookers or unaware heroes sometimes perceive them to be.

Every test, challenge, or obstacle in the hero’s journey serves a purpose. They’re there for specific reasons.

If the hero is aware of this, they can learn to embrace those challenges and take advantage of them, instead of feeling weighed down by them. These challenges are stepping stones to victory and necessary for the hero to accomplish their objective.

In this stage, the hero also meets their allies – their friends who will accompany them and support them on their journey.

Harry Potter meets Hermione and Ron. Luke Skywalker meets Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Leia.

The hero isn’t alone on their journey. They have support from allies with different yet complementary strengths, weaknesses, and talents.

In the books, movies, and ancient myths, there’s typically only one hero in the story, but in real life, everyone can be the hero of their own story.

Meaning, a person may have allies along their hero’s journey, and they may also be an ally in other people’s journeys. They may even be an ally in their allies’ hero’s journeys.

Lastly, in this stage, the hero also meets their enemies.

The enemies are mirror reflections of the hero, often portrayed as the dark side. The enemies represent the opposite polarity of the hero’s true nature.

Just like the call to adventure may come from within or without, the hero’s enemies may be within, without, or both.

The external enemies are usually obvious. Harry Potter must face Lord Voldemort and his followers. Luke Skywalker must face Darth Vader and the Sith.

However, the hero often needs to face their own inner “enemies” as well, usually in the form of fear, doubt, insecurity, or some aspect of their past.

These inner enemies are the mental/emotional obstacles the hero must overcome to ready themselves for their ultimate challenge later in the journey. It’s a part of their training.

Whether the hero’s enemies are within or without, these hurdles need to be overcome to accomplish their objective and save the world.

Defeating these enemies is the price of success for the hero. It’s another important part of the process, not to be perceived as “bad” or “evil,” but as stepping stones to victory.

Here’s how the Tests, Allies, and Enemies stage unfolded for me:

Tests

After my four-month business boot camp at my parent’s place, I decided to do two things:

First, I decided to move back to my old college town instead of Thailand. I didn’t think my business was stable enough yet to make that kind of move, and my girlfriend at the time was still going to school in my old college town, so I decided to move back.

Second, I decided to pivot my business from freelance writing to offering digital marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses.

I did this because I was tired of writing about topics I didn’t care about, and I wanted to put all of the business knowledge I’d been gaining to better use.

I put up a website/blog, got some results for it, and used those results as a case study to pitch potential clients in the same way I did for freelance writing.

Again, in a short time, I had my first digital marketing clients.

For the next four years, I worked primarily with small and medium-sized businesses helping them drive traffic to their websites and convert that traffic into leads and customers.

I continued freelance writing, but I more than doubled my prices and took on fewer clients to conserve my energy for more enjoyable and exciting work.

Those four years would test me like I had never been tested before in my life.

First, could I really get results for my clients? The answer proved to be yes. One of my clients and I built one of the top drone websites in the world in less than two years.

With just a two-man team consisting of him and I, we turned it into a six-figure-per-year business, and, by my calculations, after we stopped working together he quickly turned it into a seven-figure-per-year business.

However, that was his business. Not mine.

On my side of things, acquiring enough marketing clients and keeping them for a long enough time to provide consistent income proved to be more difficult than I thought. Looking back, I had some serious gaps in my knowledge of how to grow a client-services business. I also wasn’t aware of how to acquire that knowledge back then.

And, at a deeper and more significant level, I wasn’t following my true purpose or passion. Offering digital marketing services wasn’t my true passion and it wasn’t the type of impact I really wanted to make on the world, but it took another few years for me to gain that clarity.

This began my tests, both externally and internally, and learning how to handle them.

With a few clients, I would work with them for a few months and get used to the invoice being paid each month. Then, randomly, I would get an email saying they were moving on, and I would lose 30% of my income overnight.

Back then, I didn’t have nearly the level of trust and faith in the Universe and in my path as I do now (the tests over the years helped me develop this trust), so I experienced a lot of anxiety during these times (one of my inner enemies).

There even came a point when I had negative dollars in my bank account, and I had to ask my parents to loan me some money to help me out – something that was incredibly difficult for me to do.

My parents saw how dedicated I was to my goal. They witnessed months of me doing nothing but working, studying business, and working out. They believed in me, so they loaned me the money, which allowed me to continue working on my business.

It took years for me to learn true trust when it comes to the process of achieving a goal or dream. When you can maintain your inner peace, even during an event like a client suddenly dropping you (because you know the bigger picture at play), that’s when you know you have it.

It’s the ability to find your internal eye of the storm in the midst of external chaos.

But I only got to that point through experiencing these types of tests and continuing to push through them again and again to the point where they didn’t phase me anymore.

More tests would come over those four years…

• Tests in business/money.
• Relationship tests (my girlfriend and I eventually broke up after I left my college town).
• Family tests (my dad got diagnosed with colon cancer and went through chemotherapy).
• Health tests (I got tendinitis in my forearms and could only work for 25 minutes at a time before needing to take a break).

All of this only strengthened my resolve as I continued to press on despite any obstacle that came my way, as the hero must if they want to accomplish their goal.

Those first four years after graduating college and starting my business were the years of my “tests.” They shaped and molded me into a tough and resilient entrepreneur and a stronger person, in general.

At the time, they were the biggest challenges I’d ever faced. The whole time, I kept my dream of moving to Thailand at the forefront of my thoughts. It kept me going, along with the idea of wanting to show the world that dreams are still possible.

I graduated college in 2014 and started my business on July 21st of that year. In May of 2018, I had saved up enough money to make one of the biggest decisions of my life.

I bought my plane ticket and landed in Phuket, Thailand on August 21, 2018. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. I had accomplished my first big life goal after four years of challenges, perseverance, and dreaming.

I lived in Thailand for six months, spent two weeks in Malaysia, lived in Vietnam for four months, and spent 11 days in Bali. It was a glorious 10 months of learning, growth, and adventure.

The instant I landed, it made the previous four years worth it.

It also marked the end of my initial Tests stage. Tests continued to come. And, yes, they got bigger. But I was prepared now.

I knew the purpose behind them, and I learned how to embrace them, learn from them, and take advantage of them.

Next, it was time to meet my allies.

Allies

My parents were my first allies, providing support whenever I truly needed it. They’ve been my biggest supporters and angel investors, and I wouldn’t have made it this far or been able to stay so focused on my path if it weren’t for them.

My friends from home and college were also my allies (and still are), providing emotional support and much-needed fun and laughter while I continued to persevere and face challenge after challenge. They saw it all, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without them, either.

However, neither my parents nor my friends from home/college were on similar journeys to me. They were allies, for sure, but they were more like observers and supporters.

When I arrived in Asia, however, I met some allies who quickly became close friends. These allies were on their own hero’s journeys, they had answered their calls to adventure as well, and we ended up becoming allies in each other’s journeys.

We had similar goals, aspirations, and ways in which we wanted to impact the world. We helped each other grow, challenged each other, and shared knowledge and resources to empower one another.

We even helped each other defeat our enemies, most of which were internal obstacles we needed to overcome to become who we needed to be.

We were deep into our hero’s journeys by the time we met, and we served each other mightily for the 10 months I was there.

They say you’ll go faster on your own, but you’ll go further together. This experience taught me that you can often go further and faster together.

That experience was a major catalyst that skyrocketed all of our growth way faster than we ever would’ve if we hadn’t met and had that time together.

