Do you know what you’re doing when you’re doing it? Are you doing what you want to be doing? Are you happy?
If the answer to any of these questions is No, then this book is for you.
Do you want to improve in what you’re doing? Do you want to rise in your field and take on a leadership role? Do you want to understand why you do what you do? Do you want to find greater satisfaction in life in general?
If the answer to any of these questions is Yes, then this book is for you.
Matt Tenney is an engaging author. He writes as if he were speaking to us in a living room. Tim Gard is a neuroscientist, who knows the brain inside out. He has added “Neuro Notes” to Tenney’s text every couple of pages. The average reader will find Dr. Gard’s notes heavy-going. They are excellent for those who want medical and scientific insights into brain activity and development. Even the non-scientist will gain from them, although a familiarity with neuro-terminology rapidly becomes a must. However, as Tenney himself notes in the Preface, if the Neuro Notes are too much, a reader can skip them and still gain much from the text itself.
What one gains is mindfulness, awareness, a greater appreciation for the world around, even for the mundane parts, since, after all, most of what we know is mundane. Still, in the very routine of things, we can find wonder, and Mr. Tenney shows us how.
The book comes in two parts. The first is essentially a sales job for the second. The first tells us what mindfulness is and why it’s important. Mindfulness does not necessarily mean meditation or adding something to a crowded day. Mindfulness simply means being aware of what one is about, aware at a deeper level than most of us are used to. In Part 2, Tenney tells us how we actually can practice and develop this art, beginning with brushing one’s teeth. He goes on from there to the substantial and profound, including a powerful chapter on pain and suffering. The former we cannot avoid; the latter is optional, and this chapter shows us how we can exercise that option.
Tenney occasionally is guilty of the trite example, but when he writes on wisdom, and draws a distinction between it and intelligence, when he writes on how to advance in wisdom, then he is getting to the very root of mindfulness. He emphasizes this is not a new philosophy; it is a way of being at one with the world. It is a way of improving relationships with oneself, with others, even with inanimate objects. It is a way of becoming who we have the potential of being.
The purpose of the book is not to make a person happy, although Tenney spends a bit of time on that. Happiness is the by-product of a mindful life, for happiness is an attitude, a mindset, not a destination. The purpose of the book is to help its readers become more at home in their lives, to get more out of their lives, and to give more to their lives and to the lives of the people around them.
Tenney knows whereof he speaks. He is open about his past, six years of which were spent in a military prison. This author has known the downside of life, but he (after the first year) was not beaten down by it. He rose through it, and if he can rise through that, then we his readers can rise through anything.
I recommend this book to everyone who wants to gain further insight into his or her own life and make deeper contributions to the world around us and to gain more satisfaction and happiness in the process.