Personal Development Blog For Living Your Full Potential

By Leo Babauta It’s the end of the 2010s, and it’s been quite a decade for Zen Habits. I’ve grown the blog, discarded ads, simplified to a minimalist design, wrote & published numerous books and courses, formed two programs ( Sea Change and Fearless Training ), and grew my mission. Read more about my decade in review here . I thought I’d spend a little time reflecting on this decade and what I’d like to take away from it all. Reflect on the biggest lessons I’ve learned. I’m going to share them below, in condensed form. This isn’t everything I’ve learned, but some of the most important lessons. Things never go the way you think, but that’s a wonderful thing . This decade has unfolded in ways I would never, ever have predicted. I wouldn’t have guessed we’d be in San Diego right now, that we’d live in Davis, CA for four years, that my business would be where it is. I wouldn’t have guessed I would lose my father and father-in-law within two years of each other, or one of my best...

All of us, especially leaders, want to make positive change in our lives. But we’ve tried and failed many times. We’ll show you why New Year’s resolutions are a flawed system, and how to set achievable personal goals instead. You can avoid that sick feeling every January, and create a new habit or achievement that will change your life for good.

I shared a lot of ideas this year. I published a Wall Street Journal bestselling book . I recorded 100+ podcast episodes. I also wrote 116 new articles to this blog. Here are some of my most popular essays from last year: The Complete Guides I worked on three in-depth, research-based guides with Jakub Jilek, who is doing his PhD in cognitive science. These were some of the most popular essays this year, at over 10,000 words each, they’re more like small books than blog articles: The Complete Guide to Memory – Understanding how you remember and forget, with practical tips on how to study and learn better. The Complete Guide to Working Memory – How to think smarter and better, by managing your attention and cognitive resources. The Complete Guide to Self-Control – How can you be more disciplined? What does research say about willpower and effort? The Best Essays Here are my favorite essays that I wrote last year: Ultralearning Environments: Why Where You Learn Determines ...

Recently I had an idea for one of my coaching clients. It was a fundamental change to her business model that I knew would 10x her business and provide her with more personal margin to focus on her health and most important relationships. As we talked, she got excited about the possibilities. But almost immediately, she started retreating from the idea. Why? Because she couldn’t see how it could be possible.  She voiced a litany of objections: “I just don’t think I have the bandwidth to pull this off.” “I’m not sure the technology is available to do that.” “I think it would cost too much to implement.” Her response was not unusual. She was voicing a mindset that’s common among entrepreneurs. It’s also one of the things that keeps them from taking their businesses and their lives to the next level. They get bogged down in how before they get clear on what .  The Mindset of Successful People This is not, however, the mindset of the most accomplished among us. There...

By Leo Babauta It’s hard to believe we’re closing out not just another year, but an entire decade! It’s been quite a decade for Zen Habits, and also a really powerful year for me and my mission . To start with, let’s talk about what I’ve done this year: Hired a Director of Operations to help my business ( Coyote Jackson ) and my mission in the world, and worked with him much of the year to develop a great system for our team working together. Completely relaunched the Fearless Training Program . Coyote and I moved the program, which is at the heart of our mission, from Patreon platform to its own website, and completely redesigned the program and made it a thousand times better. It’s now a powerful program with a community, small teams for accountability, a monthly live call, and more. Check it out here . Completely revamped the Sea Change Program . We then took on Sea Change, my program for changing your habits … and we completely redesigned the program. New website, new curat...

By Leo Babauta Why do we get angry or frustrated or disappointed in other people in our lives? Be honest — it happens to all of us, right? Other people can seem rude, frustrating, untrustworthy, inconsiderate, hurtful. And while there is no excuse for abusive or hurtful behavior, a lot of the time, the real problem isn’t with the other person … it’s with our expectations of the other person. Our expectations of others often cause our own struggles and frustrations . So how can we work with these expectations so we can be more at peace, less reactive, and more compassionate with others? Let’s take a look. How Our Expectations Screw With Us We will often blame the other person for our frustration — they’re the ones being difficult, irritating, inconsiderate, crazy, hurtful, stubborn. And there’s often good reason for that. But consider these ideas: The frustration is hurting us, not just them. It might be their “fault,” but we’re the ones who are suffering from the frustration...

