Letter to an 18-year-old on the Career Path Less Traveled
By Leo Babauta
Recently an 18-year-old who is finishing school wrote to me, asking for advice on choosing a career without enough life and work experience to make an intelligent decision.
He said, “Should I take the road less traveled, which may be risky and fearful, or choose a college course that interests me to some degree and see where that leads to. I suppose I don’t want to end up as the typical everyday-joe at the office from 9-5. I want to be different from the masses, to make an impact on this world, to be fulfilled. How do I get the best start into adulthood?”
It’s such a great question...
Source: Zen Habits - December 16, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
A Method to Find Balance
By Leo Babauta
Despite the insipid title of this post, work-life balance is a bit of a myth.
Sure, we work too much, don’t have time for all the other things we want to do, are always tired, eat convenience food or comfort food rather than nutritious or nourishing food, never have time for solitude … but that’s the life we want, right?
OK, maybe it needs a bit of readjusting. Work and life and learning and relationships and health are all really the same thing, and so “balance” is perhaps the wrong word, but adjusting our lives to our aspired priorities is not a bad thing.
A friend recentl...
Source: Zen Habits - December 13, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Simplicity Source Type: blogs
16 Surprising Lessons from My First 50-Mile Ultramarathon
‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’ ~Nelson Mandela
By Leo Babauta
On Saturday, I did what I thought I couldn’t do.
I ran a 50-mile ultramarathon.
Now, I’m certainly not the first to run a race like this — thousands of other stronger, tougher runners have done it. I’m not even one of the faster ones to run this kind of race — I was so slow I almost didn’t make the official cutoff time.
So I don’t take any special credit for running the race. If anything, most of the credit belongs to my friend Scott Dinsmore, who encouraged me to run it and then played...
Source: Zen Habits - December 11, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Goals & Motivation Health & Fitness Source Type: blogs
The Simple Fitness Habit Holiday Challenge
By Leo Babauta
Today I’m announcing the relaunch of my Simple Fitness Habit program, with two big things I’m excited about:
The SFH Holiday Challenge, and
My new ebook on sticking to habits: Discipline, Solved
I’ll go into more details of both new things below, but first I should tell you what Simple Fitness Habit is about. It’s a program I launched earlier this year with a group of awesome fitness experts, that includes:
Articles & videos from me & these experts on losing weight, gaining muscle, running half marathons, and staying healthy as you age.
The Mindful Diet program, with re...
Source: Zen Habits - December 6, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Struggles with My Morning Internet Fast
And a New Month Without Refined Carbs
By Leo Babauta
In my 5th month in the Year of Living Without, I tried going without computers or Internet in the morning.
It was more of a struggle than I’d anticipated.
My thinking with this month was that I’d be able to get more writing and reading done, and maybe more stretching and other physical activity, if I banned myself from the Internet before noon. This is actually true, and when I stuck to the ban I got a lot of good writing and reading done.
My problem was that I needed to do certain tasks on the Internet before noon, for work and also personal tasks like ...
Source: Zen Habits - December 4, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Goals & Motivation Simplicity Source Type: blogs
Surrender, Mindfulness & Entrepreneurship
By Leo Babauta
Running a business often is about sales, revenue, marketing, and the bottom line.
But it can have soul too.
In my new Habits of Entrepreneurs video interview series, I’ve recently published two fantastic interviews with entrepreneurs who do things differently.
And they’re incredibly successful at doing things this way.
Let me introduce Chip Conley, hotel founder and best-selling author of Peak, and my friend Jesse Jacobs, founder of Samovar Tea Lounge.
Chip founded a series of eclectic, beautiful boutique hotels in San Francisco more than a decade ago, and survived the collapse of the dotco...
Source: Zen Habits - December 2, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Finance & Family Habits Source Type: blogs
How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, & Love Letting Go
‘People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh
By Leo Babauta
The end of procrastination is the art of letting go.
I’ve been a lifelong procrastinator, at least until recent years. I would put things off until deadline, because I knew I could come through. I came through on tests after cramming last minute, I turned articles in at the deadline after waiting until the last hour, I got things done.
Until I didn’t. It turns out procrastinating caused me to miss deadlines, over and over. It stressed me ...
Source: Zen Habits - November 29, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Productivity & Organization Simplicity Source Type: blogs
Finding Focus
By Leo Babauta
Do you ever have one of those days when you just can’t seem to find focus? When you fritter away your time on nothingnesses, distractions, wandering without really doing something important?
