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Gratitude

76 essays

1. The Habit of Giving

   Today I made a small donation to a cause that inspired me. It wasn’t really because of the holiday, it didn’t cost me much, and I won’t miss the money. Yet, I still felt good after I pushed the

2. Killing Time

   I did a media call for a journalist on the subject of “time management” recently. When I heard the topic, I was worried: one, I don’t think I’m that great at

3. Humility, Three Lessons, and a Birthday

   There are few things more awkward than sitting in a bookstore by yourself with a row of empty chairs in front of you.

4. Fame vs. Community: The Small Army Model

   Originally posted on June 11, 2012. — I don’t often discuss news articles or reblog things from elsewhere, but I loved a recent article on an independent

5. A Challenging Question

   In talking with Chris Brogan for his new podcast recently, he said something I’ve been thinking of ever since.

6. The DIY Book Tour

   Originally posted on February 11, 2013 — Over the past few years, I’ve hosted more than 100 events with readers in eight countries.

7. Sufficiency

   I spent most of last week in and around Park City, Utah on a family vacation. I usually run in Portland, Oregon, where the elevation is about 230 feet (70

8. All the Things You Don’t Need

   Have you seen the site Unnecessary Quotes? It’s fabulously sarcastic, offering a collection of signs that have quotation marks in all the wrong places.

9. Personal Responsibility and Showing Up

   To be truly awesome, you have to go above and beyond the efforts of those around you, look for alternative solutions, and refuse to back down from the truth.

10. Notes on a Full Life, Live from CX 883

    Originally posted on August 20, 2009 — Hi everyone. I’m high on life and writing in from the Cathay Pacific LAX-HKG flight.

11. Fearless?

    This one goes out to all the people in the world who are afraid of something. Oh wait—perhaps I need to choose a smaller audience.

12. Why Not Try It All?

    Just say no. Assert your boundaries. You can’t do it all. There’s a time and a place for everything, sure, but is that always the best advice?

13. Mountain Climbing, Motivations, and The Deep-Seated Fear of Failure

    When I first started doing media interviews in 2008, I noticed that one question would almost always come up: “Why are you so obsessed with travel?” (I

14. What You Don’t Do Doesn’t Matter

    Coming home from a recent trip, I thought about bringing flowers. Wouldn’t that be nice, I thought.

15. An Interview With Yourself

    From time to time, it’s good to have a conversation with yourself—maybe even an interview. This is how you do it.

16. Enjoying the Moment

    Alix from the Netherlands writes in with a great question: While goals are good to work towards, do you not feel like constantly pursuing things makes you

17. The Four Burners Theory: What Do You Have to Give Up?

    The Four Burners Theory divides life into family, friends, health, and work. Does success always require turning one of them off?

18. Generous People Have More To Give

    A few weeks ago in Miami I only had a $5 bill when it came time to get out of the airport shuttle.

19. Calm Before the Storm

    In the time leading up to a big day, you do everything you can. You make plans. You consider contingencies. You supply, you restock.

20. If You Love Something, You Have to Protect It

    You might have heard this advice before: “If you love something, set it free.” But I’m not so sure about that.

21. What Would You Do if You Knew You Would Not Fail?

    I like thinking about hypothetical questions, and this one is a good start. Most of us have some kind of dream trapped within us that has somehow become

22. Peak Moments

    Here’s a fun exercise: take 60 seconds and write down the peak moments of your life.

23. Chasing Daylight: Some Thoughts on Mortality

    I recently read two books about the choices people make when faced with the knowledge of their forthcoming death.

24. Always Be Thinking About These Things

    Dreams. Because it all starts with a dream or an idea. Recapture your lost dreams, create new ones, and find a way to make them real. Living.

25. Book Tour Gratitude, 63 Cities Later

    Originally posted on January 27, 2011 — Thanks so much to everyone out there who was a part of the 63-city Unconventional Book Tour, which just wrapped up in

26. Always Get Back Up: Lessons from Muhammad Ali

    Originally posted on January 31, 2011 — Tomorrow is the beginning of Black History Month in the U.S., where we celebrate the achievements of African

27. The Arc of the Universe Bends Toward Justice

    We began Black History Month by looking at Muhammad Ali, an under-appreciated hero of non-conformity in U.S. history.

