Ramit Sethi’s Entrepreneurial Habits
By Leo Babauta
When I sat down to interview Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich for my new Habits of Entrepeneur video series, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
This is a man who is enormously successful, but his philosophy seems very different than mine. Still, I respect him tremendously, and couldn’t wait to dig into his mind and habits.
It turns out, maybe unsurprisingly, that Ramit is a very sharp guy. He’s intensely interested in optimizing his life, and has learned a lot about himself and how to turn his limitations into strengths.
In this interview (you can watch part of it for free, above),...
Source: Zen Habits - September 23, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Habits Productivity & Organization Source Type: blogs
The Time to Shut Down
By Leo Babauta
In our lives immersed in technology, we rarely shut everything off.
We turn on when we wake up, and are on our devices until we go to sleep. And every hour in between.
I’m not immune to this. Very few people these days are.
And yet, there’s value in shutting everything down, so that we can reconnect with life. With people. With the moment. With ourselves.
There’s a time to work hard, and there should be a time to shut down. Otherwise, it all blends together and nothing has any space.
What time will you shut down today? (Source: Zen Habits)
Source: Zen Habits - September 20, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Simplicity Source Type: blogs
The Pain & Beauty of Life Changes
By Leo Babauta
The reason for our suffering is our resistance to the changes in life.
And life is all changes.
While I resist change (and suffer) just like anyone else, I have learned to adapt. I’ve learned some flexibility. I’ve realized this:
Everything changes, and this is beautiful.
The Pain of Life’s Changes
What do I mean that our suffering comes from resistance to the changes in life?
Let’s take a look at some things that give us trouble:
Someone yells at you at work. The change is rooted in the fact that we expect people to treat us kindly and fairly and with respect, but the realit...
Source: Zen Habits - September 18, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Source Type: blogs
8 Creativity Lessons from a Pixar Animator
‘I want to put a ding in the universe.’ ~Steve Jobs
By Leo Babauta
Sometimes immersing yourself in the creative world of people doing amazing things can bring unexpected results.
My son Justin is interested in 3D animation, and my daughter Chloe is into screenwriting, and so it was a thrill to take them on a tour of Pixar Animation Studios, courtesy of one of the Pixar animators.
Bernhard Haux is a “character technical director”, which in his case means he models characters and works on their internal motions (I think — I didn’t fully grasp the lingo). Which means he is just a small...
Source: Zen Habits - September 16, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Goals & Motivation Source Type: blogs
Zen Mountain: Leave It All Behind
“What day is it?”
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.
By Leo Babauta
Last weekend I spent nearly four days leading a retreat, at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. To get to this Zen center, you make a journey through a twisting bumpy rising falling mountain road, and then you’ve arrived.
And what a place to arrive at! It’s a place of peace, with a silently gushing river, people meditating all the time, everyone walking slowly, no distractions, constant gratitude and mindfulness. A beautiful place of peace.
As I contemplated the peace of le...
Source: Zen Habits - September 13, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Simplicity Source Type: blogs
Overcoming the Social Costs of Being Different
‘From now on, I’ll connect the dots my own way.’ ~Bill Watterson
By Leo Babauta
Goodness knows I’ve put in my share of being different than most people. I’ve had to explain myself more times than is believable, and I’ve dealt with people avoiding my company because of my differentness.
And yet, despite the hassles and the isolation, I wouldn’t want to give up my differentness.
It’s who I am. And being like everyone else would be less authentic.
How am I different? Here are a few examples:
I’m vegan
I unschool my kids
I’m a minimalist (and wear the same clo...
Source: Zen Habits - September 10, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Goals & Motivation Source Type: blogs
Finding Quiet and Mindfulness Through Food
Note from Leo: Jodi Ettenberg, author of The Food Traveler’s Handbook: How to Find Cheap, Safe and Delicious Food Anywhere in the World is a friend of mine, an amazing person, an accomplished world traveler. A former lawyer, she writes about the stories behind the foods we eat on her site, Legal Nomads. She gets the shakes if she goes too long without sticky rice.
And now I’ll turn it over to Jodi!
In the middle of a visit to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, I found myself sitting on the floor of a temple kitchen, chopsticks in hand. The others in my group, a haphazard mix of people from my tiny guesthouse, were long go...
Source: Zen Habits - September 6, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Simplicity Source Type: blogs
My Failed Month of ‘No Sitting’
‘Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.’ ~Zen Proverb
By Leo Babauta
In my second month of The Year of Living Without, I committed to not sitting for longer than 30 minutes at a time.
I have to admit failure here.
Well, not complete failure. I sat much less in August than I normally do, and was really pretty good in the mornings about remembering to get up (though I did forget a little in the beginning) and walking around, standing and reading, stretching, etc. I also was very active during the month, going for walks, runs, gym workouts, etc.
