Wake Up to the Life You Love

by: Greg Reid


 
While speaking at a San Diego university recently, I was fortunate that I was not asked to leave the stage. You see, I chose to share with the students in my audience some frightening statistics. I announced that, while many would receive their degrees, few � very few � would end up pursuing careers in their chosen field. At this point, the faculty began giving me dirty looks.
I went on to say that, while most students were there to pursue a dream, the dream they were chasing was not their own. Many students enter college to live up to the expectations of family, friends, and society. They�ve been told they should become an accountant, lawyer, doctor or teacher because of the great future and financial gain. In trying to do what others think they should do rather than following their individual passions, they rarely continue along the same path once they leave campus.

The Gift

BY LEO BABAUTA
Three people are given a magical gift by a luminous, kindhearted fairy.
The gift is that for just one hour, they get to experience magic and wonders. This limited time is filled with visual delights, food of the utmost deliciousness, amazing people with incredible talents, and love.

A Guide for Young People: What to Do With Your Life

I had a 15-year-old write to me and ask about figuring out what do do with her life.
She writes:
‘As a high-school student I’m constantly being reminded to figure out what to do with my life, what career I would like to have and so on. I definitely feel huge amounts of pressure when my teachers and parents tell me to figure out something now. I’m young and I don’t want to make a mistake and ruin my future. I know what I like and what my interests are but when I read about a job related to those interests I always feel as if I wouldn’t enjoy it and I don’t know why.’

7 Discipline-Mastering Practices



A craftsman masters his trade by repeated practice, with care and continual learning, with devotion to the purpose.
It takes the same kinds of things to master the craft of discipline:
  • Repeated practice
  • Single-minded devotion to the purpose
  • Continual learning
  • Care
I’ve been giving some thought to what it takes to master the craft of discipline, and have been following some practices that I’ve found extremely useful:

The Way of No Debt

Article By  Babauta
In 2005, one of the low points of my life, I had 5 kids, crippling debts, and was barely making it from paycheck to paycheck.
I would shove my bills in a drawer, envelopes unopened, so I didn’t have to deal with bills I couldn’t pay. I would avoid the calls of collection agencies. I was swimming in debt, and didn’t know how to get out.
The real low point, though, came when we didn’t have enough money to buy some milk and cereal for the kids. My bank account had a negative balance. So I stole money from my kids’ piggy bank to buy the food. Yeah, that didn’t feel good.
Things went on like this for awhile before I finally decided it was time to face the fears, see my situation clearly, and start doing something about it.
Here’s what I did:

A Month Without TV or Video

‘I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.’ ~Groucho Marx
Article By Leo Babauta
Of all the challenges I’ve done for The Year of Living Without, going without TV/video has been the one with the most mixed feelings for me.
One side of me: I all of a sudden had more free time, to read, write, do whatever I wanted without distraction. I enjoyed being free of TV and movies.
But the other side: I couldn’t hang out with my family when they watched TV. Which they tend to want to do every night, for an hour or two. I honestly didn’t want to watch the TV shows with them (we don’t have cable, but watch shows we pick on iTunes), but when they watched, I was isolated. This wasn’t always great.

3 Little Tricks to Deal With People Who Offend You

Something that we struggle with daily things, that eats us up and causes stress and anger: annoying people.
You know those people: they cut in line, are rude to you in the office or at the restaurant, cut you off in traffic, talk loudly about obnoxious things, play loud music when you’re trying to concentrate, interrupt you, and so on.
These offenses are violations of the way you think people should act. And so it burns you up. Don’t worry, I’m the same way.
If you just keep letting these offensive people get to you, you’ll always be mad or annoyed. Life won’t be very good. But it’s something you can learn to deal with.
I have to admit I’m not perfect at this, but here are three strategies I use that are helpful:

7 Simple Ways To Say “No”

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Celestine Chua of The Personal Excellence Blog.
Do you have difficulty saying “no”? Are you always trying to be nice to others at the expense of yourself?
Well, you’re not alone. In the past, I was not good at saying “no”, because I didn’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings.
For example, whenever I get requests for help, I would attend to them even though I had important work to do. Sometimes the requests would drag to 2-3 hours or even beyond. At the end of the day, I would forgo sleep to catch up on my work. This problem of not knowing how to say “no” also extended to my clients, business associates and even sales people.
After a while, I realized all these times of not saying “no” (when I should) were not helping me at all. I was spending a lot of time and energy for other people and not spending nearly as much time for myself. It was frustrating especially since I brought it upon myself. I slowly realized if I wanted personal time, I needed to learn to say “no”.

