The Perfection Trap

The Perfection Trap

Author: Thomas Curran

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-08-08

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1982149558

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“Offers a hopeful beacon and a steady path for anyone struggling to find their footing in a world of impossible standards.” —Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drive and The Power of Regret In the tradition of Brené Brown’s bestseller The Gifts of Imperfection, this illuminating book by an acclaimed professor at the London School of Economics explores how the pursuit of perfection can become a dangerous obsession that leads to burnout and depression—keeping us from achieving our goals. Today, burnout and depression are at record levels, driven by a combination of intense workplace competition, oppressively ubiquitous social media encouraging comparisons with others, the quest for elite credentials, and helicopter parenting. Society continually broadcasts the need to want more, and to be perfect. Gathering a wide range of contemporary evidence, Curran offers “a clear-eyed look at how perfectionism and its capitalistic ‘obsession with boundless growth’ has contributed to mass discontent and insecurity” (Publishers Weekly). He shows what we can do as individuals to resist the modern-day pressure to be perfect, and in so doing, win for ourselves a more purposeful and contented life. Filled with “many useful lessons and valuable insights…This book offers an alternative path to a fulfilling, productive life” (Kirkus Reviews) and the relief of letting go to focus on what matters most.


The Perfect You

The Perfect You

Author: Andrew Farley

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-03-23

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1684511275

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Should Your Heart Be Tested or Trusted? Many believers are convinced they have a “deceitful” and “wicked” heart that is not to be trusted. Theirs is a faith of duty and obligation—only a faint imitation of the full and abundant life Jesus promised. This provocative book invites you to a radically different approach, an inspiring move from head to heart that affects every aspect of your life: how you handle conflict, how you communicate with and love others, and how you view yourself and God. There’s a place of purity within you where Jesus lives. God calls you to live from this perfect place—not merely from your head, but from your heart. Knowing the perfect you means no more waiting for closeness with God. Knowing the perfect you brings a freedom in Jesus that you’ve never experienced before. “In this captivating book, Andrew Farley and Tim Chalas invite you to celebrate God’s perfect (and accurate!) view of you.” —BART MILLARD, singer/songwriter for MercyMe


Perfect Me

Perfect Me

Author: Heather Widdows

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-05

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 0691160074

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How looking beautiful has become a moral imperative in today’s world The demand to be beautiful is increasingly important in today's visual and virtual culture. Rightly or wrongly, being perfect has become an ethical ideal to live by, and according to which we judge ourselves good or bad, a success or a failure. Perfect Me explores the changing nature of the beauty ideal, showing how it is more dominant, more demanding, and more global than ever before. Heather Widdows argues that our perception of the self is changing. More and more, we locate the self in the body--not just our actual, flawed bodies but our transforming and imagined ones. As this happens, we further embrace the beauty ideal. Nobody is firm enough, thin enough, smooth enough, or buff enough—not without significant effort and cosmetic intervention. And as more demanding practices become the norm, more will be required of us, and the beauty ideal will be harder and harder to resist. If you have ever felt the urge to "make the best of yourself" or worried that you were "letting yourself go," this book explains why. Perfect Me examines how the beauty ideal has come to define how we see ourselves and others and how we structure our daily practices—and how it enthralls us with promises of the good life that are dubious at best. Perfect Me demonstrates that we must first recognize the ethical nature of the beauty ideal if we are ever to address its harms.


Summary of Selfie by Will Storr

Summary of Selfie by Will Storr

Author: QuickRead

Publisher: QuickRead.com

Published:

Total Pages: 18

ISBN-13:

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An informational guide to the history of the idealized perfect self and the rise of a narcissistic generation obsessed with selfies and personal brands. What’s your idea of your perfect self? Well, our culture believes it’s someone slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted, and popular. Just take a look at your Instagram feed and you’ll find a large portion of successful influencers portraying themselves in this way. Even more, you can become this person yourself, the world is limitless and you are the source of your own success. However, this model can be incredibly dangerous to our self-esteem and our society as we see an increase in depression and suicide. But where did this modern ideal come from? Who invented this idea of the perfect self? Will Storr explores where this idea came from and transports us from the times of Ancient Greece to the self-esteem evangelists of the 1980s, to finally the rise of the selfie generation where he explores the increase of narcissism and individualism in today’s youth and young adults. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. DISCLAIMER: This book summary is meant as a preview and not a replacement for the original work. If you like this summary please consider purchasing the original book to get the full experience as the original author intended it to be. If you are the original author of any book on QuickRead and want us to remove it, please contact us at [email protected]


