How to Be Alive - by Colin Beavan (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

"This is the book where self-help turns into helping the world--and then turns back into helping yourself find a better life. Fascinating and timely!"--Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

What does it take to achieve a successful and satisfying life? Not long ago, the answer seemed as simple as following a straightforward path: college, career, house, marriage, kids, and a secure retirement. Not anymore. Staggering student loan debt, sweeping job shortages, a chronically ailing economy--plus the larger issues of global unrest, poverty, and our imperiled environment--make the search for fulfillment more challenging. And, as Colin Beavan, activist and author of No Impact Man, proclaims, more exciting.

In this breakthrough book, Beavan extends a hand to those seeking more meaning and joy in life even as they engage in addressing our various world crises. How to Be Alive nudges the unfulfilled toward creating their own version of the Good Life--a life where feeling good and doing good intersect. He urges readers to reexamine the "standard life approaches" to pretty much everything and to experiment with life choices that are truer to their values, passions, and concerns.

How do you stop placing limits on your potential impact? How do you make your choices really matter in everything from your clothing purchases to your career? How do you find the people who will most support you in your quest for a good life? To answer these questions and more, Beavan draws on classic literature and philosophy; surprising new scientific findings; and the uplifting personal stories of real-life "lifequesters"--people who are breaking away from those old broken paths, blazing fresh trails, and reveling in every step along the way.

"There is a movement afoot for a better life and Colin Beavan is its prophet, with a new book as powerful as his already classic No Impact Man."--John de Graaf, coauthor of Affluenza

Review Quotes

"An encouraging approach to living a less materialistic, more fulfilling life." - Publishers Weekly

"How to be Alive is rich in wisdom. Read it, reflect on it, and choose how you will live the rest of your life. It might turn out to be the most important book you have ever read." - Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation and The Most Good You Can Do

"Circles in on answers to the unquiet so many of us have: how can I be real and be good and be right and be happy in a world unhinged from its moorings?" - Vicki Robin, coauthor of Your Money or Your Life and author of Blessing the Hands that Feed Us

"For too long, being happy and doing good in the world have been presented as divergent life paths: we're forced to choose between being an Eco-martyr, and saving the planet, or being a corporate plunderer and assuaging our guilt with all the comforts we can buy. Beavan convincingly upends this false choice. It turns out that doing good actually makes us happier and healthier. How to Be Alive is for anyone who wants both a better life and a healthier planet." - Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace US and author of The Story of Stuff

"How to Be Alive is for anyone who wants both a better life and a healthier planet." - Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace US and author of The Story of Stuff

"Colin Beavan's book will help you inflict untold goodness upon the world--all the while making you a happier person. Highly recommended for any human with a conscience." - A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically and Drop Dead Healthy

"This is the book where self-help turns into helping the world--and then turns back into helping yourself find a better life. Fascinating and timely!" - Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"One of our most thoughtful role models is back with a deep, detailed and generous Baedeker for how to live a better life." - Seth Godin, author of What to Do When It's Your Turn

"At a time when the conventional definition of success is material wealth without limits, How to be Alive offers a needed corrective. Colin Beavan starts local with his neighborhood and expands outward to the entire world, showing how we can all live better. When two-thirds of college students believe they'd rather make a killing than a difference, Beavan warns that such a course will kill their spirits and dampen their joy. When the market is flooded with self-help "happiness" books that are both vacuous and self-indulgent, Beavan makes clear that only by helping others can we truly help ourselves and live better. With dozens of imaginative ideas, he offers readers ways to heal themselves that can heal our planet and a divided humanity as well. There is a movement afoot for a better life and Colin Beavan is its prophet, with a new book as powerful as his already-classic No Impact Man." - John de Graaf, co-author of Affluenza, President of Take Back Your Time, and co-founder of the Happiness Alliance

"There is a movement afoot for a better life and Colin Beavan is its prophet, with a new book as powerful as his already-classic No Impact Man." - John de Graaf, co-author of Affluenza, President of Take Back Your Time, and co-founder of the Happiness Alliance