5 Questions with Ali Taqi
October 31st, 2026
5-Minute Read
Interviews
What does it mean to build a life that actually feels like your own? For Ali Taqi, it’s a question that sits at the heart of his work. Born in Bahrain, Ali’s own path has taken him well beyond home. After studying Computer Science at Concordia University, he spent 14 years in the corporate world before moving into entrepreneurship and, eventually, coaching. Working across cultures and alongside people from around the world has shaped the way he thinks about purpose, personal growth, and the choices that give a life its direction.
Today, as an ICF-certified Professional Coach, Ali works with individuals, entrepreneurs, and organisations across the GCC, bringing that perspective into his work. His years of community and charity work across Africa and East Asia have also given him a front-row seat to very different ways of seeing life, resilience, and connection.
For this edition of “5 Questions With…”, we asked Ali about finding purpose, making meaningful change, and knowing when it’s time to choose a different direction.
Q.1. We often hear that we need to “find our purpose,” but what if purpose isn’t something we discover; it’s something we build? How do you help someone distinguish between a purpose they genuinely want and one they’ve inherited from family, society, or expectations?
From my perspective as a life coach, purpose can’t be built without discovery first because to build a purpose, there has to be a strong sense of self-awareness from the individual.
That awareness is the guide that would help someone identify a purpose they genuinely and personally are excited about and will do their best to build it. Purpose and meaning also come hand in hand; for someone to choose to do something purposeful, they need to find meaning that internally excites them in what they do.
To distinguish from “others’” expectations, an individual requires to internally reflect on their current path in life; it starts with a simple question: “Do I find excitement in what I do?” The other question that can help them in understanding: “Is this something I genuinely enjoy doing and I find meaning in doing it?” or "Is this something I’m ‘supposed to do?’” Those supposed-to’s are what we usually pick up from our surroundings, be it family, friends, or society.
Q.2 Many people can name the things they’re good at, but struggle to understand what actually gives their life meaning. What questions or signals do you look for when helping someone connect their strengths, values, and passions to a sense of purpose?
“What excites you in what you do?” This question usually gets people curious to find the answer. But the best method I usually use with clients is working on values. So we spend some time exploring their inner values, and we work on exploring those values with more questions and understanding.
Q.3 How do you work with someone who feels completely lost, not because they have no interests or ambitions, but because they have too many possibilities and don’t know which direction to choose?
The best method in life coaching is simply to create a safe space for people to open up and share exactly what they are going through. That by itself helps create clarity and understanding for the client. It tends to unlock many blind spots that were unknown to them.
Along with what I mentioned in Q2, value work supports their awareness as well. But one of my favorite tools is the Wheel of Life assessment, which helps clients visualize how balanced or imbalanced their life pillars are. And since we are visual beings, having an image of the areas of your life that you need to focus on lets people know which areas need to be prioritized.
“A person can choose to live a meaningful life without pressure. If what they choose to do gives them meaning, then they can continue working towards that path. ”
Q.4 At what point does the pursuit of purpose become another form of pressure? How can we pursue a meaningful life without feeling like we constantly need to be doing something bigger, more successful, or more impactful?
“Comparison is the thief of joy,” Roosevelt said it best; this pressure that an individual puts on themselves is subjective to each person in setting it upon themselves. If people continue looking around at what others are doing and comparing what they lack, then yes, the pressure will be there, and I need to make sure that what I make or create is bigger, better, and more impactful.
A person can choose to live a meaningful life without having pressure; if what they choose to do gives them meaning, then they can continue working towards that path. From there, they can thrive to grow and develop what they are doing in a way that suits them. Not all pressure is bad; if the person uses the pressure to get better in what they do, then I think that is good and healthy. We can link that with eustress, which is the type of stress that places us outside our comfort zone and where we find ourselves in control of what is going on, and we learn to adapt and use this stress to become better versions of ourselves. The distress (bad stress) is when it impacts us in a negative way because we are unable to manage it healthily.
Q.5 If someone walked away from this conversation and wanted to start reconnecting with their sense of purpose today, what is one exercise (or one question) you would ask them to begin with?
I start by telling people you don’t need to have one big purpose in life; we are complex beings, and our life is made up of so many different areas and pillars that are important to us.
So instead of me focusing on one big thing (My Life Purpose), I become more purposeful in doing small things that will grow my life pillars over time.
The most common life pillars (which you can identify from doing a Wheel of Life assessment online) are family, hobbies, spirituality, friends, love, career, money, and self-development. I would choose one area from these and start working on making it better by being purposeful in my daily habits; simply choosing one goal to work towards.