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Lifeshops, True You


Samira H. - St. Cloud, MN

Encountering Discovery Avenue was nothing short of transformative—it shattered my assumptions and illuminated hidden truths deep within me. For so long, I believed I understood my dreams, my passions, my gifts, and my talents. Yet, the moment I was asked those questions out loud, I was rendered speechless. What I thought I knew dissolved instantly, leaving me stunned by the realization that every answer I had been searching for was already embedded within me.

This program became a map that led me directly to my potential—unveiling the truth that I carried, an incredible reservoir of strengths, gifts, and passions. Discovery Avenue showed me that everything I had been looking for was already inside, waiting to be unlocked. What made it even more remarkable was the online tool: it was filled with powerful, thought-provoking questions that forced me to reflect honestly and deeply.

The ‘weed out’ feature challenged me to release what was holding me back and guided me toward healthier choices, especially in the friendships and relationships I choose to maintain. Through this journey, I gained more than knowledge—I gained courage. I learned to stand up for myself, say no when something doesn’t feel right for me, and put my feelings at the forefront.

Looking back, I realize this was something I had been missing my whole life. I wish I had discovered it sooner—this is not something I was ever taught in school or anywhere else. So much of myself, my potential, and my dreams had gone unexplored until now. Discovery Avenue gave me the tools to finally uncover what had been hidden all along, and I feel like I’ve been given a gift I didn’t even know I was missing.

Lynn G. - Burke, Virginia

I have approached all activities with renewed vigor since being introduced to Discovery Avenue's Lifeshops, Lifesteps and True You tool. My own self-reflection and Discovery Avenue have really helped me get to the heart of what I want to do with my time and my life and helped me understand why and how I make decisions. As a result, I am more committed, more energized, and more decisive regarding what I do and don't do.

The video conference option, which I used for the Lifesteps, was great. It was easy to access, high quality and allowed me to participate from the comfort of my home!

Joe L. - Denver, Colorado

It's joyful. It's delightful. I wouldn't call any of it hard. It's so accessible. It was so easy to understand. Everything, it just takes you so smoothly and logically through everything. All the terminology, the concepts were very concrete. There were great examples given on each step of the way going through it. The questions were meant to evoke responses in you that help you get to understand yourself better because we're each gonna have different answers. We are all trying to find out what are the unique gifts that I was born with, that we're all born with. Some people's are right on the surface and other people's gifts are buried or like we call them they are in a bed of weeds and they need to be cleaned out to discover them. But boy this process helps clean out those weeds so if your gifts are buried, they're not readily apparent, it's like you still have all that potential for greatness but a lot of times it is being buried under some external burden.

All of a sudden when you discover your gifts and you unleash the power and you start giving that more voice you can't believe the change. They happen on day one, moment one when you start going through this process. You will be engaged immediately, you won't want to let go because it just keeps funneling you. Each answer leads to more self-exploration, which leads to more power and you just want more because this power is good, this is the good stuff that we all have within us.

It started on day one, it continues to this day it will be part of my life forever now because there always will be more to explore, more to achieve, more opportunities, more opportunities for me to expand myself, so once you get started, you don't want to stop because you are finally getting at the good stuff in your life and we all have that within us.

Now my potential seems unlimited, whereas before it seemed very finite. I had very few opportunities in my life. I was going nowhere fast, and was actually going backward. Now that potential is as big as I can dream. My outlook has been so much more positive. Even the way some things we may call challenges come along I see them more as opportunities now. So your whole framework of your perception changes because of this.

If you've tried a lot of things, if you've met with your share of failure, if you're kind of tapped out on ideas, it's like, "What am I gonna do now?" Take one more shot. Give this a try. Your life will start changing from day one. You've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. And for me it has just been, "Win! Win! Win!" all the way along. It's worth every minute of time that you put into it, you will get back ten fold. The investment is just what you want to bring to it. You will get everything and more that you want out of it. So it is life changing, it's a deal maker not a deal breaker.