28. Kind of a Big Deal

    In Austin yesterday I met Jodi, who was attending the panel I co-presented with Jonathan Fields.

29. Worth Living For

    When I was a kid, I sat in the back of a lot of dramatic, late-night church services.

30. Most People Are Good

    My friend Danielle has a five-year-old-son. One day he came home from kindergarten, and Danielle asked what he learned.

31. Rain Running

    Every Sunday morning that I’m in town, I head out for a long run. Two weekends ago at the waterfront, the weather was glorious.

32. An Important Thing No One Will Tell You

    I talked with someone who was in the process of calling fifteen people to get their opinions on a project.

33. How Does It Feel to Visit Every Country?

    I left Norway and began a slow journey home via the Pacific. I’m writing these notes from a Cathay Pacific flight to Tokyo, where I’ll transfer on to Los Angeles after staying one night. A

34. Be Nice to the Cleaners

    I went to participate in an event held at a bookstore in a big city. I saw on the store’s calendar that a Very Famous Author (we’ll call him Mr.

35. The “Hell Yeah” Roundup: Your Turn

    A lot of people mentioned that they liked the “hell yeah” test for making decisions mentioned here and condensed as follows: We all have to make decisions

36. Legacy Projects and the Love of True Friends

    When you begin to share your important work with the world, a funny thing happens: some of the people closest to you don’t understand it.

37. The End Is (Always) Near

    Have you heard the one about the end of time? Yep—it’s on the way. Every day, we lose another 1,440 minutes that will never return. Farewell, minutes!

38. “There’s plenty of time.” (But what if there’s not?)

    I’ve been working on a new, non-profit writing project that I’ll share tomorrow. Here’s a preview of the concept—for more on the project itself, see the note

39. The Tower: A Free Report for a New Way of Life

    Greetings, friends and readers. I’m on the road as usual, and today I’m also excited to announce the release of a new manifesto, The Tower.

40. Life In the Tower, Somaliland Edition

    Many thanks to everyone who has been reading or supporting the launch of The Tower, my new manifesto.

41. Intentions, Decisions, and Outcomes

    Originally posted January 30, 2012 — I recently posted a question to readers about what to do in an uncertain airport situation.

42. There’s A Letter You Need To Write

    Dear Reader, I found these letters in a beautiful book based off this website. There are a variety of stories expressed in the letters, some hopeful and some

43. On Destiny, Influence, and the Impossibility of Being Self-Taught

    1. Self-Taught Back when I played music I used to say I was self-taught, because I never went to music school or took lessons.

44. You Can Do That? Great. Go Ahead.

    When I shared the story of a man who tightroped across Niagara Falls, someone said, “That’s easy!

45. How To Be Unhappy

    The pursuit of happiness is as old as modern civilization. Books, elixers, religions, and philosophies are all devoted to it.

46. The Free Lunch Movement

    You may have heard that there is no such thing as a free lunch. This is untrue on every level, and also a terrible lie.

47. How to Do Big Things

    If you want to change the world, follow a dream, or otherwise find your own identity, you need to be able to do big things.

48. The Calling

    Bob Dylan spoke to Rolling Stone recently. I liked these parts: You’ve described what you do not as a career but as a calling.

49. The Goal

    1. To wake in the morning full of life and energy, awaiting the day with anticipation and purpose.

50. Paying Attention

    “It was true: the entire ball game was what you gave attention to vs. what you willed yourself to not.” -David Foster Wallace There are many things on the

51. Too Late: Notes from LHR T5

    Greetings from LHR Terminal 5, where I’m getting ready to fly to my final country. Yeah. I know.

52. Special Broadcast from the End of the World

    Dear friends and readers, Last week I made it to Norway, my final country after more than a decade of going everywhere.

53. Life’s Priorities

    Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation.

54. Three Types of Happiness: How Do You Choose?

    In The Happiness Myth, Jennifer Michael Hecht defines three types of happiness: a moment of happiness, a good day, and a happy life.

