Every month, I receive hundreds of messages, emails, and questions from people all around the world. People from all walks of life, different situations, backgrounds, experience sets, and life stages.

The single most common question that comes up:

"I feel lost. What should I do?"

Fortunately, I've been there, so I've done a lot of thinking about just that.

I spent the final years of my 20s totally lost, a fact that I largely hid from the world, even from those closest to me. After charging through my early 20s feeling like I had everything figured out, I woke up one day with no clue where I was headed (and even less of a clue how to get there).

It's a bad feeling, particularly in a world where you're surrounded by people who seem to all have their lives so well put together. The "humbled and honored" LinkedIn posts from your network sting even more when you feel so far away from being humbled and honored about anything.

So, here's an open letter to my lost younger self—with the five things I'd like to tell that version of me that would have accelerated his path to the other side.

If you're feeling lost, have ever felt lost, or want to be better equipped for the day when you might, this letter is for you...

First, reclaim your power.

Your power in life comes from the belief that you can take an action and create a desired outcome.

When you're feeling lost, you lack this belief—you've lost your power.

In those moments, the first and most important thing you can do is reclaim that power.

You do that through micro-proof: You create a tiny bit of evidence that reaffirms your belief, that you can take one tiny action and create one tiny outcome.

That has ripple effects into every area of life.

If you want to create some micro-proof, for the next 10 days, set your alarm for 5am, get out of bed when it goes off, and do some physical activity for 30 minutes.

Waking up early is the fastest way to rewire your brain—to remind yourself that you can do anything, that you are capable, that you are a winner. Confidence is built, not born. At the end of 10 days, you'll feel different (and probably look a bit different as well).

If you can reclaim your power, everything starts to change.

Next, remember that the answer is found in the action.

"As you start to walk on the way, the way appears" - Rumi

Here's a harsh truth: Intelligence is your greatest asset and your greatest liability.

You spend time creating 5-year-plans and 10-year-plans, while less intelligent people go out and achieve the things you want, simply because they took action, while you didn't.

Smart, ambitious people are some of the ​worst overthinkers​. They overanalyze, focus on planning, and try to perfect rather than adapt.

The answer you are looking for is found in the action you are avoiding.

You don't find yourself through planning, you find yourself through acting. The path is found in the action.

Act and adapt, don't think and plan.

Start trusting in the trend, not the position.

It's easy to sit in your current spot and compare yourself to everyone around you. A lot of feeling lost comes from that comparison. That sensation that others have everything sorted, while you are adrift.

But comparing your position to anyone else is a complete waste of time and energy. Every ounce of energy you spend comparing yourself to others is an ounce that could have been spent on developing yourself.

Much more important than your position is your trend.

Consider the simple visual below:

If you focus on a point in time, you'd say that Position B is worse off, but zoom out and you'd recognize that you'd much rather be in Position B than Position A.

The trend is built through the daily actions—habits, routines, mindsets—controllable factors which create the momentum that you can build upon.

Trust in your trend, not your position.

Create value for everyone you come across.

Stop focusing on your potential. Everyone cared about that when you were in college, but it no longer matters. Get over it.

Execution, delivery, and value, not potential.

As Steve Jobs famously said, "You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward." So, take the small things seriously, because you never know what opportunity will be the one that vaults you forward.

Create value in any way you can for everyone you come across:

• Build a reputation for figuring it out. There's nothing more valuable than someone who can just figure it out. Do some work, ask the key questions, get it done. If you do that, high quality people will fight over you.
• Be reliable. You’ll achieve much more by being consistently reliable than by being occasionally extraordinary. You can get pretty damn far in life by just being someone that people can count on to show up and do the work.

Remember this rule: Create value, receive value.

And finally, find your challenge-seekers.

There are going to be periods of loneliness on your journey. It's natural. You're changing faster than your environment can. It's the season of loneliness, and it can be a sign that you're on the right path.

You don't need hundreds of friends, you just need a few challenge-seekers.

Challenge-seekers are people who are on ambitious missions—people who take on big, scary things with enthusiasm.

​Recent studies​ have shown that challenge-seeking behavior is socially contagious, meaning it encourages those in close proximity to do the same.

Your entire life will change when you find your challenge-seekers. A few people who will—actively through their words and passively through their actions—encourage you to push harder, to think bigger, and to dream on.

Challenge-seeking is contagious. Find your challenge-seekers. Then be one to someone else.

You're Not Lost, You're Just Finding

There's no such thing as lost.

The term itself assumes an end-state that simply does not exist in your life.

Life is nothing more than a constant process of finding.

Learning, uncovering, becoming, discovering.

Treat it that way: Give yourself some grace and remember that every single moment—good and bad—contributes to your life's story.

That story always reads better when the struggle is profound. So, embrace it.

You're not lost, you're just finding.