Emily Esfahani Smith - The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness

PRAISE FOR

The Power of Meaning

Beautifully written and rigorously researched, The Power of Meaning speaks to the yearning we all share for a life of depth and significance. In a culture constantly shouting about happiness, this warm and wise book leads us down the path to what truly matters. Reading it is a life-transforming experience.

Susan Cain, author of Quiet

The analysis that opens the book, and that structures the whole, is simple and elegant.The insight that, in our daily lives, we need to think of others and to have goals that include caring for others or working for something other than our own prosperity and advancement is the most valuable message in the book.

Wall Street Journal

An enlightening guide to discovering meaning in ones lifeSmith persuasively reshapes the readers understanding of what constitutes a well-lived life.

Publishers Weekly

ThoughtfulUnderscoring the power of connection, the author assures readers that finding meaning is not the result of some great revelation but rather small gestures and humble acts.

Kirkus Reviews

A riveting read on the quest for the one thing that matters more than happiness. Emily Esfahani Smith reveals why we lose meaning in our lives and how to find it. Beautifully written, evidence-based, and inspiring, this is a book Ive been awaiting for a very long time.

Adam Grant, author of Originals, coauthor of Option B, and professor at the Wharton School

From sleep-deprived teens to overworked professionals, Americans are suffering from an epidemic of stress and exhaustion. Its clear our definition of success is broken. As Emily Esfahani Smith shows, only by finding our purpose and opening ourselves to lifes mystery can we find true well-being. Combining cutting-edge research with storytelling, The Power of Meaning inspires us to zero in on what really matters.

Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive

A wonderful, engaging writer[Smith] offers clear, compelling, and above all useful advice for how to live with meaning and purpose.

Rod Dreher, The American Conservative

This powerful, beautifully written book weaves together seamlessly cutting-edge psychological research, moving personal narratives, and insights from great literature to make a convincing case that the key to a good life is finding or creating meaning.

Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice and emeritus professor of psychology at Swarthmore College

The Power of Meaning deftly tells the stories of people, contemporary and historical, who have made the quest for meaning the mission of their lives. This powerful yet elegant book will inspire you to live a life of significance.

Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive

A beautiful book, full of hope. While drawing on the best scientific evidence, it also stirs us with powerful narratives of living full of meaning

Lord Richard Layard, director of the Wellbeing Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance

The search for meaning just got a little easier, and a little more fun. To follow Emily Esfahani Smith in this great human quest is to undertake a rewarding journey with a sure-footed guide.

Darrin M. McMahon, author of Happiness: A History and Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History at Dartmouth College

All too often, we sleepwalk through life without examining it. The Power of Meaning shows us another path. How can we find purpose? What role does our work have in the search for meaning? This deeply researchedyet highly readablebook can help you answer those questions.

Chris Guillebeau, author of Born for This and The $100 Startup

A powerful invitation to live a life that is not only happy but filled with purpose, belonging, and transcendence. By combining scientific research and philosophical insights with moving accounts of ordinary people who have deeply meaningful lives, Smith addresses the most urgent questions of our existence in a delightful, masterful, and inspiring way.

Emma Seppl, author of The Happiness Track and
Science Director of Stanford Universitys Center for Compassion and Altruism

An intelligent page-turnerIn a world that seems caught between pure hedonism and divisive sectarianism, the book mounts a timely challenge.

Prospect (UK)

Copyright 2017 by Emily Esfahani Smith

Readers Guide copyright 2017 by Emily Esfahani Smith

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

crownpublishing.com

Broadway Books and its logo, B \ D \ W \ Y, are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

EXTRA LIBRIS and colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Originally published in the United States by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 2017.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smith, Emily Esfahani, author.

Title: The power of meaning : crafting a life that matters / Emily Esfahani Smith.

Description: First Edition. | New York : Crown, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016010610 (print) | LCCN 2016043371 (ebook) | ISBN 9780553419993 (hardback) | ISBN 9780553446562 (paperback) | ISBN 9780553446555 (eISBN) | ISBN 9780553446555

Subjects: LCSH: Self-actualization (Psychology) | Meaning (Psychology) | Emotions. | BISAC: SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / General. | PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy. | PSYCHOLOGY / Emotions.

Classification: LCC BF637.S4 S6336 2017 (print) | LCC BF637.S4 (ebook) | DDC 128dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016010610

ISBN9780553446562

Ebook ISBN9780553446555

Cover design by Christopher Brand

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To my parents, Tim and Fataneh, and brother, Tristan, affectionately known as T-bear, doostetoon daram

What is the meaning of life? That was alla simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.

V IRGINIA W OOLF

O n Thursday and Sunday evenings, a group of seekers gathered in a large room of my familys home in downtown Montreal, where my parents ran a Sufi meetinghouse. Sufism is the school of mysticism associated with Islam, and my family belonged to the Nimatullahi Sufi Order, which originated in Iran in the fourteenth century and today has meetinghouses all over the world. Twice a week, darvishesor members of the orderwould sit on the floor and meditate for several hours. With their eyes closed and their chins to their chests, they silently repeated a name or attribute of God as traditional Iranian Sufi music played.

Living in the Sufi meetinghouse as a child was enchanting. The walls of our home were decorated with sculptures of Arabic script that my father carved from wood. Tea was brewing constantly, perfuming the air with the fragrance of bergamot. After meditating, the Sufis drank the tea, which my mother served along with dates or Iranian sweets made with rosewater, saffron, cardamom, and honey. Sometimes, I served the tea, carefully balancing a tray full of glasses, saucers, and sugar cubes as I knelt down before each darvish.