Which path to take

“Which path should I take?”
It’s the question that shows up in every coaching session.

And it’s the one I’ve asked myself more times than I can count.
Should I be a designer? A design leader? A strategist? A teacher? An entrepreneur? An author? A community builder? A coach?
Every day, the question stared back at me: What’s next?

Jeff Bezos said: Chase what doesn’t change. Focus on constants—not the noise. I took that to heart and made it my own. I asked myself a deeper, simpler question: What keeps the spark in my eyes, the smile on my face, the peace in my heart? I sat with that. And slowly, patterns formed.

I split my life into three buckets:
Activities that light me up brightly
Activities that light me up gently
Activities that don’t light me up at all

Then I got to work.
I amplified the light-givers.
I dumped the dark-drainers.
And for the ones I couldn’t dump yet—I contained them. No more than 10% of my time. I kept at it for 1,000 days. And the truth emerged.

I’m at my best when I’m:
✳️ Writing/Building POVs - Authorship
✳️ Solving Problems, Creating Impact - Design Leadership
✳️ Learning new things

That’s my “what next.”
This process helped me dump what no longer served me and find what truly lights me up.
I dumped entrepreneurship and found design leadership.
I dumped the creator hustle and found the calm of authorship.
I dumped chasing ROI and found the joy of building communities and not-for-profits.
Bit by bit, I dumped the noise and found the signal. Today, the chaff is gone. What remains is crystal clear:
Authorship. Design Leadership. Problem Solving. Learning.
That’s all.
And that’s enough—for the next three decades.

If new light shows up, I’ll be ready to dump again and find anew.

What lights you up?