Years later, we’re still benefiting from what we experienced in those short 10 months. That’s the power of having powerful allies on your hero’s journey who can also help you defeat the enemies you may face along the way.

Enemies

The more I learn about how the Universe works and why our lives unfold the way they do, the more I understand that there are no true external “enemies.”

External enemies only manifest as a result of our internal ones.

I could potentially look back at my journey and point out a few external enemies, but I know too much now to really call them that. I know they only manifested from what was going on within me.

Our inner worlds create our outer worlds. This has been a huge theme in my journey, so I’m going to focus on the internal enemies here, which all people from all walks of life tend to face in some way, shape, or form.

My internal enemies spanned far and wide. I had a lot of them, and I didn’t know I had them until I got to Asia and started learning about the mind and how our thoughts, feelings, and subconscious programming determine how our lives unfold.

At the beginning of my journey, I didn’t have too many internal enemies. I had confidence. I took bold action. And I followed my heart as best I could.

But I had one enemy that I wasn’t aware of back then, and it slowed my growth dramatically.

That enemy was ego.

Specifically, my ego wanted to get to the end of this journey and attribute all of my success to myself. I didn’t want to have to give credit to anyone for helping me.

Remember Sean Ogle? The guy who taught online business and was one of my first mentors from afar?

Well, he sold a course on how to start, run, and scale an online business. I could’ve bought it, and it probably would’ve saved me years of time and effort and provided some crucial guidance I needed back then.

But my ego was too big. I didn’t want to buy his course and have to give him some of the credit for my success. Even now, I cringe just writing that.

I was younger, inexperienced, and egotistical.

These days, I happily give credit where credit is due. I know that everything is a co-creation and no one ever succeeds (or even lives) without help from others.

My arrogance kept me ignorant back then. And that’s okay, as long as I learned from it.

I’ve now let go of that perspective, I happily pay people to learn from them, and I’m incredibly grateful for the literally dozens of people whose work I’ve studied and benefited from in the years since. You can see credits to them sprinkled throughout my articles on this blog.

Ego was my first internal enemy, and it probably slowed my growth dramatically. But my next internal enemy was something almost all people face in their journeys. For some, it even stops them dead in their tracks.

That internal enemy was fear.

Not the fear of taking action. I took tons of it. But the fear of things going wrong.

Again, I only became aware of this when I was in Asia, learned about the mind, and looked back over the earlier years of my journey and tried to understand why things happened the way they did.

I was afraid of clients leaving me. I was afraid of my websites crashing. I was afraid of losing all of my traffic/income and the work I put in.

And guess what? At one point or another, they all happened.

Clients left me. My websites crashed. I lost my website traffic and income overnight. And I had no idea why back then, so it would send me into a spiral of sadness and depression.

The personal development space sometimes describes fear as negative goal-setting. Knowing what I know now, that term is incredibly accurate.

Fear is pointless, it’s illogical, and it’s outdated.

It’s pointless and illogical because it can only manifest the exact thing you are fearing or something of a similar energy/vibration.

You cannot manifest what you want while intensely fearing what you don’t want at the time. Those energies are out of alignment.

It’s outdated because fear was intended as a survival mechanism during our hunter-gatherer days to keep us safe and to initiate the flight or flight response in truly life-threatening situations.

Fearing your website crashing or a client leaving you is not a life-threatening situation. You’re not going to die. You’re not going to be eaten by a lion if it happens. It’s just unwanted.

And, because like attracts like, if persistent and continuous fear dominates a person’s thoughts and feelings, they’re only increasing the likelihood of experiencing the exact thing they’re fearing or something similar. They’re creating it through the fear itself.

Which, like I said, is pointless and illogical. So I learned that fear must be eliminated at all costs.

It took many years for me to learn this, and more years to deprogram my subconscious fears and replace them with the opposite end of the energetic spectrum (faith). And I’m still working on it today.

Slowly but surely, through years of effort and increasing my knowledge of how the Universe works, I’ve transmuted most of that internal enemy to a higher plane of thought. Faith dominates my mind now more than fear does, and that’s a powerful place to be.

Inner work is never a waste of time. No matter how long it takes for you to harmonize your inner world, it’s worth it.

I faced many more internal enemies in my journey, including anxiety, lack of self-worth, and more. But I didn’t let any of them stop me. I faced them and used whatever knowledge and power I had at my disposal to defeat them and keep moving forward.

I’m still working on my inner world all the time. For many people, it’s a life-long journey.

But the rewards are far greater than many of us can imagine.

The next stage of my journey illustrates this perfectly.

Stage 6: Almost Refusing My Call to Adventure

In a typical hero’s journey, this stage occurs right after the hero is presented with the Call to Adventure.

It’s the initial refusal of the call when the hero says, “What do you mean? I’m no hero! I can’t do that!”

When, in fact, they are the hero. They just don’t know it yet.

For example, in Harry Potter, Hagrid tells Harry he’s a wizard. Immediately, Harry says, “No. You’ve made a mistake. I mean, I can’t be a wizard. I mean…I’m…just…Harry! Just Harry!”

Little did Harry know what his destiny had in store for him.

This is the stage most people tend to stop themselves from taking action on what they really want in life.

They feel their call to adventure coming from within them in the form of a goal, dream, or desire. But they talk themselves out of it due to fear, insecurity, or lack of self-confidence. Little do they know, their hero’s journey is just on the other side of that fear.

Related: When Is The Best Time to Quit Your Job to Follow Your Passion?

In my hero’s journey, my refusal of the call came much later, while I was living in Southeast Asia about five years after I answered my call to adventure.

For about two years, I had been posting on and off on an Instagram account that was separate from my personal one. This was my Karpfucius account, and I was posting my thoughts and perspectives on life, inspiring others to go after what they really want in life.

It was an earlier manifestation of this blog and everything I’m doing right now in my work.

I had built up a following of about 15,000 people at the time, and some of my posts were getting over 1,000 likes, which was pretty crazy.

I had people commenting and messaging me for advice on all sorts of things. This is exactly what I wanted. This is who I wanted to be, I was super passionate about this stuff, and this was the type of impact I wanted to make on the world.

But it wasn’t my professional work yet, and I wasn’t consciously following it as part of my purpose. I was just doing it because I was inspired to.

Yet, at the same time, I started to feel a sense of imposter syndrome.

My business (separate from my Instagram) still wasn’t doing that well, and even though I enjoyed the work, I didn’t really care about it. I was running a few blogs about drones, writing reviews, and getting paid a commission whenever someone bought through my link.

Even before I understood my purpose, I knew this wasn’t what I was really meant to do.

I also had this idea that to give the advice I was giving on my Instagram account, I needed to be “successful” already, and I felt like I wasn’t.

Even though I was helping thousands of people, I started feeling like I hadn’t succeeded enough in my business yet, and I started considering stopping my posts until I was making more money.

When I told my friend this (one of my allies) while we were in Vietnam, he told me something I’ll never forget.

He said, “You only need to be one chapter ahead to help someone. Not an entire book.”

In my mind, I was starting to think I needed to be either a book or multiple volumes ahead to be worthy of sharing thoughts and perspectives that could empower others. But what my friend said made a huge impact on me.

I may not have hit the level I wanted to hit in my business yet, but I had done tons of inner work and had overcome a lot in my journey already, and sharing those perspectives and experiences was helping other people on their journeys.

