Life on Purpose

How Living for What Matters Most Changes Everything

By: Victor J. Strecher

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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 to survive but to thrive.

Illuminating, accessible, and authentically grounded in real people's experiences, Life on Purpose is essential for everyone seeking lasting improvement in their lives.

©2015 Victor J. Strecher (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

A truly life-changing book

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

This is a phenomenal book about why you should live your life on purpose, and how to begin finding what your purpose is in the first place. Citing studies on how purpose-driven people do better overall in life ( and are happier), R.C. Bray illustrates why we shouldn't go through life in a daze, especially when times are tough. The story of his daughter and her health condition was heart-breaking and inspiring at the same time; he is truly a role model for anyone who has lost a loved one and feels disconnected from life and going about things aimlessly. I loved this book so much I started buying it for friends. It also has a free app available for your phone which helps you track if you're staying on purpose each day.

Not what I expected

Had some good tips but, a lot of this book is devoted to healthy living and not as much as I would have liked on the spiritual side. I don't feel I got a lot out of this book that I didn't already know.

Meh... lackluster narrator

Narrator was pretty monotone and didn’t add any character to the authors words. Was hard to get into anything he was trying to say because he was kind of, well, boring and lacked any energy in his voice!

Great story

Great story worlds and facts awesome. They could of picked a better narrator. Better book to read.

Wonderful book

This book will hold a special place in my library for all of my life and it will be returned to, often.

Life changing info!

The information in this book is very condensed, both moving and illustrated with humor. I found the narrator's speech a bit slow, so I increased it to 1.5x, which made it go very quickly.

Will read this many times, I'm sure

My grand daughter recommend this book to me. The author is her college professor. I loved the book and understand why she loves his class.

Great booster shot to living a purpose-driven life

Whether you are coming at this with purpose in hand or searching, this book helps in sharpening the saw (using another books metaphor).

Short Of What I Expected

Given the title and description I expected this to be an examination of how to discover and realise one's personal purpose. And the book starts off well. The positioning and preamble gives a good enough foundation.

But then the substance of "what is your purpose" is rushed over in a very few sentences: think about your goals; now, write down you're purpose! The headstone (death bed) exercise is through in for good measure but fails to build on anything written decades, our even centuries, ago.

The rest of the book is then nothing to do with (re)defining your purpose. It is a rehash of common good habits which the author tries to link to the title: eat well, exercise, sleep, make personal time, chill.

Very disappointing.

Insightfu & inspirational

Such a beautiful and balanced approach to life. Very inspirational, thank you for writing it.

Disappointing

I had high hopes and expectation for this book but I have been disappointed by the inability of the author to do justice to the title. The book started off well and gave a very brief framework for discovering life purpose but did not build on this. The mid and later part of the book focused on lifestyle topics: exercise, diet etc. which are remotely related to the title of the book.
I guess my search for the ultimate book on “Purpose” continues.