I have been trying to figure out how to best live this thing called life for as long as I can remember.

Not as a philosophical exercise. As a necessity.

I grew up with a faith that told me where life ultimately leads, but the middle part - how to live it well, make good decisions, avoid the pitfalls, and make sense of what happens - took most of a lifetime to work out.

In my twenties, I drifted. I looked successful on the outside and felt lost on the inside.

That season led me back to the anchor that mattered most - the source of my faith, values, and guiding principles. It marked the beginning of a longer process of learning how to actually live by them rather than simply believe in them.

I spent the next three decades continuing to build my real estate career while, along the way, developing and coaching the people around me.

Over time, I began to notice certain patterns.

I saw how easily people - myself included - drift into reactive living. We make assumptions, misinterpret what is happening around us, chase things that ultimately do not satisfy, and gradually become disconnected from what is true about life and what is most important in life.

We learn, often the hard way, that life is difficult and rarely unfolds as we plan or expect.

I also saw the difference it makes when people are clear about their values, grounded in what they believe, and intentional in how they live and make decisions.

In 2020, everything changed at once.

My marriage of 25 years ended in divorce. I sold the company I had owned and led for 24 years. My kids were still living with me, but not for long, as my daughter was preparing to enter chiropractic school and my son would soon be married. Much of what had been most important to me in life was either gone or changing.

It was the hardest season I had ever faced, and I have been through quite a few.

But when I returned to the mission statement I had written in my early thirties during one of those earlier seasons - the one that had guided my life for decades - nothing needed to change.

The same values, convictions, and guiding principles I had followed helped me stand firm and navigate that season without losing my footing.

What also became clear during that season was not necessarily something new, but something I finally recognized for the first time.

Through a Giftedness Assessment and conversations with trusted people I sought out for guidance, I began to understand something I had not fully understood before.

I discovered what had been missing - the highest and best use of my natural abilities.

I had been unofficially coaching people for most of my life without recognizing it for what it was. Once I did, coaching became my focus. And writing followed as an extension - what I often describe as coaching from afar.

Somewhere in the discipline of putting words to what I believed - of trying to explain things clearly enough that I could better understand them myself - I began to see the patterns I had lived but never fully articulated.

It became clear that I make better decisions and live with greater clarity and purpose when I remain focused on three things - thinking clearly, choosing wisely, and living intentionally.

The challenge is maintaining that focus as a way of life - an ongoing commitment that is constantly tested by pressure, emotions, distractions, uncertainty, and competing priorities.

Life can still be hard. People are imperfect. Circumstances are unpredictable, and outcomes are never guaranteed.

However, I have found that I navigate life far better when I remain grounded in truth, intentional in how I live, and focused on what matters most. I believe the same is true for many others as well.

That is why I write and coach.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” - Romans 8:28