Your Purpose-Centered Life Podcast
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Bring to light your cherished principles, values, hopes and dreams into a personal plan for authentic living. This is the counter concept to "the purpose-driven life." There is an art to making meaning that isn't taught in any school, church, boardroom or home. Get weekly lessons that help you turn your passion into action and your principles into a life plan you can sustain. Learn how to fill your days with meaning, stop procrastinating, and bring new richness to everything you do. Join Eric Maisel, family therapist, creativity coach and bestselling author, as he spells out the art of making meaning. Life is as worthwhile as you make it. Banish meaninglessness by working some existential magic! If the atheist, rationalist, secular-humanist, skeptical, free-thinking, or existential tradition appeals to you, you will especially appreciate Maisel’s insights. Learn how to invest meaning, where to put it, how to withdraw it, and what returns you should expect from this practice. Picture one of your typically busy days, where a lot gets done with no sense of accomplishment. Now picture that day transformed, artfully redesigned so that you experience islands of meaning in a sea of hurry. Get your values and your life aligned! Open up to new meaning opportunities! Understand the language of meaning and the dynamics of meaning and learn how to avoid going down the tubes when bad luck strikes. Consciously decide what you want to value and keep on top of your meaning priorities. Meaning is a lens through which to view life: focus your lens on an intentional life.
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PCL 040: Incantation 10: I Am Equal To This Challenge
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Jan 31, 2009
Today’s episode is episode 13 of the Ten-Second Centering Series We regularly get uncentered in anticipation of doing something that strikes us as hard to do. The thought of that unpleasant task raises our anxiety level, which immediately uncenters us. For many of us, an awful lot of the tasks we face feel hard to do, whether it’s straightening out the garage, talking to our children about their school performance, staying married to our spouse, or getting up to go to work. The more that the things we do feel like a strain and heavy lifting, the more uncentered we remain. Incantation 10 helps remind us that we are indeed equal to these many challenges.
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PCL 039: Incantation 9: I Am Open To Joy
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Jan 24, 2009
Today’s episode is episode 12 of the Ten-Second Centering Series Joy is the word we use for a certain deep, delicious feeling that sometimes arises in us just because the sun is shining and it feels good to be alive. But because of our frenetic pace, our worried mind, our existential difficulties, and our culture’s injunctions against ecstatic experience, joy is in remarkably short supply. How many times a day do you experience joy? Probably very few—and maybe even none. How often do the people around you look joyously transported? Seldom, I’ll bet—and maybe even never. Use Incantation 9 to bring more joy into your life!
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PCL 038: Incantation 8: I Make My Meaning
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Dec 20, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 11 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
Centering and meaning are connected. If your days don’t feel meaningful, an uncentering restlessness and boredom set in, along with existential anxiety and, eventually, a bout of depression. Incantation 8 can prove a great help to you in this regard, because it reminds you of meaning’s central secret, that it is a thing to be made and not found. The metaphor of “seeking meaning” is outdated and no longer viable. There is no meaning to find. There is only the meaning we make.
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PCL 037: Incantation 7: I Am Free of the Past
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Dec 13, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 10 of the Ten-Second Centering Series We are pretty convinced that people are significantly harmed by experiences like being shamed, beaten, ignored, discounted, mocked, and abandoned. Nor can encountering a lot of disappointments, rejections, defeats, burst dreams, and unsuccessful outcomes help a person feel sanguine about his chances or confident in his abilities. And mustn’t the negative self-concepts that people form of themselves, for instance that they are unworthy, unlucky, incompetent, untalented, or undisciplined, regularly derail them? In this episode we learn how to use Incantation 7 to help with these problems.
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PCL 036: Incantation 6: I Embrace This Moment
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Dec 06, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 9 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
Each of us can read a book, watch a television show, run errands, have a chat with a friend, and in countless other ways pass the time of day. But if we turn off the television set and just sit there, endeavoring to be present to what we really want to do next in life, we know how difficult that feels. Nor do we find it that easy to encounter another person in a present way and genuinely interact or find it easy to encounter our work in a present way and delve deeply into its mysteries. Uncenteredness causes us to pass the time of day busily and superficially.
