1000 Awesome Things is just a time-ticking countdown of 1000 awesome things. Launched June, 2008 and updated every weekday. Full story here.
Also, I share the inspiration this site in this TED Talk:
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Some thoughts and reviews from around the horn:
“1000 Awesome Things might be described as optimism for the rest of us. Sunny without being saccharine, it’s a countdown of life’s little joys that reads like a snappy Jerry Seinfeld monologue by way of Maria Von Trapp.” – The Vancouver Sun
“Neil Pasricha is the guru of small joys.” – The Toronto Star
“None of what Pasricha shares is philosophical or heady. Similarly, his style is not a pontification on a single universal truth on how to live a more positive life, regardless of one’s personal circumstances. It’s absent of prescriptions that assume only changing the way we think will result in better outcomes. He merely brings to life — and reminds us about — the small occasions that will likely have you saying to yourself, “yes, that is so right. Why didn’t I think of that?” Pasricha doesn’t mandate a way to live well. In many simple ways, he just reminds us that we already do.” – The Huffington Post
“Pasricha finds fun in frustrations, going from grit to wit.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“Strangely heartwarming… perfect for rainy days.” – The New Yorker
“Laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with just enough sarcastic nostalgia…” – Wired.com
“Honors the little joys of life.” – USA Today
“Consumer angst has turned western civilization into a morass of grumpy old men moaning about shoddy battery life of iPhones or the annoying omnipresence of accident claims adverts when you just want to watch a daytime quiz show. So sometimes, it’s nice to remind yourself of life’s sweeter side and the pleasures to be had from the small things — like peeling the thin plastic film off new electronic gadgets or sneaking your own cheap snacks into the cinemas. 1000 Awesome Things deserves its recent Webby Award; life really is awesome after all.” – The Guardian
“1000 Awesome Things is the #1 awesome website.” – Frank Warren, PostSecret
“Laugh out loud. You feel like you’ve thought of these things a thousand times but just haven’t stopped to write them down.” – BBC South America
“A lovingly beautiful blog. It’s like being a three- or four-year-old and looking at the world for the first time again. Read it and you’ll feel good about being human.” – Jim Hedger, Host of Webcology, Webmaster radio
“Unrelentingly optimistic without being sappy. It’s less about awesome things than it is about seeing the awesomeness of the everyday.” – The Toronto Star
“Cool Site of the Day!” – The Kim Komando Show, #1 Weekend Talk Radio Show in the US
“One of the Top 100 Blogs of 2010.” – PC Mag
“One of the Top 100 Web sites of 2009.” – PC Mag
“One of the Top 50 Blogs of 2009.” – PC Mag
“Given the hectic nature of our lives, it’s easy to overlook the little things that make it all worthwhile. Thank goodness we’ve got this new site to remind us of life’s small pleasures. They’re just getting started with the list but we’ve already identified a few favorites including that pile of assorted beers left in your fridge after a party, locking people out of the car and pretending to drive away, and finding money you didn’t even know you lost. – The Record (San Joaquin County Daily Newspaper)
“A simple but brilliant idea.” – Fox News
“… the most optimistic, sunny blog online. You have to test your cynicism against this affirmation of all things and see if you can actually handle it.” – CBC Radio
“Sleeping in your own bed after a long trip, being able to carry all the groceries from the car in one swoop, that miracle of science when the amount of toilet paper left on the toll is the exact amount you need – these are just some of the quietly awesome things in life at 1000 Awesome Things.” – Mental Floss
“Best of 2009.” – All My Faves
“1000 Awesome Things should put itself on the list of 1000 Awesome Things. I’d hit it.” – Cheezburger Ben Huh, I Can Has Cheezburger? & FAIL Blog
“1000 Awesome Things is where the modern world stops to smell the roses.” – Ben Mercer, CFRB 1010
“Reading your blog always brings a smile to my face & I feel like I am talking to you.” – Email from author’s mother, January 12, 2009
“One of the best Pop Culture Blogs on the Internet.” – Make Five, “The Best Pop Culture Blogs”
“1000 Awesome Things is a case study on how to create an amazing contribution to the blogosphere. ” – Wikinomics, “How to build an amazing blog”
“1000 Awesome Things is absolute, pure joy.” – Q107, Calgary, Alberta, “The Terri and Patti Show”
“There’s something riveting about 1000 Awesome Things that makes you want to keep coming back. Aside from the great humor, it reminds you of the little things in life, and how awesome they can be.” – Zen Habits, Leo Babauta
“Internet humor is basically pissing all over things just for the sake of pissing on them, even if they don’t particularly deserve it. Fake outrage gets a little wearisome. 1000 Awesome Things, on the other hand, is taking the road less traveled and showing that loving things can be just as funny as hating them.” – Man vs. Clown!, Peter Lynn
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And now for the legal stuff: Use of this website is for personal, non-commercial purposes. Any other use is expressly forbidden. The authors of this website own all content together with any comments and suggestions, including those sent in by electronic means. Users choosing to make any suggestions or comments thereby release any rights to them. The authors are free to use, adapt or ignore any suggestions and are not required to acknowledge them in any form.
