His life was falling apart, but rather than falling down the hole, Neil Pasricha decided to change his perspective.

One day in 2008, Neil’s wife came home from work and told him she didn’t want to be married anymore. Then, a close friend who was dealing with depression took his own life.

As he was dealing with these tremendous blows, Neil launched a website called 1000AwesomeThings.com to challenge himself to focus on positive things, despite how negative his own life was. He says he wanted to force himself to find one simple joy every single day.

The “awesome things” are everything from a cashier opening up a new lane at the grocery store to waking up and realizing it’s a Saturday. Neil says they are all simple, universal joys that helped put his mind in the right spot.

His exercise in happiness has reaped big rewards. Last year he was flown to New York for a blogging awards ceremony and found himself walking a red carpet with Martha Stewart and comedian Sarah Silverman. Next thing Neil new, literary agents were approaching him to turn his website into a book.

Now, the “Book of Awesome” is garnering great reviews, is an international best-seller and it’s making people around the world smile and take some time to appreciate the small joys in life.