Leaders are often great solo achievers. But to be a truly great leader, you need to lead a great team. We’ve noticed that some leaders give too little attention to team members. Others smother them with communication and requests for updates. It’s challenging to find the right level of interaction to keep a team on track.

As a new year approaches, it’s a good time to think about what new habits you’d like to make. An obvious one is to read more books. Reading is a habit of compounding growth. Learn more and you’ll generate ideas and enthusiasm for making other changes. Reading books, not just random online articles, is especially helpful. An article can be penned in an afternoon, whereas most books take years. The result is that, when you read a book, you’re getting more concentrated thinking on a topic than shorter essays. Books, however, are also harder to read. They require patience and attention that is often in short supply. As a result, I think it makes sense to single out some specific strategies for increasing the amount of books you read. Let’s look at a few of these book-boosting habits… Habit #1: Never feel guilty about putting a book down and starting a new one. The habit I’ve had the most success with in increasing the number of books I read may seem like a paradoxical one. Isn’t t...

(And Why You Need to Put Them into Action Now) A lot of productive people operate in disorganized workspaces. The problem is that they’re not as productive as they could be. The hidden culprit stealing their focus is clutter. When I moved into my new office a while back, I was in the middle of a massive video shoot. Time was tight, and I just wanted to move my stuff in as quickly as possible. I didn’t organize with intention or strategy. I just threw stuff in drawers and cabinets with little rhyme or reason. What I didn’t consider at the time was that the disorganization and clutter would be a hindrance—even subconsciously—to my daily productivity. Clutter is proven to work against even the most productive professionals. “When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus,” says Erin Doland , summarizing the findings of researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute, adding: The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process inform...

By Leo Babauta As you consider a loving gift to give those you care deeply about, you might be feeling the pressure of finding a last-minute gift … I’d like to suggest a digital gift to help them change their lives. A lot of people we care about are looking to change their habits, shift their old patterns, find mindfulness, transform their lives. I’ve created two ways to give a gift membership … and in addition, there are some digital books and training packages you could purchase for your loved ones. Habits: Sea Change Membership My Sea Change Program is a powerful monthly membership program aimed at helping you change your entire life, one habit at a time. We’ve created monthly challenges to help you develop habits such as meditation, eating healthy, exercise, decluttering, unprocrastination and more. There are accountability teams, a live monthly webinar, and weekly check-ins, along with a habit tracking app. Here are the gift options you can purchase: 1 Month of Sea Chan...

By Leo Babauta It seems to me that being behind on all the things you need to do has become (or perhaps always has been) a part of our basic human condition. I don’t know anyone who feels they’re completely on top of things. Most of the time, we feel behind — too many things to do in too little time. We’re stressed, overwhelmed, busy, procrastinating, distracted. This is never a fun feeling, and yet most of us feel it most of the time. So what can we do? I think there’s not just one answer. If it were simple, we’d have solved it long ago. But there are a number of things we can try, and I’ve found them helpful. We’ll talk about these one by one: Make a list. Then focus on one thing at a time, in intentional containers. Work mindfully with your procrastination and distraction. Practice with your fear, discomfort, uncertainty, and feeling of overwhelm. Work with your attachment to doing everything. Let go. Manage your energy. Learn to relax and replenish. Create flexible struc...

As a leader, you’re probably used to being in charge. So when two executives occupy the same household, it can lead to tension. Spouses don’t take delegation well, especially when they’re also leaders! Miscommunication and unmet expectations quickly turn to resentment. Why does it feel like home is often the most stressful place to be?

You’re supposed to write an essay, but you procrastinate. The treadmill is collecting dust in your basement. You want to learn a language, start a business or change careers, but those ideas go nowhere. Inaction is something we’ve all experienced. Inaction, more than anything else, is the cause of our failures and our miseries. If we could consistently do the things we know we ought to, life would be much easier. Your projects would be more successful. Your goals would become a reality. Your life could be better. We all know action is hard. But why? Why do we struggle so much to take action? It’s easy to simply take this for granted, to assume laziness is just an intrinsic feature of the human psyche. But it’s also possible to imagine an alternative where action happened without so much inner struggle. Indeed, you don’t even have to imagine a hypothetical universe to consider this possibility, because there are people who exist in our world who seem to be extraordinarily good at...