We’ve all been there.

Sometimes good friends draft the first season of your favorite DVD or stuff your tattered paperback in their saggy backpack before heading into the trenches. When you say goodbye that night you smile strongly and act brave but there are hot salty tears in your eyes.

Because you never know.

In the first few months Season 1 of ALF is serving the nation you think about him constantly and try to make sure he’s safe. You casually ask about him at parties or dream up plans to steal him back from your friend’s cold, dark basement.

Sadly, despite your best efforts, eventually the gappy bookshelves and empty jewel cases at home get dusty and memories get lost in the swirling swallows of time. It’s a funny thing but I suppose after enough calendar flips and changing seasons your thoughts just slowly fade away.

Maybe one year you upgrade your DVDs, stash your CD collection in the attic, or move apartments and put all your books in storage. Maybe one year you eventually just … forget.

It’s sad but it’s true.

Flash forward a few years later and you’re quietly making grilled cheeses for the kids on a sunny afternoon. Dogs bark in the backyard and kids play in the street when suddenly the doorbell rings. You’re not expecting anyone so you wipe your wet hands on your thin flowery apron and swipe your bangs behind your ear while rushing to the door.

You swing it open and as sun splashes into the house your eyes pop wide and your jaw drops open like a mailbox. You can hardly believe it! It’s your old book, slightly tattered, slightly battered, but finally home. Tears well in your eyes, a lump forms in your throat, and you pick it up and hug it like no time has passed at all.

Sure, your life had moved on, your kids had grown older, and all the framed photos on the fireplace mantle were slowly replaced. But although your mind moved on your heart just never ever forgot.

So even though it took forever today we say thanks, old friend. For finally bringing it all home.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like , carrying the ice cube tray from the sink to the freezer without spilling, when you get a package delivered while you’re on a call and the dog doesn’t bark and the feeling you get as soon as you get off a trampoline. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photos from: here, here, and here

It’s a rare treat.

Maybe it’s that lazy Sunday with a hot coffee, fat paper, and dusty sunlight beaming through the windows. Or maybe it’s the Friday sick day where you leave the glasses on, tie the ponytail up, and lounge around in a robe watching soaps with the cat. Or maybe it’s Mother’s Day after breakfast cuddling up with the kids watching movies before ordering pizza for dinner.

Sure, sometimes you wake up without firm plans to stay in your pajamas all day. Maybe you have some errands, a lunch date, or a grocery list. But sometimes those plans hit the ground and you pass The Pajama Point Of No Return — that moment where you suddenly realize you’re too close to bedtime to worry about getting ready for the day.

Yes, once in a while, once in a moment, maybe just once a year, it’s fun to have a super chilled-out lazy You Day full of peaceful relaxing in some warm and comfy clothes.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like watching every single installment of a film series in one day, seeing your parents dance, and when someone you haven’t seen in years suddenly pops into one of your dreams. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com! 

Photos from: here and here

Just look at us.

We blast rocketships into outer space, talk to people across the planet in seconds, and swallow little pills to take away our headaches.

Yet despite these giant leaps forward one thing’s still pretty primal around the world. Ladies, it ain’t pretty, but most guys unzip and drip into a dirty wall toilet while standing next to a bunch of other dudes.

Thankfully there’s some unspoken urinal etiquette to help answer the call of nature with class:

1. Respect The Buffer. The goal is to leave as much space as possible between yourself and fellow urinators. Take the corners first, take the middle last, and when it’s tight out there use the stall or come back later. Elbow contact should be avoided at all costs.

2. High Shhh Alert. Talking is frowned upon especially in the mall, workplace, or everywhere. This ain’t no coffee shop, people. Save that for the sinks.

3. Temporary Food Ban. There’s something wrong with the guy who leaves a sloshy bottle of beer or a half-unwrapped cheeseburger on top of the urinal while he takes care of business. The mental combination of food plus bathroom is far too intense and must be avoided at all costs.

4. Fart ’em if you got ’em. I think we know why.

5. No middles, no problem. Picking the middle from an empty bank of three urinals is considered a cardinal sin of the highest order. This terrible offense upsets the natural order of the men’s room.

6. My, What a Nice Wall. Eye contact is forbidden so keep staring down that brick wall in front of you. If there’s a poster hanging above the urinal, it’s guaranteed that every word will be read at least three times. Some people may even choose their urinal based on how good the poster looks. This is allowed assuming all other rules are followed first.

Phew!