55. Opportunities and Missing Bicycles

    The sun came out over Portland on Saturday morning in what felt like the first time in weeks.

56. When You’re Happy, You Don’t Have to Tell Anyone

    “If you really want to be happy, no one can stop you.” -Anonymous As I was editing a new book manuscript, one story caught my attention.

57. When to Stop and When to Keep Going

    The challenge of the amateur is to know when to stop and when to push through. I still remember what became known as the most challenging run of my life …

58. The Worst Thing That Can Happen Rarely Does

    Somewhere in my journey I learned an important lesson: whatever your location, you can choose to be at peace or you can choose to be anxious.

59. Plates

    I heard this short story in the form of a dialogue recently: Grab a plate and throw it on the ground. -Okay. Did it break? -Yes. Now say sorry to it. -Okay.

60. You Should Do What Makes You happy

    I liked Seth Miller’s post about flying JetBlue on his birthday for no particular reason other than the fact that it made him happy.

61. To Express Gratitude, Put the Do-Not-Disturb Sign Back Where It Belongs

    When I check into a hotel room (something I do 100+ times a year), I immediately put the do-not-disturb sign on the door.

62. Do You Want to Be Right or Do You Want to Be Free?

    I’ve been thinking about this question recently (thanks, Danielle). There’s a lot of freedom in giving up on a matter of principle, so you can move on with

63. What Are You Looking Forward To?

    It’s a fairly self-explanatory question: what’s coming up in the near or faraway future that you’re excited about? I’ll start. In the short-term , I’m looking forward to

64. How Can You Help Someone for Free? A Social Experiment

    Dear Readers and Amazing People, Greetings from Austin, Texas . I had a fun time yesterday with many SXSW attendees and residents of this great city. Special thanks to BookPeople for hosting, to Betty

65. The Bravest Thing

    What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done? I asked this question last week and was flooded with hundreds of great responses. Here are many of them, with links to the people who were brave

66. “Most Ambitions Belong to the Past”: Reflections on A Neurosurgeon’s Final Year of Life

    Originally published April 23, 2015 — I recently stumbled upon an essay from Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who died in 2015 at the age of 37.

67. “If you have to ‘give back,’ maybe you took too much in the first place.”

    I heard someone say that recently. I don’t remember the context but I really liked the sentiment.

68. Travel and Social Privilege

    Pat from the UK writes in on the growing discussion about “Why You Should Quit Your Job and Travel Around the World”. To say the least, the concept of investing in expanding your worldview as opposed

69. The Journey to Ithaca

    Many of us are on quests, either real or representative. Since my quest is real, I like the metaphor of journeying . Going on a journey involves unexpected surprises, challenges, setbacks, and rewards

70. Life in Sudan: Interview with an Anonymous Aid Worker

    Greetings, friends and readers. Today I have a personal interview with one of our group who reads AONC from the Sudan. Christine (not her real name) is from the U.S. and works in the international dev

71. 2009 Annual Review: Overview and Outline

    This is the first in a series of five articles about my Annual Review . Every year since 2005 I’ve set aside an entire week in December to look back on the previous year and set goals for the ne

72. Contentment in Five Short Stories

    I. Dairy Queen in Udon Thani In Northern Thailand I sit in the Udon Thani airport eating a custard pastry. It costs 20 baht (60 cents). Along with a cup of coffee ($1.10), it is my joy. I sit across f

73. “We Run Away From Desperation:” Thoughts On Pursuing A Creative Idea

    I recently recorded a Side Hustle School episode about Michelle D’Avella, a designer who spent several years building a blog before turning it into a

74. Expanding the Pie

    It’s time for a confession: lately I’ve been stuck in a mindset of scarcity. Instead of focusing on abundance, I’ve been thinking about petty things. Naturally, I don’t like this, but I’m not sure how

75. The Real Imposter Is the Part of You That Hesitates

    What holds people back from making a bold choice or following a dream? When you ask, often they’ll point to the lack of knowledge.

76. The Artist in Each of Us

    First of all, welcome to my new readers. Many of you are coming over from Zen Habits in response to a guest essay I published there yesterday. The essay is called Three Truths to Creating a Life of Gr