Find Your Purpose Using Science

by Gleb Tsipursky, Agnes Vishnevkin (Editor)

This workbook helps you live a meaningful life by finding and living your purpose using science-based strategies. It combines an engaging narrative, stories from people's lives, and research-informed exercises and worksheets designed to help you cultivate a rich sense of meaning and purpose. Written by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, this workbook draws on the author's scholarship on meaning and purpose and his experience as a science popularizer and volunteer President of Intentional Insights. Tsipursky will donate most of the profit to Intentional Insights, a nonprofit devoted to empowering people to refine and reach their goals by providing research-based content to help improve thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns. "With his warm, engaging, and vulnerable style, Dr. Tsipursky shares his own personal struggle, and that of many others, to reconcile the world of science and reason with the more elusive and subtle pingings of the human heart - to create a life that is larger than oneself," wrote Brandon Peele, purpose coach and Founder of PlanetPurpose and EVR1 Institute. "Dr. Tsipursky shows how modern research in fields such as cognitive psychology and neuroscience provide demonstrable strategies that allow us to create a purpose - our own purpose," according to Dr. Bo Bennett, a Doctor of Psychology and author of Logically Fallacious. Those who read draft versions gained much from their experience. "Its research-based strategies for evaluating one's purpose and meaning have helped me develop a clearer vision for my future. I am currently pursuing a new set of goals - both personally and professionally - that align with my values," in the words of John Johnson. Science really can answer life's big questions, such as "why am I here," as shown by a wave of recent research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and medicine. The research highlights that such questions are vital, since people who lack a rich sense of purpose have significantly worse mental and physical health. The vast majority of guidance on meaning and purpose comes from traditional sources such as cultural heritage and religion. While this guidance works for some, unfortunately traditional sources of meaning and purpose do not speak nearly so well to others who want an evidence-based approach in which they can be truly confident. This workbook offers science-based strategies and data-driven tools to help you improve your mental and physical health by finding the meaning of your life and thus living with a purpose. Read this book to find your purpose using science!

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Science, Nonfiction

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2015

About the author

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky helps leaders use hybrid work to improve retention and productivity while cutting costs. He serves as the CEO of the boutique future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts, which helps organizations adopt a hybrid-first culture, instead of incrementally improving on the traditional office-centric culture.

He authored seven books, including the global best-sellers Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters (Career Press, 2019) and The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships (New Harbinger, 2020). His new book is Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage (Intentional Insights, 2020). His writing was translated into Chinese, Korean, German, Russian, Polish, Spanish, French, and other languages.

Dr. Tsipursky’s cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in prominent venues. They include Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Fast Company, CBS News, CNBC, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Government Executive, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Time, Inc. Magazine, Boston Globe, New York Daily News, Fox News, USA Today, Forbes, and elsewhere.

His expertise stems from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, speaking, and training experience on future-proofing, strategic decision making and planning, and cognitive bias risk management. His hundreds of clients include innovative startups, major nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from his strong research and teaching background as a behavioral scientist. After spending 8 years getting a PhD and lecturing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served for 7 years as a professor at the Ohio State University’s Decision Sciences Collaborative and History Department. He published dozens of peer-reviewed articles in academic journals such as Behavior and Social Issues and Journal of Social and Political Psychology.

A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio (Go Bucks!). In his free time, he makes sure to spend abundant quality time with his wife to avoid his personal life turning into a disaster.

Contact him at Gleb[at]DisasterAvoidanceExperts[dot]com, follow him on Twitter @gleb_tsipursky, Instagram @dr_gleb_tsipursky, and register for his free Wise Decision Maker Course https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/...

Reviews

[Peter Livingstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a practitioner of science-based, data-driven continuous improvement processes, first in business and then applied more broadly to other areas of my life, I've been aware of the benefits of scientific, rational decision making. Until reading this book, however, I had no concept of how this approach could be applied to some of the most high level questions of human existence. I would encourage anyone wishing to improve their mental and physical well being to give this short but impactful book a read, particularly if you've never given a lot of intentional thought to your meaning and purpose in life. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky does a terrific job of summarizing and citing recent research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and other disciplines to put one on a path to discovering meaning and purpose through science. As someone who has not had much exposure to these deep, philosophical questions, other than perhaps from watching Monty Python's Meaning of Life, this book offers a great start. The book summarizes several common philosophical perspectives on finding meaning and purpose, including Christianity, Eastern-based philosophy, existentialism, and humanism. There are many paths to finding one's meaning and purpose. Dr. Tsipursky shows scientific evidence that a strong sense of meaning and purpose will improve your life, and that science can help you find it.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

I'll say this for Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, that his heart is certainly in the right place with his nonfiction book Find Your Purpose Using Science, and that his advice is definitely up the right alley, advocating things such as journaling as a form of self-reflection, taking care of yourself, and doing meaningful volunteer work. (Although religious people should be warned, in case the book's title isn't clear enough, Tsipursky comes at these subjects from a rational and secular humanistic standpoint.) No, the problem is that Tsipursky isn't saying literally an extra word here that can't be gleaned from ten thousand free guides to the subject already online, one of those "full-length" books that in reality contains just barely a blog post's worth of truly useful information. (He doesn't even offer up his first piece of actual advice until 28 percent into this already tiny book [and thanks as always to the Kindle reading stats for letting me be this precise], just to have the book's original content be over and the appendix started by the 57-percent mark.) Although he gets an A for earnestness, this is clearly not worth even the $2.99 being charged for the ebook, more a convincing advertisement for Tsipursky's nonprofit Intentional Insights than a book worth purchasing and sitting down with. Buyer beware.

