Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
With a title like that and an author with three first names, you may think you’re diving into the autobiography of a serial killer, but luckily no mayhem and gore await. In fact, while a serial killer is infatuated with taking life, Seth Adam Smith details in this book how he learned to give his away and love every minute of it.
Your Life Isn’t For You: A Selfish Person’s Guide to Being Selfless is a short book (just over 80 pages), but packs real life experience into every one. Moving from childhood into adulthood and nearly ending with an attempted suicide, Smith doesn’t pull back from putting his own issues on display. The honesty and openness gives the book the feel of talking to an old friend.
He brings the reader along in each part of the process as he learns his new truth about enjoying his own life not through his personal gains and triumphs, but from helping others reach those moments.
For those who already know Smith from his blog post titled “Marriage Isn’t For You”, which became a viral monster online, this book acts as a prequel to that chapter of his life. He brings out all the building block moments, some which held him up and others that dissolved underneath letting him fall into periods of deep despair. Yet, with support from his friends and family, and his own sardonic wit, Smith not only makes it back from the edge, but instead leaves us all breadcrumbs to follow him down his new path in life.
Your Life Isn’t For You is more than a memoir, more than a series of moments, it’s a guidebook for those looking for another way out of the rut.
