Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Good Life, 3rd Edition

The first and second editions of this classic book showed readers how to develop their own unique vision of the good life-which Leider and Shapiro define as "living in the place you belong, with the people you love, doing the right work, on purpose"-and take practical steps to achieve it. Inspired by a spirit of travel and adventure, it uses packing and repacking your bags as a metaphor for deciding what you really need in your journey through life.

So why a third edition? Because the world has changed. When they wrote the first two editions, Leider and Shapiro assumed that repacking was something people might do once or twice in their lives. But technological advances, major economic shifts, longer life spans, and changing social roles are revolutionizing the way we live and work. Today we have to repeatedly unpack and repack as the inevitable shifts and surprises life has to offer continually unfold before us. With each step along the way, we must reexamine what has brought us here and continue asking ourselves if the choices that have sustained us so far are continuing to do so-or if they're just weighing us down.

This new edition has been thoroughly revised and reimagined with this lifelong focus in mind. It contains new stories and practices for repacking your four critical "bags"-place, relationship, work, and purpose-as well as a new Repacking Journal for planning your "trip" and Leider's immensely popular Calling Card exercise for identifying your gifts, passions, and values. Repacking Your Bags reminds all of us to regularly ask why we carry what we do and try to lighten our loads-because the good life is worth striving for at every age.

What sets this book apart from similar titles

1. Another book in this genre is The Happiness Project, but it focuses on the author's personal journey, making it a good fit mostly for readers who share the author's personality. Repacking Your Bags is a happiness book that applies to a wide range of people and personalities.
2. Books like the Power of Less suggest you approach happiness through simplification and efficiency, whereas Richard Leider points to deeper themes such as finding one's true purpose or calling.
3. And the book Stumbling on Happiness devotes many pages to the psychology and neuroscience of unhappiness, which leads to some interesting insights but is less focused on practical, easy-to-implement advice.
4. New edition of the classic bestsellerover 500,000 copies sold and translated into seventeen languages.
5. An indispensable tool in the lifelong journey of living a purposeful life.
6. Thoroughly revised and updated with new stories, exercises, and tools

About The Authors:

David A. Shapiro is the Education Director of the Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children, a non-profit organization that brings philosophy into the lives of young people in schools and community groups.

Richard Leider is the founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company – and is ranked by Forbes as one of the “Top 5” most respected executive coaches, by Linkage as one of the “Top 50” executive coaches, and by the Conference Board as a “legend in coaching.” 

As a Keynote Speaker, he has helped more than 100,000 leaders from over 50 corporations such as AARP, Ericsson, Mayo Clinic, and MetLife discover the power of purpose. 

Richard is the author of nine books, including three best sellers, and his work has been translated into 21 languages.Repacking Your Bags and The Power of Purpose are considered classics in the personal growth field. His newest book, Life Reimagined, has been touted as the breakthrough book on the “second half of life.”He is a contributing author to many coaching books, including:Coaching for Leadership, The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching, Executive Coaching for Results, The Leader of the Future, and The Organization of the Future. 

Richard holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and is a Nationally Certified Master Career Counselor.As a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing, he leads The Purpose Project.He is also a Carlson Executive Fellow at the University of Minnesota School of Management and a guest lecturer in the Harvard Business School.  

Richard is quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, and on PBS public television, NPR public radio, and other media sources. 

Richard’s work has been recognized with awards from the Bush Foundation, from which he was awarded a Bush Fellowship and the Fielding Institutes Outstanding Scholar for Creative Longevity and Wisdom award.He was named a “Distinguished Alumni” by Gustavus Adolphus College, and to the “Hall of Fame” at Central High School. 

For 30 years, Richard has led Inventure Expedition walking safaris in Tanzania, East Africa.He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.