Personal Development Blog For Living Your Full Potential

I’m excited to reach 100 episodes! It’s a milestone where it’s good to take a moment and celebrate. To have 100 episodes wouldn’t be possible with out you. Knowing that somehow and someway my podcast helps you in your life is the reason I’ve gotten to 100 episodes. In this episode, I talk about getting started on your own podcast if that’s been a dream of yours. I do believe it’s not too late to start a podcast. It’s not that difficult or expensive to start one. I keep my setup very simple. I use a USB microphone plugged into my computer and record on GarageBand on my Mac. I’ve shared some free tutorials that you could follow to get started on your own podcast. Thank you again for being a part of 100 episodes! Links for this episode: Start Podcasting Tutorial Launch Your Podcast in 28 days (free but requires opt in) Audio-technica ATR 2100 microphone (the one I’ve used for six years) Join the free Get Busy Living group Are you on Facebook already? If so, join the Get B...

5 Tips for Rallying People to a Task Leaders never have all the help they need. But most of us have an aversion to asking for it. It can feel awkward to ask for help But it doesn’t have to be!  We’ve got 5 simple tips that will enable you to get more help—for free. Use them in your business, and you’ll never feel awkward about asking for extra effort again. You’ll gain the help you need to achieve your company’s goals, and you’ll create a happier workforce in the process.

A malnourished mutt went from sifting through trash to being adored on the silver screen with millions of new fans. Hear the Good News Guru tell the story. The post Dog Goes From Digging Through Trash to Being Featured in a Hollywood Movie—and More (Podcast) appeared first on Good News Network .

By Leo Babauta The wind and rain were swirling around me powerfully, as I sat in my mom’s tropical flower garden in Guam and meditated. A tropical storm was passing close to Guam, where I’m living at the moment, and I decided to go out into the strong winds and torrential rain to meditate for at least a few minutes. Don’t worry, it was safe. I actually stood in meditation, as sitting in a puddle of rainwater wasn’t that appealing to me. The water kissed my face, the wind rocked my body into a sway, and I practiced being present in the storm. I was practicing stillness in the middle of chaos. Of course, we don’t need to have an actual tropical storm (which turned into a supertyphoon after it passed us) to practice with chaos. It’s all around us, every day. Chaos is the uncertainty of our daily lives, the constant barrage of information and requests and tasks and messages we’re swarmed with, the uncertainty of the global stage and national politics, of our finances and global econom...

Leaders inevitably must fire people occasionally. The problem is that most of us hate conflict and shy away from confrontational situations. That makes terminations incredibly stressful. But it doesn’t have to be. We’ve identified three simple guidelines that will help you turn a termination into a win for your company—and even for the person you fire. Use these in your business, and you’ll never shy away from managing performance again. You’ll gain the confidence you need to prune your workforce so it achieve at an even higher level.

Why You Need Different Perspectives Growing up, I was surrounded by a lot of people who looked like me. My childhood was spent Circleville, Ohio, which is in the middle of the country. My family was lower-middle class. We went to a church that wasn’t exactly cutting edge. Even when I went off to college, I was exposed to ideas that echoed what I learned as a child: comfort is found in spending time with “people like us,” people from our community. And that community was almost entirely white. My early career was equally vanilla. Surrounded by good-hearted, hard-working men and women who looked and thought and acted like the folks I’d grown up around. Progress was defined as moving backwards slowly. Innovation was adding more of the same. It took me years to become a leader who understood and embraced the benefits of diversity, but it was one of the greatest shifts I ever made as leader. That’s why it’s one of the eleven shifts I outline in my new book, Leadershift: 11 Essential C...

By Leo Babauta Most of the time, we are caught up in what can be called “small mind”: the small world of self-concern, of wanting to get what we want and avoid what we don’t want. This is the cause of our suffering — always running to distraction, procrastinating, caught up in worries and fears, worried about what people think of us, what we’re missing, what someone did to offend us, and so on. It’s a small world we get trapped in, this worrying about ourselves all the time. And it leads to stress, anger, hurt, worry, fear, anxiety and distraction. The antidote is Vast Mind — growing bigger than the small mind we have habitually become stuck in. What is Vast Mind? It’s opening to something bigger than our self-concern, opening to the freshness of the moment. Let’s imagine that there’s someone whose family member has said something insulting to them. They immediately get caught up in small mind, thinking about how they don’t deserve to be treated this way, that they’re a good pers...

