What next?

That's the question that appears at critical times in our lives. While New Year resolutions have become traditional, yet discarded easily, soul-searching might turn up a new and true direction we really want.

How about returning to our beginnings? A glimpse into our past might expose a road we had envisioned that is still there. For me, I wanted to be a writer and a photographer.

I have been working in publishing since I was a teen and then again beginning in 1981 when I founded The Shopper. It occurs to me that I can continue writing until I drop if I wish. I am fortunate to have a career unbounded by anyone else. Maybe you do also.

What do you love to do? Do that. Hopefully, it is how you already make your living. But if not, perhaps you can.

Take one step at a time. What do you really â€" really â€" want to do? You don't have to do it. Just identify it.

I know a woman who is incredibly intelligent and extraordinarily perceptive! She has a B.A. degree and great business experience. Along the way, she learned about the study of personality types. The goal is to understand the basic types and how each works and plays. That knowledge makes it possible for individuals who are very different to work productively and in harmony. Fascinated by its potential, she pursued the certification to teach it. She was fantastic.

Despite the fact that she was successful, life intervened and she pursued another career. A hard worker, she has liked her work, but something is missing. I believe that what is missing is the joy of doing something she truly loved to do, helping people achieve a knowledge of their own way of doing things and how others differ. Most importantly, this brilliant woman knew she helped others work in harmony, understanding how each of us have unique skills, and how we can do so much more when we understand each other's ways.

In this period of enormous change in how the world works, there are many stressors to dampen many otherwise intriguing careers. My own chosen path in publishing has seen constant challenges. But the underlying constant of doing what I love to do has made a good life.

I still look forward to the creative work I am privileged to enjoy, in the company of people I admire, serving the exciting world of promoting entrepreneurs. I have followed my joy and I recommend that anyone who is not finding it in their lives look deep inside and ask, What do I really love to do?

Go get it. Life is not a dress rehearsal.