When I gave notice at the hospital and told people I was moving to Florida, everyone had questions.
Where would I live? What would I do for work? What if it didn’t work out?
I wasn’t moving because my life in Iowa was terrible. I loved where I worked, I had people I cared about, and a reputation I was proud of. I needed something different.
For years, I had wanted to write a book about my dad’s disappearance. That story needed telling, and I knew I needed more freedom with my time if I was ever going to give it the attention it deserved.
So I made a practical plan. After 11 years as an executive and administrative assistant, I would set myself up to work virtually. It was work I knew how to do, and it could give me more control over where and when I worked.
At least, that was the idea.
I’m still working on the freedom-with-my-time part. Apparently, you can move to Florida and still build a to-do list long enough to qualify as waterfront property.
Before I left, the president of the hospital board stopped to wish me well. She told me that if things didn’t work out, I had built a good enough reputation that people would welcome me home and hire me in a heartbeat.
Her words gave me something I hadn’t considered needing. A safety net.
Leaving didn’t erase the good life I had built in Iowa. The relationships, the work, the person I had become there, all of it stayed true.
I could be grateful for all of it and still need something different. I could appreciate the life I had built while making room for the life that kept calling me forward.
You don’t have to choose between appreciating your life and wanting something more from it. You can hold gratitude in one hand and possibility in the other.
Appreciate What Brought You Here
When you feel the pull toward something more, it can be tempting to look back at your current life and start collecting evidence that it’s no longer good enough. You focus on the frustrations, replay the disappointments, and make a list of everything that isn’t working so your desire for change feels justified.
Wanting something different can bring guilt with it, especially when your life looks good from the outside. You may hear yourself thinking, “I should be grateful,” as though gratitude means you’re no longer allowed to have another desire.
Honoring what brought you here doesn’t require you to stay there forever. The people, places, choices, and experiences that shaped you still matter. A chapter doesn’t lose its value because you’re ready to turn the page.
I didn’t need to make Iowa wrong to know Florida was right for me. The life I built there gave me skills, relationships, confidence, and the reputation that became my safety net. None of it was wasted. It became part of what made the next step possible.
Acknowledge What’s Calling You Forward
Sometimes nothing is falling apart. You may have a steady job, a loving relationship, a comfortable home, or a life you worked hard to create, yet something in you keeps asking, “Is there more?”
That question can feel inconvenient when you can’t explain exactly what “more” means. You may only know you want more freedom, more purpose, more creativity, or more room to hear yourself think.
When I moved to Florida, I planned to use my administrative experience to provide virtual assistance while giving myself more flexibility to write. Around the same time, I began doing business writing, and I still do some virtual assistance work today.
Coaching grew more organically. As people responded to my story and the way I had chosen to rebuild my life, I felt a growing desire to teach others how to create lives they loved, too. There wasn’t a neat career ladder where one business led cleanly into the next. I kept paying attention to what felt meaningful and allowing the work to evolve with me.
The whole path wasn’t visible when I left Iowa. I knew I needed something different, and I trusted that knowing enough to begin.
Desire often arrives before the plan does. Sometimes you’re given a direction long before you can see where every step will lead.
Allow Gratitude and Possibility to Coexist
“I’m grateful, but I still want more.”
So many people say that as though the word but is holding two truths that shouldn’t exist in the same sentence. Yet gratitude and desire belong together.
You can love your family and need more room for yourself. You can appreciate your job and want work that uses more of who you are. You can be proud of the life you built and recognize that it no longer fits the person you’re becoming.
Does wanting more make you ungrateful?
Gratitude can ground you in what’s good, but it shouldn’t be used to silence what you feel. There’s a difference between appreciating what you have and convincing yourself you shouldn’t want anything else.
You’re allowed to appreciate today without declaring it your final destination. You can recognize the blessings in your life and still be honest about the places where you feel restless, limited, or ready to grow.
That honesty doesn’t diminish what you have. It helps you understand what’s asking to change.
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Inner Compass Collective
If wanting more has ever felt like something you had to carry alone, this is for you. Inner Compass Collective is a private community being built for people who are done drifting and ready to move forward with intention, support, and a circle that genuinely cheers them on.
The doors aren’t open yet, but the waitlist is. No pressure, no pitch, simply your name on the list and a front-row seat for when we begin.
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Act From Desire Instead of Dissatisfaction
Wanting more becomes exhausting when every desire turns into proof that your current life is lacking.
You tell yourself you’ll feel free when the business grows, secure when you have more money, fulfilled when the next opportunity arrives, or more like yourself when life finally changes. Soon, the present begins to feel like a waiting room for the life you’re trying to reach.
I want to enjoy where I am without losing my drive.
That sentence holds the balance.
You can create the next chapter because you feel drawn toward it. You can make changes from clarity instead of desperation. You can let possibility call you forward while continuing to live inside the life that’s happening now.
I still want more freedom with my time. I still want to write that book. I still have dreams that haven’t unfolded yet. I can also look around at the life I’ve created in Florida, the work I’m doing, and the person I’ve become and feel deeply grateful for all of it.
Both are true.
You can honor what brought you here while listening to the part of you asking for something different. You can hold gratitude in one hand and possibility in the other.
When you do, wanting more no longer has to feel like a betrayal of what you have. It can become an honest response to who you’re becoming.
Appreciate what is. Make room for what could be. Both can live in the same life.