Reading aloud to children and elderly family members is not just a bonding experience – it's also a neurological booster shot for everyone involved. The post The Science of The Magic Hour: Why We Should Read to Each Other – Especially Our Kids appeared first on Good News Network .

Today’s episode is a question from a podcast listener who wants to start a small business but couldn’t get over her fear of judgement from others. Her perfectionism also held her back from taking that leap of faith. In this episode, I talk about changing how to see judgement that we fear. The truth is that we are always judged no mattered what we do. Think about anyone who’s successful at what they do. They get judged. No amount of success, fame, or money will stop that. I also talk about not trying to do everything perfect. 100% perfection destroy many dreams. If you’ve been wanting to start your own business, or create something, you will enjoy this episode. If you have a question you would like me to answer on a future topic, then email me! Join the free Get Busy Living group Are you on Facebook already? If so, join the Get Busy living community there. Click here to join right now . Subscribe to the Show To make sure you don’t miss a single episode of the podcast, subscrib...

Today is MOTH Monday on Good News Network: In partnership with The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art of storytelling, we bring you the most uplifting speakers from live stages across the world. Denise Scheuermann took the stage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to tell the audience about a ritual of hope that she always used […] The post MOTH Monday: ‘Something Really Good Will Come From This’ appeared first on Good News Network .

By Leo Babauta Shifting from a convenient but unhealthy diet to one of healthful, delicious joy can be a challenge when you’re living alone — but there’s a whole new level of challenge if you are part of a family. The problem: while you might want to change to a new style of eating, picky eaters (kids, but also spouses) can disagree with the change. Who wants to eat kale when fried chicken and pizza are go-to staples? Who wants to eat oats and fruit when Poptarts and sausages are the usual breakfast foods? Well, me. And maybe you. But how do we deal with a family full of picky eaters? A woman in my Sea Change Program asked me: “I’ve got 2 kids who are picky and a husband who doesn’t generally like vegetables and really hates having the same meal 2 nights in a row. I know that you have a big family and I’m sure there’s someone in your household that is picky. ;) How has this impacted the way you or your wife meal plans? I really want to simplify my grocery list and for all of us...

Devoted Irish hockey teams will soon have a place to skate thanks to a very famous Canadian — a hockey fan on the other side of the pond. Hear our Good News Guru tell the inspiring story on the radio in Los Angeles—during the February 15, 2019 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST-103.5. READ the full story here. Subscribe to our […] The post Ireland Will Finally Get Its Own Ice Hockey Rink –Thanks to a Very Famous Canadian (GNN podcast) appeared first on Good News Network .

The founder of Beekeeper’s Naturals spills the beans on all things bee—and the therapeutics behind hive products like honey and propolis in this podcast. The post The Impressive Medicinal Value of the OTHER Bee Products – and the Honey, Too appeared first on Good News Network .

Instead of being angry at his son's bully, this man approached the boy with compassion – and now, they are all enjoying the wonderful results. The post Dad Confronts Bully by Treating Him Like a Son – Now the Homeless Boy Has Money and Friendship (GNN Podcast) appeared first on Good News Network .

By Leo Babauta How often do you take time to go out for an hourlong walk? To just sit out in nature doing nothing but contemplating and enjoying the silence? I’m sure there are a few of you who indulge in this luxury regularly, but most of us don’t make time for solitude on a daily basis. For some, it’s too much of a luxury: the struggle of daily existence is too close to survival level to even think about an hour alone in nature. But for many of us, the main reason is that our brain rationalizes staying busy. We are filled with uncertainty all day long, and that drives us to try to do more, to get control of everything, to cram more into our lives, to stay addicted to technology and distraction. The main driver of our busyness and distraction is uncertainty . Uncertainty is woven into every hour of our lives. We are uncertain about what we should do, who we are, whether we’re good enough, what is going to happen, what’s going on in the world, and how to deal with the overwhelmin...

Grandma's Christmas gifts never reached Ben after they were mistakenly mailed to Texas – but the gifts were so special, a man spent ages trying to find him. The post Listen to Live Storytelling About a Gift Return That Meant the World—as GNN Presents MOTH Monday appeared first on Good News Network .

I’m a big fan of having a morning routine that is productive and better prepares me for the day. I know how much better I am feeling overall when I do. I am also not perfect and do fall back into old ways of a morning spent on my iPhone. This is where I found myself in the middle of January. I felt stuck into this bad routine and when I thought about going back to my normal routine, I felt like I didn’t have enough time in the morning. So my excuses kept me from taking action. I got tired of complaining to myself and decided to start small. What I decided to do to get back into a routine was just choose one area where I wanted to focus. If I only accomplished that one thing, then my morning would be a success. If I did anything else, it would be a bonus. It’s gone really well. Now I have enough time to focus on my one thing. I feel better all day knowing I spent time on it. I’ve also been learning new ideas and strategies from improving my own life because of this one habit. So t...

