LIT: Life Ignition Tools

S****elected as a must-read by the curators of the Next Big Idea Book Club, including Daniel Pink, Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, and Adam Grant

“In this illuminating guide, Jeff Karp illustrates how we can break free from the routines that limit our thinking. LIT is an essential toolkit for converting intentions into actions that matter.”—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Don’t we all want to tap our innermost talents of creativity, the full power of our good brains?. . . LIT is a blueprint for a richer, deeper life.” —Diana Nyad

“Jeff Karp’s much-needed book provides a spark and helps us light ourselves up from within — while lighting up the world around us, bringing joy and creativity to all aspects of our lives.” —Arianna Huffington

Radically simple experimental tools to help anyone tap into a high-energy brain state to fire up innovative potential and shape their lives with intention—by the founder of a Harvard biomedical engineering innovation lab.

In an age of convenience and information overload, it’s easy to go through the motions, pressured, distracted, and seeking instant gratification rather than harnessing our potential for meaningful and impactful lives. In LIT, Jeff Karp, Ph.D., professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and biotech innovator, helps us look to nature as a vital source of humankind’s best wisdom, most inspired action, and greatest good. Diagnosed with learning differences at a young age, he persisted through nearly insurmountable struggles with support from his mom in developing ways to achieve hyper-awareness and maximize decisions based on his curiosity, passion, creativity, and connection to nature. He evolved these approaches into LIT (Life Ignition Tools) —and road-tested these tools daily in his own personal life and with his lab team to innovate medical discoveries inspired by the “problem solving” process they find throughout the natural world.

LIT teaches us to:

• turn inward and connect with what is truly important to us
• turn outward to act on that, connecting with others and different ways of knowing
• question assumptions—break out of habitual thinking and other patterns to discover what really serves you best
• explore, experiment, and discover fresh approaches to old challenges

Dr. Karp also shares insights from some of the world’s most accomplished people, including Nobel Prize winners, the founder of an Indigenous wellness center, a visionary photographer, a social justice activist, a five-time US memory champion, an Olympic medalist, and a neurosurgeon who founded a center for compassion, as well as professors, inventors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and members of his laboratory.

Using Dr. Karp’s principles, anyone can redirect their lives with energy, focus, creativity, motivation, intention, and impact. Learning to be lit is the ultimate renewable energy and is accessible to everyone, anytime, wherever you are.