I didn’t need to be a whole book ahead. Being a chapter or two ahead was more than enough, so I kept posting for the next few months.

But even though I kept posting, I was still dealing with some feelings of unworthiness. I knew my friend was right, but over the next few months, as my business continued to stay at pretty much the same level, these feelings built up again, to the point where I was considering not posting again.

I looked at all of these other personal brands in the personal development space with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, saw what they’d already accomplished, compared myself to them, and felt like I wasn’t far enough along yet.

I was on my hero’s journey. I had answered my call to adventure. But I was beginning to refuse my calling – my calling to inspire others, empower others, and help people live their best lives.

Even though the evidence that I was fully worthy and capable of serving others was right in front of me in the feedback from my followers, my own negative self-perception was blinding me to it.

That was…until I received “the message I’ll never forget.”

One morning, I sat down to check my phone before getting to work, and I had a new message on Instagram.

The message came from one of my followers who told me that she had been just days away from taking her own life, but the words of encouragement in my posts lit a new spirit inside of her and inspired her not to do it.

Then she thanked me and told me to keep doing what I was doing.

By the time I finished the message, my heart was beating out of my chest. I couldn’t believe it. Immediately, my perspective shifted.

Despite my feelings of lack of worthiness, the impact of what I was doing was far greater than I could see or imagine. I finally recognized the importance of what I was doing. I recognized the importance of sharing my truth and continuing to do so.

I learned that you never know the impact you can make on someone just by being your true self and expressing what you have inside.

Not only did I decide to keep posting, but after I received that message, I started coaching people one-on-one, helping them find and follow their passions and achieve their goals and dreams, as I was living mine in that moment.

That was one of the most impactful moments of my life. If my follower hadn’t sent me that message, who knows if I’d be writing this article right now.

She helped me re-answer my call to adventure and stay on the path of my hero’s journey, and I’m so thankful I was able to help her.

As any hero knows, sometimes all you need is a little nudge from the Universe to keep you on your path.

Stage 7: Finding My Life Purpose on a Warm Sunday Evening in Saigon

As you know, my time in Southeast Asia was a huge period of transformation for me.

I was going through tons of personal growth, having magical experiences, and I was gaining deep knowledge about myself and how the Universe operates. This experience completely shifted my worldview and opened my eyes to what’s truly possible in life.

I was also living out a four-year dream of mine, my first big life goal, and I was on cloud nine. People were even asking me, “Are you really this happy?” And the answer was absolutely yes.

It’s one thing to have a dream. It’s another to actually live it, and I loved every second of my time in Southeast Asia.

The reason I’ve mentioned these two things (being in a deep period of transformation and being super happy) is because I believe they combined to create the perfect recipe for one of the most life-changing moments I’ve ever had (and may ever have) in my life.

On May 12, 2019, on a warm Sunday evening in Saigon, Vietnam, I was hanging out in one of my favorite parts of the city – a beautiful area next to the massive Dong Nai River that runs through the city.

This area had some of the most magnificent buildings in town, a huge field with families playing soccer and flying kites, tennis courts, shops and restaurants, and a serene Japanese garden. I used to love hanging out there, and I was there pretty much every Sunday.

But this wasn’t any given Sunday.

As the sun started to set, I decided to call a Grab (an Uber except on a motorbike) to take me home. As my Grab driver pulled up, I looked up at a massive billboard and saw the numbers 222 888.

At the time, these number sequences were showing up all the time for my friends and me, usually in important moments we needed to pay attention to.

For me, 222 meant that everything was okay, all is well. And 888 resembled abundance.

After I looked up and saw these numbers, instantly, I felt a wave of peace wash over me, along with another amazing feeling that I had never felt before and haven’t felt again since. This feeling reverberated throughout my entire body.

Then a thought popped into my mind…

“I am going to help people achieve their dreams.”

This thought came out of nowhere, but as it came to my mind, the feeling got stronger. It moved throughout my body like an ecstatic excitement – a pure joy.

The thought came to my mind again and again…

“I am going to help people achieve their dreams.”

“I am going to help people achieve their dreams.”

During the whole 30-minute ride back through that incredible city, during this time of deep transformation and happiness, this thought kept repeating itself in my mind, and I started to get more and more excited.

I resonated so strongly with this. This is exactly what I wanted to do. This is the legacy I wanted to leave. This is how I wanted to serve the world. This is how I wanted to help others.

I wanted to help people achieve their dreams, as I was living mine at that very moment.

When I got back to my apartment in another part of the city, my friend, ally, and roommate had just gotten back from a weekend trip with his girlfriend.

We sat across from each other at our kitchen table to catch up and talk about our weekends. He asked casually, “So, how was your weekend?”

I paused for a second and replied, “I think I just found my life purpose.”

Then I smiled a cheeky smile, knowing that this was yet another out-of-this-world experience to add to the laundry list of magical experiences we’d already had.

He just shook his head, looked to the side, and smiled, “The lives we’re living, eh?”

Then we laughed as yet another piece of magic entered our life experiences and found its way into our hero’s journeys.

Over the next two days, I took that powerful thought, which I believe was communicated to me by my higher self, which I aligned with by being on this deep journey of transformation and joy in my life, and I refined it into a clear purpose statement:

My purpose is to experience joy and serve the world by helping people achieve their dreams lovingly, joyfully, and happily.

I believe this is my higher purpose, or at least a portion of it that is relevant to my life at this stage.

This blog, and all of my work, is a manifestation of this higher purpose. Everything I do in my work, including my own personal growth and development, is helping me to fulfill it.

I couldn’t be more grateful for that. It has added a depth to my life and my journey that is almost indescribable. There is now a constant underlying purpose and meaning to everything I do.

Years later, I still resonate strongly with this purpose, and my vision of the future (at least in terms of my life’s work) is largely based around it.

However, even though I’d just discovered my higher purpose, it would take time for me to fully align with it. I wasn’t quite ready yet.

Also, this was only one layer of my purpose, and quite a vague one. I still hadn’t identified my passion, my calling, my mission, or what would end up being my purpose-driven and passion-driven business to help me fulfill this purpose.

It would still take a few years for me to clarify those layers and build the courage to follow them (you will learn about how I did this later).

In addition, another life-changing event was on the horizon for me, an event that would test everything I had learned in the first four years of my journey, my trip to Southeast Asia, and everything I continued to learn afterward…

Stage 8: The Approach to My Innermost Cave (Preparing For My Greatest Challenge)

In the hero’s journey story arc, the “innermost cave” is where the hero’s greatest challenge awaits them.

It’s where their greatest enemy lives, and it’s where they need to overcome their greatest fear and transcend it.

The “approach to the innermost cave” is the hero’s preparation for this challenge.

A great example of this is in the first Harry Potter book/movie. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the forbidden third-floor corridor, hiding a trapdoor leading down to the underground chambers of Hogwarts.

In these chambers, Harry and his allies face a series of challenges (getting past Fluffy, the three-headed dog, the room of flying keys, the life-size wizard chess board, etc) on the way to the “innermost cave” where Harry’s greatest challenge awaits him.

Each challenge tests what the wizards have learned, including the depth of their courage and bravery. These challenges also prepare Harry for the final battle.

The approach to the innermost cave is when the hero gains the weapons, tools, and knowledge they may need to overcome their greatest challenge.

My approach to my innermost cave was no different.

There came a point while I was living in Saigon when I felt a strong urge from within. I felt like I needed to gain important knowledge and understanding. I didn’t know why yet, or what this understanding was, but the urge from within was powerful and I knew I needed to follow it.

