The Backpack How to Understand and Manage Yourself While Loving Others Along the Way

Self-awareness is like a backpack. The questions are, do we know what’s in it? Do we know what we need to take out or put in? Do we take full responsibility for it? And, do we know and, just as importantly, care about how it is impacting others? Are we whacking them with our backpacks as we encounter them, or are we considerate and kind? Do we choose to love them well? The complete understanding of our backpacks is essential for a successful journey towards living our best lives. When it comes to our backpacks, we have choices—there are always choices.

The Backpack: How to Understand and Manage Yourself While Loving Others Along the Way is a moving, relatable, and humorous story that stresses the critical importance of personal self-awareness, which includes a strong, healthy sense of other-awareness. Jon, Sofia, and Buddy, three unique travelers on life’s journey, all end up on the same flight. Jon is a hurried, judgmental, and angry traveler who lacks self-awareness; he is completely unaware of his backpack. His unintended journey of discovery will show him just how many problems his backpack has caused him. . . and others. Sofia is the wise flight attendant who packs her backpack carefully, understands how to take care of herself, and lives by a clear set of core values. And then there is Buddy—the kind, experienced, wise, and down-to-earth cowboy who is a genuine friend to all he encounters on his journey. Buddy has learned that self-awareness is about understanding himself and others, taking full responsibility for his life, loving others well along the way, and taking time to “enjoy the ride.”

With a fully loaded plane, Jon takes off on the transformational flight of his career, finally realizing that true self-awareness—the kind that leads to the most fulfilling and successful life—is, well, like a backpack.

A guide for being fully equipped to succeed on the journey of life

The Backpack: How to Understand and Manage Yourself While Loving Others Along the Way tells the story of Jon, Sofia, and Buddy whose pathways merge on a life-changing flight. Written by a senior consultant with the Flippen Group (a world-wide leader in self-awareness training), the book brings together an angry passenger, a wise flight attendant, and a down-home cowboy. Their chance meeting leads to the ride of their lives as they fully grasp the importance and meaning of their backpacks.

As this engaging story reveals, self-awareness is like a backpack! If we are to be prepared to succeed on the journey of life, we need to know and accept which backpack is ours, decide what we need to put in it or take out of it, and be fully aware of how our backpacks are affecting all of the other passengers around us. The question is: Are we whacking the other passengers with our backpack as we travel through life. . . or are we helping them?

• Offers life lessons on self-awareness written in the form of a funny and engaging story
• Shows how we can lighten, fill and understand our “backpack” in order to lead a more successful life
• Written by a senior consultant with the Flippen Group

The Backpack offers a story that explores the concepts of self-awareness and other-awareness, including the importance of appreciating your personality, living by your core values, mentally preparing for your day, being aware of your impact on others and packing your backpack wisely.