Embracing our imperfections and the messiness of life

How’s this for self-help advice? You’re never going to be sure about the future. You’ll always have too much to do and not enough time. You’re never going to sort out your life. You’re not perfect!

That’s taken from Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Mediations for Mortals. It’s about how embracing your limitations, not overcoming them, can lead to a more meaningful existence. Burkeman wrote a popular psychology column for The Guardian and discovered that self-help rarely works. His advice is to learn to celebrate our imperfections and the unpredictable messiness of life. He draws on philosophy, psychology, literature, religion and his own life, to push back against the popular message of relentless self-improvement, productivity and control.