The Teachings of a Perfect Master

The Teachings of a Perfect Master

Author: Henry Bayman

Publisher: Anqa Publishing

Published: 2012-06-01

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1905937504

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Collected in entirety for the very first time, this study reflects more than 25 years of close contact with the Sufi Masters of Central Anatolia, with much of that time spent in the presence of the peerless Sufi teacher Mr. Ahmet Kayhan. Out of the author's association with this personality has emerged this in-depth look at the famous and mysterious Oral Tradition of Sufism. Topics covered include the concepts of compassion and mercy, universality, ethics, faith, charity, destiny, death and the afterlife, and more. Combining the rigor of anthropology with the devotion of a disciple, this book faithfully lays bare the comprehensive teachings of the man who may be the Sufi Saint of the Age.


Strength of Mind

Strength of Mind

Author: Jacob L. Goodson

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-09-19

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1498283802

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Higher education in the twenty-first century should bring together freedom and knowledge with courage and hope. Why these four concepts? As Goodson argues in Strength of Mind, higher education in the twenty-first century offers preparation for ordinary life. Freedom and knowledge serve as the conditions for cultivating courage and hope within one’s ordinary life. More specifically, courage and hope ought to be understood as the virtues required for enjoying ordinary life. If college-educated citizens wish to hold onto the concepts of courage and hope, however, then both courage and hope need to be understood as intellectual virtues. As a moral virtue, courage has become outdated. As a theological virtue, hope violates the logic of the golden mean. Focusing on intellectual virtues also requires shifting from moral perfectionism to rational perfectionism. Rational perfectionism involves keeping impossible demands in view for oneself while constantly and continually striving for one’s “unattained but attainable self.” Goodson defends these arguments by learning from the bits of wisdom found within American Transcendentalism (Emerson, Cavell), German Idealism (Kant, Hegel), Jewish philosophy (Maimonides, Spinoza, Putnam), neo-pragmatism (Putnam, Rorty, West), post-modern theories about pedagogy (Nietzsche, Foucault, Rorty), and secular accounts of perfectionism (Murdoch, Cavell).


Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi

Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi

Author: Roger T. Ames

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1998-01-01

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780791439210

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A diverse collection of interpretive essays on the third-century B.C.E. Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi, which continues the long commentarial tradition on this work and underscores its relevance to our own time and place.


Valley of the Silent Stream Touch of Life

Valley of the Silent Stream Touch of Life

Author: Frances Stroh

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2006-04-21

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 142594258X

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The Valley of the Silent Stream represents a place within your mind where you receive inner guidance for healing. Total health including body, mind and soul begins with mental renewal. There is scientific proof that what your mind believes is what you feel. From the moment, you enter this life until the moment of transition you experience multiple situations that can influence your life. The discomfort associated with stress can be devastating or it can be a helpful learning experience depending on how you deal with it. Healing begins where our reality originates with thoughts that we ourselves implant within our mind thereby forming belief systems that create physical and emotional reactions. You are the master of your life and determine your own direction by using your ability to think and feel in a way that leads to happiness, inner peace and success. The meditative imagery prescriptions contained within the book Valley of the Silent Stream use the language of the inner or subconscious mind where only good and positive words create healing, youreceive guidance that naturally and peacefully promote a relaxed state of mind and body. Meditative Imagery prescriptions promote health and inner healing. You learn to solve problems, rest your mind and body and allow your inner creative self to work out acceptable solutions leading to effective peaceful living. Focus is only on pleasant thought and helpful suggestions that lead to a higher level of consciousness. Within this state of consciousness, you find that quiet place where fear and anxiety disappear to free your soul. The self then grows, but as one with all.