Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life [Paperback]

Richard J. Leider (Author), David A. Shapiro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2002

Repacking Your Bags helps people develop their own unique vision of the good life and take practical steps at home and at work to make that vision a reality. Repacking is a travel guide for success with fulfillment and a more authentically meaningful life. It provides a simple yet elegant process to help people ask the right questions -- and get the right answers -- along the way. It helps them put together a "trip plan" that provides for the elements of the good life: work, love, place, and purpose. As a result of repacking, readers will be able to reach for and achieve their vision of the good life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Full of the right questions rather than the wrong answers, Repacking Your Bags will help you figure out where you want to go in your life and what you really need for the journey."—Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline

"Leider and Shapiro help us to see how many extra burdens we’ve been carrying around and how to lighten our load."—Gloria Steinem

About the Author

Richard J. Leider is a founding partner of The Inventure Group, a coaching and consulting firm in Minneapolis. He is a nationally known writer, speaker, and career coach, and pioneer in the field of Life/Work Planning. David A. Shapiro is the Education Director of the Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 2nd edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576751805
• ISBN-13: 978-1576751800
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thinking about your baggage?, November 20, 2002

By 

Sara Benson (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life (Paperback)

Simply put, this book is about considering the choices you've made in life, and making decision based on this idea: "Live in the place you belong, with the people you love, doing the right work, on purpose."

Leider and Shapiro use the metaphor of repacking your bags for the journey ahead, mindfully considering what you need to carry with you for your vision of a happy, joyful, purposeful life, and what you can unpack and leave behind.

The book contains some inspirational stories, and a number of soul searching exercises. I was challenged by some exercises, which promote dialogue with others as part of the process. Figuring out a life path can be easier with the help of others.

Why only three stars? I grew weary of the repacking metaphor, found some exercises too simplistic to aid me, and lost interest once the focus moved on past finding purpose (about 1/2 the book) to other related topics. I give the parts that spoke to me five stars, and less to the rest of the book.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly Readable, February 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life (Paperback)

This book dares you to have a "Time Out" from the busines of everyday and examine your life. It reminds you that life is a journey and as such, you have to continually pack and repack to lighten your load. Although it caters more to couples, everyone can benefit from it. This is a must read for someone who's standing at the crossroads of life. The exercises at the end of every chapter are very helpful. Read it, it might help you to throw away some unwanted stuff in your life.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars And Then What?, July 27, 2006

By 

Susan R. Meyer "Life Architect" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life (Paperback)

Although I was excited by the premise of Repacking Your Bags, I didn't feel that it lived uop to my expectations. The book is well-written and has interesting examples of people making life changes, but somehow the process never becomes completely clear. Perhaps there's not enough in there about how to unpack the bags and how to decide what to leave behind. Perhaps there's comething amiss in the organization. Despite some excellent information, this just never comes to gethe as a process.