Episode 47 - Review and Summary of The Present by Spencer Johnson

Booked Morning Podcast

Our lives today are consumed with goals, plans and thoughts of wishes and wants in life. We are often a victim of time. Constantly trying to figure out what we need to do tomorrow. Or even dwelling on our past, and regretting what could have been or should have been. How often do we actually enjoy our work? Or do we get caught up thinking about getting things done and meeting deadlines, and not give our self the chance to actually enjoy the process. We get stressed out trying to impress others with our work that it keeps us in a cycle of worry and not be able to perform to our fullest potential. As a father with a very busy life, I sometimes get distracted thinking about tomorrow that it keeps me from enjoying the quality time I am actually spending with my family. I remember listening to a speech by Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, tell a story when they were a young, up and coming startup, they were packing their orders on the floor, and their knees hurt so bad. And then he came up with an idea, which he felt was the stupid, that they needed Knee pads. One of his employees laughed and said, no we need Packing tables. Which he often credits as brilliant. When he thinks back to those days. He remembers, those long days and weeks as one of the luckiest experiences that had ever happened to him. Not the surge of orders, but the challenges they faced itself, which they learned to accept. He said “It formed a culture of customer service — in every department, every single person in the company — because we had to work with our hands so close to the customers, making sure that those orders went out.” “It really set up a culture that’s served us well, and that is our goal to be earth’s most customer-centric company.” And he did this by being present in the moment for those customers they were serving at the time. That is what the author Spencer Johnson tries to address in this book in a form of a parable. Similar to his other best selling book, which I love, Who moved my cheese. Which I did a review on Episode 4. This book, tells us to live in the present moment. Our past is already done and we can’t redo while our future is hard to predict. The Present is a story about a young man who discovers a way to live. The man didn’t understand life and became bitter and was letting his life unravel. Then a mentor gets him going in the right direction.