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

work several more years at a different park out west.^12 He
thought his dream was to be a ranger, but when he saw the
personal cost, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He wasn’t
spending much time with his family, and his kids were
growing up fast. To make matters worse, the park system
was in trouble, and he wasn’t sure how secure his job was.
After an internal struggle, Jody decided to leave his job
at the park to focus on his family. Returning to school again,
he got an MBA and went to work for a small construction
company helping them with the administrative side of the
business. He also relocated his family into town, something
they had never done before. For the first time, his kids had
neighbors—and they loved it. To this day, he doesn’t regret
it.
But even now, years later, there is a hunger still inside
Jody that will not go away. A year after leaving his position
at the park, he started to feel the itch again. At school, he
would be reminded of ways that he could apply what he was
learning to his previous job as a ranger. In conversations
with friends, he would find himself missing the work. “Parks
began tugging at me again,” he recalled. “This time, I knew
not to let it call for too long.”
Today Jody works as a consultant with businesses on
their strategic planning and marketing. He’s considering
getting back into working with parks again someday, but for
now he feels like he made the right choice.
When I video-chatted with Jody, I asked him if he had
any regrets. “No, I don’t,” he said. “Sometimes I miss it, but