The problem came when I w...
Source: Zen Habits - September 4, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Habits Source Type: blogs
The Thinking Habit That Changed My Life
By Leo Babauta
I remember one evening, when my life was pretty different and I was overweight and deeply in debt and a smoker and had such a hard time changing things … I wasn’t feeling too good about my life.
I felt horrible about myself, and wondered why I was stuck. I felt hopeless and helpless, and generally depressed about the state of things around me.
Then I looked up at the sky, and saw the stars set in a deep blue-black canvas. And I thought, what a miracle life is.
And I resolved to mentally list the things I had in my life that were good.
My list of good things was something like this:
I had a...
Source: Zen Habits - September 2, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Habits Happiness Source Type: blogs
Liking Healthy Foods is a Choice
By Leo Babauta
I have a theory that I’ve been testing: whether you have a taste for a particular food is a choice.
I’m sure there are things you turn your nose up at: vegetables (lots of people), or kale (my kids), eggplant (Eva), tofu (many non-vegetarians), quinoa (crazy people), something.
But what I’ve learned is that tastes can change. In fact, we can change them on purpose:
I used to hate vegetables. Now I love them.
I used to hate soymilk when I first tried it. Now I drink it daily.
I didn’t like brown rice, about 10 years ago. Now I much prefer it to white rice (which has no substance)....
Source: Zen Habits - August 28, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Happiness Source Type: blogs
Unschoolery: My New Blog on Unschooling
By Leo Babauta
One of my favorite topics to talk about is unschooling. I talk about it with every new parent I know.
And so, because it excites me so much, I’ve started a new blog:
Unschoolery:My Undefinitive Guide to Unschooling
In the last few days, I’ve posted nearly a dozen posts. I have another dozen ready to be written this week.
I love talking about unschooling.
Here are some topics I’ve written about already:
What is Unschooling?
Principles of Awesome Unschooling
Why Unschooling is the Best Incubator for Young Entrepreneurs
So What Do Unschoolers Do?
Learning to Socialize, for Unschoolers
...
Source: Zen Habits - August 27, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Finance & Family Source Type: blogs
My Advice for Starting a Business
By Leo Babauta
Recently I encouraged my 13-year-old daughter Maia to start a vegan cupcake business, and it’s so exciting to watch her get started.
As I talked to her about starting, she had some worries:
She didn’t know how.
She didn’t know what kind of business to create.
She was worried she’d fail.
Do any of those sound familiar? Those were my worries too, when I had a day job and thought about building something of my own.
Worry about not knowing what to do, how to do it, and whether you’ll fail … these stop so many people from starting.
I’ve launched numerous ventures,...
Source: Zen Habits - August 23, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Finance & Family Goals & Motivation Source Type: blogs
Creating Your Habit Environment
By Leo Babauta
Let’s imagine that you’re going to change your diet — you’re going from eating chips, ho-hos, Double Down Chicken Sandwiches and taco “meat” in a Dorito shell, to eating fruits and veggies and beans and nuts and whole grains.
Sound easy?
But when you’re stressed and tired from a long day of rebranding meetings and obsessively checking your Facebook, and don’t have much willpower, you’ll reach for the easiest snack, the thing you’re used to and comfortable with.
And when your co-workers or family breaks out the cupcakes or home-made cookies, you ...
Source: Zen Habits - August 20, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Habits Source Type: blogs
Travel Lessons with My Family
By Leo Babauta
In the past year or so I’ve traveled more than ever, for both work and family reasons:
A tour of southern Europe with 5 of our kids and Eva in summer 2012
NYC (with a vegan tour) with Eva in fall 2012
Maui with all 6 kids and Eva in January 2013
Japan, on an awesome train trip and cherry blossom festivals with Tynan and some new friends, in March-April 2013
NYC with all 6 kids and Eva, again sampling the vegan delights, in June 2013
Portland & Eugene for the World Domination Summit and to visit family, with Eva and some of the kids, in July 2013
Los Angeles with all 6 kids and Eva in July 2013
...
Source: Zen Habits - August 16, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Finance & Family Happiness Source Type: blogs
Easier Decision-Making: Conduct Experiments
By Leo Babauta
A surprising amount of our day is filled with decisions: what to do with an email, what to do with clutter, opening paper mail, grocery shopping, whether to go out with friends or stay home, whether to add someone as a friend, whether to take a job, to move, to take a class, to go on a vacation, and so on.
And a good amount of stress can come about from all of those decisions, because many times we don’t have the information we need to make a good decision.
How can we make a choice when we don’t know the outcome of each choice?
If the choices had clear outcomes, we could just weigh them and d...
Source: Zen Habits - August 14, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Productivity & Organization Source Type: blogs