You’re Already Perfect

‘Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ ~Lao Tzu
 Article by Leo Babauta
A lot of people come to Zen Habits (and read other personal development blogs and books) because they want to improve something about themselves. They’re not satisfied with their lives, they’re unhappy with their bodies, they want to be better people.
I know, because I was one of those people.
This desire to improve myself and my life was one of the things that led to Zen Habits. I’ve been there, and I can say that it leads to a lot of striving, and a lot of dissatisfaction with who you are and what your life is.

7 Fail-proof Ways to Rev Up Your Fat Burning and Get Lean

Article By Leo Babauta
If you’re like me, you can eat healthy much of the time, exercise a lot, and still find your fat-burning efforts at a plateau.
It seems easier to lose the first 30 pounds than the last bit of fat around your middle.
And if you’re like me, you want to get lean — for reasons that may vary from improved physical performance to better health to better looks. It’s not always easy to get rid of that stubborn belly fat — or any fat, for that matter, as you can’t “spot reduce” just your belly fat.
So I’ve created a list of things you can do to break through that plateau, if you’ve been exercising and eating fairly healthy for awhile but have seen your progress slow considerably. That’s the situation I found myself in recently, and these are the techniques I’ve been using to pretty good success.

How To Find That Elusive Balance Between Work and Life

“Balance is beautiful.” –  Miyoko Ohno, Japanese bridge designer
Article by Leo Babauta
I have a close friend named Norm who is a great photographer and a great person in general … recently he was telling me that all he does is work.
That might sound familiar to some of you — I’ve certainly been there at different points in my life, although these days I have to say that I’ve found a pretty good balance between all the important things in my life, including work, family, and other things I’m interested in.
Norm asked me to write a post about work-life balance, because although I think Norm is pretty happy with his life, he’s interested in expanding his life beyond work. I think it’s an interesting question that most of us have to address at some point or other.

The Simple Joy Of A Beating Heart

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Eric Hamm of Motivate Thyself.
The average human heart beats around 100,000 times per day. It’s one of the most common occurrences in our human existence.  And yet for Liz and I, hearing that tap-tap-tap was the only thing on our minds.  As we waited in that room, Liz on her back in that awkward position once again, the tension grew while we anticipated the findings.  We were 9 weeks pregnant and all we wanted in that moment was the assurance that our little baby was alive and kicking.

The 7 Keys to Turning Bad Habits Into Good Habits

Quitting smoking was one of the most difficult things to do — in fact, I failed the first six times I tried quitting.
Each time I failed in my quit attempt, I felt guilty and weak and unsure of my ability to overcome such difficult hurdles. But looking back on it, it was the failed attempts that taught me the most about what works and what doesn’t.
And on my seventh attempt to quit, I was prepared. I knew what got in the way of success, and I planned for it. I had researched habit changes, and had multiple strategies for success in my plan. And the things I learned from this successful habit change were keys to changing all the habits that have made me the person I am today.
Reader Tarra recently asked:

Six Simple Steps to Avoid Credit Problems in a Bad Economy

The New York Times ran a story today that says the next consumer crisis is credit cards — a sobering fact in a nation that has racked up massive amounts of credit card debt.
Unfortunately, when times get hard, many people turn to credit cards to help them make ends meet … and only dig themselves into a deeper hole.
I’ve been through this myself, buying things on credit when I had no other way to pay for them. I’m not talking about plasma TVs, but about necessities like medical bills. As a result, I dug myself deep into debt, and one of the biggest decisions of my life was to get rid of credit cards and begin eliminating my debt.

Practicing Non-Judgment

We go through our day judging our experiences, other people, ourselves: this is good, this is bad. If all goes well, most of it will be good, but more than we realize, we dislike certain experiences, things about people, about ourselves.

Finding Motivation on Important But Non-Urgent Tasks

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I have a friend who is self-employed, running his own business and doing a great job … except that he finds himself procrastinating on important tasks like writing.
No, I’m not talking about myself! Although, to be honest, I do the same thing too.
We all do, I think: we know there’s something we should be doing that’s really important for our careers, personal lives, businesses … but there are other less important we do instead. We check our email, respond to messages, read news, find interesting things to read online.

