how to be awesome

I’m often wondering how to be awesome. How to live a more awesome life.

We adopted this word ‘awesome’ from some California surfer and just toss it around willy nilly.

Awesome is big, it’s a heavy word. It’s fear and wonder and shock and respect.

As Steve Gleason would say, “awesome ain’t easy.”

Those big waves at Nazare. Awesome

Seeing straight into the Milky Way from Camp Muir, awesome

The pyramids. The Great Barrier Reef. That sunset.

Maybe you can get as far as to humanize it. That concert, snowboarder, writer.

The Milky Way from Muir Snowfield is awesome. If you were wondering how to be awesome, this is a good start. — Milky Way from Muir Snowfield

The first time I put eyes on the Grand Canyon, that was awesome.

Awesome has some big shoes to fill. Your pizza or that beer? Not awesome. Awesome is bigger.

So how do we do awesome? How do we bring out awesome in ourselves? How do others see awesome in us?

Inspire. Transfer feeling and emotion. The transfer is everything. Awesome is a change agent.

How about in your life? Who has been awesome. Someone you couldn’t help but watch and admire for what they were doing.

For me it’s someone who can be free. They know themselves. They are comfortable in their own skin, they know what they are doing, they know what makes them happy. It’s awesome to see people like that. They are not just performing at a high level, we see that often, but they are doing what they want, they are living their dream.

Most of us never do that. We never live our dream and never live that awesome. We play it safe, or we don’t know what that dream is, or we sell out or we do what mama said. To see someone do what they love and make it work, make it successful, is awesome. It’s a small percentage of people who have the tools and the talent, but also the guts. The guts to walk off trail and forge ahead on a new path.

A map maker.

It’s awesome to see. It will give you goose bumps. A feeling.

Here is the best part. You can do it your way.

And here is the bummer, you must do it your way. No Thomas Guide available.

But we do know a few universal things about awesome. We know how not to be awesome. Maybe that’s the first step. Eliminate the non-awesome.

Sort of like Munger tells it, eliminate the really dumb decisions and you’ve got a chance of being smart.

Here are some ways to not be awesome: