Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

One of the most common emails I get is asking about how I started and built Zen Habits from scratch — a story I haven’t really told, until now.

While not all of you are writers and bloggers, I thought I’d share the Zen Habits story in a free ebook called “How I Got 100,000 subscribers in Two Years: Lessons From Zen Habits” … it’s mainly aimed at bloggers, but it might be interesting even those who would just like to know the backstory of Zen Habits and how I’ve built the blog in the last couple of years.

Again, it doesn’t cost anything to download the report. In this report you’ll:

• Hear the story of what I did right — and wrong — in the early days of Zen Habits.
• Understand how I’ve grown Zen Habits from an itty bitty blog.
• Learn about how my early and enthusiastic readers shaped the blog and made it a success.
• Why having 100K subscribers is a mixed blessing (but one that I’m very grateful for).

Get the report here.

For those who sign up and get the free report, I’ll also be releasing some audio and video podcasts for bloggers, again free of charge, in the coming week or three. I hope you enjoy them!

It’s been a fantastic journey, and I hope that in sharing my story, you’ll learn something that will help you in your journey. And as always, thanks for reading!

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

While I enjoy the simple beauty of Japan, and all the awesomeness it contains, I thought I’d leave you guys with some of my favorite posts from the archives. Many of you haven’t dug through the massive archives (nearly 800 posts, at least half of them pretty decent), so I decided to cull through them and find a few nuggets you might have missed.

And if you’ve already read them, here’s a chance to enjoy them a second time. I’ve always believed we should get the most enjoyment out of things as possible. :)

1. How to Doggedly Pursue Your Dreams in the Face of Naysayers
2. 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It
3. The Magical Power of Focus
4. Autopilot Achievement: How to Turn Your Goals Into Habits
5. Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox
6. How to NOT do everything on your to-do list
7. Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity
8. How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List: or, Why Writing It Down Doesn’t Actually Get It Done
9. Haiku Productivity: Limit Your Work Week
10. Unproductivity: 8 Fantabulous Ways to Make the Most of Your Laziest Days
11. 5 Amazing Mac Apps for Getting Things Done (Plus a Custom-Rigged Setup)
12. Lazy Productivity: 10 Simple Ways to Do Only Three Things Today
13. The Art of Doing Nothing
14. What is truly necessary? A guide to living frugal
15. 20 Ways to Get Free or Cheap Books, and Give Away Your Old Ones
16. How to Find Peace Living With a Packrat
17. 15 Ways to Create an Hour a Day of Extra Time … for Solitude
18. The Zen of Running, and 10 Ways to Make It Work for You
19. 21 Tips on Keeping a Simple Home with Kids
20. A Guide to Creating a Minimalist Home

And more “Best of Zen Habits” posts on different topics:

1. Everything You Wanted to Know About Simplifying Your Life, and Way More
2. The Unsurpassable Productivity List: A Handy Guide to Getting Important Things Done
3. All The Best Tips on Getting In Shape, In One Handy List
4. The Golden Money List: Hundreds of Tips for Turning Your Financial Life Around
5. The Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

I’m excited to announce that I’m taking my family to Tokyo for the next couple of weeks for vacation. My wife and I and the six kids are all going together — it’s our first trip all together — so it should be a fun adventure.

But be assured, my loyal readers, that Zen Habits won’t shut down while I’m gone. I’ve set things up so that this blog will continue to run smoothly (knock on wood) while I’m enjoying sushi and sake.

Here’s the plan:

• I’ve written some posts that will run while I’m gone — I hope you’ll enjoy them!
• I have guest posts from some excellent writers and from regular contributor Jonathan Mead — I know you’ll enjoy them.
• I also have a couple of “Ask the Reader” features as well as two posts with some of the “Best of Zen Habits”.

I think the content will be as good as ever, so please stick around.

I’ll be popping my head in every now and then to read your comments, but for the most part Zen Habits will be in the trusty hands of my friend, Glen Stansberry of LifeDev. He’ll be moderating comments and generally making sure some of you behave yourselves. You know who you are. :)

Oh, and if all goes well with my Internet connection in Tokyo, we’ll be posting a blog about our trip each day (or thereabouts). Yippee!

Article by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead.

