Here again, it’s time to reflect on a book that I’m working through. I swear this blog isn’t supposed to be a book review blog, but it certainly feels like it is becoming one.

This time, I picked up a book that is not just unexpected for me, it’s completely out-of-character.
Joy On Demand: The Art of Discovery the Happiness Within isn’t about IT or business stuff or economics or baseball stats…it’s about meditation! For a dude who hasn’t sat still for more than 30 seconds at a time his entire life, this is completely out of the norm.

I’ve made it most of the way through and am working to implement some of these methods in my own daily life. The book is an instructional guide to how to start meditating and how to keep going, if you meditate regularly already. The author was an early-on engineer at Google who left the engineering team to go to the HR team, where he started mindfulness training for the whole company. Through his ties with Google, he has had the opportunity to spend time with some very influential teachers and now has a fat enough wallet to make mindfulness education his sole career. What a cool story!

This book is full of meditation tips and tricks and some formal and informal things to practice. The focus of the book is to work yourself into a more joyful state through meditation and focusing your mind on the joy in life. Like Mr. Rogers said, “Look at all the helpers.” The author fills it all in with funny little comics and laughter, making for a very good read, even if you don’t want to do any of the stuff he talks about.

Even if I never become a full-fledged meditation guru, this has been a pleasant read and worth my time. I’d suggest everyone check it out, too.