So I started reading, a LOT.

Not just any knowledge, but what I believe to be some of the most empowering knowledge available to humanity right now.

I started reading books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, Feeling is the Secret by Neville Goddard, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, The Essence of Success by Earl Nightingale, You Were Born Rich by Bob Proctor, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza, The Vortex and Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks, and re-reading books like The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles and The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy, among others.

I even read most of Napoleon Hill’s massive 750-page book, The Law of Success.

In less than a year, I read and re-read dozens of books on mind power, metaphysics, and success.

I didn’t just read these books. I studied them.

I highlighted them, underlined key phrases, re-read chapters and pages over and over again, and wrote important quotes on post-it notes and stuck them on the wall next to my bed where I would read them every morning and night.

I studied these books and engrained the information until it became a part of me.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was gaining the weapons, tools, and knowledge I needed to overcome what would be my greatest challenge yet.

Stage 9: My Greatest Challenge Arrives

Once the hero enters the innermost cave, they’re faced with their greatest challenge, called “The Ordeal.”

This is what the entire journey has been building up to. Every step along the way, including the tests, challenges, and successes, has prepared the hero for this final battle.

This is when the hero must apply everything they’ve learned in their journey to overcome their greatest challenge/fear.

Often, this challenge is resembled as a dragon in the ancient myths. The dragon must be slayed to obtain the treasure it’s guarding – the objective of the hero’s journey.

Frodo must face his final challenge and drop the ring in the fires of Mordor. Luke Skywalker must face his final challenge and battle Darth Vader on the Death Star. Harry Potter must face his final challenge and battle Lord Voldemort.

This has been the hero’s greatest fear throughout their journey, all the while knowing it has been their destiny, as well.

Yet, the hero is not the same person they were when the journey began. Back then, when the call to adventure first arrived, the task seemed almost impossible.

Now they’ve grown. They’ve evolved. They’ve been tested and overcome every challenge that presented itself so far. They’re stronger than they’ve ever been, and they’re ready for what’s to come.

They’ve also had lots of help along the way – even more so now as they face their final challenge.

The polar forces of the Universe battle for the fate of the world in this final face-off…the hero’s greatest challenge.

My greatest challenge began in October of 2019. Once again, it wasn’t an external enemy I needed to face and overcome. It was an internal one.

Really, it was me.

In the months leading up to October 2019, I’d been experiencing a lot more anxiety than normal, to the point where it was hurting my nervous system.

I had been experiencing a lot of social anxiety and anxiety about money and business. At the same time, I wanted to be back in Asia (badly) but my finances weren’t in a good enough place to go back yet. My body was in the U.S., but my heart was longing to be out in the world, living my dream again.

All of this created immense internal conflicts for me, and I started to put myself way out of balance because of it.

I was experimenting with a lot of mind power and manifestation techniques, trying to manifest a huge sum of money so that my parents would be taken care of and I could go back to Asia and continue living my dream.

I was pushing my mind to the limit, and I went way too far. I was forcing it to try to get what I wanted as fast as possible and in the biggest way possible.

My over-experimentation and my emotional imbalance led to a few anxiety attacks, one of which damaged the nerves in my jaw and neck so badly I couldn’t talk for two weeks (seriously).

At this point, I should’ve learned my lesson. I should’ve backed off, chilled out, and taken a more balanced approach.

The Universe even sent me a few signs letting me know I was going out of balance. (By signs, I literally mean YouTube suggesting me a video on manifestation that was titled “Don’t Force It.”)

I didn’t listen. When my body had recovered enough, I went right back into it, to the point where one day in that October, my mind/body had enough.

I experienced a deep anxiety attack while in the library with my dad. It was so bad that I started feeling like I couldn’t breathe, and I felt a tight, sharp pain in my chest on the right side of my heart.

I told my dad what was happening and we quickly left to go home. As we were driving back, I started to feel better and regained my breath, but the pain in my chest was still there.

At this point, the nerves in my jaw and head were still damaged, and now I’d damaged what I believed to be a huge nerve in my chest that connected directly to my heart. My central nervous system was shot, especially the part relating to my emotions.

This began the most difficult two months of my life…

Even though I’d regained semi-normal functioning, and everything seemed alright on the outside, on the inside, my body was traumatized.

My nervous system became extremely sensitive to just about anything that would generate an emotional response, including anything in my environment and even my own thoughts.

It didn’t matter if the trigger was positive or negative, my body would react negatively. Essentially, it became afraid of life itself.

Any positive or negative emotion within me would cause my nervous system to want to shut down and cower. It was afraid of everything, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.

If I walked by the living room and there were images of war on TV, my body would have a mini anxiety attack. If I tried to be grateful for something (gratitude had become a deep practice in my life, but, again, I had been forcing it to try to manifest this huge sum of money), my body would reject it and have a mini anxiety attack.

I couldn’t listen to my favorite music anymore because any sort of over-excitement would trigger an anxiety response. I couldn’t even imagine my dreams anymore, like going back to Southeast Asia and traveling around the world. Simply the thought of it would produce a fear response in my body.

At the same time, I was completely aware of how this had happened. I was completely aware that I had taken things way too far, that I had put myself way out of balance, and this was a manifestation of that.

I even appreciated the irony of it. I had just begun to learn and understand the power of feeling good, of positive thoughts and emotions, and here I was, having messed up my nervous system to the point where my body was rejecting the very thoughts and feelings that could heal me. I felt like a prisoner within my own body.

I couldn’t work on my business anymore, as the act of working would produce a mini anxiety attack. The only music I could listen to was incredibly soft piano instrumentals. Even then, if the pace of the music got too high or too exciting, I would have to change it or turn it off.

I couldn’t read anymore, either. The books I loved, had learned so much from, and had misapplied the teachings of, were too exciting for my heart, so my heart would reject them.

I couldn’t even watch Netflix. My heart/nervous system was too afraid of what might happen next in the show or movie, even if it wasn’t scary or intense. It didn’t matter.

For months, I couldn’t do anything except lie down in bed, eat, go for walks, and go to the gym. Even in the gym, I had to stop working out my chest (which started to make my body look super awkward).

Even within my own mind, I had to be incredibly conscious of what I was thinking. I couldn’t think about anything too negative or too positive, because going too far in either direction would cause a negative reaction from my heart and nervous system.

Essentially, I had to keep my thoughts as close to neutral as possible, all while knowing that if I could just get my body to accept positive thoughts and feelings again, I could heal myself.

But I couldn’t. I was stuck in an internal cage of my own making, and for months I knew of no way out.

My greatest challenge had arrived. I was deep within my innermost cave, face to face with my dragon.

To get my life back, I’d have to figure something out, or I’d be trapped in this self-made prison forever.

Stage 10: Overcoming My Greatest Challenge

The Ordeal, the hero’s greatest challenge, their final battle…

No matter how difficult it is, or how impossible the task may seem, it’s never something the hero isn’t capable of accomplishing.

Never.

There was no precedent for what I was experiencing. I was well-versed in the mind-body connection and the ability we have to heal ourselves through nothing but our own thoughts and emotions.

I had heard of people healing themselves from all kinds of things. Cancer, tumors, broken bones in just about every part of their body, diseases, everything.

But I’d never heard of anyone experiencing what I was experiencing, let alone healing themselves from it.

