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Life Purpose Boot Camp: The 8-Week Breakthrough Plan for Creating a Meaningful Life
A no-excuses, cut-to-the-chase program for defining, training for, and achieving your goals
As life gets busier and more complicated we crave something larger and more meaningful than just ticking another item off our to-do list. In the past, we’ve looked to religion or outside guidance for that sense of purpose, but today fewer people are fulfilled by traditional approaches to meaning. Bestselling author, psychotherapist, and creativity coach Eric Maisel offers an an eight-week intensive that breaks through barriers and offers insights for living each day with purpose. Once you understand how meaning operates, how meaning and life purpose are related, and what concrete steps you can take toward fulfilling your purpose, you will never run out of meaning again. This program will develop self-awareness and self-confidence and give you what you need to fully live the best possible life.
As life gets busier and more complicated we crave something larger and more meaningful than just ticking another item off our to-do list. In the past, we’ve looked to religion or outside guidance for that sense of purpose, but today fewer people are fulfilled by traditional approaches to meaning. Bestselling author, psychotherapist, and creativity coach Eric Maisel offers an an eight-week intensive that breaks through barriers and offers insights for living each day with purpose. Once you understand how meaning operates, how meaning and life purpose are related, and what concrete steps you can take toward fulfilling your purpose, you will never run out of meaning again. This program will develop self-awareness and self-confidence and give you what you need to fully live the best possible life.
184 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2014
46 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Eric Maisel
137 books163 followersEric Maisel, Ph.D., is the author of more than 40 books in the areas of creativity, coaching, mental health, and cultural trends. He is a psychotherapist and creativity coach, and writes for Psychology Today and Professional Artist Magazine and presents workshops internationally.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 15, 2014
Life Purpose Boot Camp, by Eric Maisel, Ph.D. New World Library, 172 pages. Maisel uses the boot camp metaphor as a way to rally yourself to your own defense. Maisel was a drill sergeant at one point, and he uses this no-holds-barred, get-yourself-into-action voice throughout the book. After all, it is a boot camp, and it’s time to get up and get busy.
Maisel bases a lot of his logic thread on his “natural philosophy,” his term for the style of atheism he promotes. Some of this is reasonable–Maisel posits there is no “Universe” that blesses or curses you, your fate is in your own hands. So you must focus on what constitutes meaning making.
Maisel writes, “Many things that upset us, sadden us, or make us anxious may not be things that genuinely affect our ability to live our life purposes. If they aren’t, let them go!” The how-to guidance Maisel gives is “. . .to ask yourself, ‘Are these among the circumstances that I can improve?’ If you don’t regularly ask that question, you won’t give yourself the chance to positively affect those circumstances that would allow you to help yourself.” In my opinion, many people are mired in their own disbelief and would not know an honest answer to the questions. If they could answer the question, they may not know what circumstances they should create.
Maisel also writes,”If one of your life purposes is to write novels, it matters whether anybody is publishing novels and whether anybody is reading novels. . . . To imagine that we can live our life purposes independent of reality, is well, fantasy.” To keep your meaning together, Maisel suggests a “Meaning Repair Kit” containing a reminder bell, an evaluator thermometer, a personality tap, an aligner level, an investment planner and a reality tester. Again, I find the applications for these devices’ use devoid of soul. Which is exactly the benefit of the existential life Maisel promotes. Oh, and on page 94 he tells you what he wants your life purpose to be. Spoiler alert.
Maisel has a huge fan base and has received only positive reviews on Amazon for his book. (As of Nov. 12)
Maisel bases a lot of his logic thread on his “natural philosophy,” his term for the style of atheism he promotes. Some of this is reasonable–Maisel posits there is no “Universe” that blesses or curses you, your fate is in your own hands. So you must focus on what constitutes meaning making.
Maisel writes, “Many things that upset us, sadden us, or make us anxious may not be things that genuinely affect our ability to live our life purposes. If they aren’t, let them go!” The how-to guidance Maisel gives is “. . .to ask yourself, ‘Are these among the circumstances that I can improve?’ If you don’t regularly ask that question, you won’t give yourself the chance to positively affect those circumstances that would allow you to help yourself.” In my opinion, many people are mired in their own disbelief and would not know an honest answer to the questions. If they could answer the question, they may not know what circumstances they should create.