Just discovered this blog … LOVE IT! Can’t wait to get the book.
Hey the blog its great!!! but i cant see the most beatiful thing in this life… when you must to go to the school or work, you wake up in the morning (always cold mornings) and you see the watch and you see 2 hours before u must to wake up, this means more time for stay in the bed!!! this make feel super happy!!! :)
Greeting for one mexican studing in Germany!!!
awesome is when you can crawl back into a toasty warm bed with a 100% wool blanket to wrap around your body, and you can shut the world out, and steal some extra, much-needed zzzzzz’s !!!
A funny and happy idea
Thanks
Neil, I just read the article about your “awesome” life in the Toronto Star. Just wanted to know….are you the Neil Pasricha who was in my grade 3 class at Sunset Heights? If so, reading about you has truly been my awesome moment for today. I’d like to think I perhaps played a small part in your success and in inspiring your wonderful writing skills. Please let me know if you are in fact my former student. I don’t forget my good students, even though I have been retired for ten years.
Genius i tell ya… sheer bloody genius :)
You forgot…
Peeling a Biore strip off your nose and seeing all the little bumps it picked up!
Congratulations on your book and best wishes, and thanks for a great website, very inspiring.
This site is simply awesome. I’m so happy I found it! Thanks!
great stuff
The power of positivity!
Love your website ,
Am looking foward to your postings.
Hey guess what?
You changed one more person’s life!
I’m not sure if you have put that as an awesome thing, but you should. Thanks for making my life a bit cheerier.
Oh and please make sure someone always keeps this blog going.
hello!
just discovered your wonderful site and inspired have added some/many of my favorite things to my blog, i was going to send them into you but had far too many, once i started i couldn’t stop!
wrote 1500 words of them in this first sitting and so many more to come still.
have a look if you get a chance and let me know what you think. http://chloegosling.wordpress.com
best wishes c
Hi Neil! I saw you on Breakfast televison this morning and had a bit of a giggle because I started a list of my own this year!
http://lauriesims.wordpress.com/
Love the idea! I’ll have to check out your book.
P.S – the little spoons they give you when you eat ice cream = awesome!
Hi, I found your blog on Delicious.com and I want to say that your blog was AWESOME. I really like this type of blog. Make me smile every time I read your blog post.
Cheers from Malaysian blogger. :)
I enjoyed reading your blog.
the nap entry is a really good read.
thank you for writing your blog.
peace.
Hey,
I can’t believe I didn’t know about this blog until now but better late than never. Serendipity! I love the awesomness of it!
Discovered your site through a friend of Kiryn’s. Absolutely brilliant idea, and congratulations on the recent book deal. I can’t wait to dig through the archives. :)
Thank you for making me smile.
Wow! Just discovered you today (thank you PostSecret). Can’t wait to read more.
I don’t know if you read all these rants of crazy kids writing your praises, but Neil I too think you’re awesome. Found your website yesterday and bought your book today, AWESOME. It’s all the little things I love about life but forgot to appreciate, so thanks for reminding me.
I would like to subscribe to your blog by email
You are inspiring. Amazing. And I only am left with one question…will you be my boyfriend?
Great site-I’m glad I found it!
I think after reading 1000 Awesome Things I have definitely cheered up a lot and have looked at life in a different, more positive way. I’ve shared some of these awesome things with my school friends and now, you have more than 50 readers everyday coming online just to read 1000 Awesome Things all the way from Shanghai, China (I read about this site on China Daily–a local English newspaper). Thanks so much for spreading the awesomeness.
Reading a book so funny that tears stream down your cheeks! Awesome!
I love your new book so much that I am giving copies to everyone I know.
Thank you for the ultimate gratitude list.
Neil,
I was in your Comm ’02 class. Always enjoyed reading your GW editorials. But probably your funniest piece was the speech you gave at the Comm ’02 commitment dinner about how you were selected to be the main speaker.
You’re a gifted writer. Keep up the Awesome work!
Two simultaneously ends of the spectrum were just experienced by me in relation to your blog:
While reading a newspaper article about said blog at my kitchen table and eating a salad I
1) discovered an edible flower in my greens. Awesome.
2) Then I decided to come up to my computer to acknowledge this discovery.
This took me away from my real enjoyment of the awesomeness by having to interact with this digital (and slow) object.
Thanks for your work.