Out of 10: 5.0

[April Bever · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a really refreshing read. There are so many self-help books out there that are full of flowery language that ask the same generic questions and repeat the same old statements, such as, “Do what makes you happy.”
Not so with this book. You cannot passively read this guy’s research. He makes you stop every couple of pages and do thought exercises to help you figure out what you want most out of life. There was even a meditation exercise, which was nice.
I also liked how there were links to various articles supporting his research throughout, as well as a fairly extensive bibliography. It gave his words much more credence than had he been just spewing off inspirational rhetoric, as other “find your purpose books” seem to do.
Overall, I really liked this book, and I think anyone who is struggling to find purpose should give it a read. It forced me to look at my life in a really upfront manner, and I’m glad to have read it.

[Az Sit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book actually works, not kidding. It’s not a boring academic article or nonsense self-help stuff. It makes you pause to ask yourself questions and write down what matters to you, and a bunch of other things. The best part is, is it’s super short, about sixty pages minus the bibliography and stuff, so you don’t have to waste hours of time just to get to the important parts. This book makes you dive right in. I feel like I walked away with a definitely clearer sense of what I want in life, and that’s super exciting for me, as I’ve never really had a clear idea. It will only take you a couple hours if you do all the exercises right, so I’d say that this books totally worth the buy.

[Fahad87 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this! It was a fast read – took me less than an hour. I read through the book first and then went back through and really focused on the exercises, which are the main focus of this workbook. Thought provoking, straight to the point, and obviously well researched, this book actually helps you find your meaning and purpose. One of the better self-help books I’ve read! It's especially cool to see the meditation-oriented exercises in there, as I've been getting into mindfulness lately. I’d say it’s worth the read; honestly, if you have nothing else to do, what better way to spend a day in than figuring out your purpose?

[Mark Gura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Tsipursky’s book "Find Your Purpose Using Science" provides a great overview of the subject, along with workbook exercises. It is a must read for those who are charting their trajectory in life and are seeking to create their own meaning and purpose.

[Ella Aquino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was good. I’ve been struggling to find purpose lately, and so, when I saw the title, I thought giving it a read couldn’t hurt. The idea of purpose has always been so abstract to me, so I had never thought to view purpose as something that can be attained using logic and science.

However, the author lays out some cool ways to find your purpose using science. The exercises were helpful. This book works for people who actually take the time to stop and think deeply about the questions the author presents – you can’t just rush through the reading of it. That being said, the book is short so you could easily spend a day on it and be done.

As constructive criticism, the only thing I didn’t like was the graphics. I didn’t think all those pictures were needed. Other than that, Find Your Purpose Using Science was an interesting book.

[Sargin Oghenerukevwe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was originally hesitant to read this book. Having come from a religious background, I thought that this book would condemn those who find life meaning in religion. However, I was wrong. This book offers an alternative to finding purpose and meaning life. This book is suitable for both secular and religious people who have trouble finding their purpose within religion. As previous reviews have stated, the amiable writing style and the hands-on exercises made the short book quite pleasant to read. I also do some contract work for the nonprofit run by the author of the book. Most of the articles written by the author are very nice and also there are lot of knowledge to acquire after reading this book. I would recommend this book!

[Dipa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this! It was a fast read – took me less than an hour. I read through the book first and then went back through and really focused on the exercises, which are the main focus of this workbook. Thought provoking, straight to the point, and obviously well researched, this book actually helps you find your meaning and purpose. One of the better self-help books I’ve read! It's especially cool to see the meditation-oriented exercises in there, as I've been getting into mindfulness lately. I’d say it’s worth the read; honestly, if you have nothing else to do, what better way to spend a day in than figuring out your purpose?

[Aminur Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I’ve been looking for something like this! I grew up in a religious home and my parents always told me to ‘find meaning in God’ and all that, but this book makes you use science. So cool. I’ve always wanted to figure out the answers to the big questions, and man did this book help – it even made me set some goals for myself and really dig in to what my ideal life would be an how could set up a plan to make that life happen! The exercises were great. Totally recommend this.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting approach. I liked the reason-based approach to finding meaning and purpose, and I certainly identify with the author’s struggle to distance himself from his religious upbringing and find evidence-based perspectives on meaning and purpose. This science-based approach was certainly helpful for me, as were the exercises. Would recommend to my reason-oriented friends.

[Ashraful Islam · Rating 1 out of 5]

actually very bad .

[Shyam Soni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool book, thought-provoking exercises, nice inclusion of meditation, and the author has a nice writing style. If you’re having trouble finding your purpose, I think this new research could help.

[Jojo Olivar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down, Find Your Purpose Using Science works. I feel closer to finding meaning in my life than I have in a very long time. The author, Gleb Tsipursky, hasn’t written just another self-help book. This is a well-researched self-help book that provides straight-forward strategies to help people think deeply about what their real purpose is. Are you going to find your purpose in one day after reading this book? Probably not. But are you going to see a clearer path to achieving the life you want after finishing it? Definitely. I would recommend that anyone, even those who are content with their lives, read this book to build a clearer picture of who they are and what they really want. Great read!

[Chris Holder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly excellent resources and advice

After college, I had no idea what career I wanted to enter, and I was lost about how to start deciding. This book came along and gave me some real help facing my questions. My only critique is that a few of the cited studies and articles are linked to paywalled journals and expired websites, and a few of the hyperlinks don't work. Regardless, I've got some good strategies now, and I'm grateful that Mr. Tsipursky offered this e-book for free.