Personal Development Blog For Living Your Full Potential

By Leo Babauta There are a lot of us who would like to change something, but find it difficult to make that change. I’m here to share with you the fact that making a shift like this is absolutely possible, and share how that shift might happen. So let’s start with this: making a shift in our lives is absolutely possible . Not only have I made dozens of changes in my life, I’ve seen hundreds, even thousands of people change in my Sea Change Program and now my Fearless Training Program . It’s not always easy, it’s often very messy, but it’s absolutely possible. Let’s look at how shift happens most often. The Phases of How Shift Happens in Our Lives Here’s how the change often happens, in my experience: You struggle with the change . This phase might take years — there’s something in your life that’s making you unhappy, unhealthy, or struggle with work or relationships. You want to change it, but either it’s too difficult or you aren’t very motivated to do it. You struggle, you gi...

Leaders create change. The problem is that not everybody  wants  change. You’ve probably faced the frustration of having your team be less than enthusiastic about a new initiative. That’s when you hear all the familiar lines: “We tried that before.” “It’ll cost too much.” “Why do we need this, anyway?” It’s exhausting. But there is hope!  Here’s an easy way to get people onboard with a new initiative. It’s so simple, you’ll wonder you you haven’t thought of it before now.

How Media, Habits, and People Hold us Back or Drive us Forward Charisma may be useful in attracting a following, but it is largely useless when it comes to achieving a long-term, positive impact on the people and organizations we lead. For this, we need character. In helping people build their platforms, I frequently meet people whose public image is better developed than their personal character . They are one person on stage and another when the spotlight is off. It is this fundamental lack of integrity that undermines their effectiveness and, left unchecked, can destroy their legacy. Effective leadership is an inside-out job. This is why it is so important to give attention to developing our character. Yes, talent is important. So is education and experience. But in the end, it is our character that makes or breaks us. In my experience, character is shaped by three forces. If we want to develop our character, we need to give attention to each of them. The input we consume. ...

Despite being told as a child never to expose her wooden leg to the public, Aimee Mullins grew up to be a role model for amputees everywhere. The post Listen to How a Woman Ignored the Grown-Ups and Became an Icon for Amputees (MOTH Monday) appeared first on Good News Network .

“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” ~Pema Chodron By Leo Babauta It’s a fundamental fact of human life that we want our lives to be under control — we develop plans, goals, routines, systems, tools, schedules, structure to our lives. But while developing some structure is a very helpful thing for most of us … the truth is, there’s so much that we don’t control. Life is chaotic, out of control, shaky. It’s what Pema Chodron calls “goundlessness” — the feeling of no solid ground under our feet. Other Buddhists might call it impermanence, which is a basic fact of life that we very often don’t want to accept. We don’t like groundlessness. We want the solid ground. So what do we do when life feels out of control, groundless? We open up to the groundlessness. Normall...

By Leo Babauta Most of us have that One Thing on our task list that is the most important thing on the list, that would be the most meaningful … and yet we’re not doing it. The One Thing is so meaningful and important that it brings up a ton of uncertainty for us, and causes us to avoid, run, distract, comfort, procrastinate. It’s an old habitual pattern. So how do we deal with this uncertainty and habitual avoidance? I’ve been working on a 3-step method for this, very simple and it improves with practice. So here’s the simple (not always easy) method: Create a space . Put aside all the messages, social media, distractions, smaller tasks, organizing and tidying, checking on one more thing. Instead, have a small space (even just 10-15 minutes) for this important task, and nothing else. You can do it now: set aside the next 15 minutes for this task, and tell yourself this is the only thing you’ll do for the next 15 minutes. It’s that easy. Meditate on meaning & feelings . For...

By Leo Babauta There’s a strange contradiction in most of our lives: We deeply feel the messiness of our lives . We feel it in all areas of our lives, which stresses us out and causes us to shut down, feel overwhelmed, run to distraction and comforts. It creates tremendous uncertainty for us. But … We resist sticking to structure and routine . We want to have a great order to our lives, but when it comes to actually following it, we struggle. It feels too rigid, too constricting. So we immediately toss the plan aside and start free-forming it, answering messages and going to distractions and reading or watching things online. This creates even more uncertainty, not being able to stick to structure. This contradiction might not be universal, but it’s present for a lot of people. I would guess that a majority of people reading this feel a struggle between these two things. Now, I don’t think you can get control and order over everything in your life — life is inherently messy and u...

Leaders are achievers. But nobody bats 1.000. We all experience failure eventually. That can be discouraging—even humiliating! That’s why most of us react in one of two ways. Either we globalize our failure by thinking we won’t ever succeed. Or we sweep the loss away quickly and forget it.  But what if there was a better way to fail?

Robert Sherer never wanted his grandmother to know that he was taking care of her daily affairs—but then she sat him down for an adorable conversation. The post How Fibbing to His Grandma With Early Onset Dementia Led to a Touching—But Hilarious—Conversation appeared first on Good News Network .

Delegation is critical to leadership. You can’t take on more responsibility unless you are willing to delegate to others . But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Some time ago one of my mentees was planning a special event. He was surprised to discover that someone on his planning team had completed a project he hadn’t really authorized. He was clearly frustrated, because he felt the other person had taken more initiative that he was given. After listening to him describe the situation, I said, “The fault is not with your team member. The problem is that you didn’t make your expectations clear when you delegated this task.” I then asked if he had ever heard of the five levels of delegation. He said no, so I shared them with him. I realized this was a brand new thought for my young friend. Perhaps it is for you as well. As a leader, whenever you delegate a task, you need to make it clear what level of authority you are conferring on others: Level 1: Do as I say. This means t...

