Ask the Author: Neil Pasricha
Answered Questions (15)
Neil Pasricha
I sure do, Neil! My first new Book of Awesome in over a decade comes out on December 6, 2022. It's called OUR BOOK OF AWESOME and it's a 432-page gift-book-sized hardcover from Simon&Schuster. You can watch the trailer on my Goodreads page.
Neil Pasricha
Goodreads and social media platforms aren't (generally) good places to find it. Take long walks in nature with no cell phones. Don't feel anxious or try urgently to find anything. Just let your mind breathe and think and simmer over long periods of time. All yourself to go slow. Eventually you'll figure out what you want to do. And then do it.
Neil Pasricha
The first sighting of eggnog in the grocery store, that one house that puts Christmas lights all over their roof, when the gift receipt is in the box, wrapping up a framed picture of the dog for someone and making it from the dog, and drinking with Grandma...
Neil Pasricha
I find myself constantly entranced by the worlds created by David Mitchell. I'd probably be content to explore any of the worlds in CLOUD ATLAS.
Neil Pasricha
Ah! I share the answer to this in my TED Talk. Warning: It's not as hopeful and positive as you might expect!
https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_pasric...
https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_pasric...
Neil Pasricha
You live alone and get home late at night.
Just as you step inside your apartment you hear your toaster oven ding.
Just as you step inside your apartment you hear your toaster oven ding.
Neil Pasricha
Great question! I have a monthly Book Club where every single month I share the books I've read and loved from the past month. I have been doing it every month since November, 2016 and I don't publish it online anywhere so it's a bit like a secret email that gets shared and then disappears afterwards. You can sign up at www.neil.blog/newsletters
Neil Pasricha
Hey Claire! No, I don't. I would love that! Thank you. I've also had people start emailing me about organizing 3 Books bookclubs in their local hometown (i.e., they read some of the formative books together from the podcast and then discuss -- and, of course, the connection through the podcast helps ensure warm, like-minded souls). Whatever you start up please let me know so I can share it on 3 Books!
Neil Pasricha
Finishing writing a piece you are proud of is an orgasmic high that helps my mind feel like I finally coagulated my spiraling, roller-coaster, cotton-candy thoughts into something that fits in a box and can help or inspire others. I feel my biggest frustrations when I am aiming for this result and feeling and I can't quite get there...
Neil Pasricha
Congratulations! Three pieces of advice:
1) Write the blog you want to read. There are three types of success -- Sales, Social, and Self. If you focus on Self, then the other two are gravy, and if they come, great, and if not, no problem. If you focus on Sales (hits) or Social (awards) then you're potentially gonna strike out with an 0 for 3 and you don't want that. You need to look back with pride either way.
2) Post consistently. I wrote 1000 awesome things on 1000 straight weekdays with one post every morning at 12:01am. People need to know when you're coming out with new content.
3) Submit your links. My blog went from 50 hits a day to 50,000 in one day when I submitted my post #980 Old, dangerous playground equipment to Fark.com and it made the front page. Yes, that's right, *I* submitted it. That's the part of the story that usually isn't noticed. I was the one submitting the link! I submitted probably 500 links. Maybe 20 of them got on front pages of Fark, Digg, or Reddit. Those 20 created communities of people who found and stayed with the site.
1) Write the blog you want to read. There are three types of success -- Sales, Social, and Self. If you focus on Self, then the other two are gravy, and if they come, great, and if not, no problem. If you focus on Sales (hits) or Social (awards) then you're potentially gonna strike out with an 0 for 3 and you don't want that. You need to look back with pride either way.
2) Post consistently. I wrote 1000 awesome things on 1000 straight weekdays with one post every morning at 12:01am. People need to know when you're coming out with new content.
3) Submit your links. My blog went from 50 hits a day to 50,000 in one day when I submitted my post #980 Old, dangerous playground equipment to Fark.com and it made the front page. Yes, that's right, *I* submitted it. That's the part of the story that usually isn't noticed. I was the one submitting the link! I submitted probably 500 links. Maybe 20 of them got on front pages of Fark, Digg, or Reddit. Those 20 created communities of people who found and stayed with the site.