Okay ladies, thanks for putting up with us here. Yes, the men’s room is a nasty, dirty, filthy world. It ain’t pretty and it never will be. But it’s part of our daily lives so let’s all help keep it classy and keep it clean by respecting the codes, respecting the creed, and always observing proper urinal etiquette.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like unpacking the last box, veering to avoid hitting a critter darting across the road and not killing it, and finding all the potato chips in the bag that are folded over. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photos from: here, here, here, and here

Sure, maybe you’re cruising way below the speed limit, but those other guys ain’t even moving. Yes, now’s the time to smile and enjoy your few fleeting moments as the fastest game in town.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like when you expect a bad mark but end up with a good mark, letting your dog sleep with you even though he snores and farts all night, and the sound of sharp skates on a fresh sheet of ice. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photo from: here

Lick and load, people.

Yeah, yeah, sure, we ain’t mailing letters much these days but we both know there’s the odd time you’re forced to fold-n-crease a piece of paper and snug it tightly into a envelope for some smoooooooth mailing.

Now, if you don’t nail it properly you get a fat wedge sticking out the top of the envelope and are left with two horrible choices:

1. The Creasy Jungle. This is where you unfold and refold your crinkly masterpiece. It’s not ideal because there’s no hiding your terrible folding habits. Your letter gets so messy you may as well mail them a stinkbomb or an envelope full of fire ants at this point.

2. The Fat Flabby Fold-Down. This one’s the postage equivalent of attempting an awkward twelve-point turn when your parallel parking job ends up three feet from the curb. When you’re rocking the fat flabby you’re just bending that top crease backwards really tightly. This gives you a thick n’ chunky wedge that barely squeezes in.

Friend, between you and me: there are issues.

Yes, that’s why it’s great when you manage to fold that paper so tightly and fold that paper so rightly that your letter slip n’ slides right into the waiting envelope’s mouth.

When you nail it your eyes twinkle a tiny bit, your smile curls at the lip, and your swagger shakes at the hip, baby.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like accidentally cooking the pasta perfectly al dente, finally figuring out one of those confusing metal puzzle games, and getting bagels that are still hot from the oven. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photos from: here and here

This is the childhood version of Mr. Fixit.

Whether you’re shooting free throws in the driveway, whipping tennis balls at a wall, or tossing frisbees in the park, it always happens, man. Someone tosses it a bit too high, a bit too wobbly, or a bit too wrong direction, and suddenly your whole game gets lodged in a tight squeeze.

Now, the best way to unjam that ball is of course by using its fellow family members against it. This is the backyard equivalent of putting the hostage taker’s mom on the phone during the tense negotiations.

“Antonio, please. It’s your mother. You don’t have to do this,” the bald, withered tennis ball in the crowded street pleads over the radio to the angry scarred one sitting in the gutter.

“I love you, Antonio.”

Yes, using one ball to rescue another one is a truly great thing. Just make sure you watch out for these potential trip-ups along the way:

1. Double Down. This is when your second ball joins the first ball instead of popping it out. Now you’ve got mom and son in the gutter and you’re running out of things to toss up there. Right now’s the time someone usually heads into the garage to get a ladder, hockey stick, or some long foam swimming pool noodles.

2. It’s Raining Running Shoes. This is the opposite of the double down. In this case the good news is the tennis racquet, garden stones, or running shoes you tossed up there did the job. The bad news is you weren’t ready for both to fall so you took a hard Reebok to the kisser on its way down.

3. The Understudy. The good news is you were able to pop the wedged basketball out from behind the backboard. The bad news is you got your other ball stuck up there. You can almost hear the announcer on the PA system, too. “Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. The role of tightly wedged Spalding will be played by half-deflated volleyball in tonight’s performance.”

4. The Sunset. This is where you take so long to dislodge the football out of the tree that the sun sets and forces you to come back tomorrow. This also happens when you’re the one who got the Frisbee hanging from the tree branches to begin with so your friends just wait till you pass it down and leave you up there.

Now, come on, come on, come on: Let’s not let those dreaded trip-you-ups cool down your buzz. We all know the truth is that another ball generally does the job just fine.

So while you’re out grabbing exercise, running around, and getting those cardio levels burning, just remember when your ball gets lodged and your game hits pause, you can always toss another ball up there to get your search and rescue plan running.

Yes, with a sturdy chin, firm brow, and steely determination, you’ll be just fine out there.

Good luck, driveway warriors.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like when the cat helps you find your keys, when you’re not the new guy anymore, and biting into an apple that looks spongy and discovering that it’s actually crisp. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photos from: here, here, and here

You weren’t sure if you were gonna score that cheese-drippy sandwich or crispy hashbrown soaking through the paper sleeve. But you ran in the door and then barely scored a hot and steamy breakfast before the menus flipped, the lights started flashing, and hot burgers started rolling off the line.

Now you can kill your early morning munchies a few different ways. Yes, grab that greasy breakfast before the buzzer, snag a fresh lunch after the flip, or go half-and-half with an Egg McMuffin with fries stuffed in it or a Big Mac with a hashbrown patty in place of the middle bun.

