Community & Current Events
The story behind the 'awesome' blog
Community & Current Events
The story behind the 'awesome' blog
Two years ago my wife told me she didn't love me anymore, my best friend took his own life, and I was jolted from a comfy cozy house in the 'burbs to a tiny box in the downtown clouds. Life dealt me some duds and I suddenly found myself staring out my window, lying on my crumb-covered couch, eating spoonfuls of Nutella for dinner.
Although I always hit my daily hazelnut quotient, the truth is I was swirling and twirling in a gloomy doomy world. I was feeling run down until one random day I decided to try and slap myself out of it with a tiny blog called 1000 Awesome Things (www.1000awesomethings.com).
Things that are awesome
See, I started making notes on the Internet about the smell of gasoline, wearing warm undies from the dryer, and running around rusty dangerous playground equipment. I started writing about grocery store cashiers opening up new lanes and scoring whole rows to myself on giant airplanes.
And more than anything, I slowly started remembering that people, we got it good.
The blog took off
Over time my little website started getting hundreds, then thousands, then millions of hits. Letters and emails started arriving from around the world, the site started winning awards, and ten agents came out of the woodwork to sign me up for a book deal. Within months The Book of Awesome was printed and it somehow shot to number one on the international bestseller lists.
I guess there are a lot of other people needed to remind themselves that life's actually pretty special.
Small pleasures make a big difference
Yes, writing about awesome things every day helped me get to a place where I was focusing on simple moments instead of big black clouds. I was remembering that high-fiving babies and popping bubble wrap were maybe small pleasures but they make a huge difference.
I think at the end of the day the most important lesson I learned is that life is just little moments added up together. I really believe that when we're lying on our death beds and looking back on our lives, well sure – we'll remember high highs of weddings and low lows of funerals. But more importantly, between all that, we'll remember all the tiny pleasures that add up to make life sweet. We'll remember the sound of stomping baby feet, the smell of barbecues down the street, the all the magic moments in between.
Sure, we'll all have high highs, we'll have low lows, we'll all speed through green lights, we'll all smile and stub our toes. But more than anything we always have to remember we get a new chance every day to wake up, look around, and decide to be absolutely AWESOME!
Neil Pasricha is the author of the #1 International Bestseller The Book of Awesome, which has been translated into French, Dutch, German, and Korean.
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Although I always hit my daily hazelnut quotient, the truth is I was swirling and twirling in a gloomy doomy world. I was feeling run down until one random day I decided to try and slap myself out of it with a tiny blog called 1000 Awesome Things (www.1000awesomethings.com).
Things that are awesome
See, I started making notes on the Internet about the smell of gasoline, wearing warm undies from the dryer, and running around rusty dangerous playground equipment. I started writing about grocery store cashiers opening up new lanes and scoring whole rows to myself on giant airplanes.
And more than anything, I slowly started remembering that people, we got it good.
The blog took off
Over time my little website started getting hundreds, then thousands, then millions of hits. Letters and emails started arriving from around the world, the site started winning awards, and ten agents came out of the woodwork to sign me up for a book deal. Within months The Book of Awesome was printed and it somehow shot to number one on the international bestseller lists.
I guess there are a lot of other people needed to remind themselves that life's actually pretty special.
Small pleasures make a big difference
Yes, writing about awesome things every day helped me get to a place where I was focusing on simple moments instead of big black clouds. I was remembering that high-fiving babies and popping bubble wrap were maybe small pleasures but they make a huge difference.
I think at the end of the day the most important lesson I learned is that life is just little moments added up together. I really believe that when we're lying on our death beds and looking back on our lives, well sure – we'll remember high highs of weddings and low lows of funerals. But more importantly, between all that, we'll remember all the tiny pleasures that add up to make life sweet. We'll remember the sound of stomping baby feet, the smell of barbecues down the street, the all the magic moments in between.
Sure, we'll all have high highs, we'll have low lows, we'll all speed through green lights, we'll all smile and stub our toes. But more than anything we always have to remember we get a new chance every day to wake up, look around, and decide to be absolutely AWESOME!
Neil Pasricha is the author of the #1 International Bestseller The Book of Awesome, which has been translated into French, Dutch, German, and Korean.
Page 1 of 1
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