I love the introductory comment to YOU ARE AWESOME by Neil Pasricha: "You are what you eat. And you are what you read. Are you hungry? Let's go." That mirrors the vibrant energy which best-selling author Pasricha (The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation) brings to the rest of his writing. In YOU ARE AWESOME he focuses on "How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure & Live an Intentional Life" while developing resilience. Writing before the COVID pandemic, Pasricha said, "we need to take all the uncertainty and failure and change coming at us and use it as momentum that slingshots us forward and forward and forward." He offers nine "research-backed" secrets and personal stories to help with that journey. This is a very easy read that is made even easier through occasional illustrations or photos, the use of bold type to set off key points, and memorable imagery. For example, Pasricha describes his mother "adding a dot-dot-dot to the end of the sentence. Letting things happen so she could navigate forward from a position of strength rather than feeling like all her doors had closed." Readers may have encountered these ideas in other forms ("I can't dance ... yet" as "yes, and ..." or "tell yourself a different story" as reframing), but Pasricha summarizes them with a conversational, optimistic tone and employs many questions to engage his readers. Students could readily pick up this book and become absorbed on exploring a secret a week over the course of a quarter ...

I read this book in parts. For me it was the kind of book that I didn’t want to read all in one go. I wanted to absorb each chapter as I read it and take in the advice and positivity.
The book starts with the authors experiences and why he felt recognising our awesome-ness is important. He gives examples of how his life went “wrong”, and explains in steps how we can accept and overcome the trials and pain that life throws all of our ways. The book is realistic and not in any way patronizing ( which some self help books may be). The Author acknowledges that it is not an easy thing to do to accept things that have gone wrong or that you can’t change. But he shows us ways to realise the potential that we have, the things that we do have rather than what we don’t.
The Author didn’t live an easy life and decide to preach to us. He had testing times and shares his experiences both good and bad with us.
I found this book helpful, positive and a book that I will keep to dip in and out of as I feel the need to. I particularly like the idea of ‘Untouchable days’
One of the nice ideas I read about in You Are Awesome is that the Author started a blog where he wrote one good thing in every day. Similar to the Positivity Waves we read about on Twitter and wordpress started by the incredibly awesome Meggy It’s a way to look for the little things that make you smile and happy. These all count and by acknowledging them, we can see things more clearly.
A good self help book that I definitely recommend to help you realise that You Are Awesome. 😊

I was immediately drawn into You Are Awesome because of how relatable the writing is. Neil Pasricha is charismatic and resilient and the writing is conversational like you are talking with a good friend.

Everyone can relate to failure but how we react to it can change our paths entirely and keep us moving forward. Every” misstep” is a chance to assess, learn and then move up and onward. I love the balance of personal stories, accessible writing, and strategies that are approachable for everyone.

Pasricha writes with compassion and proactivity and reminds us that we are all works in progress. Sometimes self-help books can help you feel heard but not really have a plan, or make you feel like you are being talked down to and make you just feel worse. You Are Awesome contains straightforward steps that make you feel less alone but also help you move FORWARD.

Resilence is a skill and often the people that are most resilient aren’t ones that have had the easiest path in life but are the ones that use those bumps in the road to learn and grow. Positively doesn’t mean you don’t have struggles, it means using perspective to take what you can from them and continue on.

I loved this book so much and I know it is one that I will refer back to again and again.

Thank you to Gallery Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

The author uses examples from his personal life along with references to illustrate his points on the need for readers to develop resilience using his nine step program. Pasricha got his start as an expert in all things awesome with his “1000 Awesome Things” blog, which led him to become a motivational speaker. His other books focus on topics such as gratitude and happiness.

In each section, he introduces one of his nine concepts, then provides his evidence with personal examples, which he supplements with other references to show how the practice helps make an individual more resilient. For example, one of his concepts is based on a psychological concept known as the Spotlight Effect. Some of the concepts nicely build on others.

