Meditations for Mortals

Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

De: Oliver Burkeman

Narrado por: Oliver Burkeman

Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, Audible.com Best of the Year, 2024

"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect."—AudioFile on Four Thousand Weeks

This program is read by the author.

A map for a liberating journey toward a more meaningful life—a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we’d like to be—from the New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks

Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.

How can we embrace our non-negotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice—and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.

To be listened to either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2024 Oliver Burkeman (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Meditations for Mortals offers a bracing and refreshing antidote for what ails high achievers. With crackling wit and counterintuitive wisdom, Burkeman shows that it’s okay—and often smarter—to do less, let some goals slide, and embrace our imperfections. This book is both a comfort and a challenge—exactly what our trying times demand.”—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret

“More than a book of ideas, Meditation for Mortals offers a practical path toward personal transformation—one that helps you sidestep the shallow allure of frenetic busyness and find a liberating joy in the limits and imperfections of life. A must-read.”—Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of Slow Productivity and Deep Work

“I follow Oliver Burkeman's personal, literary, and journalistic adventures into wisdom with admiration and exhilaration. Now he brings us a ‘retreat of the mind’ in a very special book. We should all read this, preferably in the company of others—for the sake of our aching world as well as the state of our souls.”—Krista Tippett, host of On Being

Live today

Burkeman has a wonderful way of putting life in perspective. His way of seeing the world and his opinions on life and how we should spend our time should be shared with everyone. Read this book if you feel stuck in the past or worried about the future!

Really great

Although not NEW information, as discussed by the author, this is a very well put and well written book to actually practice what matters and how to put it all into practice. Thank you for this !

Has Burkeman been peering inside my head?

I am a big fan of 4000 Weeks and thought this might be a rehash of that work. I was wrong. Burkeman has such a gift for reframing what we unthinkingly accept as given and we discover how unhelpful if not toxic those ideas can be. I found myself recognizing my own thinking so often in these short one-a-day essays I felt he was writing to me personally. I now find myself both being kinder to myself and doing the work I want to do but have often procrastinated about. I also enjoy his wry sense of humor and narration. I can imagine listening to the days over and over to reinforce the messages.

One of the few self-help books that actually helps

Burkeman writes the only ‘self-help’ book that gives a damn. He invites you to follow him in contemplating what it means to allocate time to something and the agonizing anxious experience of doing so. Part-memoir, part-philosophy, all meaningfully helpful.

Every chapter is a gem!

Such profound, thoughtful book. He is right to say read a chapter a day - as you need to truly ponder and internalize it.

Game-Changer

Stunning. Truly. A thorough, wise, caring, and frequently funny excavation of the habits that keep us from being more fully present in our own lives, along with an operable plan for how to spend our time once we have done so.

How liberating it is to accept our mortality.

I really did like the author’s take on reality and our ability to do things. It really is liberating to the mind to realize that we are mortal. We can only do so much and to eccept that. It opens us up to actually get more done when we’re not overwhelmed.

We all come with knowledge and experience.

Our knowledge and experience shapes us for who we are. we are merely microcosms in the world as a whole, but that doesn't mean we should waste the time we have. There is a lot to learn from and chew on in this book.

Bite-size wisdom

Relatable, helpful, and short enough chapters to listen to more than once in a given day.

Performance is excellent. I purchased a hard copy as well, but very much prefer the audio.

About to start listening to it again, one chapter per day, like I did the first time around.

If you only listen to the first 3 chapters on repeat, there’s enough wisdom there for a decade.

Okay, stop reading this review and get the book already!!

A liberating experience

Humor, wisdom, and joy from the incomparable Oliver Burkeman. Grant yourself the happiness in this book.