I first heard about the Jar of Awesome on the Tim Ferriss podcast. Tim Ferriss is the author of the 4 hour workweek. I’m not sure how I first stumbled across his podcast, but I’ve followed his podcast off and on for the last few years now. It’s a great listen – he invites people who’ve excelled in their fields and digs into what they’ve done that’s helped them on their journey. Lots of great nuggets to learn from – highly recommended.

Coming back to the Jar of Awesome.

I heard about it on the Tim Ferriss podcast and really liked the idea. The idea is that you designate a jar – it can be any container really – as the “Jar of Awesome”. Any time something nice or memorable happens in your life, you make a note of it, and drop it into the jar. It’s completely up to you what you choose to document. I find that it’s helpful to use the jar to not just record the big milestones, but also the smaller things. For example – In my case, I’ve recorded stuff like getting my first subscriber for my newsletter, or getting a nice note from someone who found my podcast helpful.

The beauty of the jar of awesome is that while we typically remember the big moments (new job, new home, stuff like that), we forget that the small things even happened. On a day when you’re not feeling like your best self, the jar of awesome can be a helpful reprieve. I often label the notes with the month and year also. And so it’s just nice to shake the jar, pull out a note randomly, and read whatever made me happy that day. If you keep up with the practice, you can sometimes pull out a memory that was recorded 3 or 5 or 10 years ago! Isn’t that super cool?! 🙂

If you like this idea, don’t think twice. Take any empty jar and label it as your jar of awesome. I remember I did not want to add the friction of ordering a new jar – I knew I would not do it. Instead, I just converted an empty jam bottle (I think? Maybe it was a juice bottle 🙂 ). I placed it in a spot that was visible at all times, to maximize my chances of actually adding memories to the jar. I would recommend that you do the same. Even if you’re not regular, it really adds up over time!