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Introduction

If there had been a contest twenty-five years ago for the person least likely to write a book like this, I would have been the winner, hands down. No questions asked. I was someone with a good education and experience as a professor and a consultant with a good salary, recognition, and prestige.

The only problem was that work just did not work for me. I was good at my job, but I didn’t feel like I was being as successful as I could be. Truthfully, I was having a lot of trouble at work. I was unhappy and unsatisfied. You might even say miserable some days. And I couldn’t figure out what to do, although I tried.

When I took what I thought would be a temporary assignment in Asia, I had a chance to make a fresh start and I made up my mind that things would be different. It was either now or never for me. I asked myself a lot of questions. I kept a journal; I paid attention to what others said; I kept on pushing myself outside my comfort zone; I listened to my students, clients, and colleagues; and I began to figure things out for myself.

It took me a while, but I learned and developed an approach to working that allowed me to have the kind of life at work I had only dreamed of before. I became much happier and more satisfied at work. And as I was figuring out things for myself, I began to contribute more of what I knew to others.

I was able to create a life at work that not only worked for me, but one that other people told me they wanted as well. I wasn’t always sure whether what I knew was something I could explain. There were times when I couldn’t identify specifically what it was I had learned or what I was doing.

But as other people took notice, they wanted to know more. They’d tell me I was a great role model for them. When I first heard this, I couldn’t believe it. I, who struggled so much before and took a long time to figure things out? They’d see me at work or at social occasions and would ask me, “How do you do it?” Initially, I didn’t know what they meant. What was it? How could I explain what I knew to them?

Several years ago I told myself I had to figure out exactly what I was doing. I got tired of not being able to answer people’s questions about my approach. Even more than that, I wanted to help others have a similar satisfying work experience. I began to analyze more of what I did in order to answer the questions I kept getting from others.

I made a project out of studying my own behavior, actions, and thinking. I thought deeply about what I was doing. I started writing down more about what I did and how I did it.

I began to speak at conferences throughout the United States and Asia about the important elements in my approach. I shared what I knew with my students and clients. This book, What Do You Want to Create Today?, is the result of those years I spent identifying, developing, and teaching this approach to others.

If you want your life at work to be better, I’m sure this book will help. It’s an approach you too can learn. You will learn to work with purpose, passion, and power. That’s why I wrote this book.

So now it’s your turn. The approach and the experiences I detail will enable you to build the life you want at work, a life you may never have thought possible. Many of those experiences are my own, of course; others are those of friends and clients, several of whom requested I change their names to preserve their anonymity.

But before we get into all of that, allow me to share a bit of my backstory and a few more details about how it all started.