My favorite strategies from the book are as follows: Gaining perspective on something vexing by determining if it will matter when on one’s deathbed, if it’s something that can be changed, and if is truly an issue or simply a distorted view of a situation. Remembering that the most successful people have likely failed way more than others and kept trying. Scheduling untouchable time to increase productivity. Taking a moment each day to reflect on something to let go of, be grateful for, and to focus on. These concepts help one gain perspective and the energy to sustain forward momentum.

Pasricha’s personal stories really made the book for me. I appreciated his candor about his failures and successes. His system is straightforward and makes sense. At the end of the book, I would have liked an additional section with more of a recap, but overall the book provides a nice game plan to increase resilience.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

A fantastic addition to the Awesome series! Loved this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book was really more like 3.5 stars that I rounded up to 4. I'm sure it will be super helpful to some people, but only bits and pieces of this book seemed to apply to me. I was better than "just okay," but I wouldn't necessarily say it was "really good." There's some good tidbits throughout this book, but it seems more geared towards people wanting to start a business/website/professional goal/etc.

I’m a regular reader of Neil’s newsletter and always appreciate the way he uses honest, sometimes even cringy stories about his past to illustrate how to change perspectives. This book takes that a step further and dives into intentional steps you can take to develop resilience in the face of everyday life, aka the world of constant challenges. The tone is very conversational and fast paced, which isn’t my favorite in long-form reading, and I wished there’d been more variety in pace and intensity, but that’s also the style I’m used to from his newsletter. Overall it was an easy read and I find myself utilizing the “dot dot dot” mindset with myself and kids in genuinely helpful ways.

I really enjoyed this honest, yet uplifting, self-help book. Often books like this can be either too upbeat or too "get over it already", but Pasricha hits a good middle note and seems to tell it like it is. He is supportive but not to the point of coddling, and honest but not harsh. Sometimes life is great, and sometimes it isn't, but the important thing is to learn what you can and keep going. I appreciate that he illustrates his points with lots of examples taken from his life, and the short chapters also make it easy to keep reading. Overall, a well-balanced, positive book that I will be recommending!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for a review.

I enjoyed this self help book concept and the idea of putting ellipses at the end of an event in your life rather than a period. This is a wonderful self-help book about resilience and never giving up and letting events you're been through be the period in your life. Highly recommend.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

This was the most loving and surprisingly empowering self-help book I’ve ever picked up. For some reason, self-help books have rarely hit home for me. I find they usually go in one of two ways: either they tend to be hyper-idealistic while conveniently ignoring the innumerable factors that could prevent one from dropping everything and “following your dreams!”…. or they’re on the other side of the spectrum where they sort of slap you in the face and tell you, “Everything preventing you from being where you want to be is YOUR fault. Here are all the things you’re doing wrong and how you can finally get your act together and start being productive.” Neither of these are particularly helpful approaches, and in these cases it doesn’t feel like they’re truly trying to understand me but rather trying to sell their own “success model" and preach it at me.

Turns out what I really needed was a little book by the name of You Are Awesome. From page one, Neil guides us through a number of strategies designed to instill more forgiveness and self-love in ourselves, all of it circling back to the main theme of this book: we are all works in progress. Nothing perfect happens overnight. Everything takes time to grow and develop into the best version of itself, including us. Every misstep, every setback, every crappy job or failed class or project flop—all of it is a necessary step in our growth and gradually getting closer to where and who we want to be. To emphasize this, Neil takes us through his life and his own series of setbacks, highlighting how all of them have both shaped him as a person and helped him in getting closer to where he knew he was always meant to be. This, to me, is such a positive, inspiring perspective on both life and us as people, and Neil, in typical fashion, is extraordinarily encouraging and uplifting every step of the way. I mean, this is the same guy who wrote The Book of Awesome and its sequel, The Book of Even More Awesome, both of which I loved. So it’s no surprise that he would be triply awesome in writing a self-help book.

But I cannot stress this enough: this book was so helpful to me, and I feel fortunate that it came into my life just when I needed it most. Equal parts reassuring and productive, You Are Awesome allows us to be forgiving and patient toward ourselves while also giving us the tools we need to build self-confidence and finally take that leap toward positive change in our lives. And when all seems lost, always finding a way to add a dot-dot-dot.

This is how all self-help books need to be. All other self-help writers: take note.