The Power of Meaning
Crafting a Life That Matters
Lavin Exclusive Speaker
Meaning, not happiness, is the key to a good life. That’s the vital message at the core of Emily Esfahani Smith’s book, The Power of Meaning, which outlines four pillars essential to living a life that matters: belonging, purpose, transcendence, and storytelling. From the TED2017 main stage to her viral Atlantic article “There’s More to Life Than Being Happy,” Smith helps us develop genuine cultures of meaning—in life, and at work.
We’re all striving for happiness—but our culture’s obsession with instant gratification is only making us miserable. After over a hundred interviews, as well as years of research into positive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and literature, Emily Esfahani Smith has discovered a more enriching way to live a good life: and that’s through the search for meaning. In her compelling new book The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters, Smith offers methods for individuals to let go of unreasonable, unattainable standards of happiness, overcome adversity, and pursue goals that reward over the long haul. And for organizations, it means embedding a sense of purpose into corporate culture—making beliefs and values align for personal wellbeing as well as the bottom line.
Smith’s articles in The Atlantic have been read over 30 million times, and her writing on culture and psychology—drawing on neuroscience, philosophy, and literature—have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, TIME, and other publications. Fresh from the TED 2017 main stage, where her talk was listed as one of the top ten most popular of the year, Smith is a keynote speaker who helps us think differently about the stories we tell ourselves and help us identify what makes life worth living.
Smith is a former instructor in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a columnist for The New Criterion, as well as an editor at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where she manages the Ben Franklin Circles project: a collaboration with the 92nd Street Y and Citizen University to build meaning in local communities. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Smith grew up in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from Dartmouth College and earned a masters of applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.