The question of life purpose is a frequent topic on this blog and in my life. It’s also a topic central to religion, philosophy, and existential psychology. Today a guest blogger, Cicada, provides a review of a book that attempts to shed light on the subject.

What Should I Do with My Life? (The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question)
Po Bronson
Random House, 2002
400 pages
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Po Bronson is a writer obsessed with spirit. Much of his work has been about how people struggle to “hang on to [their souls] against the crushing forces of technology, prestige, and greed.” His latest book, What Should I Do with My Life?, continues this study with stunning results.

I once thought that “The Question” was probably unique to our society, because our relative level of wealth and the everyday amenities we take for granted are so far beyond that of the average world citizen. In other words, one would be likely to ask The Question only when the basic necessities of life (food, clean water, shelter, and so on) had been achieved. I also thought that knowledge of one’s purpose arrived like an epiphany, clearly and loudly. Bronson’s book convinced me otherwise. “Our purpose doesn’t arrive neatly packaged as destiny,” he writes. “We only get a whisper. A blank, nonspecific urge. That’s how it starts.”

Bronson began asking The Question of himself a couple of years ago, when the television show he wrote for was cancelled. Though his three previous books had all been international bestsellers, he had reached a personal existential crisis of sorts. His fame was built on the successes and excesses of the dotcom revolution, which had gone bust. It was a world he understood—a world he had helped to make famous in his books, The Nudist on the Late Shift and The First $20 Million Is the Hardest.

He’d been proud of his work, but after the crash, Bronson felt guilty about pointing people toward Silicon Valley, responsible for the losses they sustained there. Out of work himself, he could have easily gotten other work in the same vein. Somehow that just didn’t feel right to him. Instead, he found himself asking The Question of others. Within a short time, Bronson began hearing from hundreds of people about their own journeys in search of destiny.

Besides Bronson’s own story, there are fifty-five others in What Should I Do with My Life?. The stories come from all over the world, from people late in their lives and from those just starting out, from men and from women, from people of widely diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Reading the stories, I realized that The Question is truly an essential part of our makeup, hardwired into our very souls. The search for one’s true calling is evolutionary—the only way to find meaningful answers is to dare to be honest with oneself, regardless of how discomforting the results of that honesty might be.

Critics of What Should I Do with My Life? have complained that it is not a “systematic study” nor a “true self-help book”. Bronson’s writing offers no career counseling, no glib answers, no direction or guidance for his subjects, and is therefore “wrong.” These critics have entirely missed the point of the book, which is that there is no easy answer to The Question, no one-size-fits-all approach to finding one’s true calling.

Bronson’s honesty is a revelation—throughout the book he remains open, vulnerable, puzzled, irritated, and intuitive—and worried about his subjects. We see him bothered about the decisions they make, the direction their lives take, as well as wondering about his own journey. He lays bare his own spirit, revealing how his sterling qualities and foibles alike have affected his path. In the end, I found Bronson’s story one of the most compelling in the book. It’s a great read—not a quick one, because finding the meaning of the stories is left to the reader, but I believe that makes it all the more valuable. What you’ll take away from these studies is personal, just like your own answer to The Question.