The Awesome Jar

The Awesome Jar

Four years ago, I found the best idea ever on Pinterest—“the awesome jar.” Here’s how it goes…Beginning on January 1st and ending on December 31st, you write down awesome things that happen throughout the year, fold them up, and put them in a jar. You can write anything down, from new jobs to babies being born to your favorite song coming on the radio to something funny someone said. The only requirement for what you put in the awesome jar is that it’s something awesome and positive. On New Years Day of the following year, you read through the folded up papers. This is such a treat that I look forward to at the end of every year! Ian and I just read through our fourth awesome jar. It was awesome as ever. Lots of hysterical quotes from our two year old that we totally would have forgotten had it not been for this exercise. We archive the awesome jar entries after we read through them. I find it impossible to throw them out and it’s refreshing to pull one out from a previous year if I need a pick-me-up at some point.

It’s amazing how many good things happen to you that you forget. Our brains are wired to remember scary, bad, threatening, negative things and our media is doing nothing to help steer us in a positive, calm, trauma-sensitive direction. The awesome jar is a great way to remind yourself of how much good is in your life and in the world; even if there’s a bunch of bad in there, too. It’s free. It’s something the whole family can contribute to in some way. It guarantees smiles to start the new year. It creates good energy and is healthy for the soul. I encourage you to do this. If you fall off and go for quite some time without putting an entry in, just pick it back up! 

Some personal tips:

1. Date your entries. It seems like you wouldn’t care to know the date or you may think you’ll remember when it happened. You won’t. Date them! 

2. It’s the little things in life! You have a good chance of remembering big life events, but maybe not the details of these events. I’ll never forget my daughter’s birthday, but I might forget how awesome it was when the doctor held her up after delivery and said, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, QUINN!” Put little things in the jar, too. For example, a great meal you made, a nice comment from a teacher on a paper, finding ten bucks in the pocket of your winter jacket.

3. Keep the awesome jar in a centrally located spot in your house with a pen and papers next to it. It should be visible and ready for entries at all times. It’s fun when people see it and ask you about it, too. 

Find, focus on, and remember the good. Happy New Year.