Or one of those weeks?
I have those days regularly. I can find myself “working” for several hours, but at the end of those several hours have nothing to show for it. I feel like I’m floating around, with no anchor, no focal point.
So how do we find focus?
Take a step back. Back away from the browser and the phone, and give yourself a moment’s space to think.
What do you really want to ...
Source: Zen Habits - November 26, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Productivity & Organization Source Type: blogs
When You Run Out of Ideas
By Leo Babauta
I had a friend ask me if I ever run out of ideas of things to write about, because my blog gives the impression that I don’t.
Well, I do.
I often have lots of ideas, but there are many times when I have none. I thought it would be useful to talk about what I do when that happens, not just for bloggers but for anyone who needs ideas on a regular basis.
When you run out of ideas, it’s scary. It’s kind of like when you run out of food — you get a little panicky. Same thing happens when you run out of money — instead of trying to calmly figure out the best options, you are full ...
Source: Zen Habits - November 25, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Goals & Motivation Productivity & Organization Source Type: blogs
The Necessary Art of Subtraction
By Leo Babauta
The tendency of our lives, businesses, art, is to keep adding: more furniture, clothes, gadgets, tasks, appointments, features to websites and apps, words to our writing.
Continual addition isn’t sustainable or desirable:
Too many things to do means we’re always busy, with no time for rest, stillness, contemplation, creativity, time with loved ones.
Overwhelming customers with choices means they’re less likely to make an actual choice. They’d prefer that we curate the best.
Too many possessions is clutter, visual stress, cleaning, maintenance, debt, less happiness.
Too many tasks ...
Source: Zen Habits - November 22, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Simplicity Source Type: blogs
Jealousy & Suffering
By Leo Babauta
Most of us deal with jealousy in some form, and when it comes up, it’s never pretty.
It might be jealousy when your girlfriend seems interested in someone else, or when one of your best friends becomes close with someone else, or when your parents give a lot of attention to your sibling, or when other people are having more fun than you.
Why do we get jealous? What harm does it do us? How do we overcome it?
I’ll admit that I get jealous, and the me that gets jealous is not my favorite self. I don’t like myself when I get jealous.
So what do I do? I watch myself. I see it happening. I a...
Source: Zen Habits - November 19, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Source Type: blogs
How Creativity Works, & How to Do It
By Leo Babauta
I’m continually trying to create new things, from new blog posts, to books and courses and novels, to new ventures.
And as I create these things, I’ve been watching my creation process, hoping to learn about how it works. For most creators, I think it’s just this Black Box of Creativity, where cool things come out but it’s not clear what you need to put in, or what the hell happens inside the black box. It’s a mystery.
Except it doesn’t have to be.
Creativity is a powerful tool to help anyone, from the parent trying to find new things to inspire his kids, to the small ...
Source: Zen Habits - November 18, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Self-Discipline in 5 Sentences
By Leo Babauta
Have a powerful reason — when things get difficult, “because it sounds nice” or “to look good” aren’t going to cut it.
Start tiny, with a simple but unbreakable promise to yourself to do one small thing every single day.
Watch your urges, and learn not to act on childish whims.
Listen to your self-rationalizations, and don’t believe their lying ways.
Enjoy the habit, or you won’t stay with it longer than a week’s worth of sunrises. (Source: Zen Habits)
Source: Zen Habits - November 13, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Habits Source Type: blogs
Make It Your Job
By Leo Babauta
When you’re feeling resentful or angry about something, it’s worth stopping to consider why.
This morning, I woke up to a dirty kitchen, and as I do most mornings, I started cleaning it up. Washing dishes, wiping counters, putting dishes away, and so on. I do this a lot.
And I found myself feeling resentful. Why didn’t other people clean this up? Why am I the one who has to clean it up all the time?
And I watched my resentment.
And I saw at its root a feeling of entitlement, that everyone should do things the way I want them to do it. A feeling of wanting to control others. A feeling t...
Source: Zen Habits - November 11, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Finance & Family Happiness Source Type: blogs
Developing Selfless Compassion
‘So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh
By Leo Babauta
While the idea of being more compassionate is appealing to many people, what stands in the way is that we get irritated by other people, often actually strongly disliking them.
How can you be compassionate with others when they irritate you, rub you the wrong way, make you angry?
It’s difficult. I have a hard time with this fairly often, so I’ve been studying it inside myself. What’s really amazing is how m...
Source: Zen Habits - November 7, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Source Type: blogs
