Autorentext

Eric Maisel, a retired family therapist and active creativity coach, is the author of 50+ books and developer of the philosophy of life known as kirism. In 2020 Unleashing the Artist Within, The Creativity Workbook for Coaches and Creatives, Lighting the Way, and The Power of Daily Practice appeared. In 2021, Transformational Journaling for Coaches, Therapists and Clients, The Great Book of Journaling, and Redesign Your Mind appeared.

Dr. Maisel, widely regarded as America’s foremost creativity coach, has writing extensively on the challenges of the creative life. His books in this area include Fearless Creating, Coaching the Artist Within, Creative Recovery, The Van Gogh Blues, and Mastering Creative Anxiety. His books specifically for writers include Deep Writing, Write Mind, Living the Writer’s Life, A Writer’s Space, A Writer’s Paris, and A Writer’s San Francisco.

Dr. Maisel also writes extensively in the areas known as critical psychology and critical psychiatry, where he is a thought-leader and advocate for significant shifts in mental health paradigms and practices. His books in this area include Rethinking Depression (New World Library), The Future of Mental Health (Routledge), and Humane Helping (Routledge).

Among his other books for mental health professionals are Helping Parents of Diagnosed, Distressed and Different Children, 60 Innovative Cognitive Strategies for the Bright, the Sensitive and the Creative, and Helping Survivors of Authoritarian Parents, Siblings and Partners, all from Routledge.

Dr. Maisel leads workshops for writers online and around the world in locations like London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Dublin, Rome and Prague. He writes the “Rethinking Mental Health” blog for Psychology Today (with 3 million views) and three weekly blogs for The Good Men Project, including “Redesign Your Mind” and “Kirism Today.”

Dr. Maisel trains creativity coaches, runs support groups for creativity coaches, and provides keynotes for organizations like the American Mental Health Counselors Association and the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry. He divides his time between Walnut Creek, California, where he and his wife live, and Belmont, California, where his grandkid babysitting skills are required.

You can visit Dr. Maisel at www.ericmaisel.com, contact him at ericmaisel@hotmail.com, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://ericmaisel.com/newsletter/, and be automatically notified about his new blog posts at https://authory.com/ericmaisel

Klappentext

Unravel the myth of a singular life purpose ingrained in religious teachings and societal notions

Zusammenfassung
Unravel the myth of a singular life purpose ingrained in religious teachings and societal notions

Leseprobe

From “Chapter 59: How Exactly?”



 Let us imagine that you’ve arrived at the following place. You’ve generated a list of the things that are important to you. You’ve done some thinking about your motivation for choosing these in particular. You think some more, nod your head, and ratify these as your current life purpose choices. Maybe you’ve got three or five or seven or nine life purpose choices named. And now? 

 Now, you will need to explain to yourself how each life purpose choice will be lived. How will “creativity” actually be expressed? Or intimacy? Or health? Or service? Or parenting? It isn’t enough to say, “I’m committed to being more creative.” To stop there is to stop too soon. 

 You must ask yourself, “How exactly?” How exactly am I being creative? How exactly am I adding intimacy to my life? How exactly am I “working on my health?” How exactly do I intend to be of service? How exactly do I intend to improve my parenting skills? How exactly? 

 Exactly means exactly. Human beings tend to keep these matters vague, because, as long as they are vague, they produce no work, they take no time, and they require no real commitment. “I intend to be of service” and “I intend to spend four hours a week volunteering at the local emergency infant nursery” are like, well, night and day. 

 Vague is “Creativity is one of my life purpose choices.” Less vague is, “And that means, I want to write.” Less vague than that is, “I think it’s going to be fiction.” Less vague than that is, “And by fiction, I mean a novel.” Are we there? No, not quite. 

 A would-be writer could remain in the place of “I mean to write a novel” for decades. That is a common place to hang out, tormented by the desire to write a novel, aware that a life purpose choice is slipping on by, but nevertheless adamantly committed to not naming that novel. 

 “How exactly?” That’s the ticket! What an eloquent, beautiful question. That you are asking it says so much about where you are! It means that you’re primed. It means that you’re motivated. It means that you’re ready or getting ready. Excellent! 



Inhalt

Contents


 A Few Words at the Beginning 



1. Not a Puppet, Not a Robot
   
2. Boom!
   
3. Even More of Nothing
   
4. Boys Sword-fighting
   
5. One Thumb Up
   
6. You Leap. Boom!
   
7. Formed Personality
   
8. Kittens, Puppies, and You
   
9. Thank Goodness!
   
10. Can A Bostonian Ever Leave Boston?
   
11. Energy Wisdom
   
12. Crouching Tiger
   
13. The Flip Side
   
14. Individuality
   
15. A Row of Tanks
   
16. Suppression
   
17. A Bright Light, A Step to the Side
   
18. The Study of Knots
   
19. Attaching/Detaching
   
20. Ethics and The Selfish Gene
   
21. The Humanistic Tangle
   
22. Values!
   
23. And the World
   
24. The World and Sorrow
   
25. One Teenager
   
26. Mystery
   
27. Interlude
   
28. As If It Were Step-by-Step
   
29. On Broadway
   
30. Always Troubled
   
31. Three Lists
   
32. Huddled in a Bunker
   
33. Brick Walls and Rollercoasters
   
34. First Choosing
   
35. Classic Life Purpose Choices
   
36. Classic Choices: Achievement and Excellence
   
37. Classic Choices: Experimentation
   
38. Classic Choices: Self-Actualization
   
39. Classic Choices: Relaxation and Pleasure
   
40. Classic Choices: Service and Stewardship
   
41. Classic Choices: Activism and Rebellion
   
42. Classic Choices: Appreciation and Gratitude
   
43. Classic Choices: Ways of Being
   
44. Classic Choices: Ethical Action
   
45. Classic Choices: Marrying Choices
   
46. Second Choosing
   
47. Challenge 1: The Elephant in the Room
   
48. Challenge 2: Many Too-Small Purposes
   
49. Challenge 3: No Purposes at All
   
50. The Wrong Question
   
51. When Meaning Vanishes
   
52. The Double Whammy
   
53. Challenge 4: Strangely Important
   
54. Challenge 5: Formerly Important
   
55. Challenges 6 to Infinity
   
56. Value-Based Choosing
   
57. Opening to New Choices
   
58. Third Choosing
   
59. How Exactly?
   
60. A Curated Week
   
61. Interlude II
   
62. Support 1: Your Life Purposes Statement
   
63. Support 2: Your Life Purposes Icon
   
64. Support 3: Your Life Purposes Mantra
   
65. Support 4: Your Life Purposes Journal
   
66. 8 Practices
   
67. Punctuations of Joy
   
68. Negotiating Each Day
   
69. Navigating Each Day
   
70. Changed Circumstances
   
71. The Long Haul 1: The Anxiety of Choosing
   
72. The Long Haul 2: Age and Stage
   
73. The Long Haul 3: A Succession of Successes
   
74. The Poignancy …