The Desire Map

Danielle LaPorte built a brand around the central idea in The Desire Map. Most goal-setting starts from achievement, what you want to do, what you want to have, what you want to accomplish. LaPorte argues that’s backwards. Start from how you want to feel, then work back to the actions that might produce those feelings.

The book is part workbook. There are exercises designed to surface what LaPorte calls core desired feelings, the small set of emotional states that actually matter to you across different areas of life. Once you know those, the goals you set are supposed to point toward them.

The approach has helped some people significantly. Others find it too soft, too oriented to feeling rather than doing.

Readers who liked Brene Brown’s Atlas of the Heart or Martha Beck’s Finding Your Own North Star will find LaPorte in adjacent territory. Worth reading with a notebook if the framing resonates with you.