Don't Miss Your Life: Find More Joy and Fulfillment Now - Hardcover

by Joe Robinson (Author)

For readers who have achieved things in life but don't know how to enjoy them, this is a highly practical self-improvement book with a prescriptive program for how readers can live life to the fullest. Joe Robinson is one of the world's experts on the balance of work life and down time. He writes that life satisfaction is more likely to come from your nonprofessional life than from your job, and that the happier you are in your personal life the more likely you are to be productive in all aspects of your life. Robinson's new book, drawing on the latest research in positive psychology, focuses primarily on what to do outside of your work life--in your down time--to make sure you have a fully rounded life. The book includes action steps and exercises to help you create a path to a happier, more fulfilled life.

Front Jacket

If someone asked you what you do for fun, would you have an answer? Are there things you've always dreamed of doing but never tried, like kayaking or learning a new language? When was the last time you felt really excited and energized by something new, far away from the daily demands of work, errands, or other obligations? If you feel like you're missing something, you are--your life. This book shows you how to get your life back and make it come alive with experiences that deliver the highest gratification.

We're led to believe that the only thing that counts is career and output, but the research shows that true success comes with fulfilled living--pursuing your passions, expressing yourself in exciting activities, and living life to the fullest. Your life outside work should not be a sideshow--it needs to be the main event. Don't Miss Your Life is a road map to becoming who you were meant to be. The key is to develop a skill set that you probably never knew existed: leisure skills. As Joe Robinson explains, these are the aptitudes and attitudes--the life intelligence--that will lead you to the fun and passions that make life most worth living. Drawing on surprising research in positive psychology, optimal experience, and self-determination theory, he shows you why you need these skills and how to apply them to active pursuits that will make you happy and satisfy your deepest aspirations.

Step by step, you will discover how to overcome the obstacles to your best life--busyness, stress, guilt, and the couch--and develop vital skills, including how to:

Stop playing it safe

Choose engagement over comfort

Ensure that your self-worth really comes from your self, not your job

Focus on the experience, not the outcome

Carve out living time from a busy schedule

Satisfy your three core psychological needs

Activate the epicenter of enjoyment: optimal experience

Develop social initiative and playfulness

Find your passions and enjoy life more every day

You'll also find a seven-day action plan to jump-start your unique journey to optimal living. Throughout the book, you'll find inspiring stories of people who are already living their passions through samba and salsa dancing, dragon boat paddling, rock climbing, mentoring kids, adventure travel, singing in a choir, and more.

What are you waiting for? Stop missing your life and start living it to the max. Read this book and get started--here and now.

Back Jacket

Praise for Don't Miss Your Life

"Many of us have forgotten what we're here for--not just to work, but to live life to the fullest. Joe Robinson reminds us in this compelling and timely book that there is a life out there beyond the daily grind where we can reclaim our interests, passions, and sense of fun. He shows that having a worth ethic as well as a work ethic is essential to a happy and fulfilled life, and he offers a step-by-step approach to getting there."
--Arianna Huffington, Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post and author of Third World America and On Becoming Fearless . . . in Love, Work, and Life

"Joe Robinson shows in this wonderful and wise book that there's a missing piece to happiness that can transform your life. He demonstrates that well-being and fulfillment depend more on the quality of your living time than on your business card, on a skill set that activates your best times. Loaded with practical tools, Don't Miss Your Life gives you everything you need to stop watching and start living."
--Kathy Freston, author of Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness

"Joe Robinson reveals how we've been looking for life in all the wrong places. This rousing ride through the skills, science, and spirit of full-tilt living demonstrates that the key to a fulfilling life is something we haven't even thought about: choosing experiences over spectating and material items. With the latest research and sharingadventures in everything from samba dancing to dragon boat paddling, heshows why active leisure experiences make you happier than anything else and how to get in the thick of your best life. Robinson is a leader in the fight for quality time for life, and Don't Miss Your Life is the playbook to optimal living. Don't miss this book!"
--John de Graaf, coauthor of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic and Executive Director of Take Back Your Time

Author Biography

Joe Robinson is a work-life balance trainer, speaker, and writer. He founded Work to Live, a stress management and work-life balance training company. Robinson has appeared on CNN, NBC Nightly News, and All Things Considered and in many other media outlets to discuss how we can break out of the burnout trap, work smarter, and start working to live. He is founder of the Work to Live vacation campaign and a board member of Take Back Your Time, whose efforts helped to get the first minimum paid-leave vacation law introduced into the U.S. Congress in 2009. Robinson is a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times; his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Entrepreneur, and other publications. He is the author of Work to Live. For more information, visit dontmissyourlife.net and twitter.com/WorkLifeSkills.