Customer Reviews

The Power of Purpose: Find Meaning, Live Longer, Better

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I agree with other reviewers about positive points in this book, but what bothers me is the examples given : they all seem to be very special people : trainers, founders of training centers, vice-presidents of companies,....
This confirms obstacle 2 as given by the author : "only a few special people have true purpose in their lives". I think we have a need for purpose in our lives, even if we are a gardener, a pizza boy, a cleaning lady, a sweatshop youngster sewing T-shirts in Laos, an office clerk doing standard routine work. It is a pity that we find no such examples in this book. From the book we get the impression that the only way to find a purpose is to quit our present job and to become a trainer, writer, etc... but there are also other jobs to fill, I think. Moreover, if everybody goes into training and/or writing, these jobs will loose their financial attractiveness, I suspect.

I happened upon the 1985 copy of this book, in a used bookstore, and have read this 3 times, to draw out more of my worthiness, more of my hidden strengths, and to do some things that up to reading this, I secretly believed that I couldn't do. This book is for every human being. I had spent years asking myself what my mission in life was, and years denying myself my right to my mission. Now I have a mission that defines everything that I do, and don't do. It empowers me to separate who I am from who my interlocutor is, to seek kindred spirits, and to never stop growing, according to who I am, and where I am "traveling." I am eternally grateful for this book, for being my guide to my rising above a level of betrayal that others would have prefered I define myself as being limited to.

Richard J. Leider believes everyone needs to find an individual sense of unique purpose. When you have this sense of purpose, you can use it as a central core of direction to guide your life and give it meaning. The book is simply written, easy to understand and targeted to a general audience. However, it also seems quite repetitious, in that the same ideas are explained many different ways. Some of these concepts are quite familiar, echoing some basic ideas about the importance of having a sense of mission, path, and goals, much like Laurie Beth Jones' book, The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement.... Finally, while some readers may respond deeply to Leider's spiritual and religious references, others may find them problematic, given the split in the business community about spirituality in the workplace. We... recommend this book for readers who have not yet considered this mission-focused dimension of life planning and for managers who wish to understand this perspective.

The book's premise was so promising -- how to find work that fulfills your higher calling. The book just never fulfills that promise. Just a lot of unmemorable writing about how you will be more fulfilled if your work is meaningful. Well, that's not a shocker. But how about some insight into how to find or how to create meaningful work. For such a deep and spiritual topic, the thinking was very superficial. The author merely rewrites what he has read elsewhere. No new thinking. Readers would be better off reading some of the books he recommends in his bibliography such as Flow and the books by Viktor Frankl. I was also left with the icky feeling that the real point of this book was to sell you on his company's feel good workshops. A real disappointment.

This book is not for those repulsed by references to spirituality or religion. If looked at with an open mind and desire to apply the principles taught in the book, it is a useful read.

I have read many of Richard Leider's books, & among them I consider 'The Power for Purpose' as the most influential on my personal growth. I have read this particular one in the late eighties/early nineties - about the time I started to ponder about what I want to do with the second half of my life. I was then a successful corporate rat, working in quiet desperation - looking damned good but actually going nowhere.

The 'Power of Purpose' is not another book about goal setting. It's a workbook to help you think through & decide whether you want to choose to lead a purposeful, productive & meaningful life. In fact, the parts that attracted me most at that time were these provoking questions posed at the beginning of the book:

- Is your work rich & purposeful?
- Do you see yourself, through your work, as making a difference in the world?
- Do you view most work days with a sense of enthusiasm?
- Have you developed your won philosophy of life & success?
- Do you feel a sense of meaning & purpose for your life/
- Are you living your life now - or hoping that life will work out someday?

It comes complete with self-assessment questionnaires (especially the 'Aliveness Questionnaire' & the 'Working on Purpose Questionnaire'), checklists, & exercises. I recall I had spent considerable effort & time in using them to probe my life during that period of time. Together with a few other books (including Frederic Hudson's, Richard Bolles', Marsha Sinetar's & Joe Dominguez's), this book has been instrumental in creating abundant opportunities for doing what I love & loving what I do. Many thanks to you, Richard!

Since then, one of the tools that I have picked up from the book for continuing ultilisation till today is the purposeful reflection: soloing & journaling from Chapter 19. This one is a real gem! Also, from this particular chapter, I have made use of &/or adapted all the strategies as outlined in the author's 'Other Strategies for Self Management'. They have really helped me in realising total satisfaction & fulfillment in my life!

To end my review, I want to say this: This book is a must read! If you are going through a mid-life transition, just like what I had gone through during the early nineties, I can guarantee this book is definitely a very helpful guide!

From a simplistic standpoint, Richard Leider's book, The Power of Purpose, puts forth the maximum that a life lived purposfully is a life well lived. Not exactly an Earth shattering proclimation; however, I found the way he presented the context in which to live such a life to be inspired. .

Throughout the text, Leider presents a systematic approach to explore ones own purpose. In part, he does this through a series of deceptively simply questions which push the reader to think about their current state and envision a greater possiblity for the future.

One caution, anyone who believes we are on this planet for the sole purpose of self gratification, may be put off by Leider's references to the need for spirituality. All others can interprete his comments in the context of their own spiritual life. Leider does not recommend any one spiritual belief system over an other.

Power of Purpose would make a great magazine article, but there is not enough content here to make a good book. "Creating Meaning in Your Life..." is not what this book is about. There is lots of talk about how important it is to have purpose in your life, but little about how to create it. Mr. Leider has a great reputation -- it must have come from his other books.

The Power of Purpose treats an important and interesting topic in a trite and superficial manner. The author repeatedly states the importance of finding purpose in life via a litany of loosely related stories but never manages to move forward into any substance on the topic.

After only reading the Preface and Introduction, and first couple of initial chapters, I have to raise the "Truth in Advertising" issue. Not one word on the dust cover, front or back, suggests such a heavy religious orientation, if any at all. The categories suggested on the back cover are (1) Personal Development and (2) Business. It certainly is understandable that the most prominent example of a purpose of one's life would be spiritually motivated, but the author ought to have left some room for those with greater-than-themselves over-arching purposes that steer clear of religious connections. I attempted to read on, but was confronted by the first step in the process, discovering how to live from the inside out. The author made such statements as "we are all born with a purpose", "we live in a purposeful universe", and "each life has a natural built-in reason for being." My world view does not allow me to concur with those statements, yet the author stated that, to discover one's purpose, one must carry out this step. This book might be deserving of a 10 rating, but only on the condition that either the title or subtitle gave a clear indication that this is a spiritually oriented book. The 10 rating would have to come from a different reader, for I would not have purchased the book.