ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- It's not easy to make your way in life. Finding inspiration, discovering yourself and charting a unique course takes courage.

A lot of parents know that, and they want their kids to have an easier time on the road to self-discovery than they did.

If you have a teenager, he may be addicted to a screen, not good at listening and a quart low on ambition. Or maybe your teenager is an overachiever with good grades, but you're worried that she doesn't know how to be happy.

Either way, YouSchool might be right for you.

This San Diego-based company offers what it calls "life coaching for emerging adults" to help participants search their souls and answer three big questions: What's my purpose? Where do I belong? What great story could I tell with my life?

The president, and "chief guide," is 36-year-old Scott Schimmel. The married father of three has a passion for helping young people discover who they really are, and why they're here. It's the kind of self-awareness that might be learned over a lifetime.

YouSchool gives young people a head start on the journey.

After working with college students for several years through a nonprofit and studying the behavior and priorities of thousands of young people, Schimmel found that -- in the vast majority of cases -- students were unhappy, bored or lonely. Other times, they just felt out of place. He spent 12 months studying other self-help youth programs before sitting down with three collaborators to develop his own.

What was already out there didn't seem to have a meaningful and lasting impact on adolescents.

"There's too much focus on what we want to do, or what we feel we have to do," Schimmel told me. "And not enough attention given to who we are. Beyond testing, self-help courses, and motivational speaking, there needed to be something sustainable. I knew young people were ready to have the deep questions put to them, with a little guidance to help them find the answers."

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Copyright 2016 Washington Post Writers Group