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Heroic Living: Discover Your Purpose and Change the World

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While there have been many fads providing "quick fixes" on how to have a healthy, happy life, we rarely find these people in our life nor have we found a solution for ourselves. According to Award-winning author Chris Lowney, "We are not driving ourselves to fulfillment but rather, we are driving ourselves nuts."

In "Heroic Living," Lowney responds with a "radically new" approach - proven over five centuries. His is a "whole life" strategy that connects us with our deepest beliefs, and connects these beliefs with what we do every day to "make the world not only life-giving and sustaining but beautiful and interesting."

Applying the Spiritual Exercises of the sixteenth century Ignatius of Loyola, Lowney encourages us to forego today's market of quick fixes and apply The Exercises. These have been part of the Jesuit tradition since Loyola and remain as one of humanity's more powerful and proven instruments for confronting life's fundamental questions and figuring out one's path in response. Through them, Loyola invites us to see the world as God sees it, to work as God works...to learn what nourishes and sustains life, and, what makes it more beautiful, fun, interesting, and entertaining.

"Heroic Living" encompasses three primary dimensions which are critical to a successful strategy: the transformative power of vision and purpose; the ability to make good choices in an ever-changing world; and the skill to live out those choices every day. The practices provide the tactics to execute on each of these three dimensions.

The book begins by encouraging us to reflect intensely on our human purpose - Who am I? What am I trying to accomplish in life? How should I behave and treat other people? What values are important and fundamental, in business and family life? Why do I matter? What makes my life meaningful? A "whole life" strategy will not succeed if we cannot connect with what we consider ultimately important in life. Instead, we will be doomed to an inauthentic life, a split life.

Throughout the book, Lowney profiles people who are living their purpose - teachers, parents, lawyers - people who exemplify strength, courage...nobility or exploits...and can be regarded as hero models for applying a "whole life" strategy - and benefiting from it. Each of these stories challenges the reader to look at him or herself and their purpose. He also challenges the reader with summary questions at the end of each section, helping to discover and develop personal "whole life" strategies.

One of these exercises I have just integrated into my life is "examen," the the process of weighing something. This habit suggests that for a few minutes, several times per day, we take time out to:
1. Be grateful
2. Recall a key objective
3. Mentally relive your past few hours to draw some lesson that might help in the next few hours.
I begin each day with "examen"; and have also set my watch alarm to ring at 1pm, and 5pm to remind me again to "examen." I found it to be a very profound exercise a positive impact on what follows.

In "Heroic Living," Lowney successfully shows us how to integrate the wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola freeing us to pursue a "whole life" strategy - one that allows us to connect with our deepest beliefs and to express these beliefs in our life and in our work. An approach to life that helps us to see new possibilities as doors open, and provides seeds for not only for our resurrection but also our ascension - as we "Find God in all things."

The book is for all - from all faith traditions.

Simple, yet profound.

Deep, but not overly long.

Poetic, yet practical.

There are many remarkable aspects to this book. The breadth of sources is amazing. The author cites Martin Luther and a number of Popes. John Calvin and Buddhist monks. Harvard professors and "everyday" people.

But the core of book is Ignatius of Loyola; the founder of the Society of Jesus. The "Spiritual Exercises" were written by him hundreds of years ago, but the values and advice are useful to this day.

Many of the business insights which are claimed to be new are really elements of the "Spiritual Exercises." For example, control the controllables discussed at 117-121.

Charlie Munger is a big fan of Ben Franklin. Franklin, in turn, was an advocate of weighing pros and cons. Ignatius of Loyola sets out the same decision matrix in his "Spiritual Exercises" a good 200 years before Franklin. Id. at 138.

Chapter 10 is exceptionally good as the author's ability to synthesize and explain are on display.

Don't discount the book as only for Catholics or for those that went to Jesuit schools. There are many secular examples and also points from other religions. In this regard, this book is better than "Heroic Leadership" as the focus is less on the history of the Jesuits.

I also appreciated the author's optimistic tone.

The challenge for the reader is to practice daily the values of the book. The book's "warranty" only applies if the reader actually does what it recommends.

There can't be another American with the author's background as a Jesuit, investment banker and author. That's one of the great values for readers of this book in the America of 2009.

