Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect." -AudioFile on Four Thousand Weeks

This program is read by the author.

A map for a liberating journey toward a
more meaningful life-a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we'd like to be-from the New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks

Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.

How can we embrace our nonnegotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there's always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice-and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.

To be listened to either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

1145522611
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect." -AudioFile on Four Thousand Weeks

This program is read by the author.

A map for a liberating journey toward a
more meaningful life-a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we'd like to be-from the New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks

Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.

How can we embrace our nonnegotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there's always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice-and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.

To be listened to either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

by Oliver Burkeman

Narrated by Oliver Burkeman

Unabridged — 4 hours, 4 minutes

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

by Oliver Burkeman

Narrated by Oliver Burkeman

Unabridged — 4 hours, 4 minutes

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Burkeman changed the way we thought about time management with one of our favorite nonfiction monthly picks, Four Thousand Weeks. Here he turns his talents to making meditation charmingly accessible.

"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect." -AudioFile on Four Thousand Weeks

This program is read by the author.

A map for a liberating journey toward a
more meaningful life-a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we'd like to be-from the New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks

Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.

How can we embrace our nonnegotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there's always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice-and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.

To be listened to either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.


Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

08/19/2024

“Your limitations aren’t obstacles to a meaningful existence”—they’re key to building one, according to this refreshing guide from journalist Burkeman (Four Thousand Weeks). He contends that once readers accept that “doing it all” is impossible, they can identify the handful of priorities that deserve their time and attention and better enjoy engaging in them. Laying out 28 brief lessons to be practiced over four weeks, Burkeman suggests swapping a daily to-do list for a “done list”—cataloging the tasks one has completed each day—to improve self-satisfaction; treating a to-read pile as an option rather than an obligation; and breaking tasks into “small, clearly defined packages of work” to be completed daily. Burkeman’s light touch when discussing such modern ills as doomscrolling, coupled with the smart balance he strikes between motivation and reassurance, make this an especially useful resource for burnt-out readers who want to ease their minds without upending their lives. Amid a sea of efficiency-focused, do-it-all self-help guides, this is a welcome alternative. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

"That’s the dilemma that will almost surely keep Oliver Burkeman busy: His counsel that life’s problems can’t really be solved only primes his audience to want more advice . . . As Burkeman’s ideas seep into my bones, so—slowly—does the reality that I’m going to be bumping up against the rough edges of life every day, even every hour, until I die. The nubbiness, the initial recoil followed by a kick of recognition—yes, I’m off-balance: This is the point." —Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic

"The kind of pep talk I can get on board with . . . Burkeman’s insight—always clear-eyed and jargon-free—backs up, in a reassuring and constructive way, the other sense I have on more forgiving days . . . that it’s better for you and everyone around you to work with, rather than fight against, who you are now." —Simon Usborne, The Guardian

"Meditations for Mortals provides useful answers to the questions of when and why you should give up: you should do it when your optimized, productivity-hacked life starts to feel constricting, deadening, or unrealistic, so that you can get more value out of your all-too-brief existence." —Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker

"Thoughtful, level-headed and useful . . . Burkeman doesn’t offer life hacks. He offers thoughts that might nudge us towards changing our underlying attitudes." —James McConnachie, The Times

"A bracing read . . . Burkeman is a friendly presence on the page . . . Stop denying the reality of whatever predicament you are in, he writes. Learn how to play in the ruins of your life." —Elaine Moore, Financial Times

"Liberating and humane." Kirkus Reviews

Meditations for Mortals offers a bracing and refreshing antidote for what ails high achievers. With crackling wit and counterintuitive wisdom, Burkeman shows that it’s okay—and often smarter—to do less, let some goals slide, and embrace our imperfections. This book is both a comfort and a challenge—exactly what our trying times demand.”

—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret

“More than a book of ideas, Meditation for Mortals offers a practical path toward personal transformation—one that helps you sidestep the shallow allure of frenetic busyness and find a liberating joy in the limits and imperfections of life. A must-read.”

—Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of Slow Productivity and Deep Work

"Full of wisdom and comfort. I enjoyed every page and read it in a single sitting. This is a really important book about embracing truth and reality." —Chris van Tulleken, New York Times bestselling author of Ultra-Processed People

“I follow Oliver Burkeman's personal, literary, and journalistic adventures into wisdom with admiration and exhilaration. Now he brings us a ‘retreat of the mind’ in a very special book. We should all read this, preferably in the company of others—for the sake of our aching world as well as the state of our souls.”

—Krista Tippett, host of On Being

“Oliver Burkeman has a way of giving you the most unexpected productivity advice exactly when you need it.”

—Mark Manson, bestselling author of Everything is F*cked and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Kirkus Reviews

2024-08-02
An exploration of ways to escape the trap of perfectionism and step into a happier, more productive life.

Much in the modern world, from climate change to global social and political upheaval, is beyond human control, yet people continue to live according to the “fatally misguided idea that reality can and should be made ever more controllable,” writes British journalist and nonfiction author Burkeman. The resulting malaise has contributed to widespread feelings of burnout and anxiety. He posits that the way forward lies in accepting what he calls imperfectionism, the idea that humans are finite creatures with limited agency. To work toward that end, Burkeman offers 28 Zen-inflected essays on the art of living and staying sane in a messy world; he suggests reading them one at a time over four weeks. He begins by offering liberating insights into letting go of to-do lists and the exhaustion that comes from trying to absorb too much information and care about everything that happens in the world. Only then can individuals finally begin to focus on not only navigating the inevitable problems and distractions of everyday life but also making time for the self-enlarging “life task” that brings satisfaction rather than immediate gratification. In taking action, however, people must beware of “making things happen, through willpower or effort,” which adds unnecessary complications or “feelings of unpleasant exertion.” Ambition has its place, but, Burkeman observes, that too must be balanced so that the present—and all the potential it offers for satisfaction—does not get sacrificed to the unknowns of the future: “We have to show up as fully as possible here, in the swim of things as they are.”

Liberating and humane.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940191555430
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication date: 10/08/2024
Edition description: Unabridged
Sales rank: 232,411
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