Preface
If you don’t know which way you are going, the roads take you nowhere.
—Unknown
This book is for you. My wife encouraged me to do it for you. Why? Because she said I have helped people in my professional and personal life for decades, mostly one at a time. Why not reach more people and help more people at once? It made sense so I did it for you.
I start with why do we work? We work because it is in us to work. There are various reasons for working, but most commonly we work for self-worth and the need to survive in the world, at different levels, depending on our opportunities and ambitions. But there is a difference among work, jobs, and career. There are also different ways to work; some of us work more through our hands and others work more with our brains. It doesn’t matter. What matters most is that we know why we work and enjoy doing what it is we do. Even those of us who think we want to do more than one thing over our lifetime must find new work we enjoy. Our higher purpose drives our enjoyment and our life. And higher purpose doesn’t mean something spiritual. It means we have a direction to what we do.
I want to tell you a story about my dad. He was an Italian immigrant to the United States. He worked over eighty years and never questioned his purpose for work. He started as a young boy in his family’s dry goods store in Italy. He immigrated to Canada and started a shoe repair business, later buying a store. He married, moved to the United States, started over, and retired as a night shift janitor after fifteen years on $16.88 per month pension. He died just short of ninety years of age. We never ran out of food nor needed a house. He fulfilled his higher purpose.
Happiness is defined as you and what you do.
—Unknown
So, this book is not another job search book, or a gee-whiz manual to certain career happiness. Nope, it is not even about whether you just work, get jobs, have a career, or decide to not work at all. It is simply a book about not wasting the time you have while alive because that is what life is made of. It is about using your time productively in something or things you enjoy, intentionally, and being successful at achieving goals you have throughout your life. Your stage of life doesn’t matter. You may be young and working, midlife and working, or off doing whatever follows your success. The only test of your life and employment is retrospective. Would you repeat the path you took?
I write for you from four angles of reference: first, my corporate career as a senior executive of human resources for large multinational companies; secondly, my learning as a teacher and mentor at a university; thirdly, as a consultant and personal advisor to many executives and specialists; and fourthly, as a father, helping three sons find their paths. In case you are wondering, none of my sons followed my chosen employment path.
So, think of this book as my gift to you. I will give you navigational tips to chart and decide how and where to travel through life and your employment. It will provide a framework to put all of your thinking and success into usable order that will intentionally map the path you would repeat given the opportunity you get. And repeating the path doesn’t mean it was the only true path. It means it sustained your progression through time in an intentional way that reached the goals you set. You will be centered and balanced in your perspective about what you chose to do and why.
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
—Lord Byron
And yes, you need goals. “Getting There” means having an idea where you are going. It doesn’t mean having all the answers. But there is a difference between being rudderless and having some idea of what matters to you and not compromising for less. It doesn’t have to be detailed and carved into stone like fine Italian sculpture, but you need direction short or long term, or both. The clearer you are about them, the sooner you have them, and the greater the probability you will reach them and progress in your life. For certain, without them, the more likely you will burn time and effort, and the likelihood you would be willing to repeat the path you chose will be less probable.
Work is the proper task of life; work is life’s metaphysical exercise.
—modified from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
This book is designed for you if you:
– have dreams without a path to get them.
– are starting to work.
– are moving through life.
– are moving through your work life.
– are ending your work life.
– are restarting your work life.
– are dissatisfied with your life.
– are dissatisfied with your work life.
– can’t decide on your work life.
– know what you want but not how to get it.
– are bored with life.
– are bored with your work life.
– chose a work life that is not working for you.
– have so many ideas but can’t decide among them.
– believe progress has been slower than expected.
– are not centered between aging and employment.
– want to change but don’t know to what or how.
– can’t decide what to do next because your life is so complicated.
– are between jobs.
– feel life threw you a curve and you missed it or it hit you.
– have work life, personal life, and economics not aligned nor balanced.
I am not attempting to be a Psychologist or Therapist. I am a practical person who began from humble beginnings and developed a path in my life that made sense. Along the way I helped thousands of people in my work life and personal life. I learned we all have potential and dreams. Many of us do fine while many others struggle to find balance and peace in their choices. I tried to understand why smart people fell short while others made it. Still others whom I witnessed knew their dreams but didn’t have a path to get them. If you fall into these above categories, this book is for you. I want to see everyone I help make it. That’s my goal.
Let’s remember we all have a purpose in life. Work is one facet of life. We have unique gifts to give to those close to us and for some of us to give to the world. Our purpose is really aligned if we can perform in our lives in a way that we share our talents and gifts with others. When we give our talents to others, it is not work. We often lose track of time and place. We are at play, having fun and doing work, all at once. You will read more about this concept as you learn about the different stools I describe for you. If all of this is you, you can sit back and be grateful you are living your life intentionally, no regrets and no do-overs.
