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​​Finding Awe in the Mundane.

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Quick Spin:

• What is awe....exactly?
• Why is it important
• My action plan to find awe in my day to day

Last week I picked up my friend Jonathan Goodman’s new book Unhinged Habits. He wrote an entire chapter on the “When I Finally” trap and it planted a seed for today's newsletter.

The frameworks are practical, the stories are relatable, and Jon challenges all the BS about “balance” and hustle culture we’ve been sold. If my book Toxic Grit resonated with you, this book will too.

♟️ MY TURN:

Dan and I were recently playing “cards of connection” by Mark Groves as we get in the headspace of preparing for our wedding in a few weeks and one of the questions struck me:

When was the last time you felt awe?

I had to go back in time. A lot further than I would care to admit.

I had to go back to my last vacation.

I was standing on the edge of a cliff on the Isle of Skye in Scotland staring in the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean and remember feeling a cocktail of equal parts significance and insignificance.

I thought to myself…..

“I’m just a speck of a dot on this cliff, in this country far far away from everyone I love, on this rotating rock in space.”

The feeling was both grounding and terrifying.

I became acutely aware of time simultaneously standing still and flying by.

One of my most-played songs in 2025 was Ordinary by Alex Warren.

The opening verse says:

So it got me thinking about awe and how we can make the mundane of our daily lives closer to a masterpiece.

To seek out awe every day.

What is awe, exactly?

The definition of awe is: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like

Ok well that makes sense then.

Why it’s so hard to feel it day to day. Well, by definition, it needs to be:

Grand.
Extremely powerful.
An overwhelming feeling.

A well-known study conducted by Keltner & Haidt in 2003 describes awe as a “feeling of being in the presence of something vast and greater than the self or that exceeds the self’s ordinary experiences and knowledge structures.”

But here me out……

I’m 40 years old.

The average life expectancy is ~80 years old [of a woman in the US].

If awe is something I reserve for vacation, and I take 30 more vacations in my life, that’s only 30 more moments of awe.

I want more.

And this goal will lead to other benefits……

Studies have found that people who report more frequent awe:

• have lower levels of inflammatory markers like interleukin-6, a biomarker tied to chronic disease.
• On days when people experience more awe than usual, they also report less stress, fewer body aches, and greater overall well-being.
• In one experiment, older adults who took weekly 15-minute “awe walks” for eight weeks felt more positive emotion and less daily distress.

So I’m on a journey of making my mundane…..an awe-inspiring masterpiece.

Want to join me?

Keep reading.

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♟️ YOUR TURN:

Here’s my awe-mazing plan.

1. Awe Walks – Once a week, 20 minutes, no podcasts. Look for one thing that makes you feel tiny (big tree, endless sky, city skyline) and one thing that makes you feel the beauty in human connection (kids playing, neighbors helping each other, a barista knowing someone in their coffee shop).
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2. Awe Books – Select books that remind us of how small and miraculous we are as humans (despite our differences). Get curious about others’ growth and courage.
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   ​My first awe book: The Alchemist (I can’t believe I’ve never read it) ​
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3. Awe Playlist – 10 songs that give you goosebumps. Use them for commutes, dishes, pre-bed instead of scrolling.
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   One on repeat in my phone: Home by Mike Posner - please listen to it while looking at a sunrise and tell me you don’t feel like you want to take on the world.
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4. Awe Conversations – Once a week, ask someone, “What’s something that recently blew your mind?” and let the conversation go there.
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5. Awe Feed – Curate your social feeds for content that stretches you (space, art, science, human stories) instead of shrinking you (comparison junk).
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   I’m looking for suggestions here. Let me know your favorites!
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6. Awe Outings – Once a month, do something in your own city you’d recommend to a tourist. It’s so easy to just get caught up in the routine, waiting for vacation to find awe and missing out on the awe-pportunties (sorry I had to) at your own fingertips.

Let’s go out and fill up awe-r cups. Ok, I’m done, I swear.

I love you all and am so grateful I get to write this newsletter every week.

Thank you for being here with me.

Ps…. the word awe reallllly starts to look weird after you stare at it for a while?

Maybe that’s by design.

I’m in awe of the word itself :)

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