THE LIFE STORY ONLINE INTERVIEW

Gain insights into your life

Stop for a second and listen to the story going on in your head. It’s there, somewhere, in the background. It’s the story you tell others when you first meet them; it’s the story you tell yourself when you visit a meaningful place, when you flip through old photographs, when you celebrate an achievement, when you rush to the hospital.

It’s the story of who you are, where you came from, where you dream of going in the future.

It’s the high point of your life, the low point, the turning point.

It’s what you believe in, what you fight for, what matters most to you.

It’s the story of your life.

And that story isn’t just part of you. It is you in a fundamental way.

For the last few years, I’ve been crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories from Americans of all ages, all walks of life, and in all fifty states. What I did with these people is what I called the Life Story Interview. Everyone found the process rewarding, felt they walked away with insights into their lives, and was eager to share the questions with loved ones.

With that in mind, I’ve created a short, online version of the most talked-about questions in The Life Story Interview. Feel free to answer the questions attached, and at the end you’ll get a read out of how your answers compared with the many other people who’ve completed the interview. The whole process takes just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, to learn more about the book I’ve written that explores all of the insights I’ve gleaned from all the life stories I’ve collected, check out my book: Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age.

LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads, a pioneering study of the disruptions upending contemporary life and a bold guide for how to navigate life’s growing number of transitions with more meaning, balance, and joy.

Bruce Feiler has long been writing about the stories that give our lives meaning. Recently he began to notice a new pattern: our old stories, with their predictable plot points along linear paths, no longer hold true. The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. Yet many people feel overwhelmed by this change. We’re concerned that our lives are not what we expected; that we’re living life out of order.

Galvanized by a personal crisis and family emergency, Feiler set out on what became an epic journey to harvest American stories and see what he could learn from them. He crisscrossed the country, collecting hundreds of life stories from a breathtaking range of Americans in all 50 states. He then sifted through and coded these stories, building a massive database of patterns and takeaways that can help all of us live better.

LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS introduces the fresh, pressing vision of the nonlinear life, in which personal disruptions and lifequakes are becoming more plentiful, nontraditional life shapes are becoming the norm, and each of us has the opportunity to write our own story. Drawing on an extraordinary trove of insights, Feiler offers a powerful, new transition toolkit with original strategies for coping with the difficult, painful, or unsettling times of life.

From a master storyteller with a timely message, LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change in their lives and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.