Find Your “Pull”: Four Questions to Help You Move Forward

Do you ever feel like you’re on a treadmill, chasing a carrot that doesn’t motivate you anymore?

You’re working hard. You’re meeting obligations. You may even be achieving goals. But something is missing.

Maybe you want more meaning in your work. Maybe a role that once excited you now feels draining. Or perhaps you’re ready for a new challenge but aren’t sure what it should be.

When that happens, pushing yourself harder may not be the whole answer. It may be time to discover what pulls you forward.

In The Undaunted Life, I explore this idea in the chapter “Pull Now: How to Unleash Your Inner Hero.”

“Pull” is the interest, purpose, or challenge that draws you toward something you want to do—not simply something you feel pressured to do.

Pay, incentives, deadlines, and accountability all have a place. But they don’t tell the whole story of what motivates us.

Think about the difference between being pushed to complete a task and being drawn into work you find meaningful. That sense of pull can help you choose where to invest your energy—and give you a reason to persevere when the work gets difficult.

Here are four questions to help you find it.

1. What really energizes you?

Some activities leave you depleted. Others seem to bring you to life.

You might finish a demanding conversation feeling more energized than when you started. You might become absorbed in solving a problem, teaching someone a skill, creating something, or organizing a complicated project.

Those experiences offer clues.

Ask yourself:

• What work leaves me feeling engaged and satisfied?
• When do I become so absorbed that I lose track of time?
• What would I like to spend more of my day doing?
• Do I enjoy working directly with people, developing ideas, building systems, or bringing plans to life?

For a financial advisor, the answer might be helping a family work through an important decision. For a team leader, it might be developing someone’s potential. For another person, it could be research, writing, designing, or making a process work better.

Pay attention to the activity itself—not just the recognition you receive afterward.

Finding your pull doesn’t mean every part of your work will become enjoyable. But knowing what energizes you can help you shape a role, choose a project, or explore a direction that makes better use of your strengths.

2. What stirs your curiosity?

Children ask questions constantly. As adults, we can become so focused on getting through the day that we stop exploring.

Curiosity can open a door we’ve been walking past.

What do you read about without being assigned to? What conversations make you lean in? What would you like to understand, experience, or learn how to do?

Ask yourself:

• What subject keeps attracting my attention?
• What skill would I enjoy developing?
• What problem would I like to understand more deeply?
• What would I explore if I didn’t have to be good at it immediately?

Your curiosity doesn’t have to become a new career to be valuable. It might lead to a better way of serving clients, a meaningful volunteer role, a creative pursuit, or a new chapter in your life.

Start small. Read something. Take a class. Talk with someone who does the work. Try a project.

You don’t have to know where an interest will lead before giving yourself permission to explore it.

3. What do you notice that others sometimes miss?

Think about situations where you’ve helped a group see a problem differently.

Perhaps you recognized a pattern, asked a useful question, anticipated a difficulty, or explained something in a way that finally made sense.

Those moments may reveal a strength you take for granted.

Ask yourself:

• What do people regularly come to me for help with?
• Where have I repeatedly made a useful contribution?
• What seems natural to me but takes more effort for others?
• What feedback have I received about my strengths?

Look for evidence across experiences. Feeling certain isn’t the same as being right, and a strength becomes more useful when you’re willing to test and develop it.

You may have a gift for simplifying complicated information, seeing connections, calming a tense conversation, or turning an idea into a workable plan.

Recognizing that ability can help you use it more intentionally.

It can also help leaders. When you understand what each person contributes, you can have better conversations about responsibilities, development, and opportunities to do meaningful work.

4. What clues can you find in your childhood?

Before job titles, performance reviews, and other people’s expectations entered the picture, what did you naturally enjoy doing?

Did you organize games? Build things? Tell stories? Explore outdoors? Help others? Compete? Take things apart to understand how they worked?

Ask yourself:

• What activities did I choose when there was no reward attached?
• What brought me a sense of joy or satisfaction?
• What role did I tend to play in a group?
• Which of those interests still shows up in my life?

Your childhood doesn’t dictate your future. People change, and new interests develop. But looking back can help you rediscover something you’ve set aside.

The child who loved organizing a team may still enjoy bringing people together. The one who was always asking questions may still love learning. The storyteller may have something worth writing or sharing.

Treat those memories as clues to explore, rather than instructions you have to follow.

Turn your pull into a next step.

Finding your pull is useful. Acting on it is what begins to change things.

Choose one interest, strength, or source of meaning you want to explore. Then give it a practical next step.

Have a conversation. Volunteer for a project. Set aside time to learn. Ask whether you can use a strength more often in your current role.

You don’t have to make a dramatic career change or ignore your responsibilities. A small experiment can help you learn what fits before you make a larger commitment.

If you lead a team, try asking someone:

“What part of your work gives you the most energy—and where would you like to contribute more?”

Listen to the answer. It may reveal an opportunity neither of you has considered.

Motivation won’t always arrive before action. Sometimes taking the first step helps you discover what draws you forward.

You may have spent years responding to what others expect of you. Give yourself some room to explore what matters to you, too.

What’s pulling you—and what will you do about it?

Bob David — Speaker, Coach, and Consultant

For more information about Bob’s coaching services, visit BobDavidLive.com/coaching-for-financial-advisors/ or contact Bob to discuss your goals.

Adapted from the ideas in “Pull Now: How to Unleash Your Inner Hero” in The Undaunted Life; updated October 2026.