Download or read book Living a Meaningful Life Without Purpose written by Gershon Winkler and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2018-06-13 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To describe what this book is about would defeat its purpose since it is about living a meaningful life without purpose. Purpose is overrated, writes the author. What is it your business what purpose God or intelligent design or Darwin had in mind when the idea of you came up? What makes you think that your right to life hangs on some kind of particular task and that you were specifically hired to perform it? And anyway, if you know why you are here, what would be the point in you being here, altogether? Basically, you are here for the purpose of not knowing why. So deal with it. We are indeed living very much in a purpose-driven culture that has all but robbed us of the gift of meaning and replaced it with the urgency of purpose. As a result, more and more of us are judging one another not for who we are but for what weve accomplished and for what sort of justification weve come up with for existing. Thus, people rarely ask So tell me about yourself. Rather, its mostly You got a card? To paraphrase comedian Jackie Mason, Everybody is handing out business cards, but the only ones making a living are the printers. The search for purpose becomes more urgent when we feel we exist by no choice of our own because when things get rough, there better be sufficient justification for being here that makes going through this shit worthwhile. On the other hand, when we focus on meaning rather than on purpose, we liberate ourselves from the constraints of the have-tos and breathe in the pristine gift of the moment and of each phase in the magic of our life unfolding.
Download or read book Toward a Meaningful Life written by Simon Jacobson and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 2017-12-26 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Toward a Meaningful Life is a spiritual road map for living based on the teachings of one of the foremost religious leaders of our time: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Head of the Lubavitcher movement for forty-four years and recognized throughout the world simply as “the Rebbe,” Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in June 1994, was a sage and a visionary of the highest order. Toward a Meaningful Life gives people of all backgrounds fresh perspectives on every aspect of their lives—from birth to death, youth to old age; marriage, love, intimacy, and family; the persistent issues of career, health, pain, and suffering; and education, faith, science, and government. We learn to bridge the divisions between accelerated technology and decelerated morality, between unprecedented worldwide unity and unparalleled personal disunity. Although the Rebbe’s teachings are firmly anchored in more than three thousand years of scholarship, the urgent relevance of these old-age truths to contemporary life has never been more manifest. At the threshold of a new world where matter and spirit converge, the Rebbe proposes spiritual principles that unite people as opposed to the materialism that divides them. In doing so, he continues to lead us toward personal and universal redemption, toward a meaningful life, and toward God.
Download or read book Noble Purpose written by William Bill Damon and published by Templeton Foundation Press. This book was released on 2009-07-23 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the personal and spiritual benefits of living life in a way that matters, with an awareness that one's life can reflect a sense of higher purpose no matter what the circumstances. The book draws upon religious, philosophical, and literary writings to show how humans in many cultures and historical epochs have pursued noble purposes by answering God's call as each hears it. Noble purpose can be pursued both in heroic acts and in everyday behavior. The book shows how ordinary people—teachers, business professionals, parents, citizens—can ennoble what they do by being mindful of its deepest meaning. It also points out that humility is a necessary virtue for those who pursue a noble purpose. Great heroes are bold, courageous, and sometimes audacious in their determination to succeed; but they are also humble in their awareness of their own limitations. Moreover, a person must never violate basic moral laws while pursuing a noble purpose—the means must be as moral as the ends. Purpose brings coherence and satisfaction to people's lives, producing joy in good times and resilience in hard times. It also presents a paradox: hard work in service of noble purpose that transcends personal gain is a surer path to happiness than the self-indulgent pursuit of happiness for its own sake. The closer we come to God's purpose for us, the more satisfied our lives become. From the inspiration and examples conveyed in this book, we learn that all individuals have the capacity to discover their own God-given abilities, to learn the world's need for the services they can provide, and to experience joy in serving society and God in their special ways. As theologian Frederick Buechner writes, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
Download or read book Minimalism Live a Meaningful Life written by Joshua Fields Millburn and published by Asymmetrical Press. This book was released on 2015-12-20 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life's most important things—which actually aren't things at all. At age 30, best friends Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus walked away from their six-figure corporate careers, jettisoned most of their material possessions, and started focusing on what's truly important. In their debut book, Joshua & Ryan, authors of the popular website The Minimalists, explore their troubled pasts and descent into depression. Though they had achieved the American Dream, they worked ridiculous hours, wastefully spent money, and lived paycheck to paycheck. Instead of discovering their passions, they pacified themselves with ephemeral indulgences—which only led to more debt, depression, and discontent. After a pair of life-changing events, Joshua & Ryan discovered minimalism, allowing them to eliminate their excess material things so they could focus on life's most important "things": health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.