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PCL 035: Incantation 5: I Feel Supported
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Nov 15, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 8 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
You come to your parents and say, “I want to take a risky path and become a painter. You know I love art and don’t want to do anything else. I know how hard a time I’m going to have and I know that I may fall flat on my face. What do you think?” The answer that you want to hear is the very definition of “I feel supported.” For one person it might be, “We’ll help you through art school and you’ll always have a room in our house.” For another person it might be, “Let’s discuss the pros and cons, not to talk you out of it or to talk you into it, just to get our thoughts on the table.” No one, however, would feel supported by the response “You have no talent and you’re a complete idiot!” or “You’re such a dreamer. Grow up already!”
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PCL 034: Incantation 4: I Trust My Resources
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Nov 08, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 7 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
When you use Incantation 4 you announce to yourself that you have sufficient resources to achieve your goals, live a centered life, and successfully accomplish the work that you named in Incantation 3. What would typically happen if you named your work and then said to yourself, “Okay, let’s get on with it!”? As likely as not you’d immediately doubt that you were really equal to tackling the work you just named. You might even feel tempted to resume your speedy, fugitive flight away from centeredness and your cherished dreams. Incantation 4, a deeply affirmative and optimistic incantation, is designed to help you believe you are equipped to succeed.
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PCL 033: Incantation 3: I Am Doing My Work
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Sep 20, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 6 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
Incantation 3 is the most interesting and intricate of the incantations. Each time you use it, you insert a new phrase that names some work that you hope to accomplish. There is great centering power in mindfully naming your work, as, by naming it, you at once fortify your intentions and create a simple plan. Breathing-and-thinking “(I am cleaning) (the closet),” “(I am writing) (my novel),” or (“I am paying” “the bills”) has a calming effect even as it calls you to action.
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PCL 032: Incantation 2: I Expect Nothing
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sun, Sep 14, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 5 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
While it is wonderful and necessary to have goals, dreams, hopes, and ambitions, it is a mental and emotional mistake to have expectations. Desire as much as you like. Plan as carefully as you like. Try as hard as you like. But expect nothing. If you expect nothing, you have a shot at centering. Use Incantation 2 to help you remember this vital detachment key.
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PCL 031: Incantation 1: I Am Completely Stopping
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Sep 06, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 4 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
All of us are rushing around, prodded and pulled by our multiple duties and responsibilities. We’re doing too many things and worrying too much. Many of us are also in a mad rush because we’re running away from noticing the extent to which we’re not living the life we’d hoped to lead. Rather than realizing our dreams, doing our deepest work, and making sufficient meaning, we keep ourselves in perpetual mental and physical motion. In this episode we discover how Incantation 1 can serve to reverse this condition.
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PCL 030: The Twelve Incantations
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sun, Aug 31, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 3 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
We’re ready now to look at the twelve incantations. Each one is an independent centering charm that you can use according to the situation you find yourself in, the problem you face, or your particular experience of uncenteredness. I’ll introduce the incantations in this episode and explain them in detail in subsequent episodes. I suspect that you’ll intuitively understand the meaning and purpose of each one as soon as you encounter it. Whether or not you do, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about them as we proceed.
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PCL 029: Breathing and Thinking
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, May 31, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 2 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
The “ten-second” part of ten-second centering refers to a single breath of ten seconds’ duration that you use as a container to hold a specific thought. The first thing I’d like you to do is familiarize yourself with what ten seconds feels like. Take some time right now and observe the second hand of your watch or your wall clock. Experience ten seconds. Really feel each second. Be patient and observant and repeat the process a few times until you get a good, visceral sense of ten seconds.
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PCL 028: Introducing Ten-Second Centering
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, May 24, 2008
Today’s episode is episode 1 of the Ten-Second Centering Series
I am going to teach you a technique for centering that verges on the miraculous. You can dramatically improve your ability to center, become more calm and more powerful, and radically improve your life by taking ten-second pauses of the sort that I’m about to describe. You’ll be amazed to learn that such a life-altering strategy can come in a package as small as ten seconds. But it can! Hundreds of my clients have discovered this and so have hundreds of subjects who’ve volunteered to try out this technique. They’ve used this technique to center, calm, and ground themselves while caught in traffic, sitting in the dentist’s office, preparing to record a new album, or readying themselves to talk to their teenager. They know firsthand that this technique works.
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PCL 027: Silencing Self-Criticism
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, May 17, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “Silencing Self-Criticism.”
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PCL 026: Using Dear Critic Letters
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, May 10, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “Using Dear Critic Letters.”
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PCL 025: The Behavioral Key
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, May 03, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “The Behavioral Key.”
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PCL 024: The Personality Key
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Apr 19, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “The Personality Key.”
