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About Eric Maisel:
Dr. Eric Maisel is a bestselling author, psychotherapist, and creativity coach. He’s the author of 40 books on a wide variety of subjects, from the challenges of living the creative life to natural psychology, the new psychology of meaning; those books including Fearless Creating, The Van Gogh Blues, and Coaching the Artist Within. A licensed psychotherapist, he reaches thousands through his Psychology Today and Fine Art America blogs, his print column in Professional Artist magazine, and workshops in the United States and abroad. He’s an advocate for a changed and revitalized view of mental health services, one that does away with our current mental disorder naming system. He’s also an advocate for a global paradigm shift from seeking meaning to making meaning, a very crucial distinction that we’ll talk about today.
His latest book, LIFE PURPOSE BOOT CAMP, recently released on New World Library, talks about that very shift, as he helps readers who are seeking meaning in their lives understand how, by adopting certain ideas and engaging in specific practices, they can effectively meet their pressing life purpose challenges. To do that, he suggests that readers do three things, which he explains in great detail in the book: get clear on what their unique life is all about, upgrade their personalities, and manage their circumstances as mindfully as they can.
For more information on Eric, visit: http://ericmaisel.com.
Episode Summary:
In my hour-long, in-depth conversation with Eric, we discuss:
- His new Book Life Purpose Boot Camp.
- What is natural psychology, the psychology of meaning? “Most of psycholgoy avoids language about life purpose and meaning.”
- Meaning as a psycholgocial experience and why he says it’s less important than your life purposes.
- “For thousands of years, people thought that meaning was ‘out there’ and people spent their whole life seeking it.”
- What are Meaning Investments and how can you use them to make more meaning in your life.
- “We make a Meaning Investment when we have an assurance that the thing we’re about to attempt will provoke the feeling we hope to get.”
- Creating a Menu of Meaning Opportunities out of what you’ve found meaningful in the past.
- Building your confidence muscle and tapping into inner resources we don’t know we have.
- “Successful people in all walks of life understand that we make mistakes and messes. And they’re able to put those behind them.”
- The epidemic of disorder labeling in the US and how that’s spreading worldwide.
- The competing developmental models of Freud and Jung.
- What is an Authentic Life? “It’s an idea out of existential philosophy: we’re taking full responsibility for our lives. We might have to upgrade our personality to handle the tasks.”
- The principle of Telling Truth to Power and other ways he lives his own life on purpose.