Download or read book Living the Life Unexpected written by Jody Day and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘The book to recommend to patients when they face coming to terms with unavoidable childlessness.' – British Medical Journal In Living the Life Unexpected, Jody Day addresses the experience of involuntary childlessness and provides a powerful, practical guide to help those negotiating a future without children come to terms with their grief; a grief that is only just beginning to be recognized by society. This friendly, practical, humorous and honest guide from one of the world’s most respected names in childless support offers compassion and understanding and shows how it’s possible to move towards a creative, happy, meaningful and fulfilling future – even if it’s not the one you had planned. Millions of people are now living a life without children, almost double that of a generation ago and the numbers are rising still. Although some are childfree by choice, many others are childless due to infertility or circumstance and are struggling to come to terms with their uncertain future. Although most people think that those without children either 'couldn't' or 'didn't want’ to be parents, the truth is much more complex. Jody Day was forty-four when she realized that her quest to be a mother was at an end. She presumed that she was through the toughest part, but over the next couple of years she was hit by waves of grief, despair and isolation. Eventually she found her way and in 2011 created Gateway Women, the global friendship and support network for childless women which has now helped almost two million people worldwide. This edition, previously titled Rocking the Life Unexpected, has been extensively revised and updated, with significant additional content and case studies from forty involuntarily childless people (mostly women) from around the world.
Download or read book Give to Profit written by Alisoun MacKenzie and published by Alisoun MacKenzie. This book was released on 2017 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Give-to-Profit model is an authentic and potent way to turn your business into a force for good. Whether you'd like to raise funds for charity, volunteer, find a cause to support, buy social or are simply looking for ideas, this book will help you step forward with confidence - no matter what stage of business you're at right now.
Download or read book A Meaningful Life written by L.J. Davis and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2010-07-21 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: L.J. Davis’s 1971 novel, A Meaningful Life, is a blistering black comedy about the American quest for redemption through real estate and a gritty picture of New York City in collapse. Just out of college, Lowell Lake, the Western-born hero of Davis’s novel, heads to New York, where he plans to make it big as a writer. Instead he finds a job as a technical editor, at which he toils away while passion leaks out of his marriage to a nice Jewish girl. Then Lowell discovers a beautiful crumbling mansion in a crime-ridden section of Brooklyn, and against all advice, not to mention his wife’s will, sinks his every penny into buying it. He quits his job, moves in, and spends day and night on demolition and construction. At last he has a mission: he will dig up the lost history of his house; he will restore it to its past grandeur. He will make good on everything that’s gone wrong with his life, and he will even murder to do it.
Download or read book The Sweet Spot written by Paul Bloom and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This book will challenge you to rethink your vision of a good life. With sharp insights and lucid prose, Paul Bloom makes a captivating case that pain and suffering are essential to happiness. It’s an exhilarating antidote to toxic positivity.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife One of Behavioral Scientist's "Notable Books of 2021" From the author of Against Empathy, a different kind of happiness book, one that shows us how suffering is an essential source of both pleasure and meaning in our lives Why do we so often seek out physical pain and emotional turmoil? We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. We poke at sores, eat spicy foods, immerse ourselves in hot baths, run marathons. Some of us even seek out pain and humiliation in sexual role-play. Where do these seemingly perverse appetites come from? Drawing on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science, The Sweet Spot shows how the right kind of suffering sets the stage for enhanced pleasure. Pain can distract us from our anxieties and help us transcend the self. Choosing to suffer can serve social goals; it can display how tough we are or, conversely, can function as a cry for help. Feelings of fear and sadness are part of the pleasure of immersing ourselves in play and fantasy and can provide certain moral satisfactions. And effort, struggle, and difficulty can, in the right contexts, lead to the joys of mastery and flow. But suffering plays a deeper role as well. We are not natural hedonists—a good life involves more than pleasure. People seek lives of meaning and significance; we aspire to rich relationships and satisfying pursuits, and this requires some amount of struggle, anxiety, and loss. Brilliantly argued, witty, and humane, Paul Bloom shows how a life without chosen suffering would be empty—and worse than that, boring.