How could I heal myself when even the slightest positive emotion would send my body into a negative spiral? How could I heal myself when my body was afraid of everything, even things that could help me?

And there was no way I was going to a doctor for this. What would I tell them?

“Uh, yeah, doc, so…here’s the thing. I was experimenting with a bunch of manifestation techniques trying to manifest millions of dollars for myself and my family. Then I tried this one technique and had what I would call a deep anxiety attack while in the library, but really, I just don’t have a better word for it.

Then I felt a big nerve in my heart get damaged and now my body is afraid of everything, even positive emotions. Oh yeah…I also had a few anxiety attacks before that messed up the nerves in my head and jaw and I couldn’t talk for a few weeks. Crazy, right? What do think? Can you help me?”

Yeah, right. I wasn’t going to do that.

I was going to handle this myself.

Even though I had no clue how I was going to heal myself, I did know one thing:

No matter how damaged the body may be, it is capable of healing itself to perfect health.

Even if I had no clue how I was going to do it, I knew that it was possible, and I could manifest a solution just as surely as I’d manifested the problem.

I created this problem, and I could find the solution. A real solution. Not a band-aid cover up, but a full-blown healing.

I may have misapplied all of the knowledge I’d gained, which contributed to me being in this predicament, but I was going to apply it properly to get myself out of it.

I didn’t know how, but I didn’t need to. I only needed to know that I could and that some way, somehow, the Universe would deliver a solution to me. It was out there. I just needed to align myself with it.

So…

After months of feeling sorry for myself and feeling like a prisoner in my own body and mind, I started to turn things around with the little I had available.

I began with an affirmation I had read years earlier and had been reminded of recently. This affirmation, it is said, can order and harmonize every aspect of a person’s life.

I knew I needed to regain control over my mind and body, so, one evening as I got out of the shower, I started repeating this affirmation in my mind:

“I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.”

That’s it. I began turning my entire situation around with this little affirmation. It was the seed I needed to sprout a new path forward.

I started thinking this affirmation over and over to myself. Almost instantaneously, I started to feel more empowered. I started to feel myself regaining at least a little control over this runaway carriage I’d gotten myself into.

“I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.”

Again and again, I repeated this affirmation in my mind.

I learned that affirmations are more powerful when said out loud, and they are most powerful when combined with a clear mental image of what you want and when said just before bed, when the subconscious mind is more open to receiving new ideas.

So I began saying this affirmation as I was laying in bed at night, whispering it out loud, while visualizing myself healthy and well again.

Over and over again, I repeated the affirmation, without any rejection from my body (thankfully). I repeated it every night before falling asleep until I put myself into a trance-like state.

While this technique helped me regain some control over my mind, it wasn’t powerful enough to have much of an effect on my body itself.

Even though my body wasn’t fully rejecting the affirmation, it wasn’t fully accepting it, either. It was blocking me (my conscious thought) from influencing it. I had badly disrespected my mind-body connection in the months before, and my body was still protecting itself from me.

But this process, this affirmation and visualization, helped me shift into a more empowered state of being. It helped me get out of any regret or self-loathing I may have felt for getting myself into this situation, and it started to focus my mind and energy on getting myself out of it.

Most importantly, it aligned me with the next important step in the healing process.

In December of that year, I manifested a big step forward in my healing journey – a step that helped me regain a large portion of my ability to live my life again.

I bought a course by Christie Marie Sheldon on Mindvalley called Unlimited Abundance. Even though the course was about manifesting money, something told me it might be able to help me heal my nervous system.⁶

Again, there was no logical reason for this. The course was about money, after all, the subject I had gotten super out of balance with in the first place. My nervous system was still rejecting this subject, but my intuition told me to buy it anyway, so I followed.

The course was highly spiritual. It taught people how to clear away energetic blockages to abundance, with a strong focus on money. However, abundance isn’t just about money. It’s about experiencing more than enough of all things, including health.

One of the techniques the course taught was how to pull in Source Energy from above and direct it to clear away internal blockages.

Not surprisingly, my body was afraid of this. “Not another technique!” it complained to me.

It was scared of everything in this course, but something told me to keep going, so I did my best to relax my nervous system and continue.

Up until this point, since my anxiety attack in the library, there had been this persistent feeling behind my heart. A persistent anxious feeling.

My heart was ready to go into anxiety mode at a moment’s notice. It wasn’t a good feeling, and it was one of the biggest blocks to me being able to live my life again, so it needed to rebalance and heal itself.

I brought Source Energy down from above and into my body. I guided it in through the top of my head, down my neck, and to my heart. It felt warm and loving. It felt safe, and my body relaxed and allowed me to guide it through.

I wasn’t expecting anything. I had no idea what to expect. I was just following the guidance from the meditation in the course, intentionally allowing this energy to clear any internal blockages.

Then, as I guided it through my heart, I suddenly felt that awful, anxious feeling melt away.

Gone. Completely. Just like that.

I finished the meditation. Then I took in a deep breath, let it out, and felt my whole body relax with a nice tingly sensation throughout.

Thank…God…

For the first time in months, I felt semi-normal again.

I had just crossed a major milestone in this healing journey. Just that small bit of healing helped me get 80% of my life back. My body was still sensitive to certain things, but not nearly as badly as before.

I started being able to feel some positive emotions again. I started to joke around again. I started being able to listen to some of my favorite music again.

I started to be able to read some of my books again, to work again, and to imagine my goals and dreams again.

I still had to train my body not to be afraid of life anymore, but it was at least starting to listen to me now. I had gotten an important part of my mind-body connection back, and I was slowly starting to get my life back.

A few months went by, and things were looking up. I was working again and my business was starting to do better than it had in years. I even took a trip to Mexico City for my friend’s bachelor party.

Just a few months before, I couldn’t even imagine getting on a plane without my nervous system revolting. Now I was on a plane to see my friends and do some traveling. From being in what seemed like an impossibly difficult scenario a few months before, this was some major progress.

However, my body wasn’t fully healed. I may have healed a lot of my body’s negative reactions to life, but my nervous system was still quite damaged. The nerves themselves hadn’t healed yet. And my body let me know after this bachelor party.

I came back from Mexico with Montezuma’s Revenge. After I recovered, my body started having trouble digesting food properly.

There came a point when I’d wake up in the morning and still feel my dinner at the bottom of my throat, like it had barely been processed. Once again, I knew something had to be done. But what?

I needed to manifest another solution, a final solution that would help me get all the way back to full health.

At this point, I made a significant shift in my mindset. Up until then, my intention had been to simply heal what I’d done to my body. It was a powerful motivator, but it still kept my mind focused on the problem, not on the problem being solved.

I knew I needed something that would help me focus on the end result, something with a lot of energy that would help me take my mind completely off the problem and onto something way more empowering.

So I set a new goal. I set a goal that was higher than just healing what I’d done to myself. I set a goal to achieve perfect health. Not just to heal what I’d done, but to achieve perfect health in every cell of my body.

Suddenly, I felt a sense of excitement again. “Yes! Here we go! Perfect health baby!”

I set perfect health as a new life goal, wrote down my vision for achieving perfect health and what that meant to me, and used that vision as my new north star. I also had a feeling this would help me manifest the ultimate solution, and it did.

Here are the notes in my phone where I described my new vision (with smiley faces for added positivity):

Then I started reading this vision every morning and night.