What would happen if we started being honest with ourselves about what we really want?

What if we started being ruthlessly real? What if we actually said the things that we think about, but are afraid to say?

Our egos may shrink and squirm, afraid to face reality as it is; afraid to bypass all the pretense; afraid to confront the shear nakedness of authenticity.

But maybe if we could evade the grip of our ego-based fears, we could embrace unfiltered, unmediated reality.

Maybe, just then, we’d start to come alive.

When I speak of open, authentic honesty, I mean being truly connected to your higher self. Not the ego-dominated self, but your spirit, (or whatever word you’d like to use, the word is not important). When you’re tuned into this source that is bigger than your puny ego, your living from a state of unadulterated awareness.

When you’re acting from this state, you’re not thinking about whether what you’re doing is right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate. You act completely naturally, unafraid to express yourself authentically and freely. You’re not afraid to tell someone how you really feel or ask for something you need. It’s from this place that you experience bliss, because there is no ego holding you back from it. There is no hesitation when the ego is not present.

So how do you get into this state of flow and uninhibited movement?

Here are the three simplest and most effective things you can to become more conscious, and in turn, more authentic.

• Practice mindfulness. This is the most important aspect of acting authentically. If you’re not being mindful, you lose awareness of your ability to determine whether you are acting reactively or if you are acting from your authentic Self. I have to admit, remaining in a position of persistent mindfulness is not an easy task. This is not something you will master in a day, a month or even a year. But you can practice, and the more you practice the more it will be easy to remain mindful. The way to practice mindfulness is to simply center your focus and attention on whatever you are presently doing or experiencing. Easy to describe, difficult to practice.
• Use reminders to help you stay mindful. There are a lot of mental triggers (or anchors, in NLP terms) you can create to prompt you to return to mindfulness. One great trigger is remembering to be mindful every time you see a red light at a stop light; or just every time you come to a stoplight, green, yellow or red. I have a bell on my bike that I ring when I’m riding to help remind me to be mindful. Another good and more permanent reminder is getting a tattoo somewhere you can easily see to make you mindful. If that’s not your thing, you could have a bracelet or ring that you’ve chosen as a sacred symbol to help remind you to be mindful.
• Practice daily meditation. There is no substitute for consistent, daily meditation in aiding your facility to remain present. The best thing about meditation is it also allows you time to actually listen to yourself. Most of the time, we’re constantly talking to ourselves and we never take the time to listen. During the practice of silent awareness, we have the opportunity to listen to our thoughts and feelings, and in doing so, we’ll be better equipped to remain mindful when we feel pulled into unconscious patterns. The most important thing to do is start small. Practice meditating for 5 or 10 minutes each day before you go to sleep or after you wake up. Don’t be hard on yourself if you feel your mind isn’t quieting fast enough, or if you think you’re not good at meditating. If you remain diligent, your mind will eventually get tired of listening to itself babble incessantly.

The more mindful we become, the more we increase our capacity for action that is stripped of pretense and duplicity.

When we’re completely authentic, we’re no longer afraid to speak and act in meaningful ways. We’re not afraid to tell someone how we truly feel. We don’t shirk when faced with the choice of either acting from integrity or slipping into cowardly ego-based decisions.

Maybe if we started saying the things we think but do not say, our lives would have more meaning.

I think then we could grasp what it means to really be free.

Maybe then we’d realize the true meaning of liberation.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

This will be one of my shorter posts on Zen Habits, but it’s an important one. I need your help.

I’ve created a short survey to find out what some of the reasons are for people not being able to achieve all their goals and objectives. What are the things that hold people back? Are they mostly external or internal?

You may be hitting every pitch out of the park and if so, I’m happy that you’re accomplishing everything you set out to do. If anything you’ve read in these pages has helped, that would truly make me feel wonderful.

On the other hand, if you’re like most of us you struggle in certain areas and this survey is meant for you. I’d like to know what those issues are as the information will help me to focus my future efforts to provide solutions.

The survey is very brief, just three questions. It is also anonymous. There is no place to enter any personal information.

Thanks for your help.

Here’s the link:

The Zen Habits 3-Question Survey

Thank you, my friends!

