Reading Time: 2 minutesPut Something in Your Digital Jar of Awesome Each Day
A “Jar of Awesome” is a mason jar or something like it where you can drop notes about the awesome, amazing, great, or even good things that happen, that you are grateful for in your everyday life. This week, your Jar of Awesome will be digital.
Simple Instructions:
- Each day, write down three things that were awesome, amazing, great (or even good) that you are grateful for.
- Post in your WLC reflection for the day OR any other digital medium that you see fit — Facebook, Evernote, even a private file.
- If you post in your WLC reflection, you don’t need to post any other reflection for the day. It’s a two-for-one!
- Don’t forget — these can be as grand as a marriage or the birth of a child or as simple as a cup of tea or the wind through blades of grass.
Watch this video for an explanation of this Lifestyle Practice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.
Why Is This Practice Important?
We are bred for discontent. It kind of sucks, but it’s kind of true. Notice how no matter how good something gets, there’s almost always a “yeah, but…” lurking not far behind? Very little is good enough for us humans. Whether it’s because we believe it or because we don’t want to appear arrogant, it’s rare for us to celebrate for more than a moment the things that bring us joy or pleasure.
What’s the last thing that you considered a success? Something athletic, a promotion at work, or a hard-won accomplishment in something? It’s never long before that success becomes status quo — before you’re looking ahead for the next thing to consider a success.
There really aren’t things that are successes or failures. There are only moments. In fact, you can’t have what you would consider a real success without having some of what you would consider failures. Each and every moment can be appreciated, if you practice — the awesome, the amazing, the great, and the good. Even your “failures.” All it takes is an attitude of gratitude.
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
