My Journey
There’s got to be more to life than this, right?
As a therapist, that used to be the most common question I heard. I’ve heard it from those in the depths of struggle and those at the heights of success. In 2011, I heard it in the center of my own heart. For a decade now, I’ve been answering that question with my life and my work.
My Path
Where It Began
I grew up in a small town in rural Illinois, and I got out of it as fast as I could, because I figured the satisfaction we’re all looking for couldn’t be found in a cornfield. I went to the University of Illinois and majored in psychology, before going on to Penn State for graduate school. There, I met my lovely wife (who also happens to be named Kelly, as if life isn’t already complicated enough), we had our first child, and I earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Then, I went on to become a successful therapist. I’d checked every box I could think of in search of a satisfying life, and yet true satisfaction still seemed somehow out of reach. That’s when I got depressed—really depressed—for the first time in my life. By 2011, I was asking the same question most of my clients were asking: there’s got to be more to life than this, right?
There’s got to be more to life than this, right?
My answer to that question has taken shape over the course of many years. It started in 2012, when I began a blog. I soon fell in love with writing. Then I published a book called Loveable.
My Awakening
Embrace your worthiness, build your belonging, and clarify your purpose
After I published Loveable, people asked me to speak to them about it, and I fell in love with speaking. Then some of the entrepreneurs I spoke to asked me to coach them on how to make their relationships as successful as their businesses, and I fell in love with coaching. However, none of those public accomplishments totally captured the more I was discovering. Rather, along the path of my awakening, I discovered that no matter what you do in the world—no matter where you live, no matter who you know, no matter how much you have—if you don’t embrace your worthiness, find your belonging, and clarify your purpose (in that order), you will be left looking for more.
Home Again
Finding Satisfaction Where I Started
So, in 2015, our family moved back to that small town in the corn from which I came, because now that I carry worthiness, belonging, and purpose around within me, I can take them wherever I go. These days, I write books that help people take ownership of how they are showing up in their relationships, coach entrepreneurs who are interested in more than mere success, and deliver keynote speeches about human connection.