How Understanding Your Team Elevates Your Leadership. Leaders must motivate people. The problem is that everybody’s different, so what inspires one team member may demotivate another. It can be confusing to lead a diverse team. But personality is not an unsolvable puzzle. We’ve identified three personality assessments that will give you a clear understanding of how your team members think, feel, and work. Use these in your business, and you’ll never wonder how to motivate your team again. You’ll gain an engaged, focused workforce that will bring their best energy to work.

By Leo Babauta I’m really good at getting a lot of things done, taking action, piling up a buttload of completed tasks. Action isn’t my problem — it’s making the tasks themselves feel more meaningful. Do any of you have that problem, that your work just feels like busywork, not super meaningful? By the way, if your problem is not taking action … here’s my action rules: Pick important things to work on Do only one of them at a time Set aside everything else and do only that one task Make it smaller so it’s easier to start Feel the joy of getting stuff done And yes, getting stuff done is so much fun. But at the end of the day, you just churned through a whole bunch of things, and it doesn’t feel that meaningful. Sure, at least you didn’t just procrastinate all day, didn’t fritter the day away in distractions … but there’s more to life than just churning and being super busy. Let’s talk instead about meaning. The Joy of Meaningful Work Not everyone has the luxury of doing ...

By Leo Babauta Yesterday I was on a call with an active member of my Fearless Training Program , and she asked a question about how to spend her time more intentionally. Her key insight for me was that a lot of people in the program (and I think many people reading this blog) would like to do the same thing. How do we spend our days with more intentionality? How do we stop from just going through it on autopilot, just running to distractions and busywork all the time, just getting through things? How do we keep from feeling overwhelmed and lost at sea? How do we change our habit of being too busy, never having time for the things we want to spend our life on? The answer isn’t simple, but I’ve created a guide for spending your time intentionally, things that I’ve been implementing in my life. Let’s walk through this guide step-by-step. The Mindset of Not Enough Time Before we get into practical steps, it’s important to address the mindset that many of us have, which just gets in...

Leaders want to provide the answers that drive results. And in the information age, easy answers are everywhere. That’s why leaders must get better at asking powerful questions. In this episode, we reveal how to drive results with four surprisingly simple questions that have the power to transform your leadership and your business.

It’s a new year and I’ve been reflecting on how I want 2019 to be for me. What I’ve decided is that I’m going to go bigger in 2019 and I know the way to do that is to challenge myself and get me out of my comfort zone. I want to look back at 2019 and be proud of what I achieved and have it be my best year yet. I hope you will join me this year so I can do what I can to help you. One area that I will spend more time on is on the Get Busy Living brand. For years now it’s just been an afterthought. It’s something that I have worked on whenever I had the time. When reflecting on what I wanted to focus on in 2019, the idea of writing and podcasting kept sticking in my mind. I couldn’t shake it. So I’ve decided that I’m going to spend the first quarter of 2019 on this and see where it takes me. I just know that I want to achieve much more this year. The past two years have been good, but I’ve gotten too comfortable and haven’t pursued any projects that I so badly want to do but am afra...

By Leo Babauta There are a number of times when our mind clings to something tightly, and it is rarely helpful: I am right, the other person is wrong That person is living their life in the wrong way, they should change My preference is the best way, others are wrong This is the thing I want, I don’t want anything else I really don’t like that, it sucks I should have that person in my life, loving me I shouldn’t be alone, shouldn’t be overweight, shouldn’t be however I am, shouldn’t have this life In all of these cases, and more, our minds are fixed in a certain viewpoint, and we often judge others. We complain. We are attached to what we want and what we don’t want. It leads to stress. Unhappiness. Anger. Righteousness. Being judgmental. Distancing ourselves from others. Closed-offedness. And it leads to being closed off to the beauty of this moment, as it is, full of openness and possibilities. If you’d like to work on letting go, I would like to offer a simple practice...

And Why Most Have Fewer Than They Think As leaders, we all want to be competent and successful. The problem is that our quest for success can be demanding. It can feel lonely at the top. But as a leader, you can’t afford  to be isolated. You deserve a rich, full life—including a social life. Every leader can thrive by cultivating friendships, protecting time for friendship, and enjoying leisure time together. In this episode, we’ll show you how.