The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters Hardcover – January 10, 2017

The book illustrates the psychological research about the importance of living a life filled with meaning in an elegant narrative filled with thought-provoking stories. It is a joy to read and it will make you ponder about your life.Meaning is one of the 5 ingredients of flourishing according to Seligman's PERMA theory of well-being (Positive emotions, Engagement, positive Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement; see the book "Flourishing"). Yet this dimension has been largely neglected in books inspired by positive psychology — until now. In this book Emily Esfahani Smith does a great job in illustrating what researchers have found regarding the importance of finding meaning in one's life, and why that matters.As other reviewers noted, the author identifies 4 main pillars that lead to the sense of living a meaningful live. They are the following: a sense of belonging; a sense of purpose; a coherent and positive life narrative; and a sense of self-transcendence.What makes this book stand out is the elegance with which the author is able to condense the science in an unobtrusive framework that informs and organizes the narrative - but that does not get in the way of the good storytelling which makes the book so inspiring. The reader will be introduced to stories and characters that will let him or her ponder about their own pursuit of meaning.Two chapters in particular stood out for me: "the meaning crisis', because the struggles of Will Durant, Camus and Tolstoy that the author highlights have universal appeal and got me thinking about my own life and my own mentors; and "cultures of meaning", because it opens up a social dimension to what I always thought of mostly as an individual pursuit. As Emily Esfahani Smith points out, if we fail to provide positive answers to the need for belonging, purpose, storytelling and self-transcendence, then people might gravitate towards destructive solutions (e.g., ISIS) that paradoxically fill those human needs.If you are looking for a book that is solidly built on science and yet reads almost like fiction, this is it.PS: and for the psych geeks out there, no worries, the "Notes" section is pretty thick!

very interesting book about how purpose can be different for other ppl

It is the conundrum that has haunted us from the beginning of time: What is the meaning of life? To Emily—her writing and personality seem to invite familiarity—it all turns on the four pillars of meaning: belonging, purpose, storytelling, and transcendence.Emily gave a TED talk in April, 2017, entitled, “There is more to life than being happy,” and if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it. It is insightful, concise, engaging, and delivered with humility and authenticity. My first thought upon watching it was that we should all have a cup of coffee with this woman.People will be naturally inclined to compare the book and the talk, and many reviewers have. That’s certainly understandable, in part due to the high quality of the talk, but perhaps a bit unfair. It is far easier to explain a concept that is already positively perceived, like belonging and purpose, in summary than in detail. Since we ultimately want to believe, the explanations can seem less inspiring than the summary itself.The author tells her story through stories. And some have noted that the stories sometimes seem disconnected or less than fully relevant. And they are, in many cases, not run-of-the-mill. A Compline religious service, or a Sufi meetinghouse, for example, are not things most of us will ever experience. This sense of irrelevance, however, is more due to the story of the book rather than the stories themselves. The meaning of life is an ambitious topic to take on.Different parts of the book will resonate more or less with different readers. The sections on storytelling resonated with me. I’ve always been struck by the observation that good storytellers not only make good authors; they seem to be more grounded than the rest of us. One might conclude that this is a function of the skills of storytelling, but I think that’s too simple an explanation, and Emily has reinforced my thinking.We all have a narrative. If we can’t tell it without jumping around like beads of water on a hot skillet, it probably has less to do with our ability to tell stories than the perspective we bring to the story. Every narrative is compelling when perceived in the right way, although far from all are redemptive.The concept that I struggle with most is belonging. It suggests a need to externalize that I find uncomfortable. For starters, I do believe there are a large and growing number of us who will never externalize, whether we seek to or not, yet each of us has a great deal to offer. Are we destined to live lives without meaning?Secondly, I believe my life does have meaning, despite the fact that I belong to no group even remotely similar to the Society for Creative Anachronism, the group of medieval enthusiasts and re-creationists this is the subject of one of her stories.This lack of interest in joining any club I attribute, in the utmost positive way, to my Chinese wife. We live our lives isolated from the world but far from alone. We have each other in the most basic sense. To say we share a soul seems demeaning and cliché. We share more than that. Were someone to find us months are our passing alone in our townhouse, there would be no need for sorrow. We would have died very content. Probably not in each other’s arms; perhaps not even happy in the sense that word is commonly used; but each with belonging in our hearts.To be sure, Emily does make it clear that group-belonging is just one form of belonging. In fact, she ends with this: “Love, of course, is at the center of the meaningful life.” And, “That’s the power of meaning. It’s not some great revelation. It’s pausing to say hi to a newspaper vendor and reaching out to someone at work who seems down.”Emily is a philosopher, psychologist, scientist, and a person who was taught a highly spiritual perspective from an early age. That may mean that her language and perspective seem a little scattered to anyone who is strongly associated with only one or two of these perspectives.I think, however, that this diversity in thought and perspective makes her uniquely qualified to write this book. Anyone who has ever tried to thoughtfully meditate in the Buddhist tradition (I have not, but I have spent a lot of time over the last six decades contemplating the void, as I refer to it.) will know that is not easy.For some of us, in the same way, this book may not be easy either. I do believe, however, that it is well worth the effort. There is, after all, no bigger and important question you will face as you go through your day.

It was delivered on time.

Very important book as it teaches us so much lessons about why we live and what makes a life meaningfull. Highly recommended therefore!

Excellent book. Just buy it and you will be so glad you did. There is so much to say about the insights in this book and I feel that a review wouldn’t render it justice.

I liked how the author described the people she encountered and the events she witnessed. It felt like watching a documentary. Really well written and touching.

The Book started with the importance of meaning in Life, Life of purpose, meaning rather than quest for happiness. And then how to find the meaning of our life, its pillars Belongings, Purpose, Story Telling & Transcendences. How to find the pillars of Meaning of life.I got the information about the book from TED Talk, which was given by author, Emily and immediately glued to the concept of meaning in life.It was riveting experience & I was glued to the book till it is finished. The background study, the back-up data or experience of the Author was great. The experience’s connections to its pillars were great. The example are live current example, the person’s which are currently doing / following these pillars. I goggled almost every person / place / community, which are mentioned in the book and found more about them, their experiences.The book was great journey into the lives of others and in between searching for meaning of life for self. It was great introspection experience of life time, it tickles your brain to think extra, do extra, find that extra in you. To do extra for others, not for self. The Power of MeaningThe Power of Meaning