The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide to Discovering Your True Calling with Stephen Cope

Ashwin Shetty: Cope does a great job interpreting the lives and works of greats from the past and distilling accessible lessons for us. This interpretation of the Gita to today’s life is a veritable gift to those of us who lack the ability to interpret the Gita ourselves. In doing so, Cope had truly lived out this dharma.

United States on Aug 21, 2023

Mary Padron: I am so glad this book ended up in my lap as it is eye-opening about purpose and soul matters. The words in this book may change your life,putting you closer to your dharma, life's true calling for YOU!

United States on Aug 21, 2023

Kathryn Kuppan: Learned things about myself and life journey that makes sense and has helped me with my own physical and mental self help regime

Canada on Feb 23, 2021

Zhenzheng Hu: I rarely write reviews for books. This is probably the most sincerely written book that I had ever read (You can feel that not only the author believes what he writes, he lives in it)! It is so readable yet the message in it is nothing small. I am sure that Stephen Cope wrote this book with his entire heart (writing as his dharma) and I am so grateful that he did. I have previously read two books about the Gita but never feel connected to it, until this one. I will be return to a deeper study of the Gita and cannot wait to read his other book on yoga.

United Kingdom on Apr 01, 2019

Ron Immink: Purpose

Andro Donovan's "Motivate yourself" is probably one of the best books on finding your purpose. If not the best, it is definitely the most practical.  

Purpose is the new black

Purpose is the new black in business. It helps you to scale your company as described in "exponential organisations", it helps you to be more productive (no purpose, no flow) as written about in "Stealing fire", it helps with selling to your customers ("Loveability"), and it is good for the soul. Read "The code of the extraordinary mind."

The great work of your life

Hence picking up “The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling” by Stephen Cope.

Some searching questions:

Are you afraid that you will die without having lived fully?
Have you come home to your true self?
Is your soul awake?
Have you found your Dharma or a true calling?
What is your sacred duty?
Bhagavad Gita

The book follows the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture on finding your purpose and the ethical and moral struggles of the human life. Going beyond wealth, power, fame, and leisure. Find fulfilment in profound engagement and...

United Kingdom on Aug 17, 2017

G Drummond: I loved this book. Read in three sittings. If you love Steven Pressfields work, you'll love this. Cope manages to make the Bhagavad Gita accessible and apply able to our modern lives. I love the mixture of famous people from history who lived the Gita and ordinary people he knew too. This personal aspect of it made it a very warm and engaging book to read as well as made you feel the author was deeply connected to the philosophy he was writing about. I would whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who feels, like Arjuna, stuck at the edge of the battlefield not knowing which way to go and who is looking for a set of deeper guiding principles to light the way.

United Kingdom on May 13, 2017

HappyLuckyAlix: I was drawn by Stephen Cope's premise, I've read some of his other work and think he's an interesting and insightful thinker, but not necessarily good at communicating this ideas in text. As an introduction to the Gita this is a nice book, but too long. I don't care for his detailed descriptions of the lives of either the well-known individuals he uses as examples, and who seem to have been chosen at random, or his hybridised 'oridinary people' who were all of a type and suffering from some seriously tiresome first world problems, so I skipped large chunks of these long life-stories. I'm still not really clear what this individual 'dharma' to which we are all to aspire actually is, as his concept isn't properly concluded and seems to conflict with a lot of Buddhist and yogic teaching I've come across elsewhere. Made me want to go to the source and read the Gita myself.

United Kingdom on May 01, 2015

Angela Risner The Sassy Orange: Finding this book was very crucial for me. For years, I've been trying to fit myself into an expected mold. My parents were born during the Great Depression. They came from very poor families, and to them, success was a job that didn't involve physical labor or coming home covered in dirt. My dad wore a suit and tie to work. That was a measure of success.

I was raised to want to work in an office. Actually, my parents wanted me to become a pharmacist, but I couldn't imagine anything more boring. I was artsy. I majored in music. And then I ended up working in an office. This is what I was supposed to do.

But it wasn't. And for twenty years, I forced it to work. But I was never completely happy. And over the years, I became ill. From the recycled air in building where you couldn't open the windows. From sitting 8+ hours per day, 5 or more days per week.

We weren't made to do that. Our bodies were never meant to be so stagnant. Now that I'm finally healthy again, I don't ever want to go back to corporate. I don't want to sit for 8 hours per day. I want something that allows me to be active and yes, even to get dirty.

Stephen Cope had a similar journey....

United States on Dec 21, 2013

Henry: Sometimes a book just finds you. In my case I just turned 50 and feel as if my calling has escaped me despite having been successful in business. With a somewhat heavy heart that dharma has escaped my every effort to catch it (there lies the paradox) I downloaded Cope's book on my new Kindle and read it straight through. And how could I not read this book? My father did his dissertation on Walden's Pond and Thoreau and HDT and I share the same first and middle name, "Henry David," as I was named after the great writer. Thoreau is a central figure in Cope's book.

I love spiritual non-fiction and have read well over 100 books on the soul, love, the shadow, spirit, and how to live an abundant and happy life. And while many are dog eared, underlined and highlighted, never before have I ever read a book that was just perfect. I dont purport to be qualified to edit such a great book but had I been put to the task, I wouldn't have changed, added or subtracted one word. This is a brilliant work of art and although Cope is modest and even comically self-disparaging at times, I believe this book has no peers in uncovering one's soul purpose in this incarnation--if that is of interest...

United States on Jan 06, 2013