Maisel also writes,”If one of your life purposes is to write novels, it matters whether anybody is publishing novels and whether anybody is reading novels. . . . To imagine that we can live our life purposes independent of reality, is well, fantasy.” To keep your meaning together, Maisel suggests a “Meaning Repair Kit” containing a reminder bell, an evaluator thermometer, a personality tap, an aligner level, an investment planner and a reality tester. Again, I find the applications for these devices’ use devoid of soul. Which is exactly the benefit of the existential life Maisel promotes. Oh, and on page 94 he tells you what he wants your life purpose to be. Spoiler alert.
Maisel has a huge fan base and has received only positive reviews on Amazon for his book. (As of Nov. 12)
October 3, 2015
This book started out with some good ideas, but the dense terminology and ultimate spirit of the book was a let down for me. I liked the idea of adding more value to what you do every day, and the idea of thinking about your goals and your life purpose.
The book started to lose me though when it began to emphasize controlling and regulating your thoughts and basically ignoring human emotions. We are not robots and we cannot control every thought we have. There also seemed to be a joylessness in the book where the author is encouraging people to never be spontaneous, to never do something because they just feel like it or because some else asked them to.
Some of the best times of my life are last minute times watching TV with my teenager, or going for a walk with my husband. The author is also against anything related to a higher purpose or the idea that we are connected to something greater than ourselves.
I did get some good ideas of the first couple of chapters so I stayed with a three star rating.
The book started to lose me though when it began to emphasize controlling and regulating your thoughts and basically ignoring human emotions. We are not robots and we cannot control every thought we have. There also seemed to be a joylessness in the book where the author is encouraging people to never be spontaneous, to never do something because they just feel like it or because some else asked them to.
Some of the best times of my life are last minute times watching TV with my teenager, or going for a walk with my husband. The author is also against anything related to a higher purpose or the idea that we are connected to something greater than ourselves.
I did get some good ideas of the first couple of chapters so I stayed with a three star rating.
October 2, 2017
For those hoping to move themselves to discover their purpose in life, this book has a manageable means of not only defining what that looks like but also a strategy for allowing it to come together. The examples and "pep talks" follow through with a boot camp theme.
November 4, 2019
I love the fact that this book gives you a new way to view meaning and purpose. It explains how we can CHOOSE / DECIDE what meaning and purpose means. To embrace new idea of what Meaning actually is - a psychological experience like an emotion it will come and go. As we change our perspective and language around meaning we can enable ourselves to be more flexible as we experience life. This results in our ability to strive toward more than ONE Single purpose which can allow us to continue to feel like we can make a difference even as life changes. It provides a template for getting unstuck! Minimizing the likeliness that we may be caught in despair and lose focus on living life purposes and experiencing meaning. This book is a guide and resource to be used again and again.
May 21, 2017
I just couldn't finish this book. The language and way the process was described seemed overly complicated and confusing. It did not flow well at all.
May 25, 2016
Like most self-help books with a schedule, Maisel's book crams more material into a week than most people will do even as part of a group working through the material. Maisel has lead groups through this material and the book relies heavily on reports that were written as part of such groups.
Maisel uses the boot camp analogy to encourage people to make a radical change . his definition of life purpose one that gives radical agency to his clients, which is wonderful, but he does little to address the fears and resistance that arise when making radical changes in their lives. I worry that any gains made while worming through this material in an 8-week time frame would not stick. In my experience as a coach, 3-6 months of supported work is required to make substantial progress in getting changes to experienced meaningfulness to stick.
That said, the content is good and anyone who does this work and keeps up the practices for enough time for them to become habit will make huge strides towards increasing both their experience of meaningfulness in their lives and their ability to see value in the principles they are living by and the goals they are working toward even when the day to day living does not feel particularly meaningful.
Maisel uses the boot camp analogy to encourage people to make a radical change . his definition of life purpose one that gives radical agency to his clients, which is wonderful, but he does little to address the fears and resistance that arise when making radical changes in their lives. I worry that any gains made while worming through this material in an 8-week time frame would not stick. In my experience as a coach, 3-6 months of supported work is required to make substantial progress in getting changes to experienced meaningfulness to stick.
That said, the content is good and anyone who does this work and keeps up the practices for enough time for them to become habit will make huge strides towards increasing both their experience of meaningfulness in their lives and their ability to see value in the principles they are living by and the goals they are working toward even when the day to day living does not feel particularly meaningful.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews