Are you waiting for someone else to direct you?
The answers you're seeking can only come from within
How many of us are waiting for someone else to tell us what to do?
We want the answer handed to us. The certainty delivered. Someone who can see what we can’t see and just... tell us. We seek out a career mentor to help us see possibilities. A financial advisor to guide our decisions. A therapist to hold space for our healing. A spiritual teacher to illuminate the path. But how many of us end up asking them: “Just tell me what to do. You tell me what’s best for me.”
These guides are valuable. They offer perspective we can’t see from inside our own lives. But here’s what they can’t do: They can’t tell us what feels true in our soul. They can’t know what sits right in our bones. They can’t determine what brings us peace.
That knowing—that deep, unshakeable sense of ‘yes, this’—can only come from within.
I grew up watching this play out in a dramatic way.
My father is regarded as a Prophet according to certain Christian circles. What others might call clairvoyant—someone who could see into the future of people’s lives. He would single complete strangers out of a crowd and say: “Here is what God is telling you directionally for your life.”
He would get pictures of them in a different country, living a different lifestyle, pursuing a different occupation. He’d see them with a spouse they hadn’t met yet. He’d describe learning journeys they were about to embark on.
And the accuracy was remarkable. People would be completely stunned. “Wow, how did you know. What you just said makes total sense.”
As his reputation grew, something fascinating happened. People started seeking him out. When he stood to speak to large crowds, you could feel the tension in the room. Some people would lean forward expectantly, hoping he would pick them out and give them a directional word from heaven.
Others would literally duck under their seats. They didn’t want to know. They were afraid that if he told them where their life was headed, it would haunt them. They’d have to actually do something about it.
But most people? Most people desperately wanted him to tell them what to do.
Dad Notices A Pattern
I remember a conversation with my father about this. He said something that’s stuck with me ever since:
“People just want to hear something from God. They don’t want to do the work themselves.”
They wanted the utterance. The tangible direction from a mouthpiece they could hear and see. They wanted certainty delivered to them rather than cultivated within them.
And here’s another part to Dad’s gift. Many people would come back to him months or years later, angry. “You prophesied X, Y, Z. You said this was going to happen. Nothing happened. You’re a false prophet.”
My father would ask them one simple question: “What did you do about what was said? What actions did you take to follow through? Belief in action is what makes the words tangible. Read your bible again. Those who acted on the word experienced the heavenly promises.”
Silence. They wanted the revelation without the responsibility. The vision without the obedience. The answer without the work.
The Map Is Not the Territory
A friend texted me recently on a Sunday morning. A rather lengthy message about a +20 years long friendship that was ending in his life. He was using frameworks to understand what was happening—analyzing the psychological dynamics, the physiological responses, even running it through AI to get perspectives.
“I’d love to get some truthful feedback from you and if you see a potential pitfall I might not be aware of” he quipped.
I told him something I’ve come to believe deeply: These frameworks—the books, the teachers, the guides, the psychometric tests, the personality typologies—they’re all maps. And maps are useful. Maps are beautiful. But the map is not the territory.
The territory is your own soul. Your deepest knowing. That place where you really know that you know that you know. And that supersedes any external guidance you can receive.
I encouraged my friend: “Follow that still small voice. Follow that sensation in your body, wherever it’s arising. That’s leading you to whatever step you need to take.”
Don’t get me wrong. I love frameworks. I’ve come across beautiful, honourable, and useful modalities. But I’m not going to hang my hat on it. I’m not going to put myself in a box based on some system, no matter how sophisticated.
We’ve all done those psychometric tests that categorize us—green, blue, analytical, relational. And yes, there are patterns. Yes, there are designs. But we have to be careful. Because what happens, if we are not careful, is we get caged.
And the human spirit is a free bird. It’s not meant to be caged.
The Crux Of Discovering Your Soul Level Purpose
J. Krishnamurti said something that cuts to the heart of this: “It is very easy to conform to what your society or your parents and teachers tell you. That is a safe and easy way of existing. But that is not living. To live is to find out for yourself what is true.” This is the crux of the purpose discovery journey.
Forget about what the teacher told you. Forget about what society told you. Forget about all these layers that have been put on us year over year over year. And I’m aware—it may feel like the hard way. But here’s what I’ve come to understand: Conforming is actually the easy way.
All of us know deep down that something doesn’t sit right. Build the house, get the car, get the next promotion, accumulate the money, find the trophy partner, have the kids, give them a good education. Is that all life is about?
It feels empty. At least it does to me. And I talk to people every week who feel the same hollowness.
This is why purpose discovery exists. Not to give you another framework to conform to. Not to tell you what to do. But to help you ask the questions. To help you find out what is true for you.
A Lesson From Standard Six
When I was in Standard Six, I had a teacher—an American gentleman—who wrote one comment on my report card while everyone else got paragraphs.
He wrote: “While everybody else is looking to provide answers, Jonathan is the only one who’s always asking questions.”
This came back to me during my own purpose discovery journey. That part of me—the one who asks the questions, the one who doesn’t just take things at face value—is core to who I am.
I receive fully. I give myself wholly to practices. AND I bring questions. I question. I try to understand. I reason. That’s part of who I am.
And the more I honored that part of myself instead of trying to be the person with all the answers, the more I stepped into my purpose. This is what developed into one of my greatest strengths as a coach. But I only discovered it by going inward, not only by having someone tell me. In fact, I had forgotten it over the years.
You might get glimpses like this from your childhood. Moments where your true nature showed itself before the layers got added. Pursuits you abandoned. Interests you were told weren’t practical. Music. Art. Writing. Questions you were told to stop asking.
But here’s the real question: What are you doing about it?
Revelation Without Action
This brings me back to my father and those people who came back angry that nothing happened.
You can listen to and read a number of wisdom teachings. Many are likely to offer profound insights about your life. About what you’re really here to do.
But if you don’t act on it? If you just sit on your hands and say, “Oh, what a beautiful revelation”? Nothing happens.
Because it’s through action that we demonstrate commitment. We demonstrate faith. We demonstrate trust.
Think about relationships. If you told your partner “I love you” but never spent time together, never had meals together, never showed up for them—how would that relationship develop? It wouldn’t.
The relationship deepens through action. Through showing up. Through the evolution of consistent presence. Your relationship with your soul works the same way.
One month in, you’re just getting acquainted. Three years in, five years in, ten years in—you can say, “I know you. I know this part of myself.”
That’s the journey.
Purpose discovery is that first initial reconnection with soul. Yes, there are other phases—integration, deepening, community. But it starts with you being willing to do the work.
To ask the questions. To listen to what emerges. And then to act on what you hear.
The Deeper Asking
I see this pattern everywhere. Not just in spiritual seeking, but in work too.
People complain that their managers don’t give them clear direction. Did you ask? Not just once, but repeatedly. Did you sit with them? Did you reason with them? Did you offer to help them think it through? Or did you just wait for them to tell you what to do?
We do this in all aspects of our lives. We want someone else to have the answers.
But here’s what I’m offering you: If you genuinely want to know your truth—not someone else’s truth for you, but YOUR truth—this is the journey.
Imagine What Becomes Possible
Imagine making decisions with clarity—not ease, but clarity. You know what’s yours to do and what’s noise.
Imagine showing up in relationships as yourself, not the person you think they need.
Imagine work feeling aligned, whether the external circumstances change or remain unchanged. You engage differently. Purpose-led, not paycheck-driven.
Imagine the hollowness fading because you’re living from your center, not society’s script. Imagine the performance stopping. The being starting.
This is what the journey makes possible. Not immediately. But progressively.
The Offering: Purpose Discovery Journey
You could do this work alone. Absolutely. You could go through teachings, explorations, practices on your own. And you likely will need to do much of it yourself.
What I offer is a container. A structured framework. A process where you can do this work in a consistent, supported way, together with others who are seeking the same thing.
You’re not alone in this. There’s accountability. There’s community. There’s a way to keep moving forward instead of drifting in and out and forgetting.
Because it’s very easy to forget. To get pulled back into the conformity, the safety, the ease of letting others tell you what to do.
I’m not going to tell you what your purpose is. I’m not my father standing in front of a crowd, singling you out, and delivering a word from heaven. That’s not what this work is about.
What I will do is hold space for you to discover it yourself. To ask the questions you’ve been avoiding. To listen to the voice you’ve been drowning out. To honor the glimpses from childhood you dismissed as impractical.
And then—and this is crucial—to help you take action on what emerges. Because revelation without action is not transformational.
The truth you’re seeking isn’t out there. It’s not in a framework, a test result, a teacher’s pronouncement, or a prophet’s vision.
Your truth is inside you. It always has been. You just have to be willing to do the work to find it.
An Invitation
Every month I hold a free 90-minute introduction to purpose discovery. The next one is on May 16th, 2026 at 09:30AM. Register here.
It’s not for people who want to be told how to live. It’s for people who are ready to find out for themselves what is true. For people who are tired of conforming, tired of waiting, tired of outsourcing their inner knowing to external authorities. For people who understand that the human spirit is a free bird, not meant to be caged.
If that’s you, I’d be honored to accompany you on your journey.
Your soul is waiting. Your move.
Warmly
Jonathan Mithran Sunderraj