The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

else was out there. For three months, he lived out of a tent
and explored the western United States, eventually making
his way to Washington State. There he realized it’s not
always voices that call us to our life’s work. Sometimes it’s
places. “Tossing rocks into the water at Deception Pass State
Park,” he wrote me in an e-mail, “I realized I could never go
home.”
Several weeks later, Jody did return home only to realize
what he felt during his trip was not going to pass. In its own
way, the experience haunted him. Within a month, he had
packed everything he owned into the trunk of his car and
decided to hit the road again, two weeks later arriving in
Washington with no job, no friends, and $300 in his pocket.
In the next four years, Jody got married and began
working as a financial analyst for a commercial bank. “It
was the job I went to college for,” he explained, “the job I
was supposed to do.” But something in him knew it wasn’t
what he was meant to do. He secretly wanted more.
Fortunately, the long summer days allowed him to do what
he really moved out west to do, which was explore the
hidden treasures and dark trails of Deception Pass State
Park.
He and his wife, Rebecca, built a house and began to
settle into their life together—Jody as a banker and her as a
teacher. But then one day, while helping them move into
their new house, a friend said something that changed
everything. She worked for Washington State Parks and
mentioned that they were hiring park rangers. “Before the