Neil Pasricha
I tell myself writer's block doesn't exist. If I'm really stuck I pick up "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield and within ten minutes of (re)-reading it, I sit down and get going.
Neil Pasricha
My wife told me she was pregnant on the flight home from our honeymoon.
I mean, on the actual airplane. She bought the pregnancy test on the layover home! We started talking about children and she said "I just want my kids to be happy." And I was like, "That's impossible! You can't make a kid happy. You can't even make yourself happy."
There was a pause. A tension. And then she said, "You're totally wrong. You can control your happiness and it affects people around you. Including your kids."
When we landed back home I started researching happiness. That research took me deep into it and I ended up writing a 300-page letter to my (at that time) unborn child on how to live a happy life.
That letter is The Happiness Equation. My latest book.
I mean, on the actual airplane. She bought the pregnancy test on the layover home! We started talking about children and she said "I just want my kids to be happy." And I was like, "That's impossible! You can't make a kid happy. You can't even make yourself happy."
There was a pause. A tension. And then she said, "You're totally wrong. You can control your happiness and it affects people around you. Including your kids."
When we landed back home I started researching happiness. That research took me deep into it and I ended up writing a 300-page letter to my (at that time) unborn child on how to live a happy life.
That letter is The Happiness Equation. My latest book.
Neil Pasricha
A good friend of mine told me a story once that really stuck with me.
He said Stephen King had advised that an aspiring writing should read something like five hours a day. My friend said "You know, that's baloney. Who can do that?" but then, years later, he found himself in Maine on vacation. He was waiting in line outside a movie theater with his girlfriend and who should be waiting in front of him? Stephen King! He said his nose was in a book the whole time in line. He said they got into the theater and the guy was still reading till the lights dimmed. And he said when the lights came up he noticed he pulled the book open right away. He read as he was leaving.
Now, I'm not sure what percent of the story is true. Broken telephone and all. But I think the message is really good. Basically, you should read more. A LOT more. And you CAN. There are minutes hidden in all the corners of the day and they add up to a lot of minutes.
In a way, it's like the 10,000 steps rule. Walk around the grocery store, park at the back of the lot, chase your kids around the house? Bam. 10,000 steps. Maybe it's the same way with reading.
I know I've always had a problem in my life with finding books I loved and that kept my interest. So now I probably quit 3-4 books for every one I read to the end. I think I just accepted quitting them as okay. And that way I remove them as roadblocks to read something else, something better, something waiting...
He said Stephen King had advised that an aspiring writing should read something like five hours a day. My friend said "You know, that's baloney. Who can do that?" but then, years later, he found himself in Maine on vacation. He was waiting in line outside a movie theater with his girlfriend and who should be waiting in front of him? Stephen King! He said his nose was in a book the whole time in line. He said they got into the theater and the guy was still reading till the lights dimmed. And he said when the lights came up he noticed he pulled the book open right away. He read as he was leaving.
Now, I'm not sure what percent of the story is true. Broken telephone and all. But I think the message is really good. Basically, you should read more. A LOT more. And you CAN. There are minutes hidden in all the corners of the day and they add up to a lot of minutes.
In a way, it's like the 10,000 steps rule. Walk around the grocery store, park at the back of the lot, chase your kids around the house? Bam. 10,000 steps. Maybe it's the same way with reading.
I know I've always had a problem in my life with finding books I loved and that kept my interest. So now I probably quit 3-4 books for every one I read to the end. I think I just accepted quitting them as okay. And that way I remove them as roadblocks to read something else, something better, something waiting...
Neil Pasricha
First off, it's not easy! I want to say that up front. I think I do three things:
1) Prioritize "The Feeling" - On those occasional moments I feel a tiny fluttery itch to write... I drop everything and do it. Like, I make sure nothing's burning on the stove, and grab my laptop, and head straight for a coffee shop with a seat staring out the window, and I just go. I know if I don't the feeling will go away. And I'm not saying the feeling comes always or often! But if I prioritize it, then it's like I'm obeying it. I respect it.