A Guide to Dealing with Frustration & Disappointment in Yourself

One of the most common things I see in people who write to me is something we all share: disappointment in ourselves.
We all feel this, because we constantly fail to live up to our standards:
  • We aren’t as disciplined as we’d like.
  • We don’t stick to habits we’re trying to create.
  • We aren’t as productive as we plan to be.
  • We leave small personal tasks and large work tasks undone.
  • We fail in exercising as much as we’d like, and eating as healthily as we want.
  • We fail in being the best parent, partner, friend, as we think we should be.

The Miracle of Suspending Mis-Belief

By Leo Babauta
Would it seem miraculous if you could dissolve anxiety, fears, stress, frustration, anger … by making a small mental shift?
The answer might lie in thinking about how we watch films.
Last night, I was watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy with my kids, and my 9-year-old daughter said some of the things in the movie scared her. I started talking about how they’re all just actors, and isn’t it funny how they dress up in these costumes to tell us this story? By helping her to see through the make-believe of films, I was trying to help her dissolve some of the fears she had.

Advice for People in Their Early 20s

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By Leo Babauta
A young woman wrote to me recently about fears about the future:
‘I’m in my 20s and I’m trying to figure my future out. I’m just wondering how to stop worrying and letting the fear of the unknown totally consume my daily thoughts (I’m moving from Sweden to American and have no idea how to find a job, a place to live, etc.). I’m very much scared of the future, even though I have overcome obstacles before.’

The Simple Health Plan

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There are a lot of complicated diet and exercise plans out there, a lot of workouts that are the latest craze, a lot of fad diets and detox juicing and more.
If it’s the newest craze, I recommend skipping it.
Instead, let’s get down to the simple fundamentals: it’s not that complicated to get healthy. In fact, I’ve boiled it down to two strategies.
Here’s my simple plan:
1. Eat a crapton of vegetables.
2. Do something active and fun every day.
No, you don’t have to eat only vegetables — but you should make them the foundation of your diet, and eat them first.
I believe that if you follow this plan, you’ll be healthy. It might not be a miracle weight-loss plan, but you’ll be healthy, and you can definitely lose weight. You can gain muscle. Get lean. Live healthier.
So just eat a lot of vegetables and be active every day.
Optional upgrade: Get an accountability partner if possible.

20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
I’m nearly 35 years old, and I’ve made my share of mistakes in my life. I’m not a big believer in regrets … and I have learned tremendously from every single mistake … and my life is pretty great.
However, there are a few things I wish I had known when I was graduating from high school and starting out as an adult in life.

Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump

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By Leo Babauta
Even the most motivated of us — you, me, Tony Robbins — can feel unmotivated at times. In fact, sometimes we get into such a slump that even thinking about making positive changes seems too difficult.
But it’s not hopeless: with some small steps, baby ones in fact, you can get started down the road to positive change.
Yes, I know, it seems impossible at times. You don’t feel like doing anything. I’ve been there, and in fact I still feel that way from time to time. You’re not alone. But I’ve learned a few ways to break out of a slump, and we’ll take a look at those today.
This post was inspired by reader Roy C. Carlson, who asked:

When Others Frustrate You

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BY LEO BABAUTA
There’s a way of being that I’m trying to cultivate in myself — to let go of wanting others to be a certain way.
Here’s the problem: we all get frustrated with other people. We want our kids to do certain things, our spouses to be less something or other, our friends to change their lives, our relatives to be healthier, other people to be less rude, etc etc.

How to Beat Procrastination with Daily Training

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BY LEO BABAUTA
We all do it: our best intentions are to go to the gym, get started on writing something, do practice learning a language … but then we procrastinate.
There isn’t a person on this planet who’s immune to the procrastination habit.

Level Up to Lose Weight

BY LEO BABAUTA
I know a lot of people who want to lose weight but are stuck, like I was in 2005.
They want to get healthy and fit, but can’t seem to stick to a diet or exercise plan. They start, and then fail, and then feel bad about it.

The Daybreak: Make an Important Goal Happen with a Morning Habit

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BY LEO BABAUTA
The sun begins to come up, and the first rays of light begin to shine upon this fresh day.
What do you do with this time?
The most important thing.
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