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

You might or might not have noticed recently that Zen Habits has become much less cluttered, especially in the sidebar.

I decided to start practicing the minimalism I preach.

First, I dropped the Google ads, because they weren’t making much money and were serving up a lot of ads I didn’t like. I’d gotten a bunch of reader complaints, and I figured they weren’t worth it.

Second, I got out of three fairly large ad networks I’d been a part of for more than a year. They each brought in decent income, but it was just too much clutter. I’m taking a big drop in income from this, but I’m hoping it’ll help bring about a nicer reader experience for all of you.

Third, I stopped selling the 125×125 pixel ads you see in the sidebar. Right now you’ll still see a few over there (under the search box in the right sidebar), but the top two will stop running in the next week. The bottom two are for my ebooks, and I’ll probably keep them for now.

Fourth, I started selling a single 250×250 ad. Just one per month. This will be an exclusive ad — no other ads will run on Zen Habits. Right now, it’s for Frugal Site Design, and it will always be for sites or companies I feel comfortable with. I think one ad per month is much better than the dozen or two that have been running on Zen Habits for the last couple of years, don’t you agree?

Anyway, all of this means a much more ad-free reading experience for all of you. It also means, of course, a drop of several thousand dollars in revenue for me. So I’m hoping to supplement that with other forms of income.

I’d be grateful to all of you if you could help support this site. You are not obligated to do so, and I won’t be begging for money every week or month. But there are links, and here’s how you can support Zen Habits:

1. The Books link is the new Zen Habits bookstore on Amazon. I get a small cut from each sale made there. In fact, if you click through and buy other products from Amazon (not just the books I recommend), I will get a cut. So feel free to click through and buy anything you like from Amazon, if you were planning to buy it anyway. Don’t buy a bunch of useless products just for me. :)
2. You can now Hire me as a consultant. I will just take on one client a month. I do consulting for businesses and bloggers, as well as for personal development.
3. The Power of Less. My print book is still selling well, and I’d love it if you bought a copy if you haven’t yet. In fact, buy copies for friends, relatives, co-workers, all the people in your company! And of course, recommend it to everyone. :)
4. Zen Habits ebooks. My ebooks, Zen To Done and the Zen Habits Handbook for Life, have always sold fairly well, and if you haven’t bought a copy yet I think you’d enjoy them. I hope to write another or two this year, and will let you know more.
5. Donations. I’ve received many, many donations from many, many kind people. Your generosity have kept this site alive! Thank you, all of you.

There are a few other announcements that will come out in the coming months — seminars and other cool things you could buy if you like.

Again, I won’t keep bothering all of you with pleas for money. But do know that I am very grateful to all of you, for reading Zen Habits, for buying my book and ebooks, for making donations, and especially for your encouragement and comments. You make this site what it is, and I am humbled by all of you. Thank you.

Leo

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Today I received an email from the lawyers of author Susan Jeffers, PhD., notifying me that I’d infringed on her trademark by inadvertently using the phrase “feel the fear and do it anyway” in my post last week, A Guide to Beating the Fears That Hold You Back.

The phrase, apparently, is the title of one of her books … a book I’d never heard of. I wasn’t referring to her book. I’m not using the phrase as a title of a book or product or to sell anything. I was just referring to something a friend said on Twitter.

Her lawyers asked me to insert the (R) symbol after the phrase, in my post, and add this sentence: “This is the registered trademark of Susan Jeffers, Ph.D. and is used with her permission.”

Yeah. I’m not gonna do that.

I find it unbelievable that a common phrase (that was used way before it was the title of any book) can be trademarked. We’re not talking about the names of products … we’re talking about the English language. You know, the words many of us use for such things as … talking, and writing, and general communication? Perhaps I’m a little behind the times, but is it really possible to claim whole chunks of the language, and force people to get permission to use the language, just in everyday speech?

What if this were taken to an extreme? What if some billionaire (say, Bill Gates) decided to start trademarking thousands and thousands of phrases, so that he could charge us for each use, or so that we’d have to link back to the Microsoft homepage with each reference? The language, in this scenario, could be entirely privatized if we allow this sort of thing.