Maria J. - Atlanta, Georgia

When I started using the Discovery Avenue tool, I was at a point in my life where I had the opportunity to sort of take a break in my work. I had the opportunity to assess where I wanted to go...if I wanted to continue on the same path, or if I wanted to change directions. I had heard about the Tool and was curious about how it would work for me in that process.

I started the program and I found it to be very helpful in really unleashing my dreams again, and having me look at really what my gifts were, what my talents were, what I was really interested in, what I was passionate about. Placing that all out in a different way than I had done before, to be able to look at it differently. It was really a paradigm shift of how I saw myself.

It was exciting because it gave me renewed energy, and the super awesome thing about it was that the energy was not coming from outside of me, it was myself reflecting myself, and that was giving me energy. The truth was that my own self was giving me the energy as long as I was being truthful about what I love and what I felt my gifts were. Those things that are innate to us are energizing to us, and that was really remarkable for me to see in a new way again, and very, very helpful. So, I found that every time I returned to use the tool, I got that boost of energy, because it was reminding me of, "Oh, all this cool stuff, of who I am and what I love to do," and all this great affirmation of the validity of it all, and how I could put things together differently.

It was a very user friendly process. It made sense. It was having me dream again, and dream in a different way, I felt like it was a very logical and analytical approach to dreaming, which was really great, because it was satisfying both my left and my right brain. I thought that was extremely helpful. It really truly has given me a new direction. I was at a certain point in my life, and I feel like I'm reaching higher levels. Not that I'm done using the tool. I'm still in the process of exploration. But it's something I can always go back to give me new insight. It's something that I can use on-going, because that's the process of life. It's not like we get to one point, and then we're done, and we've got everything figured out. It's a constant evolution. I feel like the Tool can always be there for me, to evolve with me, and help me that way.

I would definitely recommend it to anybody that's interested in seeing themselves, and their life, in a deeper way, a newer and fresher way, and a more truthful and authentic way. I think people get stuck in ways of thinking, whether that's by our upbringing or schooling or peers or what have you. This is such a great tool, because it's no person out there, or entity or institution, telling you anything. It's just your own process. So, I would definitely recommend it to people. Not only in large life goals has it been helpful, but also in just daily matters and how I'm shaping my lifestyle at this point. There's a big thing in there about accessing our natural energy, so I'm very determined that those things that give me energy are included in my life, because if they're not, what's the point? I feel very thankful that I've discovered the Discovery Avenue Tool, and that I've been able to use it, and know that I can continue to use it for the benefit of my evolution as a human being, and my growth. It's exciting to me.
Heqiu L. - St. Cloud, Minnesota Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you. It has been a pleasure.

Until I learned about discovering myself through the concepts in Discovery Avenue I had no idea I was capable of taking on all the responsibility that I was given and doing all the different work (like website design) the company continually asked me to do -- while balancing all the other aspects of my life, like school, work, photography.

Discovering more about myself and my capability makes me want to know even more about what I can do with my life.

Now I realize I am on my way to reaching my full potential.
Marco L. - Akron, Ohio

Chris LaNave, the founder of Discovery Avenue, introduced me to the main concepts of Discovery Avenue, dreams, passions, gifts and talents and much more, when I was sixteen. After years of using these concepts, they continue to shape all areas of my life.

Like most people, I want to know my purpose in life and how I can live to fulfill it. Discovery Avenue helps anyone with those questions find and live the answers. Through Discovery Avenue, I began realizing as a junior in high school that the answers lie in my dreams, passions, gifts and talents. Discovery Avenue also showed me how many amazing opportunities they give me.

So I chose a college that gave me the best opportunity to pursue my dreams and passions and develop my gifts and talents. When I went to the University of Minnesota, I immediately looked for opportunities in those areas.

For one example, I volunteered as a sports reporter for the student radio station and gained enough experience in my first year - and more importantly had so much fun - that I pursued a summer broadcasting position with my hometown baseball team. I had a great summer because I was pursuing my passion for baseball and broadcasting.

