You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life

by Neil Pasricha Narrated by Neil Pasricha

Overview

INSTANT #1 BESTSELLER

This revelatory and inspiring book will change the way we view failure and help us build resilience from the New York Times, million-copy bestselling author of The Book of Awesome series and The Happiness Equation, thought leader for the next generation, and one of the most popular TED speakers in the world.

Why is life getting harder instead of easier? How do I get back up after life knocks me down? And how do I grow stronger and live more intentionally?

We are lucky. For most of us, famine, plague, economic depression, and other life-threatening catastrophes are the stuff of history books. We're living in an era with the highest-ever rates of longevity, education, and wealth. Cars drive us home as our phones entertain us before we arrive to food delivered to the front door. We have it all!

But there's just one side effect. We no longer have the tools to handle failure or even perceived failure. When we fall, we lie on the sidewalk crying. When we spill, we splatter. When we crack, we shatter. We are turning into an army of porcelain dolls.

A rude email from the boss means calling in sick. Only two likes on our post means we don't have friends. Cell phones show us we're never good enough. Yesterday's butterflies are tomorrow's panic attacks. Record numbers of students have clinical anxiety. And what about depression, loneliness, and suicide?

All rising!

What do we desperately need to learn?

RESILIENCE. And we need to learn it fast.

Read You Are Awesome to learn:
¿ The single word that keeps your options open after failure
¿ What every commencement speech gets wrong
¿ 3 ways to dramatically accelerate your ability to learn and adapt
¿ The 2-minute morning practice that helps eliminate worry
¿ Why you need an Untouchable Day (and how to get one)
¿ and much, much more...

Because the truth is, you really are awesome.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2020 - AudioFile

Bestselling author and super popular TED talker Pasricha narrates his likable audiobook, which helps listeners be a little happier when grappling with life’s inevitable failures and challenges. Moving beyond merely stating that resilience matters, Pasricha offers concrete, achievable steps toward its practice. In personable short chapters, the author shares a variety of actionable tips: a powerful word that helps keep a sense of options open after failure, ways to dramatically increase the ability to learn and adapt, a short morning practice to help banish worry, and the super useful concept of “untouchable days”—going completely off-line and being unreachable to increase creativity and productivity. His narrative brims with engaging research and quirky personal examples that infuse this audiobook with an irresistible sense of possibility. J.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

11/04/2019

In this undercooked work, Pasricha (The Happiness Equation), 1000 Awesome Things blogger and host of the 3 Books podcast, offers nine concepts that, with mixed effectiveness, promise to initiate the reader into a “secret” life of inner strength. Pasricha’s nuggets of perceived wisdom range from decent advice (don’t relent “in the face of things that look immovable”) to the less helpful (the only possible movement is forward). Pasricha’s writing is punchy (“benign envy is contagious... it motivates others to improve their own performance”) but also tends toward oversimplification. Secrets he lets readers in on include “keep your options infinite,” “shift the spotlight” (direct one’s attention to what is important), see challenges as a “step,” and “tell yourself a different story.” Fans of the author’s blog will find his trademark style in evidence here; however, newcomers may find Pasricha’s prose shallow (“real growth doesn’t come through destruction. It comes from taking what came before and integrating it into a greater whole”), his claims poorly substantiated, and much of his logic worrying—as in the section on “always moving forward,” in which he treats his father’s refusal ever to return to his native India (with no substantive explanation), where he still has family, as behavior to be admired and copied. This is a slick but ultimately underwhelming production with little to appeal to the thoughtful reader. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

With all the world throws at us, resilience is now a precious commodity, and it’s the underpinning of this terrifically helpful book by Neil Pasricha. You Are Awesome is more than a boost for your self-esteem, it’s a perspective-setter for failure and success, and an homage to the amazing reserves of the human soul.”
—Mitch Albom, author of Finding Chika and The Five People You Meet In Heaven

“No one knows 'awesome' like Neil Pasricha, and here he explores how we can make our very lives more awesome. With real-life stories and a conversational style, he shows how we can move forward in the face of challenge to make our days more intentional and joyful.”
—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Outer Order, Inner Calm

