• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Nav Social Menu

    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
Happier at Work logo

Happier at Work

  • Services
  • About
  • Speaking
  • FAQs
  • Testimonials
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Contact
Aoife's Reading List - Being Mortal

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Perhaps not the kind of book you’d expect to find on a business website, this book is a compelling read. It makes you think about life and our own mortality, whether your parents are aging, or you consider your own place in the world, this book will really make you think. Here are the key points I pulled out of the book.

How we spend our time

How we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have. We all require devotion to something more than ourselves for our lives to be endurable. Loyalty shows us outside ourselves the cause which is to be served, and inside ourselves the will which delights to do this service.

How we choose

We want to retain the autonomy to be the authors of our lives, whatever the limits we face. Take responsibility for your own life, (you are the product of the choices you have made) and remain consistent to your character. If time becomes short, what is most important to you?

On the role of medicine

What is the function of medicine/ doctors? To fight the battle/war against death. But it is a losing battle, so you need someone who knows when it’s worth fighting and when it’s time to give up.

“Courage: first seek out the truth of what is to be feared and what is to be hoped. Act on the truth we find.”

The story of our lives

There is the remembering self and the experiencing self. In the end, people don’t view their life as merely the average of all its moments (mostly nothing much, plus some sleep). Life is meaningful because it’s a story – an arc that is defined by significant moments, the ones where something happens.

Previous Post: « 45: Helen Joy on First Time Managers
Next Post: Born to Win by Zig Ziglar »

Footer

Contact

Email: aoife@happieratwork.ie
Tel: +353 87 225 2670

Quick Links

  • Aoife’s Reading List
  • Media
  • Events
  • Imposter Syndrome
  • Privacy Policy

Connect

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 · Happier at Work · Website by The Website Chef

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy