Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman
Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman
List: $10.99 | Sale: $7.70
Club: $5.49

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

Author: Oliver Burkeman

Narrator: Oliver Burkeman

Unabridged: 4 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/08/2024


Synopsis

"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.

About Oliver Burkeman

Oliver Burkeman worked for many years at The Guardian, where he wrote a popular weekly column on psychology, “This Column Will Change Your Life.” His books include the New York Times bestseller Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on October 07, 2024

That subtitle hooked me – Four weeks to embrace your limitations and make time for what counts. And to be sure, the book does have an enticing layout, 28 daily meditations, manageable, bite-size philosophies to contemplate. If Henry David Thoreau wrote this, I would have enjoyed it because we are both......more

Goodreads review by Liong on December 09, 2024

I think nobody is perfect, and that is okay. 😉 I try to explain the messages given in this book. We all have limits to what we can do and our energy. Focus on what truly matters to you such as spending time with loved ones or enjoying your hobbies. Life doesn’t always go as planned, and that’s fine. Le......more

Goodreads review by Paul on September 21, 2024

Absolutely fantastic, although not an entirely accurate title. Burkeman delivers a book that’s less meditation and more modern philosophy meets mindset coaching. I went into this expecting a series of exercises for de-stressing, maybe breath work or visualisation techniques. What I got instead, in a......more

Goodreads review by Antonia on July 24, 2024

I’ve previously read two books by Oliver Burkeman: The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking (an anti-self-help treatise) and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (which urges us to maintain perspective on what’s important in our short lives). Both are just gre......more

Goodreads review by Bkwmlee on November 29, 2024

When it comes to books that fall into the “self-help” category, I’ve never been much of a fan, as I find a majority of these books are “overly-preachy” in tone and oftentimes also employ aggressive-sounding language that essentially tries to shame the reader into following the advice at hand. I’ve a......more


Quotes

Advance Praise

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

“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


Awards

  • Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year
  • Library Journal Best Books of the Year
  • Audible.com Best of the Year