The Best of Leo Babauta
20+ most popular Leo Babauta articles, as voted by our community.
Creator of Zen Habits. Training in uncertainty. Zen student, vegan, dad, husband.
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Get to the True Heart of Change
By Leo Babauta Creating a new habit like meditation, journaling or exercise isn’t incredibly complicated — at the most basic level, you tie the habit to a trigger that’s already in your life, start…
«If you can deal with the resistance, you can form a new habit. If you aren’t even aware of it, you’ll think there’s something wrong with you, or you’ll keep looking for better answers to fix this problem you have»
Be All In: Unlock Your Full Power
By Leo Babauta One of the things that really humbled me in recent years is the realization that I am often only halfway in on anything I do. I’m rarely ever really all in. For example, I might join a…
Leo Babauta on Better Living
3 Questions to Create Your Life
By Leo Babauta Very often, the way we live our lives is that we go through the motions — we do our work, try our best, tackle the things we have to do, take on our obligations, or we slack off on…
«When we meet resistance, our patterns show up. These patterns and the fears that lead to them are exactly why we haven’t created the life we want yet.»
Leo Babauta on Mindfulness
When You're Overwhelmed, Simplify
By Leo Babauta The feeling of being overwhelmed is extremely common in the people I talk to, and it’s becoming more and more clear to me that this is the default state for most of us. We’re…
«The first reason we feel overwhelm is that we often have too many commitments. We’ve taken on more than we have time for, often out of optimism for how much we can do in a day. It’s a lot less than we usually think.»
The Art of Effortless Decision Making
By Leo Babauta So many of us spend a ton of time and energy stuck in indecision — the stress and delays that come with this are quite incredible. One of the things I’m proud of about myself is my…
«“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.” — Cicero»
Leo Babauta on Perfectionism
Why Perfectionism Stops Us from Creating New Habits
By Leo Babauta When we decide to create a new habit — exercise, healthy eating, meditation, writing — we can get excited and optimistic, and have an idea of how it will go perfectly. This is such a…
«“Let me try to bring a daily ritual of doing X into my life, and be curious about what it will be like”?»
Leo Babauta on Personal Growth
Embarrassment is an Integral Part of the Growth Process
By Leo Babauta A well-known climbing coach said that the biggest obstacle in the way of people’s growth as climbers is, basically, fear of embarrassment. When people want to get better at climbing,…
Leo Babauta on Productivity
How to Have a Powerfully Effective Day
By Leo Babauta A lot of people I talk to are unhappy with their ability to get stuff done in their lives. They feel they’re wasting a lot of time, never really getting anything important done. What I…
«Wonder — how can I see wonder in everythingCuriosity — how can I learn something from every moment?Love — how can I bring love into everything I do?Aliveness — how can I feel lit up about my life?»
Committed & Unattached: A Powerful Way to Work
By Leo Babauta I’ve been diving deep into working with full commitment lately, in my personal transformative work and working with my clients. It’s fascinating work. The biggest stumbling point for…
Leo Babauta on Purpose
The Ridiculous Effectiveness of Singleminded Devotion to a Purpose
By Leo Babauta People I’ve been coaching lately have been stuck in indecision about what purpose they should pursue. At this kind of crossroads, we can become plagued by doubt. And that makes sense:…
«If you’re stuck in inaction and doubt, you often just feel crappy about yourself. You get zero results staying in this kind of false safety.»
Destroy What You Know
By Leo Babauta We are held back from creating the life we want, from our highest purpose, from our greatest growth and learning … by what we know. Destroy what you know. Once we feel like we’re a…
Leo Babauta on Time Management
How to Tackle a Mountain of Tasks
By Leo Babauta This month I came back to my work after taking a full month off — I am a stand for taking time off and finding time for rest and replenishment. After a month off, it turns out I have a…
«What if the mountain of tasks and emails becomes this place of adventure, exploration, play, curiosity, learning, joy?»
How to Make the Most of Your 24 Hours
By Leo Babauta So many of us feel a scarcity of time: we feel rushed, like there’s not enough time to do everything, always behind, never feeling like we’re doing enough. This problem is called “time…
«reflect with gratitude. At the end of each day, take a few moments to reflect back on your day and think about what you’re grateful for.»
Leo Babauta on Zen
Become Your New Habit
By Leo Babauta Quitting an old habit or forming a new habit is fairly simple when it comes to the steps to doing it: find your trigger and do a new habit at that trigger over and over. Remind yourself…
«CLINGING TO OLD MENTAL PATTERNS The mental patterns that keep us stuck in old habits are tied to our old image of ourselves.»
Powerful Training for the Mind
By Leo Babauta Every one of us has thought patterns that keep us stuck: Discouragement: What’s the point, I’m going to fail anyway, why even try, it’s too hard. Rationalizing: It’s OK to skip this, I…
«Try the new thought pattern. Say it to yourself and try really believing in it. Fully empower it. See what effect it has.»
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How to Put Life on Easy Mode
By Leo Babauta The other day I was having such a chill, easy day despite doing all of my usual work and chores and workout activities — the phrase, “Life on Easy Mode” came to me. The rest of the…
«When you’re going about your day, think about the simplest thing you could do right now that would be helpful. Then savor that simplicity.»
How the Feeling of Pointlessness Can Derail Us
By Leo Babauta Something I’ve noticed that derails a lot of people’s goals or attempts to form habits is the feeling that it’s pointless to even try. If it feels like it won’t matter if you do…
«What would it be like to find meaning in the place that feels pointless?»
Mastering the Art of Letting Go
By Leo Babauta One of the keys to living a life of calm and purpose is the art of letting go. If you’d like a more peaceful life, it’s powerful to look at what disturbs that peace, and practice…
«Try it right now: whatever you think you should be, whatever you think someone else is, is just a conception you’ve created. Can you let it go in this moment, and see what you’re left with?»
On the Shortness of Life
“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full…
«What if we could forget for a bit about how we look, how we are coming across, whether we’re OK … and instead fully loved the breathtaking sunset in front of us?»
5 Ways to Simplify Your Life
By Leo Babauta One of the great joys of my life is living simply, and every now and then finding ways to return to simplicity. Life tends to get complicated with time, and so I find ways to simplify.…
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