#282 The “Lifequake” Survival Guide | Bruce Feiler

We have another themed week for you, with two episodes about how to navigate major life changes-- clearly a resonant theme, given the various dumpster fires that are raging in our world right now. Coming up on Wednesday, we’re going to get a deep dharma take on this subject, but today, we’ve got a guest who takes a more journalistic/scientific approach. His name is Bruce Feiler. He has a new, bestselling book called Life Is In the Transitions. In it, he offers seven tools for navigating what he calls “lifequakes,” which can range from divorce to job loss to addiction. Bruce has written a series of bestselling books, including Walking the Bible, and Council of Dads, which became a TV show on NBC. He didn’t mean for this new book on transitions to come out during a pandemic, but the timing is perversely perfect. In this conversation, we talk about: the events in his own life that got him interested in this subject; why “lifequakes” are a feature, not a bug; and why the word “resilience” makes Bruce grumpy.

Where to find Bruce Feiler online: 

Website: https://www.brucefeiler.com/

Social Media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brucefeiler
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BruceFeilerAuthor/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brucefeiler/

Book Mentioned:

• Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler: https://www.brucefeiler.com/books-articles/life-is-in-the-transitions/

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Jean Piaget's Theory and Stages of Cognitive Development: https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development: https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html
• Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development: https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html
• Daniel Levinson on Midlife Crisis: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5e75/2a77fb59cc48e9eea4b1ef4c53056b0f140e.pdf
• Elliot Jock on Midlife Crisis: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-mar-23-me-jacques23-story.html
• The Rites of Passage by Arnold van Gennep: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rites_of_Passage.html?id=kJpkBH7mB7oC
• William James: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/

Additional Resources:

• Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live
• Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide
• Free App access for Frontline Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care