Feeling stuck in life? How to find and pursue your purpose

Feeling stuck? This one is for you. Dr Barbara Morris-Jensen, known to everyone as Dr MJ, is a clinical psychologist in California. She believes every child arrives with a deep inner knowing of who they are. Life, knocks and other people's voices slowly pull us away from it.

So when a founder tells her they feel stuck, she doesn't start with a new plan or a better to-do list. She starts by asking where they stopped listening to themselves.

Dr MJ's own road was anything but smooth. Her dad worked in mental health and was her closest person. By 16, after bullying, trauma and poverty, she told her brother she was too stupid to go to college.

When her dad died, she hit rock bottom. Her marriage ended, money ran out and she ended up homeless on a friend's couch with two children. Then her sister died in an accident, and Dr MJ adopted her three-year-old niece. She was working part time, studying and barely had enough food on the table.

Something kept pulling her forward anyway. That something became the heart of her work today.

Dr MJ calls it the gentle whisper. It isn't your head doing the maths. It's a quiet nudge that says, just one more step. You don't need the whole plan. You need the next best step, and then the next.

Not sure you can hear it any more? She asks one simple question: at what age did you stop being happy? That is often where you stepped away from yourself. Going back to that moment, and doing something your younger self loved, can help you reconnect. The ideas for your business often follow.

Big changes scare the brain, so Dr MJ breaks life into small pieces. Draw a wheel with areas like family, relationships, health, career, money, learning and hobbies. Score each one from one to ten, then join the dots.

Is your wheel smooth or bumpy? A smaller wheel that is balanced rolls better than a big one full of lumps. Pick one area and make a tiny move. Small steps don't set off the part of your mind that shouts, don't change anything.

For a quick check-in, she also uses traffic lights. For spirit, mind, heart and body, ask yourself: green, amber or red?

Burnout often comes from chasing something to prove a point. When you ask why you're doing it and who it serves, the pressure eases. Meaning is the through line that makes you happy to stay up two extra hours on a project.

You don't have to quit your job tomorrow. Claire shares how training in hypnotherapy on the side made her day job feel better, long before she changed careers. A little meaning in your week can change how the rest of it feels.