About 14 years ago, I read a wonderful book called “The Book of Awesome,” by Neil Pasricha. I enjoyed it so much that I read his follow-up, “The Book of (Even More) Awesome,” which was also great. I wrote a blog post recommending the book, relating it to the practice of feeling gratitude all the time.
Last month, I attended a business conference, and I was happily surprised when Neil Pasricha was introduced as the keynote speaker. I actually hadn’t remembered his name, but I clearly remembered his books when “The Book of Awesome” was mentioned as part of Pasricha’s introduction.
I had met Pasricha three hours earlier, when we both had hit the hotel gym at 5:30am. He was working out on a machine, right by the gym’s entrance, introduced himself, asked if I was part of the group I was with, and when I asked what company he worked for, he told me he was giving the keynote. He asked me a bunch of questions about the conference attendees, as a kind of final preparation for his speech, which was going to be about being happy, which I was psyched to hear – after all, the first of my Six Simple Rules is “Be Happy”.
His speech was super. Afterwards, as he was leaving the conference room, I told him how much I had enjoyed the speech, and that when we had met in the gym I hadn’t realized I had read his books. It was really nice to get to meet him.
A major takeaway of his speech was his suggestion regarding several 2-minute practices.
The morning practice is to think about three things, something you will let go of that day, something you are grateful for that day, and something you will focus on that day.
The midday practice is focused on strengthening relationships with your family and your friends, the strength of those relationships being the number one driver of happiness according to studies he cited. His suggestion is to call someone, state the value of the relationship, share one thing that’s going wrong for you, a vulnerability, and then ask for help.
Last, for the evening practice, he suggests a game to play with your family, called Rose Rose Thorn Bud, where you go around the dinner table and each person talks about a something great (twice), something that did not go well, and something they are looking forward to.
My summary hardly does justice to Pasricha’s energetic and dynamic presentation. If you get a chance to see him present, be sure to do so. And check out his books. You can also find some of his presentations on YouTube.
All my best,
David