Download or read book Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World written by Iddo Landau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does life have meaning? Is it possible for life to be meaningful when the world is filled with suffering and when so much depends merely upon chance? Even if there is meaning, is there enough to justify living? These questions are difficult to resolve. There are times in which we face the mundane, the illogically cruel, and the tragic, which leave us to question the value of our lives. However, Iddo Landau argues, our lives often are, or could be made, meaningfulwe've just been setting the bar too high for evaluating what meaning there is. When it comes to meaning in life, Landau explains, we have let perfect become the enemy of the good. We have failed to find life perfectly meaningful, and therefore have failed to see any meaning in our lives. We must attune ourselves to enhancing and appreciating the meaning in our lives, and Landau shows us how to do that. In this warmly written book, rich with examples from the author's life, film, literature, and history, Landau offers new theories and practical advice that awaken us to the meaning already present in our lives and demonstrates how we can enhance it. He confronts prevailing nihilist ideas that undermine our existence, and the questions that dog us no matter what we believe. While exposing the weaknesses of ideas that lead many to despair, he builds a strong case for maintaining more hope. Along the way, he faces provocative questions: Would we choose to live forever if we could? Does death render life meaningless? If we examine it in the context of the immensity of the whole universe, can we consider life meaningful? If we feel empty once we achieve our goals, and the pursuit of these goals is what gives us a sense of meaning, then what can we do? Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World is likely to alter the way you understand your life.
Download or read book Meaning in Life and Why It Matters written by Susan Wolf and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-25 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people, including philosophers, tend to classify human motives as falling into one of two categories: the egoistic or the altruistic, the self-interested or the moral. According to Susan Wolf, however, much of what motivates us does not comfortably fit into this scheme. Often we act neither for our own sake nor out of duty or an impersonal concern for the world. Rather, we act out of love for objects that we rightly perceive as worthy of love--and it is these actions that give meaning to our lives. Wolf makes a compelling case that, along with happiness and morality, this kind of meaningfulness constitutes a distinctive dimension of a good life. Written in a lively and engaging style, and full of provocative examples, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters is a profound and original reflection on a subject of permanent human concern.
Download or read book Empowered written by Vee Kativhu and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Dynamic and transformative... a roadmap for following your dreams.' Malala Yousafzai 'Touching, deeply inspiring and thought-provoking.' Jack Edwards, YouTuber and author of The Uni-Verse: The Ultimate University Survival Guide From experiencing grief and leaving her home country of Zimbabwe for the UK, to attending disruptive state schools and working long hours to support herself and her mother, Vee Kativhu has faced much adversity. But through personal hardship, she has triumphed, using her experience to help people from all over the world recognise their own talent and achieve their goals. From attaining a bachelor's degree from Oxford and a Master's from Harvard to spreading her message of education, equal access and opportunity and empowerment to a global audience of over 300,000, Vee's incredible journey has inspired young people around the world in need of a boost of confidence, motivation and practical life advice. In Empowered, Vee draws from her own journey to teach you how to: - Set your life goals, career aspirations and actually achieve them - Stay motivated in the face of rejection and hardship - Learn from your mistakes - Take chances, live your best life and don't let hardship define you - Cultivate feelings of self-love and self-empowerment This book will inspire you how to live a more fulfilled, motivated and empowered life in everything you do.
Download or read book Life on Purpose written by Victor J. Strecher and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneer in the field of behavioral science delivers a groundbreaking work that shows how finding your purpose in life leads to better health and overall happiness. Your life is a boat. You need a rudder. But it doesn’t matter how much wind is in your sails if you’re not steering toward a harbor—an ultimate purpose in your life. While the greatest philosophers have pondered purpose for centuries, today it has been shown to have a concrete impact on our health. Recent studies into Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, depression, functional brain imaging, and measurement of DNA repair are shedding new light on how and why purpose benefits our lives. Going beyond the fads, opinions, and false hopes of “expert” self-help books, Life on Purpose explores the incredible connection between purposeful living and the latest scientific evidence on quality of life and longevity. Drawing on ancient and modern philosophy, literature, psychology, evolutionary biology, genetics, and neuroscience, as well as his experience in public health research, Dr. Vic Strecher reveals the elements necessary for a purposeful life and how to acquire them, and outlines an elegant strategy for improving energy, willpower, and long-term happiness, and well-being. He integrates these core themes into his own personal story—a tragedy that led him to reconsider his own life—and how a deeper understanding of purposeful living helped him not only survive, but thrive. Illuminating, accessible, and authentically grounded in real people’s experiences, Life on Purpose is essential reading for everyone seeking lasting improvement in their lives.