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PCL 023: The Cognitive Key
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Apr 12, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “The Cognitive Key.”
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PCL 022: The Attitudinal Key
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Apr 05, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “The Attitudinal Key.”
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PCL 021: The Appraisal Key
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Mar 29, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “The Appraisal Key.”
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PCL 020: The Existential Key
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Mar 22, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “The Existential Key.”
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PCL 019: Introducing Toxic Criticism
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Mar 15, 2008
In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live. Today’s episode is called “Introducing Toxic Criticism.”
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PCL 018: Healing Depression
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Feb 23, 2008
Today’s is the ninth and last episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we look at the idea that, if your depression is a result of meaning crises and a lack of purpose, it can be healed when you opt to matter and make new meaning.
Good listening!
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PCL 017: Feeling Successful
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Feb 16, 2008
Today’s is the eighth episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we examine the idea that purpose wanes if we do not experience success—or at least the feeling of success.
Good listening!
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PCL 016: Purpose and Action
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Feb 09, 2008
Today’s is the seventh episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we look at the idea that purpose, for it to be real, must be expressed in concrete actions—actions that then help heal depression.
Good listening!
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PCL 015: Opting to Matter
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Feb 02, 2008
Today’s is the sixth episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we examine the idea that mattering is an available option—and one that helps eliminate depression.
Good listening!
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PCL 014: The Pain of Not Mattering
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Jan 19, 2008
Today’s is the fifth episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we look at why the feeling that our efforts do not matter causes us to lose our sense of purpose.
Good listening!
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PCL 013: Forcing Life to Mean
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Wed, Jan 09, 2008
Today’s is the fourth episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we examine the idea that depression lifts when we “force life to mean.”
Good listening!
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PCL 012: One Meaning Casualty
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Sat, Dec 29, 2007
Today’s is the third episode in the nine-part series “How Purpose Heals Depression,” a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today’s show, we look at what happens when life loses its meaning and a meaning crisis is precipitated.
Good Listening!
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PCL 011: Prevailing Theory
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Mon, Dec 17, 2007
Today's is the second episode in the nine-part series "How Purpose Heals Depression," a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today's show we look at how depression is labeled a biological, social, or psychological thing; but rarely an existential one.
Good listening!
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PCL 010: Purpose and Depression
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Fri, Dec 07, 2007
Today's is the first episode in the nine-part series "How Purpose Heals Depression," a series based on my book The Van Gogh Blues, which has just appeared in paperback. In this series we look at the relationships among creativity, meaning, and depression and answer some fundamental questions about why creative people like you and me have an extra measure of depression to deal with, the measure that arrives because of our existential concerns and because of the way that we experience meaning as challenging and problematic. In today's show we look at the fundamental relationship between making meaning and eliminating depression.
Good listening!
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PCL 009: Existential Magic
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Nov 27, 2007
Today's show is the ninth in a series called "The Art of Making Meaning," a series that introduces the idea that meaning is not something to seek or something to find but rather something to make. Today's show is called "Existential Magic" and focuses on the idea that people prefer to believe in almost anything rather than live courageously with an insoluble mystery. The bigger news: even if that mystery got solved, we would still have to take charge of deciding in the realm of meaning.
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PCL 008: Advice for Believers
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Nov 20, 2007
Today&’s show is the eighth in a series called "The Art of Making Meaning," a series that introduces the idea that meaning is not something to seek or something to find but rather something to make. Today&’s show is called "Advice for Believers" and focuses on the idea that believers have ample reasons for deciding to make their own meaning and that meaning-making is the truest demonstration of a believer&’s desire to take his or her religion seriously.
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PCL 007: Meeting Internal Objections II
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Nov 13, 2007
Today's show is the seventh in a series called "The Art of Making Meaning," a series that introduces the idea that meaning is not something to seek or something to find but rather something to make. Today's show is called "Meeting Internal Objections to Meaning-Making" and focuses on why people find it so hard to actually don the mantle of meaning-maker. Last week we looked at five of these powerful objections and this week we look at five more.
Good listening!
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PCL 006: Meeting Internal Objections I
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Nov 06, 2007
Today's show is the sixth in a series called "The Art of Making Meaning," a series that introduces the idea that meaning is not something to seek or something to find but rather something to make. Today's show is called "Meeting Internal Objections to Meaning-Making" and focuses on why people find it so hard to actually don the mantle of meaning-maker. Today we look at five of these powerful objections and next week we look at five more.
Good listening!
