Jar of Awesome: Well-Being Practice

Put Something in Your Digital Jar of Awesome Each Day

Simple Instructions:

1. Create a “Jar of Awesome,” either physical or virtual — a mason jar or something like it would be perfect, but so would a note in Evernote, a note pad, or an email to yourself. You can leave your jar plain or decorate it like crazy. It may also help to keep a small scratch pad and pen next to it.
2. Each day, write something down that you think is awesome — about your day, your life, or the world in general — and put it into the jar or on the virtual list
3. The minimum is one item each day, but you can add as much awesomeness to the jar as you like.

Watch this video for an explanation of this Well-Being Practice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.

Why Is This Practice Important?

The world is pretty awesome, and sometimes that is easy to forget. There is awesomeness right under our noses — in nature, in the things people do for each other, and in the things we accomplish against the odds. But awesomeness is a funny thing. It doesn’t demand to be noticed, at least not the way crappiness does.

With the amount of not-awesome things we get told about every day, we often miss the flowers growing between the cracks in the pavement, the stranger who stops to help someone who dropped a bag of groceries, the dinner on the table when we get home. There is a good in the world that continues to survive no matter what happens, and it thrives on being celebrated.

With a smile, a wink, or a nod, awesomeness can be fed. It’s like stoking a fire that burns inside. And the more you feed it, the bigger it becomes. And the bigger it becomes, the more people who are warmed by it. By insisting on noticing, you can become the keeper of the awesomeness flame for your corner of the world.

And if there’s something the world needs, it’s more awesomeness keepers.

Michael Stanwyck

Michael Stanwyck is the co-founder of The Whole Life Challenge, an idea that developed during his seven years as a coach and gym manager at CrossFit Los Angeles.

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.