ReadLexington: How to Navigate Life - Belle Liang

Jessie

Belle Liang, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. She is Principal Investigator at Purpose Labs and her research focuses on mentoring and cultivating purpose in school, work, and life. She leverages technology and social media in this work.

Her research-practice collaborations in and out of the U.S. have identified mentoring practices that fan the flames of purpose in people from diverse backgrounds, and she has published ~100 scientific journal articles and book chapters from this work. Liang has received honors such as an Distinguished Alumni Award, various awards for innovative teaching and community engagement, and recognition as an American Psychological Association Fellow for her outstanding contributions to the field of clinical and counseling psychology. 

• Could you tell us about your professional journey? 

  
  

  There are so many “cultural expectations “ that are passed down very insidiously, such as top academic performance, where you go to college, what you major in, what career you choose, who you marry, …many of these expectations center extrinsic measures of success such as wealth and prestige. Wealth and prestige aren’t bad things. It is the singular pursuit of these in order to measure up to others that ends up feeling exhausting and empty. Thankfully, my early professional journey coincided with my own personal growth and faith journey that helped me listen more closely to the wisdom from within me leading me toward my own purpose and calling. 

  
  

•  What impelled you to write this non-fiction help book with your partner?

  
  

  Our motivation for writing this book was to show people the research evidence and provide practical guidance on how to discover and pursue purpose . We wanted readers to be reassured that doing so doesn’t mean sacrificing a paycheck, or sacrificing prestige for that matter. But that purpose and calling can actually make us more successful because we are motivated and engaged in our daily life . We have a reason to get up in the morning. We are excited to make an impact in the world around us. 

  
  

•  I thought it was intriguing that you indicated in the introduction that it was important to know ourselves, our identities, our stories, and our values, as these perceptions are related to fear and anxiety. How do you think our values and the way we perceive ourselves pose an obstacle to achieving success or even happiness?

  
  

  Research from our lab and Suniya Luthar is very clear: there are poor mental and physical outcomes for students’ whose priority is to achieve these extrinsic measures of success—wealth, status, power, prestige for the sake of measuring up to others. It's not success that hurts them, it's the obsession with achieving it. This mindset is stressful and leads to depression and anxiety and ultimately undercuts performance and success.   
  

  
  

• What decision-making principles did you illustrate in the book that you believe can be helpful for people today?

  
  In our book, we show how you can identify your elements of purpose (character strengths , skills you’re motivated to master, core values , impact) and these can be used as your “purpose compass” for making decisions across the many domains of life. 

• Who do you think will find your book most helpful? 

  
  

  This book is for parents, students, professionals, and all those who want to discover and pursue their purpose, and help others to do the same.  

  
  

• How do you think your book stands out in today's market inundated with self-help books? 

  
  

  Self-help books often either give a lot of advice, but are not grounded in empirical research. Or they are based in research, but don't provide enough practical application and guidance.

  
  

  How to Navigate Life does both. I am a research scientist whose expertise is in mentoring and cultivating purpose, so the book is grounded in research evidence, and I am also a parent and educator, so my goal was to translate research into practical how-tos that my friends and community could use to discover joy and meaning in their families and workplaces. 

  
  

• What's your promotion schedule? When and where can readers meet you in person or virtually? 

  
  

  I am doing many virtual live events, so please sign up for our newsletter for these events, updates, and giveaways. www.howtonavigate.com.

  
  

  There is a widespread longing for a new way of navigating life with meaning and purpose. We see this as we speak with communities, schools, and workplaces across the country. We believe that it's the reason that the book has done so well in its first weeks hitting #1 Amazon Bestseller and #1 New Release, and featured on NPR's Here and Now and Fortune Magazine's 5 Recommended Reads. 
  

How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond.

An essential guide to tackling what students, families, and educators can do now to cut through stress and performance pressure, and find a path to purpose.

Today’s college-bound kids are stressed, anxious, and navigating demands in their lives unimaginable to a previous generation. They’re performance machines, hitting the benchmarks they’re “supposed” to in order to reach the next tier of a relentless ladder. Then, their mental and physical exhaustion carries over right into first jobs. What have traditionally been considered the best years of life have become the beaten-down years of life.

Belle Liang and Timothy Klein devote their careers both to counseling individual students and to cutting through the daily pressures to show a better way, a framework, and set of questions to find kids’ “true north”: what really turns them on in life, and how to harness the core qualities that reveal, allowing them to choose a course of study, a college, and a career.

Even the gentlest parents and teachers tend to play into pervasive societal pressure for students to PERFORM. And when we take the foot off the gas, we beg the kids to just figure out what their PASSION is. Neither is a recipe for mental or physical health, or, ironically, for performance or passion. How to Navigate Life shows that successful human beings instead tap into their PURPOSE―the why behind the what and how. Best of all, purpose is a completely translatable quality to every aspect of life, from first jobs to last jobs and everything in between.

Belle Liang and Tim Klein have devoted their careers to helping students find their purpose. They join Here & Now's Jane Clayson to discuss their new book, “How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond.”

"How to Navigate Life' helps students find their purpose outside of academic achievement.

There’s no blueprint on how to live your life, but there are no shortage of books that will tell you how to do so. But not all books are alike, and How to Navigate Life stands out by addressing stress and anxiety for readers as young as those coming out of high school, aiming to help them get a better, more secure footing with their mental health before embarking on their collegiate and post-collegiate careers.

How to Navigate Life is featured on Fortune Magazine's 5 Recommended Reads. 

Tim Klein & Belle Liang bring you an article on the Power of REST:  Transform Labor Day Into A Leisure Day. 

Belle Liang shares what she learned while appearing in HGTV’s Farmhouse Fixer: Surround Yourself With Purpose. 

Farmhouse Fixer was the 4th most watched show on HGTV this week. 

The How to Navigate Life can be purchase from:

www.howtonavigate.com/book.