As Lowney says, it is not a book that will tell you what to do. You have to take the book and work with it. I took his advice - I read the book, took notes, and reflected. It helped me to clarify my vision, mission, values and sense of purpose. This is truly a book where you get out of it what you give - it has made a difference in my life and I recommend it without reservation.

Well-written, concise and inspiring. Convinces a reader to step-off the treadmill of daily cares to take stock of one's fundamental values and priorities in order to live a better planned and meaningful future. A definite read for someone who wants a refreshed outlook in the midst of daily stress.

Heroism isn't about fame and fortune. It's about doing what most people fail to do. "Heroic Living: Discover Your Purpose and Change the World" is a guide to better living through finding what should be driving one's purpose in life. Drawing from Ignatian spirituality practices inspires readers to make long term changes, improve their lives, and find what drives their spirituality. "Heroic Living" is well worth the read for those who need a reason to push forward.

In the Introduction to this wonderful book, author Chris Lowney describes it as "a how-to book for the business of being human...." He rightfully chides other "how-to" efforts for chopping up life into disconnected segments: work-life, love-life, spiritual-life. In contrast, he promises to present a strategy for living life as an integrated whole, informed in its entirety by "a mighty purpose."

The genius of Lowney's book is that he has cast it in a form that perfectly fits the function, the "mighty purpose," to which the book itself is devoted. A book focused simply on the presentation of ideas and strategies would have betrayed Lowney's fundamental message that in order to live well, we need to live large, with a big-picture view of the world into which we have been born, and with a transcendent sense of purpose of bettering that world. It is, Lowney claims, only such a large-scale vision that allows us to make small-scale decisions in a way that gives our life coherence, imparts to us a sense of peace, and in the end, makes our lives truly human.

Strategies organized into bullet-points, the stock and trade of how-to books, would have been insufficient to convey the message that Lowney is trying to convey. To be sure, the book has enough bullet-points to satisfy the organizationally obsessed among us. But what it mostly has is stories, lovingly, reverently, occasionally even poetically told, about real-life, flesh-and-blood people whose lives exemplify the strategy for living to which Lowney is trying to lead us. The profound and simple humanity of the people Lowney introduces us to--janitors, high school teachers, nuns, parents, lawyers--makes the best case possible for his vision of heroic living. Reading about these people made me hunger to construct a life that is as humane as theirs. I'm willing to bet that it will have the same effect on you.

If you are looking for a book that makes you think about what your purpose in life is, this is it. In today's world it seems that many need permission to seek their best life possible...this book provides the reader with the gradual steps in building the courage needed for self examination. "Heroic Living"...gives real examples of how when one finds their purpose, that discovery can be life changing. Let's face it... when we find our purpose are we not living out best lives and in that definition we can change the world we live in to be better for everyone.

I had the opportunity to read "Heroic Living" after reading "Heroic Leadership." At age 61, I did not expect to encounter works such as this that I could consider life-changing. Are these "how to" books? Yes - how to live. These are not a quick read for a quick fix. Rarely is a book worth "pondering" in the full sense of the meaning of the word. These books are.

The term "heroic" may be off-putting to some, but the author makes it clear that "heroic" comes from being fully, wonderfully human - which encompasses flaws and failures on the road to heroism. The final chapter of Heroic Living is ego-free autobiography which makes it clear just how deeply the author believes in what he while acknowledging his own humanity and the struggles it bring on the journey that is life.

If enjoy Lowney's work which is certainly representative of Jesuit "spirituality in action" you may want to balance it with the more contemplative work of Fr. Ron Rolheiser:

The Restless Heart: Finding Our Spiritual Home in Times of Loneliness

The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality

I heard the author speak a few weeks ago, at a Catholic Business Association meeting and was very impressed. The central idea is to synthesize modern business strategy-planning with spiritual guidance, such as Ignatius of Loyola's prayerful exercises. The result is an impressive technology for living a life in both the practical and the spiritual.

A practical integration of spirituality and personal living. Most of think we are self aware, but are we? we think we love, but do we? we think we practice ingenuity, but do we? and finally, can we say we do life heroically?...A definite "what to" book.