Shortly after creating my new vision, I came across a book by Dr. Joe Dispenza called Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon. In this book, Dr. Joe teaches people how to heal themselves through very specific and powerful meditations. This is exactly what I needed.⁷

I came to a part in the book where he talks about the Blessing of the Energy Centers meditation. He shared a few stories of people healing themselves using this meditation, including a woman who had tons of different issues going on with her (some serious stuff).

Within a year and a half, not only was she healed, but she ended up on stage at one of Dr. Joe’s events sharing her story and inspiring others.⁸

I also watched Dr. Joe’s testimonial videos on YouTube, hearing story after story of people healing themselves using this meditation, including a guy who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.⁹

He literally couldn’t imagine his life further than 12 months out because the doctors told him he’d be dead by then. Not only did he heal himself completely using this meditation, but now he can imagine his life years in advance, something most of us take for granted.

After this research, and after all of the other studying I had done on the mind-body connection and the power we have to heal ourselves, I had complete confidence I could heal myself using this meditation, so I downloaded it and got to work.

I did the 45-minute meditation four times over two weeks, listening to Dr. Joe guiding me through each of my energy centers and blessing them with love, gratitude, and appreciation (powerful healing energy).

The idea was to give the cells of my body new, harmonious energy to feed off of because when the body’s cells are in harmony, the body is whole.

The first two meditations went normally, meaning nothing significant happened. It felt good. My body felt good. I could tell this was good for it, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

However, as they say, the third time’s the charm.

During the third meditation, something happened that I still can’t fully explain.

I was a little more than halfway through the meditation, and I was in the deepest meditative state I’d gotten into so far. I was sitting in a chair in the middle of my room with my body completely relaxed, my mind completely at ease, and my eyes closed, while following Dr. Joe’s instructions at the same time, almost on autopilot.

As I was sending this loving, healing energy to the main energy centers of my body, I felt what I can only describe as an electrical current suddenly enter my hands through my fingertips.

My hands weren’t touching anything. They were just hanging limp off the edge of each armrest. It was like I got zapped with some type of energy.

Quickly, before I could even register what was happening, this energy reverberated throughout my body. It entered through my hands, moved up my arms, through my chest and heart, down my torso, through my legs, and back up again.

In a flash, it had moved through my entire body. I can still feel the adrenaline of that moment as I write this.

Despite how deep I was into my meditation, this was enough of a jolt to wake me up out of it. If I hadn’t been so deep, I would’ve easily said out loud, “WTF was that?!”

But I was deep enough that I didn’t immediately jump up and open my eyes. I stayed still and tried to continue the meditation as if nothing had happened, but my heart was pounding like crazy. I couldn’t follow the meditation anymore. This was too wild of an experience, even for me.

I took off my headphones and opened my eyes. I sat in my chair for a moment, breathing deeply and paying close attention to how my body was feeling.

What the heck was that? What had just happened? Was my body okay?

These questions flashed through my mind as I tried to get a grip on what I’d just experienced.

Needless to say, this was the most mystical experience I’d ever had. I still don’t know exactly what happened or where that energy came from. Maybe I’ll find out one day when the time is right.

But after settling myself down for a few minutes, I decided to go back into the meditation and finish it, even though my heart was still pounding from that energetic jolt I’d experienced. Nothing about it felt wrong or bad. It was just intense.

I finished the meditation and laid on top of my bed.

As I laid there, which Dr. Joe recommends after each session to let your autonomic nervous system integrate the effects of the meditation, my body started to feel better than it had felt since this whole healing journey began five months earlier.

I felt this amazing feeling swirling throughout my body, the kind of feeling you get when you’re really happy or you’ve just had a massage.

That “zapping” experience was nothing like I’d ever experienced before, heard of, or could’ve anticipated.

But maybe, just maybe, I’d manifested the healing I’d been praying for and visualizing day after day, week after week, month after month, as I continued to climb myself out of this abyss and get my life back together.

As it turns out, whatever this energy was that had zapped me and reverberated throughout my body in a matter of seconds, it ended up being the catalyst for the healing I had so desperately needed.

My nervous system had been deeply damaged. My body was now starting not to digest food properly. My emotional system was still stunted. I had gotten some of my life back, but not enough.

I needed to go all the way to truly get my life back. I needed to heal myself completely.

In the months that followed that “zapping,” I began to experience what most would call miracle healings. I began to experience my body healing itself from the inside out.

Whatever that energy did, it set my body into “healing mode.”

As I lay in bed in the morning, during the day, and at night before going to sleep, I felt my nerves healing one by one by one.

Pop!

A nerve would heal from my heart, up my neck, and to my head.

Pop!

Another nerve would heal in an instant, from my heart, up my neck, and to my head.

Pop!…Pop!…Pop!…

More nerves healing.

Not painful pops. Glorious pops!

My body was healing itself! I could feel it! It was amazing!

Each nerve that healed was followed by a sense of relief and a release of energy, and I was stoked! I was finally experiencing the healing I had read about and heard stories of. I was finally receiving the deep and complete healing I needed.

Every day, I was feeling my body healing itself. I would lie down for hours in awe of the magnificence of my body’s healing power.

Not only this, but I didn’t have to do the meditation anymore. I didn’t even have to do the affirmations or visualization anymore.

Whatever happened during that meditation when I got zapped, it put my body into a healing mode that required nothing from me except to lie down and let it do its thing.

I could think about and imagine whatever I wanted and my body would continue to heal itself with a persistence even more stubborn than my own.

This was the healing I’d been praying for, and I couldn’t have been more relieved and happy about it.

But the work wasn’t done.

This marked the beginning of the next stage of the journey, a stage that would last much longer than I could’ve anticipated and would require me to continue digging into my internal storehouse of willpower, perseverance, and inner strength.

Stage 11: The Road Back (My Healing Journey)

After the hero conquers their greatest challenge, it’s time for them to head back to their ordinary world (the place where they began their journey). It’s time to bring everything around full circle.

While they may have succeeded in overcoming their greatest challenge, the road back often presents its own challenges. The story isn’t quite over yet.

For me, my “road back” was the next stage of my healing journey, a stage that would end up lasting 3+ years. (In fact, I’m still experiencing part of it right now.)

First, even though I could feel my nerves healing, my digestive system still wasn’t digesting food properly, so I fasted for 13 days to heal it. Many people thought I was crazy for doing this, and it was scary, but it worked.

I fasted for 13 days and was constipated for about a month as my body got used to processing food again (thank God for laxatives). After that, my digestive system got back to pretty much normal functioning, which was one less thing I needed to deal with.

But I had lost around 40 pounds of mostly muscle over the last few months as I reduced my food consumption, stopped going to the gym (the healing was too intense and I had to spend most of the day in bed), and went through the fasting.

Next, even though I could feel my body physically healing itself, which was a miraculous experience, something else was happening as part of the healing process.

My body was releasing non-physical energy from my heart and digestive system at an intense rate. This was happening constantly, all day, all night, every day.

It would release from my heart and my digestive system, move down my arms, up my neck, and down my legs. Then it would leave my body out the top of my head, my hands, and the soles of my feet.

I could feel it moving out of the tissues of my organs and through what I believe to be the meridian system of my body (known as pathways for non-physical energy in the body, like energetic veins).

In the beginning, it was quite uncomfortable as this energy forced its way through my meridian system, squeezing past my muscles, tendons, and other tissues to make its exit.

Once again, this was something I’d never heard of in all my research on self-healing, but I knew it was a part of the healing process and I needed to trust it and let it do what it needed to.

