A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I decided to do a gluten-free beer-tasting/board game night.

(highly suggest! ‘twas fun!)

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At the checkout at our local beer shop, the counter laden with non-glutinous goods, I cheerfully asked how the guy working was.

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It was a Monday, so I do believe my exact question was, “How is the beginning of your week going?”

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He straightened up, looked me straight in the eye, split a massive grin, and said “I’m great! I’m defending the awesome!”

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What?

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Apologies to the person waiting behind us, because howdy boy did we get into a great conversation right then and there.

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What is defending the awesome??

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Here’s what he said, as near as a quote as I can get:

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I laughed so hard when my partner looked at me, smirked, and said “You’re going to write an email about this, aren’t you?”

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Yup.

I sure I am.

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What if, instead of constantly keeping our head on a swivel to notice everything that’s difficult, stressful, or just plain sucks, we keep our head on a swivel noticing what’s awesome?

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As every therapist and mindset coach likes to say: what you pay attention to grows.

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Lately, life has been pretty darn good to me.

And it’s been pretty darn good consistently for the past couple of months.

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Business is going well.

Life is going well.

Fun is going well.

Relationships are going well.

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Yet, there is a part of me that feels like a total jerk telling you how great my life is.

We aren’t taught how to humbly celebrate the good things in life.

But we should!

Always!

Because life can be totally awesome!

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I mentioned this goodness to a few of my beloved copywriting friends, and they sagely told me to write down everything that’s going well.

• What am I doing that’s making life awesome?
• What activities are consistent?
• Who is consistent?
• What type of work am I doing?
• What makes me happy, grounded, and energized?

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They called it “Anna’s Toolbox.”

I renamed it to be “Anna’s Defense of the Awesome.”

(post-beer shop experience, of course)

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Now, when things start to hit the brakes, I’m feeling tension, or I look up and realize work is way harder than it should be—I can refer to my Defense of the Awesome and ask myself what I stopped doing.

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My own personal Awesome Defense Plan.

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The Go-Try-It-Out Section​

Take yourself on a little solo date tonight to your favorite bar, tea shop, or bookstore.

Make a list of things that make you feel good.

Not just fleeting good, but grounded good.

Like, down in your belly good.

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The title: Reader's Defense of the Awesome

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Now you have a tool to refer to when life starts dragging you down.

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On a totally unrelated note to my fellow glasses-wearing readers out there...

How the heck do you make a ring light NOT reflect in your glasses, making you look like a character from Star Trek?

This is something I have never been able to solve.

(and maybe there is no solution?)

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Any and all recommendations welcome.

Thank you thank you thank you
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Cheers,

Anna (they/them)

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What I'm reading​
​A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer​

Fricking wuuuuuut this book is so weird. I love it so much. Ghost bears shooting out of guns, talking hamsters, magical ground hogs, walking potatoes, magically-created war elephanets...it's the strangest wildest thing I've read in quite a bit and I can't stop.