A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living - How to Be Here

Wow! Such a great, easy, inspiring read. I raced through the book in just 2 morning coffees! Rob Bell's joy and encouragement were exactly what I was needing having been "stuck" in a messy midlife space and needing to move on. His thoughts on just doing #1 and not worrying about #4 or #7 or #42 was perfect!

I retired recently and could not easily shake the busy, stressful stress. I did not feel accomplished anymore. This book helped see I had a wonderful opportunity to enjoy just being. Helping in the service of others has been the key.

This review first appeared on the Englewood Review of Books and my blog, Jacob's Café (jacobscafe.blogspot.com).

Rob Bell, in his latest book, How to Be Here, explores how to create a life worth living through being present in the here and now. It addresses ideas that are becoming quite popular, likely because of their relevance for our modern culture and way of living. Bell continues with his strong, engaging writing style and story telling, so fans of his approach will likely appreciate this text, as well. His style should open up ideas to new audiences. At the same time, the book could be better organized to make his point clearer and send the message “home” more effectively.

As noted, Bell provides his usual writing that is engaging, accessible, and engrossing. His passion comes through clearly, and the personal anecdotes enliven abstract ideas. The short sections make the text easily digestible while allowing for pauses in reading, when needed. He is an incredibly effective story teller, and his success in many areas reflects this skill. It is once again displayed very well in How to Be Here.

The biggest challenge in this particular book is that, in many ways, it feels like a collection of short essays that are loosely connected, but could really stand on their own. I frequently found myself asking, “What is his point? Where is he going?” I struggled to find an overall thesis and direction. The book is subtitled A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living, although interestingly, that subtitle doesn’t appear on the cover to provide some clarity. In hindsight, the title does summarize the thesis and purpose of the book, mentioned above: Create a life worth living through being present in the here and now. However, there are several sections that dive into other sub-theses and concepts, like ikigai, a Japanese word for what gets you out of bed in the morning, motivated to take on the day. There are great ideas and discussions he presents, but they don’t feel fully realized over the course of the entire book. This is what contributes to that essay anthology feeling.

A short introduction providing a direction/thesis and tying all the parts together would have done wonders for the coherency of the narrative across the entire text. On the other hand, Bell's style traditionally tends to be conversational, and his ultimate point isn't often known until his work is done. This works well for his short Nooma videos or even longer sermons. A book is a different experience, though, and making a clear direction, even if the conclusion is still a surprise, is really critical for reader engagement and comprehension. He also doesn't go back and clearly connect all the dots on the backend, which would at least have provided retrospective coherency.

All that aside, the points he was trying to make were strong. In many ways, the text reminded me of a modern version of Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence of God. Bell illustrates this very well, in his unique, engaging style, emphasizing examples of and the power of being present in the moment, seeing the sanctity of the mundane, helps us experience life more fully and find meaning.

Indeed, there are many faith and cultural traditions, within and without Christianity, that have taught these lessons. The behavioral sciences have picked up on these principles in the past decade, generally describing them under the umbrella of mindfulness, and plenty of research has reinforced the truth of these claims. From that perspective, there isn't much new in Bell's text, although he doesn't necessarily claim that he is coming up with a new idea. In many ways, he is a story teller to illustrate and convey principles in new ways. And Bell has always been excellent at this. This story telling to bring abstract principles to life is what How to Be Here does best.

At the same time, the book full title: How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living is misleading, as it isn’t really a guide, at least not in a traditional sense. There are no steps, no real recommendations; just stories. A reader could easily walk away from the book wondering what they can really do to be here. Bell’s stories have examples, but they’re highly contextualized and therefore not necessarily generalizable. There are plenty of more concrete guides to mindfulness and presence that lay out example activities, prayers, exercises, etc. that can help us be more mindful and present in the moment. A potential downside of these materials is that they can be viewed prescriptively and formulaically, which is definitely a problem.

Perhaps this is why Bell takes a different approach. In reflection, an implicit part of his message seems to be that there is a journey, a story, to being able to be effectively present and create a life worth living. His initial and most enduring metaphor is in writing a story of our lives, starting with the blinking line on an electronic page. There is great truth to this approach, and frankly, I think it is truer than any activity, exercise, or form of prayer, as it is frequently in the doing of things that we lose our presence and sense of meaning. Yet many people need some examples of things to do to practice this sort of thing. Bell’s book can be complementary to these other, more traditional guides, with them providing practices, while he helps build motivation and weightiness to value of such practices.