By Leo Babauta It’s hard enough to change a habit that you can physically see: going for a daily walk, sitting down to write, having a salad for lunch each day. These are easily seen, but can still be quite a challenge to instill in your life. But what about habits of mindlessness, that you don’t even know you’re doing? Maybe you notice it later, maybe you never notice. How do you change those kinds of habits? For myself, I have a number of mindless habits that I could focus on: Judging other people Eating mindlessly, especially when I’m talking to people or watching TV Sitting too long and getting distracted online Comparing myself to others or judging myself Shutting down into self-concern when someone is unhappy with me Hiding things from others because I’m ashamed or afraid for them to know Of course, these are just a handful that stand out. They’re deeply ingrained, because I’ve had them since childhood. They are not a reason to beat myself up, or judge myself. There ...

Good leaders want to do the right thing. But sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Have you ever made a really unwise choice that cost you a relationship or an opportunity?  It’s so discouraging to realize you’ve made an avoidable mistake. It can even make you question your decision making ability.  But you can recover.

Despite growing up in a tiny insulated town, David Kendall's father gave him the inspiring musical gift that he needed to change his life forever. The post Man’s Emotional Tale of How His Father’s Rebellious Blues Song Helped Him Escape Sleepy Southern Town appeared first on Good News Network .

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” ~Rumi By Leo Babauta Very often, our lives are so filled with busyness and distraction that we have no space to actually listen to what life is calling us to do. Think about your day so far, and your day yesterday: how much of it was spent in busywork and distraction? Messaging, social media, videos and news, reading favorite websites, answering emails and doing errands, replying and reacting. In the middle of this craziness, do we ever have space for silence? For creation, contemplation, reflection? And for a practice that I think we do too little of much of the time: listening. The practice of listening is about creating a little space for silence, and then listening to what you need to do right now: What have you committed to doing that you’re not doing? Why is what you’re doing now important? What do you need? What do the people you care about need? What are you b...

My book, Ultralearning , was just released last week. I’d like to share some of my favorite podcast conversations I’ve recorded (as well as some reviews and essays). Conversations About Ultralearning Here are some of the conversations I recorded as part of Ultralearning. There are still more to be released, but if you’re looking to listen to some of the ideas before grabbing the book, these should help you out. Do you have your own podcast and would like to have me as a guest? Just shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you. Man Talks – Understanding How We Learn, How to Learn Faster and Ultralearning Modern Wisdom Podcast [VIDEO] – A conversation with Chris Williamson on Ultralearning. Superhuman Academy – Tackling Amazing Learning Challenges Through Ultralearning (Side note: The host, Jonathan Levi is also something of an ultralearner and has his own book about learning coming out soon!) How to Be Awesome at Your Job – How to Acquire New Skills Faster ...

(And How Not to Be One) Sometimes you learn from positive role models. Often you learn from negative ones. This is one of the reasons I love to read history—you invariably see both. After watching Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln , I decided to reread Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is a page-turning account of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his political genius. At the beginning of Lincoln’s first term, he appointed each of his former Republican rivals—those who had run against him for his party’s nomination—to cabinet posts. The narrative demonstrates his amazing ability to tap into a broad array of perspectives and create alignment among those who often disagreed violently with one another. Unfortunately, Lincoln’s leadership was not perfect. He occasionally selected men for public service who were unworthy of his trust. One such individual was Gen. George B. McClellan , commander of the Army of the Potomac and, eventually, first general-in-chief of the Union Army. Mc...

This interview with May McCarthy (The Path to Wealth: 7 Spiritual Steps to Financial Abundance) provides a daily road map to manifest all your goals ‘like crazy’. The post This Simple Morning Practice Can Pave Your ‘Path to Wealth’ and Prosperity appeared first on Good News Network .

When Lucy Huber decided to propose to her boyfriend, she spent months waiting for the right moment to pop the question—but she never got her chance. The post Listen to Woman’s Sweet Marriage Proposal Story About Popping the Question to Her Longtime Boyfriend appeared first on Good News Network .

Hear the Good News Guru tell the tale of 4 American brothers in Ireland for a funeral who saved a little girl on a serendipitous day with a magical meaning. The post American Brothers Successfully Save Irish Girl Swept Out to Sea in Serendipitous Twist of Fate (GNN Podcast) appeared first on Good News Network .

By Leo Babauta We live in uncertain times. Actually, things have always felt uncertain to the people who live in those times, but these days it might feel even more heightened, with the hyperconnectivity of the internet, social media and constant messaging, comparing ourselves to everyone else, and a very tense, divisive political situation (not just in the U.S., but in many countries). It’s enough to drive anxiety through the roof for many people. I coach hundreds of people through my Sea Change Program and Fearless Training Program, as well as 1-on-1 … and anxiety seems to be a huge problem for many people I work with. I’ve seen it in my extended family and friend circle as well — anxiety seems to be on the rise, or at least it can feel that way to many. So what  can we do to deal with this anxiety? There isn’t one simple solution, but there are some habits we can form to help us cope — even thrive — in the middle of chaos and uncertainty. The Causes of Anxiety In short, o...

What do you do when you have a customer you just can’t seem to satisfy? Or a team member who seems resistant to coaching? What about someone in a personal relationship who seems to suck the life out of you? Sometimes it seems feels like the people who demand the most of your time and energy offer the least in return. What can you do about it?