Download or read book How to Live a Meaningful Life Focusing on Things that Matter written by Tim Sledge and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After my life of faith collapsed, I picked up the broken pieces and tried to envision a new way of living. Faced with a multitude of choices about what the new version of me might look like, I began to think for myself about how to build a meaningful life. I decided that if I could describe a religion-not-required way of finding meaning in life by focusing on things that really matter, it would be something worth sharing-especially if it could make sense and work for anyone, regardless of religious beliefs, political stance, personality type, lifestyle, or generational label. And that's how this book came to be. Regardless of whether you're a free-thinking skeptic or a person of faith, my hope is that in these pages you can discover new pathways toward values, purpose, and meaning as you consider what matters most in your life. Tim Sledge
Download or read book A Wonderful Life written by Frank Martela and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a series of essays that explore the notion of what brings significance to our existences, clarifying why we have this longing beyond the present moment and an insatiable dissatisfaction with where we are, scholar Frank Martela tackles the subject of finding meaning in life. With beautiful decorative elements and an engaging design, the book approaches its subject in a readily digestible form. It grapples with some of life’s most pressing questions, like "Is happiness a worthy goal?" and "What is the foundation for meaning in a secular society?" and "Is life an existential void?" yet Martela answers these questions and more in a relaxed, conversational tone and with a wry sense of humor, placing some of life’s greatest philosophical concerns and quandaries into a modern-day context. Martela quickly and concisely gets to the heart of the matter: your place in the world and how to find meaning in life as countless thinkers and philosophers have done before, yet the emphasis here is on what we do with the life we have and how we can make it more meaningful. Part prescriptive and part armchair philosophy book, A Wonderful Life is accessible to everyone, from the well-read scholar to the apprentice as well as anyone curious about how to extract the greatest meaning and sense of purpose from their existence.
Download or read book Living on Purpose written by Tom Sine and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this era of "life makeovers," personal coaches, and success-oriented mission statements, many people are working hard to get it together. They're looking for a good life, which at its core includes wanting their time to count for something, to be meaningful and mindful. But as Christine and Tom Sine point out, "more and more people are missing the best and settling for less." Living on Purpose presents a true life-changing strategy--one rooted in God's greater purposes for our lives, not merely our own desires for success. The book has a laser-focus on God's mission and vocation for each of his children, and it shows how staying on his course will lead to the very richest and most fulfilling life. Questions for reflection and discussion make Living on Purpose ideal for group use. The Sines help readers make the connection between their everyday pursuits and goals and God's will for their lives. They show how to draft a personal or family mission statement to reinvent "timestyle" and lifestyle, using relevant examples from the Bible and other writings. Packed with inspiring stories and practical how-to, Living on Purpose leads readers to a more relaxed, festive, and meaningful life that truly counts--for today and eternity.
Download or read book How To Live A Meaningful Life written by Ngan Whitesinger and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It can be easy to run through the maze of life without pausing to think of its meaning...How to live a meaningful life? Feeling that what you're doing has a real purpose and meaning that matters to you can make a huge difference in your life. It makes getting up each day the most exciting thing in the world. You can't wait to get started. Forget trying to force yourself to work hard, it becomes more important to remind yourself to take breaks to eat! But how can we cultivate a more meaningful life? This book will give you the answer. The book is a short introduction to the next chapter in the life and career of perhaps our greatest living self-help writer.
Download or read book The Journey to Cloud Nine written by Jordan Gross and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As meaningful as The Alchemist; as brilliantly told as The Life of Pi, and as inspirational as Eat, Pray, Love" This thought-provoking allegory offers an innovative approach to understanding meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. It tells the story of what is, what was, what could have been, and what could still be. Jerry is a traditionally successful, yet unfulfilled man, who has isolated himself from the rest of the world by making decisions based on society's definition of success, rather on than his own. But, through a transformative expedition through the clouds, Jerry is able to relive the most pivotal moments of his life, traveling from cloud one, all the way to cloud nine-discovering the people, the positivity, and the principles he must now embrace to live the rest of his life on cloud nine. Jerry's journey will encourage you to: Choose what if I do? rather than what if I do not? Be grateful for what you have, rather than be dissatisfied with what you do not Live according to your own definition of success, and nobody else's Order your copy of The Journey to Cloud Nine today.