2) Notes everywhere - I started following this great notecard system I learned from author Ryan Holiday (link below) and it's been really helpful. Now I keep tiny blank cue cards in my wallet, in the console in my car, on my bedside table, everywhere. When I have an idea, I have no excuse not to write it down. Over time these tiny notes evolve into larger ideas or concepts that I can flip through later when I'm looking for inspiration. Like, I'll write down a song lyric or quote I like, and six months after that will link to a note I've written summarizing a New York Times article. And suddenly I'll want to write about that.
3) Set an easy goal - When I was writing The Happiness Equation I would set my alarm for 5am ever morning and say "I want to write 250 crappy words before I go to work." There didn't have to be many words! And they didn't have to be good words! And by doing that I'd usually feel good about overachieving.
Finally, I'd recommend Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott as a great book to read on this topic, and here's the link to the notecard system I mentioned:
http://ryanholiday.net/the-notecard-s...
1) Prioritize "The Feeling" - On those occasional moments I feel a tiny fluttery itch to write... I drop everything and do it. Like, I make sure nothing's burning on the stove, and grab my laptop, and head straight for a coffee shop with a seat staring out the window, and I just go. I know if I don't the feeling will go away. And I'm not saying the feeling comes always or often! But if I prioritize it, then it's like I'm obeying it. I respect it.
2) Notes everywhere - I started following this great notecard system I learned from author Ryan Holiday (link below) and it's been really helpful. Now I keep tiny blank cue cards in my wallet, in the console in my car, on my bedside table, everywhere. When I have an idea, I have no excuse not to write it down. Over time these tiny notes evolve into larger ideas or concepts that I can flip through later when I'm looking for inspiration. Like, I'll write down a song lyric or quote I like, and six months after that will link to a note I've written summarizing a New York Times article. And suddenly I'll want to write about that.
3) Set an easy goal - When I was writing The Happiness Equation I would set my alarm for 5am ever morning and say "I want to write 250 crappy words before I go to work." There didn't have to be many words! And they didn't have to be good words! And by doing that I'd usually feel good about overachieving.
Finally, I'd recommend Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott as a great book to read on this topic, and here's the link to the notecard system I mentioned:
http://ryanholiday.net/the-notecard-s...
Neil Pasricha
I've got two books slated to come out in the next 12 months:
1) Awesome is Everywhere - A 32-page children's picture book coming out in Fall, 2015. It's an interactive, hyperrealistic photo book which, frankly, has been a labor of love for a couple years. I hired an animation studio that does work for The Discovery Channel and we used hundreds of photos (and even hired a photographer in Cuba to take pictures of crabs!) to give readers the feeling of using their fingers to zoom into the Earth, shake the book to make waves, flip the book over their head to dive underwater, and pinch their fingers right into the sand to see all the molecular detail.
2) The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything. This is my new business book coming out next Spring. Basically, when my wife told me she was pregnant, I suddenly had this thought: What if I didn't get to tell my child everything I want to share about living a happy life? So, for the duration of her pregnancy, I wrote every day until I came up with this book. It is comprised of 9 counterintuitive secrets to living a happy life. I have a feeling some of them will be controversial!!
Thanks so much for the question,
Neil
1) Awesome is Everywhere - A 32-page children's picture book coming out in Fall, 2015. It's an interactive, hyperrealistic photo book which, frankly, has been a labor of love for a couple years. I hired an animation studio that does work for The Discovery Channel and we used hundreds of photos (and even hired a photographer in Cuba to take pictures of crabs!) to give readers the feeling of using their fingers to zoom into the Earth, shake the book to make waves, flip the book over their head to dive underwater, and pinch their fingers right into the sand to see all the molecular detail.
2) The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything. This is my new business book coming out next Spring. Basically, when my wife told me she was pregnant, I suddenly had this thought: What if I didn't get to tell my child everything I want to share about living a happy life? So, for the duration of her pregnancy, I wrote every day until I came up with this book. It is comprised of 9 counterintuitive secrets to living a happy life. I have a feeling some of them will be controversial!!
Thanks so much for the question,
Neil
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