You know that feeling?
That little jolt of panic…
when you reach for your phone or your wallet or your keys…
and it’s not there.
Not in your pocket.
Not on the table.
Not in your hand where you swear it just was.
And suddenly, the hunt begins.
At first…it’s calm.
You check the usual spots.
The couch. The kitchen. The desk. The bathroom counter.
Nothing.
So you retrace your steps like a detective chasing ghosts.
Your breath paces 2x faster.
Your thoughts scatter.
The search goes from organized to chaotic in a heartbeat.
You tear through cushions. Flip over jackets. Dump your bag out like a mad scientist looking for clues.
The room becomes a mess and your mind follows.
And then… relief.
There it is.
Sitting somewhere so obvious, it almost feels like it's mocking you.
You laugh to yourself.
Saying something people always say:
“Well, it was in the last place I looked.”
Of course it was!
Nobody keeps looking after they find the thing.
But that sentence...it lingered with me…
It kept me up until 3am as I lay here writing this right now…
Because that phrase is not just about phones and wallets and keys, is it?
It’s about life.
We’re all looking for something.
For meaning.
For success.
For love.
For our masterpiece.
The search starts in the obvious places.
Books. Hustle. Advice. Practice.
But when the answers don’t show up…
You snap.
You start tearing through your beliefs.
Ripping open old stories.
You overturn everything you thought you knew,
hoping the thing you’re searching for
will finally reveal itself.
Chaos outside. Chaos inside.
Completely transforming.
And then… one day… you find it.
That moment when things click.
When purpose finally feels close enough to touch.
When the opportunity comes.
When love appears.
When you stepback with pride looking at your best art.
And just like that...the chaos…stops...
It’s the same rhythm as finding your phone.
Relief. Closure.
The end of the search.
But to me... that’s why the hard parts matter.
The discomfort.
The doubt.
The uncertainty.
All that chaos is the journey.
As stressful as it was, if you cut out the searching,
you cut out the story.
The reality shattering epiphanies on the way to finding meaning.
The obstacles you overcame for success.
The rollercoaster of emotions when falling in love.
The raw, vulnerable moments when your creative vision finally takes form.
The mess is what makes the finding meaningful.
But here’s the twist we don’t always talk about:
Finding your phone today doesn’t mean you’ll never lose it again.
So even when you find it…whatever your “it” is you're looking for…
It won’t stay put.
It doesn’t last forever.
You’ll lose it again.
You’ll misplace the joy.
Forget the reason why.
The doubt returns. The questions reappear.
Because the phone you found today can still go missing tomorrow.
Even when you do find what you were searching for…
Finding meaning doesn’t mean the questions won’t return.
Finding success doesn’t mean new horizons won’t appear.
Finding love doesn’t mean you won’t feel distant tomorrow.
Finding your masterpiece doesn’t mean your soul won’t yearn for new expressions.
What feels like “the last place you look”
is only the last place you looked so far.
But that’s not failure.
That’s the rhythm.
The game isn’t to hold on forever.
The game is to keep rediscovering.
Once you’ve found the meaning. The success. The love. The masterpiece.
You don’t freeze.
You don’t cling.
You don’t try to stop life from moving forward.
You shift.
You keep searching…but differently.
You search within what you’ve already found.
You search for new layers of meaning,
letting it deepen and evolve with you.
You search for new expressions of success,
not just climbing higher, but exploring wider.
You search for new ways to love and be loved,
re-discovering each other in every season.
You search for new creative territories of your craft,
knowing that each completed work is just a doorway to the next revelation.
Because life isn’t one treasure hunt, where you find and dig up the chest and call it complete.
It’s a cycle.
Of losing and finding.
Of forgetting and remembering.
Of searching and re-discovering.
And the truth is…the journey never really ends.
That’s not a flaw in the universe.
That’s the beauty of it.
So yes…
“It’s always in the last place you look.”
Beautiful.
But only for now.
Only for this moment.
Tomorrow, the search begins again.
And maybe that’s the point.
Maybe that’s the gift.
The discomfort isn’t just the journey.
It’s the rhythm of being alive.
And searching is proof that you still care.
Stay creative,
