NPR

Are You Failing At Failing? Author Neil Pasricha Says It's Time To Change The Narrative

Neil Pasricha tells us how to handle failure.
"You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life" by Neil Pasricha. (Allison Hagan/Here & Now)

Author Neil Pasricha spends one day per week so far off the grid even his wife doesn’t know where he is.

On what he calls “untouchable days,” he refrains from connecting his computer to the internet or reaching for his smartphone. Unplugging from technology for the day helps him focus on writing and producing his podcast, he says.

“If you drink a bottle of wine right before you went to bed, and if you woke up and drank a bottle of wine, and you slept with a bottle of wine, we’d probably call you an alcoholic,” he says. “When everyone has an addiction, it is more difficult to see.”

In his new book, “You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life,” Pasricha examines why so many people feel anxious and frail despite living in what he calls the “greatest time ever to be alive.”

The technology that allows us to live so well is a big part of the reason so many people are unhappy, he says.

A key part of happiness is learning how to

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