H
I Stumble’d onto this website, read a few and immediately thought of: those 2 or 3 people who stand up when you really want to give a standing ovation, but don’t want to be the first.
They’re helping you out and you don’t even know it!
Love the website, hope to check out the book!
I love them all!
I need a strap for a tupperware vintage cake carrier with a number of 683-2. Do you know where I can buy a used strap?
When you are clothes shopping and you fit into a smaller size that you usually wear. You know its just a factory fault or a bigger cut but its still awesome!
Hi Neil,
I just found out about your site a couple weeks ago on The Toronto Star, and I’ve been hooked since.
I thought of another awesome thing this morning and wanted to share: the song you hear out of the blue when you’re out, like commuting into work and you hear it on someone’s iPod or on the music in the underground route you take, that makes you smile and sing it all day. (You probably covered this already but I hadn’t gotten through them all yet.)
Keep up your awesome work!
Love your blog. Just finished a good book last night and I thought to myself–this is an awesome thing. I love finishing a book! The smug satisfaction, the ceremonial closing of the book, moving it to the “I read these” pile, saying goodbye to the characters…
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Stay awesome.
Oh! I just thought of a couple of awesome things! 1. Holding a warm puppy/kitten next to you. 2. The feel of the Sun hitting your body. 3. The first sip of Coke. 4. Water. 5. Trees, and climbing up one. 6. Hearing the Ice Cream Man’s bells. 7. A hot shower after being stuck in rain. 8. Technology and sewing machines. (I would suggest checking out an episode of Deconstructed for this one.) 9. The fact that octopi (octopuses? You get the picture.) can blend in with their background, but can’t see color. 10. Standing up for a total stranger.
I couldn’t figure out how to sign up by email without leaving a comment.
Great site!
1000 Awesome Things reminds me what it’s like to be a kid. It reminds me that even though we grow up and get older, we are all still little kids inside – amazed by the small things in life.
i love it! please subscribe me!
My awesome moment today:
Missing the bus because you’re reading a really amazing book/article/something. Happened to me today… And it was worth it! After all, your book is AWESOME!
#525 – That Teacher.
Hey, Neil. Given that THAT teacher was an awesome thing, I thought I’d point out that SMART Technologies has just launched a “Love of Learning” campaign that acknowledges and celebrates teachers around the globe. People like Mr. Dorsman. The campaign simply asks one question: “Who do you think is the best teacher in the world?”
you can check it out here:
http://www.SMARTloveoflearning.com
(Full disclosure: My agency worked on the campaign)
Congrats on your success. Keep it up!
rt
Dear Neil
SOOOOO I picked up your book late last week while I was at a TO chapters having no idea what the heck it was. And I started reading. And I happened on- what was it exactly? Finding the Q and the U at the same time in Scrabble. Not exactly the title, because I still cannot find the scrabble bit to re-read. I was reading out loud to a friend cross-country some of your other amusing bits and could not find Scrabble. I just now, to reference the title of it, looked again, and it appears it is the shangri-la of AWESOME! because it remains hidden from me. Also, what had me laughing out loud in a downtown space where let’s face it we are all cold as the blended frappachinos we dig so much, was the Dangerous Playground Equipment. Wow! Here I am, thinking of a movie at Scotia Centre to distract me from my 3 jobs and my dreams of why I came to this city when I get LIFE! Full force in its awesomeness thrust upon me by an amazing commentator.
Thank you for bringing me back from my dreariness. It was a long hard slog and then you came along and polished the hard work and the long hours and I saw the dreams again. Sometimes when the dreams start to fade, I’ll have to get my (AUTOGRAPHED, ladies!) copy out and search for Scrabble again.
Thanks,
Alison
ps. I discovered later a happy surprise, I got a copy that also had several indications of coloured sharpies’ colours being awesome. It also denoted that I, too was in fact, Awesome!
it all made for something of a mood shift I was desperately wanting. but could not bring it about alone thanks, again, Neil
grammatical corrections I realised after I could not delete and re-write
AS cold as the blended…
thanks, again, Neil.
it’s just like text messaging, making grammar/spelling corrections after the fact to show what a nerd you are! An awesome thing of mine.
Just watched you on the Today show…I’m sorry I have missed this site and message. What a daily way to celebrate. I will buy the book! :)
PS I, too, like the smell of gasoline! Always brings me back to the days of “gas wars” and prices of 19.9 cents per gallon!!
Just read some of your awesome things.. I love it..! and will spend more time here..
an inspiration to all new bloggers! thank you.
haha, my first time on your blog:), and it simply brought a smile to my face.
I would like to get your posts via email, hope this is how to do it by selecting the box “subscribe to site by email below”
This is the gold standard that I look to for my blog writing inspiration. Thx. Neil