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The Highest Goal

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The Highest Goal

The Secret That Sustains You in Every Moment

Berrett-Koehler,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

To live a happy, fulfilling life, follow your heart, realize your purpose and align what you do with who you really are.

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

If you experience a lack of connection between what you love doing - what you are genetically and physically programmed to do - and your work, the misalignment can make you miserable. Author Michael Ray contends that life doesn’t have to be that way. He guides you through some soul-searching steps to put you in touch with that one thing that really brings you joy. He calls this your "highest goal" - the quest that drives you to fulfill your purpose. He explains that you can think creatively, discover your highest goal, and steadily follow a path that leads to satisfaction, joy and meaning. getAbstract recommends this book to readers who are interested in self-help literature; Ray does a good job of explaining how to define your highest goal and get started on the path to achieving it.

Summary

The Joy of Discovering and Living for Your Highest Goal

Skills, intelligence, college degrees, a good job, wealth - all these things may contribute to living a good, happy life. However, none of these things, by itself, can provide the sense of fulfillment that living according to your highest goal, your life’s purpose, can give you. When you live according to your highest goal, you feel the contentment, wholeness and sense of meaning that every human being longs to attain. Taking the journey becomes as important, significant and enjoyable as reaching your destination.

When you focus on your highest goal, you feel whole and complete. You do your best work, because your work has meaning. Your highest goal is the purpose of your life, an aspiration you can pursue with passion that carries you through difficulties, stress and drudgery. One person identified her highest goal as, "Making a world that works for all." Another person’s highest goal was simply, "teacher." A Chinese proverb says, "Contentment is the highest goal." In short, each person finds and defines his or her own highest goal.

When you live for your highest goal - whatever you discover it to be - ...

About the Author

Michael Ray taught "Personal Creativity in Business" at Stanford University for 25 years. He is a social psychologist and the co-author of many books, including Creativity in Business, The Path of the Everyday Hero and The Creative Spirit.

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