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I received this book for free from ARC from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. If you've read my other reviews, you'll know that if it's bad, I'll say so, regardless of how I received the book.

I’m glad I broke my book ban for You Are Awesome by Neil Pasricha. I even stalled and the team emailed twice asking if I wanted it. It hit at the perfect time when I knew my time buckets were uneven and by trying to do everything I either was going to fail on some big commitments, or just add an ellipsis and say not yet.

Confused? In that paragraph I reference two of the strategies (or are they philosophies?) Neil suggests in his latest book. Neil calls them secrets. I hadn’t read any of his books, or followed his blog, but I knew who he is. I didn’t know (until reading You are Awesome) that he started his first big blog to help himself focus on the good when so much bad was happening. Now there are several books, a podcast, and many talks, most of which have Awesome in their title. This new book has the subtitle of How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life, which probably summarizes it better than I can.

As I mentioned, the book is divided into nine strategies and each are short. The first, Add a Dot-Dot-Dot resonated with me. It’s about how nothing is usually the end, it’s just a not-yet or to-be-continued—like an ellipsis. He gets very personal with most of the stories but this one used his early career and life expectations to set the scene. Other strategies include being in small ponds (I agree, you learn so much more and have more fun) and Lose More to Win More.

The strategy which I NEED to implement is to go untouchable. Since being in Melbourne I’ve had a weird desire to spend a weekend in Hobart hidden away and writing (or street photography, or building my new sites or just any of my projects alone). I don’t know why Hobart, it just is. Neil does going untouchable a little differently and more frequently than flights to Hobart can allow. He hides away for an Untouchable Day to get into deep work; no one is allowed to interrupt and only his wife knows where he is. Neil set a rule that the day can be moved within a week but it can’t be canceled. I love his suggestion to take an Untouchable Lunch, if your job doesn’t allow for a day. I started small this afternoon with an Untouchable Hour and my watch on do-not-disturb.

You Are Awesome is released next week on November 5. I recommend you get a copy.

Special thanks to Kalee from The Institute for Global Happiness for sending me a copy of You are Awesome and the great photos.