Get ready to turn life’s lemons into some delicious lemonade with Neil Pasricha’s latest book, You Are Awesome!
by Julia Migné
2019 is coming to an end. In the UK, that’s synonymous with endless grey skies, rainy days and dark evenings making it difficult to find the positive and kickstart the day on a bright note.
But, November is also the time for hot chocolate, Christmas anticipation and weekends spent snuggling under the blanket with a good book. Though the last few weeks before New Year’s Eve is the perfect time to start reflecting on the successes and failures we faced this year, it can often turn us into our biggest critics.
Neil Pasricha aims to change that through his new book which introduces a constructive and motivating way to reflect and review. You Are Awesome helps navigate change and tackle failure while being nice to yourself.
The book is the perfect prescription to boost your spirit before winter arrives. After covering gratitude in The Book of Awesome and happiness in The Happiness Equation, the best-selling author now takes a deep dive into the art of resilience.
“All we need,” writes Neil, “are a few directional arrows to get us back on track whenever we fall off course”. The book provides nine such arrows to help the readers grow while wrestling with change and failure.
Taking us on a journey through his life, Neil shines a light on the importance of not giving up in the face of adversity. He reminds us that “sometimes the hardest thing to do is simply making the decision to keep going”.
You might feel like you are stuck right now but you can always look past the period and add a dot-dot-dot to your story. Start adding a ‘yet’ at the end of your sentences to open new doors in your mind and let the freedom of those three letters take you to a different place.
Throughout the book, Neil does not shy away from tough topics and explores his failures. From talking about how terrible he was at his first “dream job” to the pain and heartbreak caused by his divorce, the Canadian writer manages to turn his personal experience into insightful life lessons.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is simply making the decision to keep going.
We’ve all felt broken or miserable at some point and probably floated around at work feeling like complete imposters. But those so-called failures are not an end per se. They can lead to new beginnings and are part of what makes us grow into the most awesome version of ourselves.
As Neil puts it: “It has to do with trusting the process, trusting yourself, knowing you’ve been okay before, and believing that after losses and setbacks, things often get back on track”.
That’s not an easy task but each chapter of the book takes you one step closer. Through the anecdotes from his own life, small cartoons, outputs from researchers such as Brené Brown and concrete exercises, Neil gives his readers a path to follow and guide to change their mindset about failures.
If you feel like it’s time for you to reframe your story and want a boost before reviewing yet another list of resolutions then this is the book for you! Grab a blanket and dive into You Are Awesome and start changing the way you assess your so-called failures!
Julia Migné is a multimedia journalist and wildlife photographer specialising in environmental issues and odd hobbies. She has written for Africa Geographic and BBC Wildlife among others. An endless traveller, she swears that she would visit one country for each letter of the alphabet.