By “let it do what it needed to” I thought this meant I needed to let it do its thing for maybe six weeks and then it would be over. After all, Dr. Joe Dispenza healed the bones in his back in six weeks after a biking accident, so I was sure my healing wouldn’t take longer than that.

Boy, was I mistaken.

Six weeks went by. Then three months. Then six months. Still, unrelenting, this energy continued to release from my body at a furious rate.

My body knew that this energy didn’t belong and it needed to go. Whatever I’d done to myself before, it ran much deeper than I thought. It wasn’t just physical. Something had happened on a deeper level.

However, understanding this didn’t make the experience any easier.

If I could physically see the amount of energy that was leaving my body, it would probably fill a football stadium. It was awe-inspiring to think my body could even contain that much energy.

People I’ve told this story to always ask me how it feels to have energy moving through and releasing from my body like that. It’s always difficult to explain because there isn’t much I can compare it to.

I usually say it feels like a tangible sensation moving through my body, traveling just beneath my skin, and when I relax and lie down, the energy release gets faster. When I did stuff, like work, work out, watch tv, talk, or read, the release slowed down. It’s something I could feel at all times unless I was totally distracted by something.

Ever present and unrelenting – a stubborn healing process that wouldn’t stop until it finished.

Due to the rate of energy release, I didn’t have much energy to actually live my life. I spent most of my days for those first six months laying in bed, feeling this energy releasing from my body.

The miraculous healing of my nerves was finished. I’d even healed the tendonitis I’d had in my forearms for six years prior. Within weeks, I had healed something that I had dealt with on a daily basis for six years, which had limited my ability to work and even use my phone.

People often never fully heal tendonitis. The most doctors often do is prescribe pain meds (that’s what I got prescribed when I saw a doctor for it). Yet, my forearms healed in a matter of weeks after this energy “zapping” experience. It was amazing.

But, by this time, my focus was completely consumed by the energy release.

I felt caged in again. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t go to the gym. I couldn’t listen to music. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t even watch Netflix. I had gotten part of my life back for a few months, only to be thrown into yet another obstacle that would test my willpower once more.

However, this time was different. I knew I was healing. I knew I was on the road back to getting my life back completely, to manifesting the health and well-being I needed. I trusted my body and I trusted the process it was going through.

I had a strong knowing that this was leading me exactly where I needed to go. So I put my head down, embraced it, and moved forward as best I could.

For months, I was alone with my mind, laying in bed feeling this energy pouring out of me. No distractions. No escapes. Just me and my thoughts.

I entertained myself by going back into past experiences, even as far back as my childhood, and seeing what lessons I could learn from them, learning to forgive and let go.

(This is how a personal development junkie entertains themselves in these situations.)

I also practiced my visualization. It didn’t matter what I thought about, my body was going to continue healing itself no matter what. Even if I wanted it to stop (and many times I did want it to), I couldn’t make it stop. Again, its persistence was even more stubborn than mine.

So I practiced visualizing all of my goals and dreams again. I imagined one day writing an article describing the experience I was having. I imagined being in perfect health again, working out, exercising, and enjoying my perfectly healthy body.

I imagined traveling. I went all over the world in my mind. I imagined seeing my friends again and hanging out with them (all of this was happening in 2020-2022).

I also created new visions for everything I wanted in my life, and I decided on new values I was going to live my life by when this healing journey was over.

I got excited about feeling my positive emotions fully again – all the love I was going to feel, all the gratitude I was going to feel, all the appreciation for my life and for my journey.

I started to appreciate how I’d gotten to experience the healing power of the human body, and how magnificent and enlightening this experience was.

I appreciated how I had learned, through my own experience, the power of all of the knowledge I had accumulated and applied (correctly, this time) to heal my own body, and how empowering that was.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, I was in gratitude and appreciation. I chose to empower myself as much as I could through this experience, to learn as many lessons as I possibly could, and to find ways to find the positive in what many might’ve considered to be a negative.

It wasn’t a negative experience to me. I believed that this difficult experience was one of the BEST experiences I could possibly have in life.

Rarely does someone get an opportunity to tap into their deepest potential and get a glimpse of what they’re truly capable of as a human being. This experience gave me that opportunity.

Months and months (and what would be years) of almost constant challenge, with rarely a second of relief, was turning me into one of the strongest versions of myself I could possibly imagine.

My greatest challenge was also my greatest gift.

Few onlookers would’ve considered it a gift, but that’s because they aren’t aware that the true gifts in life are spiritual. They are internal.

The true gifts are the experiences you have and the lessons you learn along the way. They come wrapped up in who you become as a person and the pride you feel knowing what you have overcome.

These are gifts that can never be taken from you. They are your Truths in a deep sense. They become a part of you and bless your life until the moment you depart from this world, if you allow them to.

No, my work wasn’t over. My road back lasted years – years of this energy releasing from my body – as I persevered to get my life back.

A few times I said, “Enough is enough! I want my life back…NOW!” and tried to forcefully take it back. It didn’t work. My body was stubbornly going through its healing process. It wasn’t going to stop until it did what it needed to do, and I needed to trust it and be patient.

Even though I was strong and handling it well, moments would come when I was just tired – exhausted from this whole experience. I still couldn’t feel positive emotions very well, and when you’re in a neutral or negative state, sometimes the world just seems grey, no matter how empowered you are or how much you trust the journey you’re on.

In these times, there was always something to lift me up again. Whether it was my dad giving me the space to vent to him (this healing journey had been a nightmare for my parents to witness).

Or even the invisible helping hand of the Universe, which often comes to aid the hero when they need it most. If the hero’s mind and heart are open enough, the hero will recognize this helping hand as it extends its aid in subtle and mysterious ways.

Remember when I saw the 222 on the billboard in Saigon? Right before my higher purpose was inspired through me? That number sequence means “all is well” to me, and I believe the Universe knows this.

At the time when all of this healing was happening, and even before I did that fateful meditation, I had my phone’s clock set to military time.

Without trying to consciously, for many months, I almost always went to bed right at 10:22 PM. In military time, it reads as 22:22 PM.

Almost every night before going to bed, I would look at my phone and see 22:22, and it would remind me that all is well. Despite everything I was going through, all was well, and I’d make it through some way, somehow.

Then I’d smile and go to sleep trusting the process, despite being in the most difficult situation of my life.

Over the next year and a half, I started getting my life back, step by step, little by little. I began to get out of bed and do just a little more than the day before.

I’d go outside and walk around the apartment building one time. Then two times. Then half the complex. Then the whole complex.

Around the end of 2021, I got back to work and started some new business ventures.

I learned music production, something that had been a dream of mine for years, and I published five songs under the name SABRTOOTH (check them out wherever you listen to music).¹⁰

I started gaming with my friends online and got some fun back into my life. I even took a trip to California, went to a wedding, and saw a bunch of my friends (the first big get-together after lockdown).

I also started eating properly again and got back to a healthy weight.

I was finally feeling and living almost like myself again.

And…

In the first half of 2022…

I began my most important work yet.

Stage 12: The Resurrection (Getting My Life Back & Clarifying My Purpose)

In the next stage of a typical hero’s journey, the hero experiences a “resurrection.”

This resurrection occurs on the road back to the hero’s ordinary world. Sometimes, the resurrection resembles the climax of the story, but it almost always resembles a ritual cleansing.

