This book is meant to help purpose-driven citizens reorient to their life and career in a way that does more good in the world and actually feels good in the process. It is meant for anyone who has trapped themselves voluntarily in a life of striving and inadequacy out of an endless need to prove themselves.
For many people, especially well-educated people in wealthy nations, this voluntary imprisonment is unfortunately quite common, common enough to write a book about it.
However, many people around the world are trapped in a life of overwork not by choice, but by the stark economic and cultural realities of their world. In many cases, they may work two jobs to provide for their family or otherwise sacrifice their peace and well-being out of a sense of survival. They may be constantly beaten down by a society that does not approve of their gender identity, their race or ethnicity, their sexual orientation, or their class or caste.
Of course, these categories are not perfectly separate — many people carry both burdens at once. Some, for example, are trapped in cycles of poverty, which are only deepened by their need to prove themselves.
But this book speaks primarily to the voluntary kind of striving, the kind we impose on ourselves even when survival is not at stake.
While I hope it might have something of value for everyone, this book is not written for those locked in chronic cycles of poverty and oppression. It is written for those who trap themselves in cycles of burnout and inadequacy on their own accord (whether or not they realize it).
My deep hope is that in freeing yourself of these self-imposed prisons, you can spend more of your energy in service to those truly in need and less of it needlessly trying to validate your existence.