As I pursued my passion with more journalism classes, my writing, research and interviewing talents developed. My teachers, mentors and other connections encouraged me to further opportunities in journalism, so I started at the student newspaper. Minnesota had one of the largest papers in the country, so I had plenty of exciting work as a sports reporter and assistant editor. I also made a connection through the alumni network, and he helped me with advice and a reference when I applied for an internship with the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club.

Fortunately, my baseball passion came through in my interview with the Twins, and continued to shine throughout the season. My talents and passion impressed my supervisors, who encouraged and supported me as I looked for work after my internship. They helped me weigh multiple job options and gave a huge recommendation to a minor league baseball team called the Quad Cities River Bandits when I applied for a media relations internship.

The River Bandits internship became a bigger opportunity when after just two weeks my supervisor left for a new job. Given the chance to show my passion and talents, I was rewarded a month later with my ex-supervisor's full-time position, and I am now entering my second year in media relations and broadcasting for the River Bandits. So in a short time, the concepts of Discovery Avenue have shaped my career path, and the decisions were easy because I knew they aligned with my dreams, passions, gifts and talents.

I could share more examples of how the concepts in Discovery Avenue has helped me connect to people and opportunities in all areas of my life. I invest in relationships with people who share my values, spend my free time pursuing my diverse interests, and use my gifts and talents to serve my family, local community and faith communities. Discovery Avenue has truly built the full picture of my life today. The constant in all of these is the love and support of my family and friends, who encourage me to stay true to fulfilling my God-given identity.

Several times in the past seven years when I share with someone the update on my life, my energy causes the person to smile, laugh and often say in response, "I can tell you are where you're supposed to be."

And because of Discovery Avenue, we know it's the truth.
Jerome B. - Woodland Hills, California

Discovery Avenue showed me the importance of the "Gold Mine" (the side of us that is lying dormant) and helped me bring it out to the forefront. I'm an artist and have not drawn in a long time, but once I realized the untapped potential, I started to draw a lot more. DA helps you realize what you're good at by asking a lot of different questions about the individual. The questions are designed in a way to help you learn things about yourself that you didn't realize existed before.

Before Discovery Avenue, I thought dreams, passions, gifts and talents were the same thing. Going through the definitions and differences helped me realize that dreams, passions, gifts and talents are all different things. I also realized there's no limit on what your dreams, passions, gifts and talents are, and how many there can be.

I like how you labeled dreams, passions, gifts and talents the Core Four, and how each word makes up a piece of the pie. I'm motivated each day to chip away at the pie -- pursuing my goals, both big and small, and making better decisions for my future.
Mike T. - St. Cloud, Minnesota
I have never seen such a systematic approach to self-identification and goal-oriented discovery. The organization flows from section to section and then to realization. High quality material.
Nell, Colorado Springs, Colorado
I want to thank you ever so much for the presentation Friday and Saturday as a gift to each one who attended, especially me. It brought to me focus and awareness to keep a quiet place and to an increasing ability to enjoy each moment. A tendency to act spontaneously rather than react from fear or what other people may think about me. A decreasing interest in judging others. A decreasing interest in judging myself. A lessening inclination to interpret the actions of others. Feelings of oneness with humanity and nature.
Penelope, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Thank you very much for your time spent with us and teaching us about what is so important to our lives but that not many people are aware of. Now I know what my passion is.


This image was drawn by another attendee of the Lifeshop in Colorado Springs immediately after the end of the session and presented to Chris LaNave thanking him for the session.

High School Students

"It really helped me know myself, look at myself and know what I want to do."
"I got a deeper understanding of my dreams and passions."
"This was a good look into the future. It has gotten me thinking more about myself and
what I would like to do with my life."
"Being that I am in high school, it was very informational and helpful.
It is also something I can use in the future."

College students

“I really enjoyed this exercise because I've never written down or thought out loud about my dreams.”
“Now knowing the definitions and looking at examples, it is easier to find my own passions and dreams.”
“It's crazy how many gifts we have that we ignore just because they are not fully developed.”
“It was enlightening to realize I have more talents than I give myself credit for.”