Some books and movies that follow the hero’s journey story arc have the hero go through a literal death and resurrection, but it can be metaphorical, as well.

Mine was definitely metaphorical.

Up until early 2022, for over two years, I’d been in a deep healing state. The transformation I went through with my body purging and cleansing itself, my experience of the body’s healing power, all of the realizations I came to about myself and my life, and the lessons I learned, were like a metaphorical death of my old self.

I couldn’t go back to my old self. I knew too much. I’d experienced too much.

I knew, through my own experience, what we are truly capable of as human beings if we open our minds and hearts to the seemingly impossible.

No problem is insurmountable. No solution is impossible to find. My experience taught me that deeply and viscerally.

This was my gift. This was my reward. This was my treasure.

I had learned most of what I needed to learn in this part of the journey, and it was time to get back to my work. But not just any work. It was time to begin my life’s work.

It was time to live in alignment with the purpose I’d discovered in Asia. It was time to start following my purpose, my passion, my calling, and my mission.

The only problem was, I was only conscious of one of these layers. I knew my higher purpose was to help people achieve their dreams. That still resonated with me deeply.

But it was still a vague idea. How was I going to do that? Who was I going to help? What was the best vehicle for me to fulfill that purpose?

I needed to clarify the other layers of my purpose so I could ground things down and take action on them.

Since I graduated college and began my journey eight years earlier, I’d done a bunch of things that had pretty much nothing to do with my higher purpose or deepest passions…

1. Affiliate marketer
2. DoorDash driver
3. Uber/Lyft driver
4. SEO Specialist
5. Online English tutor
6. Forex trader

I’d also done a few things that had a lot to do with my higher purpose and deepest passions, I just didn’t know it at the time…

1. Self-published author
2. Personal development blogger
3. Life coach

For years, I had bounced around from thing to thing trying to make my dreams come true, but the focus had primarily been on myself:

How can I make my business successful?

How can I start traveling around the world?

How can I achieve my goals and dreams?

Essentially, my mindset had mostly been “service to self” when, in reality, what I really wanted to do, and what I really felt I was meant to do, was to serve others.

A moment came in early 2022 (right after forex trading didn’t go as planned) when I finally threw up my hands and said:

“If this isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing, what am I supposed to be doing?! What is my actual purpose??”

That question got me right back in line with the purpose that had been with me all along.

I remembered that my life purpose was to help people achieve their dreams, and I started to clarify all of the other layers of purpose that mattered to me. I did this by doing what I now recommend my readers and subscribers to do.

I put myself through a process of self-discovery through self-inquiry. I started asking myself the right questions and writing down my answers.

What were the right questions? They were any and all questions about who I really am, what I really want, and where I want my life to go.

I clarified that my top passion was personal development, and it was time to follow it.

I clarified that my calling was to be a writer, and it was time to combine those two and start writing and teaching personal development to others.

I clarified that my mission was to inspire people, empower people, and help people achieve their dreams, and I was going to do it through my personal brand, using content, books, courses, community, and coaching to help people find their purposes, follow their passions, and achieve their dreams.

Finally, I clarified that my ikigai was ‘to create,’ along with many other layers of my life purpose that I now follow on a daily basis.

This process of self-discovery through self-inquiry aligned me with exactly what I needed to do to start acting on the higher purpose I’d discovered while in Southeast Asia three years earlier.

After years of healing, learning, and growth, it was time to start giving back and serving others, sharing the lessons I had learned and continue to learn, and helping people find and follow their own purposes, follow their passions, and achieve their dreams as they navigate their hero’s journeys.

To do this, I started writing for this blog. I also started a podcast and published over 30 episodes.

I wrote my second book, The Purpose Discovery System, teaching people my 5-step process to find, follow, and live their purpose in life, and I self-published it on Amazon and Audible.

I started creating The Find Your Life Purpose Course, a full-blown flagship training course designed to take someone from having no clue what to do with their life to knowing their purpose at every layer that matters to them and how to follow it (coming soon).

Finally, about six months after making my decision to start truly following my purpose, in August of 2022, I flew to Costa Rica and lived there for eight months.

This was my “cleansing” period. I finally had a taste of freedom again, experiencing the magic I had so dearly missed from living and traveling abroad.

Things were starting to come around full circle, and I’d never felt more aligned with my purpose, my passion, my calling, and my mission in life.

I had gained life-changing clarity, and it was time to act on it.

Related: How to Be a Life-Changing Force: 10 Tips to Change the World

Stage 13: Returning With The Elixir of Life to Live My Purpose, Follow My Calling & Serve The World

In the final stage of the hero’s journey, the hero returns to their ordinary world with the “Elixir of Life.”

The elixir is the final reward. It’s the culmination of everything the hero has learned along their journey, and now they’re in a position to give back to the people they started out with in their ordinary world.

In this final stage, the hero returns with everything they’ve learned and shares it with the world to uplift others.

If you remember from the beginning of this story, my ordinary world was more like an ordinary path. This “ordinary path” was a path that didn’t make me happy and wasn’t aligned with my purpose.

For me, returning with the Elixir of Life meant that it was time for me to uplift and empower others who are at a similar stage as I was when I began my journey.

People who are unfulfilled. People who are unhappy with their current path or circumstances. People in jobs or careers that drain their energy and suck the life out of them. People who want more purpose, passion, meaning, and fulfillment in their lives.

People who want to do what they love to do, who want to find and follow things they’re truly passionate about, who want to help others, and people who want to achieve their biggest goals and dreams in life.

This is my purpose. This is my passion. This is my calling. This is my mission.

This is my service to others, and it is the manifestation of my higher purpose.

It’s what I’m doing right this very second and every day of my life from this point forward, into the foreseeable and unforeseeable future.

I am following my purpose. I am following my passion. I am in the process of achieving more of my dreams.

And I’m putting my heart and soul into helping others do the same.

Every beginning is the end of what came before. Every end is the beginning of what comes after. When one hero’s journey ends, it’s simply the beginning of another.

My next hero’s journey has begun. It’s the journey of following my calling, doing what I’m meant to do in life, and serving the world.

It’s the journey to fulfill my vision of helping as many people I can around the world to live their best lives.

This is my mission, and I have accepted it with gratitude in my heart and excitement for what’s to come.

---

Thank you so much for reading my story. I hope it made a positive impact on you.

If you’re ready to begin your own purpose journey and/or hero’s journey, it begins with self-discovery.

Download my free self-discovery workbook below, answer some simple questions about who you are and what you want in life, and it will help you create a path toward your ideal future.

Your journey awaits…

1. This is what I call the core layers of purpose. They are purpose, passion, calling, mission, and ikigai. I’ve found that within these five layers is most of the purpose most people are searching for when trying to find their purpose in life.
2. If you’d like a detailed understanding of the hero’s journey, check out The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.
3. I don’t believe Escape Plan is available for sale anymore but here’s the Goodreads page.
4. Check out Mark Manson’s blog and YouTube channel.
5. Check out Sean Ogle’s work at Location Rebel.
6. Unlimited Abundance by Christie Marie Sheldon on Mindvalley , the course that helped me get over the first major hurdle in my healing journey.
7. Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon by Dr. Joe Dispenza
8. Blessing of the Energy Centers meditation by Dr. Joe Dispenza
9. Testimonial videos from Dr. Joe’s work. He’s doing some of the best work on the planet right now. If you want to see hundreds of stories of healing, check these out.
10. Check out my music on Spotify or anywhere you stream music.