You’re a fast-food superstar.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like being the guy on the roadside construction crew who gets to hold the Stop sign, remembering the attachment right before sending the email, and the first swipe of the lip balm. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photo from: here

• 1979 – I was born in Oshawa, Canada (a suburb of Toronto) to parents from Nairobi, Kenya and Tarn Taran, India.
• 2008 – This blog became therapy after my marriage fell apart and best friend took his own life. I was 28.
• 2008 – 2012 – I wrote and published one awesome thing here every single weekday for 1000 straight weekdays. It was the most rewarding and demanding creative project I have ever done. This blog went viral and scored over one hundred million visits and won “Best Blog in the World” two years in a row from a somewhat dubious organization called the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
• 2010 – I gave a TED Talk called “The 3 A’s of Awesome” which has over three million views and is ranked one of the 10 “Most Inspiring” TED Talks of all time. 
• 2010 – today – I signed a series of book deals after the blog got popular. Today I am very, very lucky to be the New York Times bestselling author of ten books and journals including The Book of Awesome (2010 / gratitude), The Happiness Equation (2016 / happiness), Two Minute Mornings (2017 / morning routine), You Are Awesome (2019 / resilience), Our Book of Awesome (2022 / gratitude) and many more. The books have been on bestseller lists for over 200 weeks and sold over two million copies. I know how crazy rare and lucky this is. 
• 2014 – I got remarried. This requires a lot more than a bullet point or even a whole blog post.  
• 2016 – I quit my job at Walmart to focus on writing and speaking full-time. I had written five books and given 200 speeches by 2016 which is testament to how little I believed I was having anything beyond ’15 minutes of fame’ and how kind, generous, and supportive the organization was for the eight years I did both. 
• 2016 – I gave the world’s first ever TED Listen, which was a TED Talk composed entirely out of questions. YouTube commenters rate it one of the 10 “Least Inspiring” TED Talks of all time. 
• 2016 – today – I try to read 100 books a year and send out a monthly Book Club with my book recommendations each month. I sort of tangentially ended up writing the most popular article on HBR for 2017 called “8 Ways To Read (A Lot) More Books This Year.” 
• 2016 – today – I launched The Institute for Global Happiness. While I am proud of it I have not done a good job growing or maintaining it. I started hiring people and looking at office space and realized I prefer spending time with my family and writing on picnic tables in the park. 
• 2016 – today – I give around 50 keynote speeches a year on topics like resilience, happiness, and cultivating positive mindset in times of uncertainty. 
• 2018 – I gave a SXSW Featured Keynote called “Building Trust in Distrustful Times”
• 2018 – 2031 – I run an award-winning podcast called 3 Books where I am counting down the 1000 most formative books over 333 straight lunar cycles. Guests include Brené Brown, Malcolm Gladwell, Roxane Gay, Cheryl Strayed, George Saunders, Vivek Murthy, Quentin Tarantino, Jonathan Franzen, and David Sedaris.
• 2019 – today – I launched Neil.blog as a new personal home. Here is my latest bio. Most of my latest writing is published there and comes out via a series of newsletters. (I also sometimes write for HBR and Fast Company and MSNBC)
• 2020 – today – For the first time since 2012, I began posting 1000 more awesome things for my own mental health during the pandemic. The awesome things are published at 12:01am every day on this email list and @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  (I don’t love social media but didn’t want to mess with this antique site which lives in a very specific corner of my brain and also didn’t want to run a fifth site after this site, globalhappiness.org, 3books.co, and neil.blog.)

Just slide smoothly into that second skin and get ready to rock the streets with your perfectly wrapped package. Yes, it’s time to shake that booty strong and get your moves on long because you look great, girlfriend.

See, we all have that one perfect pair of pants that fits us best. And I think we all know how it feels to throw them on before heading out.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like sleep lines, getting the last blueberry lemon scone at the bakery, and wheelchair accessible nature trails. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photo from: here

Smile and stare out into the glimmery ocean distance as your feet sink and squish into the wet sand at the edge of the waves. Squeeze pockets of drippy beach in your hands and rub your dirty palms together for a mini-massage as the burnt orange sun slowly dips down in the distance. Breathe that warm and salty ocean breeze and dig your feet in deep as you close your eyes for a moment, let your mind drift away, and just let it all go.

Just let it all go.

Just let it all go.

AWESOME!

My brand new book OUR BOOK OF AWESOME has just come out! It’s a 432-page hardcover full of awesome things like seeing your teacher in the grocery store and suddenly realizing they are a real person, when the Kleenex goes through the washer and dryer and miraculously stays in one piece, and a steaming bald head after a satisfying winter run. Get a copy at ourbookofawesome.com!

Photo from: here