Matthew Kelly - The Rhythm of Life: Living Everyday with Passion and Purpose (EPUB, MOBI, PDF)

Do you ever feel that if you weren’t so busy you would be happier, healthier, more effective, more fulfilled . . . and maybe even a better person?

Once every twenty-five years or so, a book comes along that perfectly identifies our common search and struggle for happiness, and teaches us how to find lasting fulfillment in a changing world. This is that book. Not since M. Scott Peck published The Road Less Traveled have we experienced a voice as refreshing and authentic as Matthew Kelly’s.

The Rhythm of Life will help you to bring into focus who you are and why you are here. Through this book Matthew Kelly will help you discover your legitimate needs, deepest desires, and unique talents. He will introduce you to the-best-version-of-yourself and lead you to a life filled with passion and purpose.

Here are just a few of the timeless creeds that he presents in The Rhythm of Life . . .

“You were born to become the-best-version-of-yourself. This is your essential purpose. Embrace this one solitary truth and it will change your life more than anything you have ever learned. In every situation, ask yourself, Which of the options before me will help me become the-best-version-of-myself?”

“Everything is a choice. This is life’s greatest truth and its hardest lesson. It is a great truth because it reminds us of our power. Not power over others, but the power to be ourselves and to live the life we have imagined. It is a hard lesson because it causes us to realize that we have chosen the life we are living right now.”

“The measure of your life will be the measure of your courage. Courage animates us, brings us to life, and makes everything else possible. Fear stops more people from doing something with their lives than lack of ability, contacts, resources, or any other single variable. Fear paralyzes the human spirit. Life takes courage.”

“Energy is our most valuable resource, not time. The rhythm of life is a way of life that brings our legitimate needs, our deepest desires, and our unique talents into harmony with each other. The result: passion, purpose, and energy.”

Kelly has a way of thinking and writing that cuts through the stifling clutter of our everyday lives and delivers a clarity that is both refreshing and liberating.


Amazon.com Review

Matthew Kelly, the charismatic minister, speaker and best-selling author from down under, wants you to live life out loud and on purpose. In this expanded version of The Rhythm of Life he syntheses Christian theology, cognitive psychology and storytelling to unpack the paradox of being happy. As Kelly explains, "We want to be happy. We know what makes us happy. But we don't do those things--because we are busy trying to be happy." So here's the gospel according to Kelly: Find a life-changing rhythm by choosing a central purpose and becoming "the best version of yourself." With examples draw from his own life and diverse cast of characters including Charlie Chaplin, Jude the apostle, piano man Billy Joel, the Magi, and Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, he maps the way to a meaningful life. Kelly makes thoughtful distinctions. He contrasts the difference between doing and having, the legitimate need for health and happiness with the illegitimate desire for expensive toys and the pursuit of minimalism vs. excellence. Then he gets specific, offering five questions about life's meaning, three instruments for anchoring your life and ten principles of excellence. At times, Kelly seems to be recycling his speeches and sermons or downplaying his religious stripes to seek a wider audience. And he lets cliches share the pages with memorable gems. But Kelly's gift is to convey the much-discussed ideas of personal accountability, mind management, and spirituality with passion and clarity. Barbara Mackoff


From Publishers Weekly

Now 30, Kelly began his Catholic inspirational speaking at the age of 19. In this new edition of his self-published book, Australian-born, Cincinnati-based Kelly exhorts readers to rediscover what he calls the rhythm of life: "the perfect combination of rest, activity, and pace" that will enable each of us to become "the-best-version-of-ourselves." Some will be inspired by these sermonlike essays; others will feel Kelly recycles standard self-help messages, such as "everything is a choice" and "enjoy the journey." Much, for Kelly, rests in self-discipline and control. "If you can teach yourself, condition yourself, to desire those things that are good for you, there is nothing you cannot achieve or become." Like so many self-help authors, Kelly also promotes good sleeping, eating and exercise habits, and suggests a daily hour of prayer and using the "seventh day as a day of rest, reflection, and renewal." More idiosyncratically, he predicts that what he sees as our declining civilization will end in 60 years to be replaced by a vaguely defined superior one.