In the end, How to Be Here is a book with meaning and value, but it doesn’t sit on its own well. Additional structure to orient the reader what the purpose of the book is, and ensuring all points are clearly connected would have strengthened it significantly. As it is literally advertised as a “how to” book and a “guide,” reference to other resources would have helped, as well. Even explicitly discussing the power of narrative and journey over practices, as I noted above, would have helped improve Bell's thesis and purpose.

This text is probably best for people who don’t necessarily need suggestions on what to do different (many of us know what to do), but need reminders of priorities and that mindfulness and presence is really quite worthwhile.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Rob Belll's book is a highly inspirational read about mindfulness from a Christian faith perspective. Bell emphasizes our need to recognize the gift of being here-of being alive, of being in this place, and this time with this body. His book is more than an inspirational pep talk. It's a walk through carefully selected stories that weave the essence of the Bible in a very subtle way. This is the kind of book that you read when you need more gratitude in your life. Bell's gratitude is deeper than "you should be happy because you have stuff". "How to Be Here" wants readers to truly understand the gift that there is their life, no matter how unlucky, tiring, or confusing it may seem right now.

It's a good book and I am interested in Bell's other books because of it.

"Boredom says there is nothing interesting here. Cynicism says there's nothing new."

This is the 6th book of Bell's so I am very familiar with his style of writing.  He combines little short thoughts into an overarching theme.  I feel he tried to do that with this book also, but it fell sort of flat for me.  It seemed almost a little too random.  But a few highlights from the book he talked about doing whatever you are doing with the best of yourself.  Sometimes what you are doing, is only a stepping stone into what you will be doing next.  

If he would have asked if I was tracking.  I would have said not really...

I've been listening to Rob's sermons, podcasts, and talks for years, and I cannot say that this recent turn toward self-help has been a good one. His religious writings have a depth and thoroughness that is totally lacking in How To Be Here. I think his theological writings will endure alongside those of C.S. Lewis or Paul Tillich; his self-help is transient and inconsequential. Even when he uses a Biblical reference in this book he doesn't delve into it. Oh, the message of the book is good, but it isn't new, or even carefully thought out. And he does it
oh
so
slowly.
As the outline for a book, this works, but who publishes their outlines?
I want more meat on the bones next time, Rob, please.

Quite simply - this would have all been great on his podcast - which is great. But the writing is too much like his speaking - and imho his speaking is good and sometimes even great, and just kinda "meh" when written. It didn't have anything that really made me chew on "the more" that Rob Bell usually invite me to consider. The chapters are super short - easy to start anywhere as they aren't entirely connected, per se. I was hoping for a deeper invitation. My favorite parts were on Sabbath rhythms. So, I'm glad I borrowed it from the library and I'll return to listening to the podcast.

Another Rob Bell book to help me create a cohesive narrative in my life. I am reading this book with a book club (and highly recommend you read it with friends)
I find that Rob continues to give me the words to express and create and develop the arc of my life. How to Be Here allows you to find meaning by listening to your life. He breaks down the big questions that can haunt you and steal meaning from your day to day interactions.
There is simplicity, then there is complexity, and Rob Bell has created a book from diving into that complexity and communicating it in a human language.

"How To Be Here" is utterly fantastic. I carried it around with me waiting until I had a free moment to begin reading it. Whilst doing several loads of laundry at the local laundromat I fell into this book. I forgot where I was as I read the amazing stories, thoughts and ideas that actually made me stop and think. At times I found myself laughing out loud; literally. In my opinion, there is no better book than one that can make you guffaw in a noisy corner laundromat and laugh louder than the collective din. The moment I finished "How To Be Here" I set it down and walked straight into my studio to begin working on a stalled project. Rob Bell has a way of motivating you through tremendous humility, humour and plain ole' good fashioned excellent writing. Dickie lives!

Not necessarily anything that I haven't heard before but Rob's wit, anecdotes and clarity remind the reader that they are unique and have a part to play in the creation of the world (an ongoing process). The world isn's happening to you, you're happening to the world.

Wanted to try to understand a bit about this author and his popularity. I tried to be open minded. But the book is lightweight-- there is little new thinking here, there is little or no research behind it, and even his stories are mostly about his difficulty in writing. The couple of decent ideas are no revelation and-- while he identifies some problems that people have-- there is no practical advice other than "focus" and "get started". He is probably a decent speaker, but the writing is simply poor.
At least i didn't waste much time reading it. Short, with large font and a lot of blank pages, it probably has less words than a good article in the Atlantic or Smithstonian.