The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success

The Pathfinder changed my career and my life. The activities in the book helped me navigate through my unconscious assumptions about my life, and connect my vision of my future with my career goals. Completed the exercises in the book -- particularly the life timeline -- led me to an epiphany about how I wanted to spend my life at work. Nick Lore is a master career coach, even in book form. The Pathfinder is a must read for anyone who wants to have it all at work and in life, but may be stuck in their current career.

If you're not experiencing turbulence and dynamic change, you must not be paying attention. The tectonic plates of human endeavor are shifting. As Nick Lore notes in his seminal work, The Pathfinder, we're witnessing an unprecedented explosion of career options and the old ways - serendipity, tradition, dumb luck - of choosing or re-choosing which career might fit are no longer sufficient.

Eight years ago, I used The Pathfinder when it was clear to me that, after 10 wonderful years, I'd outgrown my career as a diplomat. The Pathfinder's engaging inquiries and exercises and Lore's delightfully engaging style, led me to identify the outlines of the private sector role that would challenge, enrich and fulfill me for most of the last decade.

But I'm a serial adventurer, and its out on the edges of dynamic change that I'm most at home. There are big waves building in the world of work and I'm ready for a new challenge. My second time through The Pathfinder - I'm three weeks in - I'm discovering even deeper insights and am designing a new list of commitments to suit who I've now become. With a steady guide like Nick Lore I'm ready to tow-in to the really big waves - the ones most fun to ride!

If you're ready for work you LOVE and you're prepared to confront yourself - strengths, proclivities and foibles - squarely and honestly; if you're willing to engage in a rigorous and engaging exploration, then there is no better route to professional fulfillment than The Pathfinder.

Recently I was between jobs and deciding what my next career step would be. A friend of mine had read the Pathfinder and recommended it as a great aid for helping me with my decision. Indeed it was!

I found the book to be extremely helpful. Nick does a great job laying out a practical, easy to relate to, process for self discovery and defining what's important to you in a career. Key was Nicks abililty to bring attention to and explain psychology of making a change. This was a straight forward look into the internal conversation people have with themselves about any change. Very Helpful! The notion of "yeahbuts" is so true and once understood liberating and helpful to make progress.

I got tremendous value from the Pathfinder. Nick is having a dialog with you and brings the coaching process to life. It's like you learning about yourself while you writing your next chapter in life. At times the assignments are tough....if you don't do them you won't get the same value from the process and you will end up making decisions by default. Which is probably why so many people are unhappy in their current jobs/career.

After the book, I enlisted the services of the RockPort Institure, the company Nick runs provides career coaching services. Part of the serviec invloves an in depth teting process that is truely revealing and critical in undertanding you and what type of career/role you are best suited for. If you have the interest, read the book than enlist the services of the Rockport institute. I've taken many tests and done all kinds of profiling over my career, this was by far the best!

I hope my feedback is helpful.

Good luck in pursuit of a new job/career....

When I first got this book years ago, what I learned helped me make a significant change in my life and career. Little did I know that, years later, I'd be back reading it again. Both times I had to really take myself in hand and actually do the work of seeing where my interests and skills overlapped, what I wanted now and what would help me achieve it. Both times what I learned in the process was a surprise to me, and gave me that "aha!" feeling to set me on a new path (first time) and renewed path (second time). Well worth it.

This is a rich and complex book that is the best single source for people who want that perfect career. It may have too much depth and complexity for some readers who want quick answers. It takes time and a personal journey to have something that most people don't have, a career they love.

I have read and tried several highly recommended career books over the past three years but they have all left me wanting more, much more. This one really worked for me. It took months to work my way through it but it got me there! It was obviously written for people with a passion for finding that perfect career and willing to stretch beyond the usual methods people use to figure out what to do with their lives.

I just read the previous reviews and that tells me this book isn't for everyone. Most reviewers gave it five stars. A few reviewers complained that the author seemed to go "on and on." I found the book to be brilliantly and humorously written and was entertained while I learned many powerful concepts that helped me leave my old comfortable career and make a major change that frankly terrified me at first. The author sometimes communicates an important concept in different ways in multiple places in this book. I found that to be a powerful technique since it usually takes me more than once to really absorb new material so it is more than just an intellectual concept. For example, Lore says that what keeps people from having what they want is what he calls yeahbuts, which he says are the doubts that we all have when we step out of our comfort zone. He says they are part of a built in survival system that kept our ancient ancestors from walking into danger and now get activated not only when we face real danger, but also when we step out of our comfort zone and seek a more satisfying life or a big change. One of the many goals of the book is to give the reader more power to not cave into those doubts. He brings up this subject and such things as the power of making definite commitments in several places that helped me start to practice the skills he teaches instead of just reading about them.

I did some research and found out that author Lore was the fellow who invented or first developed "career coaching" back in 1980, years before the whole "coaching" phenomenon began; that he was friends with the great futurist and architect Buckminster Fuller who guided him to his choice of career, and that he was personally commended by President Clinton. In the 1970s he was an organic and green living pioneer. His Rockport Institute recommends going through a several month long coached career choice program instead of just using this book. The book alone worked for me but I think they are probably right in this recommendation. I was so committed to making a change, nothing could have held me back.

I have gone from a comfortable, secure but boring career to a new life where I look forward to going to work. This book taught me how to choose the new career and how to have the skills and courage to make the change. Five stars all the way.