Readers report that putting the book under their pillow and hoping they will absorb it by osmosis does not seem to work very well. Neither does just reading it. In fact, the book, by itself, can't do a thing for you. But you can. Do the inquiries and do them fully, with your whole mind and heart. It is fine to just read your way through the book if you are at the stage where you want to absorb some insights. But if the time to design your career has come, plunge into doing the inquiries. Even though you may find them difficult at times, they are the really juicy-juicy part, because they are about sorting out what you will do.

Design your own custom pathway through this process. Do the parts you need. Skip what you don't need. After all, this is not a novel. It has no more plot than the phone book. The book is divided into three sections. Section 1 gets you started. I recommend that everyone read this section and do all the inquiries as you read. Don't get hung up on the one about what you wanted to do as a child. Some readers dig in way too deep here. My mistake! The idea of is just to recognize that, to you as a child, work may have seemed exciting. We want to resurrect that feeling and any dreams you may have abandoned.

The inquiries in which you actually sort out what you will do are in the third section. Why? - those little gremlins that get in the way of having a truly fulfilling life. You need the second section to confront what usually stops you, things like the voices in your head telling you to avoid all risk, and so forth. If you are immune to doubts, skip the second section. If you are thinking, "Come on, let's get going with figuring out what I'm going to do," you could do the second and third sections at the same time. Remember, I did not write this book to entertain you, but because I want you to have a life you love. Yes, the book is entertaining, but that is just to make this challenging process more fun than it already is.

Give it time. It takes two or three months, maybe even longer, to figure out what you are going to do with your life. I know people who have been trying to figure it out for decades. So don't rush.

I strongly recommend that you do the Pathfinder Career Testing Program or a similar testing program. It is nearly impossible to self-assess one's own innate talents and natural abilities, and these are the foundation of your work. Nothing is as important to career fulfillment as your having a natural fit with your work, doing what you were born to do.

If you find you are not progressing, look into The Career Choice Program here at Rockport Institute. The book is no more than a pale ghost, a shadow, of the kind of work we do with our clients.

If you get really "stuck," remember, "stuck" is just a made up concept. Really, you have just stopped. So go on to something else. Do another part of the book. Get a CD of Springsteen singing "No surrender."