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PCL 005: The Subjectivity of Meaning
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Oct 30, 2007
In the fifth episode of the "art of making meaning" series, we look at why meaning is always subjective and never objective, and what that implies for personal meaning-making. The hunt for objective meaning is a source of depression, whereas an acceptance of the subjectivity of meaning leads to more powerful and authentic living. What are the implications of saying that all meaning is subjective? Tune in and find out.
Good listening!
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PCL 004: Creating Personal Meaning
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Oct 23, 2007
When our younger daughter came home from college one year she gave me a coffee mug as a present. The motto on the coffee mug read: "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." "Isn't that your philosophy in a nutshell?" she laughed. She was exactly right. "Anonymous" had captured the essence of thousands of years of existential thought: that life is as much a responsibility as a gift and that each of us is honor-bound to create ourselves in our own best image.
I make my meaning—or else I don't. All that exists until I actively and mindfully make personal meaning is the possibility of meaning and, while I wait to get started, the experience of emptiness. There is the possibility that I will experience the next hour as meaningful, a possibility that turns into a reality only if I make a certain kind of decision and a certain kind of investment. If I don't make that decision and that investment, I experience myself as going through the motions and wasting my precious time. We've all had that experience—for many of us, far too much of the time.
Enjoy this week's show on the subject of creating personal meaning. Good listening!
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PCL 003: Life Purpose Statement
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Oct 16, 2007
Today's show is the third in a series called "The Art of Meaning Making," a series that introduces the idea that meaning is not something to seek or something to find but rather something to make. Meaning is a series of decisions, one after another for as long as we live, about what we intend to value and how we intend to stand up in the world.
Making meaning is the art and practice of mindfully and honorably taking into account your motives, your needs, and your values—everything from your need to look good to your need to do good—and, with your nerves quieted and your best self reporting for duty, making heartfelt decisions about how you intend to live your life. Today's show is called "Crafting Your Life Purpose Statement," a vital step in this process. Good listening!
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PCL 002: Terrain
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Tue, Oct 02, 2007
Having received zero training in meaning-making, having never heard the phrase, billions of people worldwide move from commute to drudgery to commute to dinner and a few drinks, relentlessly shut down and fairly empty-headed, not because they don't have a brain, a heart, and other life-saving equipment but because they are completely unschooled in the ways of meaning. They are alive; but they are not engaged in the project of their own life. That is the general rule. And no one has taught them otherwise.
Why aren't society's citizens offered any existential training? Because society has as its goal a minimizing of existential thought. A company making widgets hardly wants you to wonder about the meaningfulness of its widget. It wants you to be attracted by the widget's design and to buy two of them. A Broadway producer wants you to tap your feet; a police officer wants you to obey; a politician wants you to bear arms and lay down your life; a clergyman wants you to vote for his religion by attending his services. None of them are likely to invite you to step back and ponder the meaning of their product, policy, or ideology. You are supposed to buy, to agree, and to not think too hard about anything. That is what society wants and needs from you.
I invite you to listen to the second episode of the "art of making meaning" series, where we learn why making meaning is not a cultural imperative.
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PCL 001: Getting Started
Author: Dr. Eric Maisel
Thu, Sep 20, 2007
Tens of millions of Americans like you—thoughtful, sensitive, book-reading Americans who bought and read Sam Harris's The End of Faith, Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell, Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, and who keep books like Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning a perennial bestseller—are looking for a coherent plan to follow as they try to make sense of modern life. Books like The End of Faith have helped articulate the problem but many people are still looking for answers. Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life speaks to one America and provides one sort of answer. I hope that this show will speak to the other America, to those millions of people who want to create a meaningful life based on thoughtful evaluation and self-directed meaning-making.
When you learn how to lead such a life, the following sorts of thing happen. A creativity coaching client of mine, Jack, an actor, had excellent verbal skills but a poor physical presence on stage. With my help, he decided that he had to take responsibility for that aspect of his career and invest his daily exercise routine with new meaning, transforming it from a chore into something much more valuable. Now, when he worked out, he paid less attention to how many reps he was doing and more attention to feeling strong and confident in his own skin. Jack used "I take responsibility" as his meaning-making mantra and used it to motivate himself to change his stage presence. This is what I mean by "making meaning." You decide that something is important to you and then you take personal responsibility for doing what's required of you to achieve that goal and to turn that dream into a reality.
Listen to the first episode of the "art of making meaning" series, where we explore the good things that happen when you begin to make meaning.
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