"Neil was an incredibly quiet, shy, and curious student in my classroom over thirty years ago. I have long retired from teaching and am now watching as he becomes the teacher for me and many others. This is a guidebook for those establishing careers and raising families. But it's also for those of us in later years facing a whole new set of challenges. As always, Neil's glass is half full and his enthusiasm for living is truly infectious."
—Mrs. Stella Dorsman, Neil's third-grade teacher

“There are few things more certain in all aspects of life than set backs ! Finding the resilience to, not just cope, but take these in your stride and ultimately learn from them is a critical skill in today’s unpredictable world. Neil’s book provides an invaluable framework and toolkit. Full of practical ideas and suggestions, supported by personal anecdotes and stories that bring them to life. Neil has done it again, produced a personal, practical and universal guide to life”
— David Cheesewright, Former President and CEO, Walmart International

“Do you have thin skin like the rest of us? The tool you need is resilience. Let this deeply researched book be your step-by-step guide.”
—Susan Cain, author of Quiet

“[Pasricha's] tone is light, but his message is thought-provoking and inspiring ... Under Pasricha’s guidance, readers learn how to reframe their stories and put life in perspective, making the road to awesome not only possible but enjoyable. ”
— Candace Smith, Booklist

“A brilliant book, generous, heartfelt and true. Neil is going to help you change your life.”
—Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

“Pick up this book for its gloriously self-affirming title—after all, you are awesome!—and stay for its wise and transformative advice. Writing in his usual engaging style, Pasricha will challenge you to build resilience, get out of your own way, and pursue a life of accomplishment and meaning.”
— Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

“I have been through struggle. I have been through loss. And I have had to get stronger. Resilience is a muscle that hurts to build. What would have made it easier? Neil’s words. This book. A recipe for thickening our skin in thin-skinned times.”
—James Frey, author of Katerina

“With Neil's signature style of humor, research, whimsy and insight, You Are Awesome touches a chord and shows us the power of combining optimism and resilience to create more meaning at work, school and home...”
—Shawn Achor, author of Big Potential

“With simple effortlessness, Neil renders complex ideas easily memorable and everyday practical.”
— Col. Chris Hadfield, former Commander of the International Space Station and author of An Astronaut's Guide To Life

“A playful, yet powerful path from anxious to awesome. Pasricha blends science, story and a healthy dose of humor to deliver tools and strategies that cultivate resilience in a world that's never needed it more. Read You Are Awesome now!”
—Jonathan Fields, Founder / Podcaster, The Good Life Project

“Neil is the happiness mixologist. He combines an insight for awesome, a dry sense of humor, hard-earned wisdom and just the right amount of science, shakes it all together vigorously, and then pours you a libation you can toast to life that's rich, resilient and deeply delicious.”
—Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit

“This utterly charming book will put a smile on your face and a skip in your step.”
—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B, and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

“You Are Awesome is a breath of fresh air. It's about digging deep to discover the inner resilience we are all born with—and moving forward with purpose and positivity.”
—Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and Refire! Don't Retire

“A breath of fresh air. You Are Awesome is about digging deep to discover the inner resilience we are all born with and moving forward with purpose and positivity.”
—Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute Manager

JANUARY 2020 - AudioFile

Bestselling author and super popular TED talker Pasricha narrates his likable audiobook, which helps listeners be a little happier when grappling with life’s inevitable failures and challenges. Moving beyond merely stating that resilience matters, Pasricha offers concrete, achievable steps toward its practice. In personable short chapters, the author shares a variety of actionable tips: a powerful word that helps keep a sense of options open after failure, ways to dramatically increase the ability to learn and adapt, a short morning practice to help banish worry, and the super useful concept of “untouchable days”—going completely off-line and being unreachable to increase creativity and productivity. His narrative brims with engaging research and quirky personal examples that infuse this audiobook with an irresistible sense of possibility. J.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173444158
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Series:	The Book of Awesome Series
Edition description:	Unabridged

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