So, while this post is probably ill-advised (and yes, I realize that I’m actually giving publicity to Ms. Jeffers), I have to object. I think we have a duty, as writers and bloggers and speakers of the English language, to defend our rights to … words. Free speech is a bit of an important concept, I think.

As an aside, I think the idea of jealously protecting copyright and trademarks, in this digital age, is outdated and ignorant. You want your ideas to spread, and you should encourage people to spread your ideas, not put up all kinds of boundaries and restrictions and obstacles to that being done. This blog, for example, is Uncopyrighted, and will always be free, because I want people to spread my posts and ideas. I think it’s actually good for me as a writer, and it’s (not insignificantly) better for the writing community in general if we can share each others’ work freely. I’m hoping that with posts like this, and the good work of thousands of other like-minded people, the old mindset of fencing off ideas and language will slowly change.

So, no, I will not be adding a Registered Trademark symbol to the previous post. And no, I won’t be adding a phrase of legalese to the post. And no, I won’t even attribute the phrase or link to her book, as I wasn’t referring to the book. And no, I won’t remove the phrase.

I’d rather be sued.

Oh, and I’m not going to change the title of this post either. You’ll have to remove it from my cold, dead iMac.

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On a side note: You may feel free to use the title of my book, The Power of Less, in any of your blog posts, on Twitter or even (gasp) everyday conversation.

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If you like this post, please Retweet, or share via Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon. Thanks!

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

A few people on other websites have commented on the irony of me selling a book (The Power of Less) about working and doing and living with less, saying something along the lines of:

“Yes, I’m going to live with less … starting with not buying books!”

I can see the humor and irony in that — in fact, it’s something I’ve debated internally from the start, from when I first decided to write a book. And it’s something I want to talk about now, because as some of you know, I have strong (and sometimes controversial) feelings about whether things should be free. And how to live frugally.

So how do I reconcile selling a book with my philosophy of wanting things to be free, and advocating living frugally? Let’s explore.

The Culture of Free

I’m a proponent of free software, of free information (such as Wikipedia, vs. proprietary info such as a traditional proprietary encyclopedia), of the Culture of Free.

I won’t go too deeply into this philosophy, other than to make a few brief points.

First an important point: we must distinguish between “free” as in you don’t have to pay for it, and “free” as in you are free to distribute and use the information. An ebook (such as Zen To Done) can be free to distribute and copy and re-use (see my Uncopyright) but I can still sell it. When I talk about information being free, I’m refering to freedom of distribution and re-use in any way you like.

I believe that with digital technology the way it is, it is impossible or at least highly impractical to stop the spread of information — whether it be books, movies, music, blogs, photographs, or what have you — the way that this information distribution has been controlled and policed in the past. It will get more and more impractical as things become more and more digital (i.e. as we move from DVDs to downloading movies a la iTunes and other online services).

I believe that people actually benefit from information being free (again, not free as in costs nothing). More people have access to information than ever before, in all of human history. We are more informed, more able to make good decisions. We have more informed discussions. We are better able to evaluate the actions of our government, of corporations, of anything in society, with more access to information.

I believe that art, in all its forms, and creative people of all types, benefit tremendously from free information. When a writer (for example) is able to take the work of another writer and use it and modify it and build upon it in his own work, the artist benefits and so does the world. When an artist can take the photographs of another person and use them to create something new and brilliant, that’s a beautiful thing. Everyone wins.

Why Authors, Musicians, Photographers, and All Artists Win With Free

I believe that artists (of all types) can make a living even if they give away their info, or release it into the public domain. Consider the musicians of old: they made a living playing from town to town, because people liked their music, even though mega-record deals didn’t exist. Sure, maybe they weren’t multi-millionaires, but is it really right for a musician to become super rich simply because people are restricted in their freedoms? That seems like you’re profiting from the shackles of others.

Corporations might suffer, especially the media giants who have been making billions off proprietary media, but artists will still be able to make a living.

Consider the author, someone who has traditionally made only a percentage of the actual sales of his book, because if he didn’t agree to giving the publisher a big cut he’d never get published or distributed. Today, publication and distribution is possible without a big publisher, although publicity is still difficult without reliance on media industry and without a big publisher.

But imagine a world where the author publishes and releases his book into the public domain. He allows the book to be distributed free, digitally, and if it’s a great book, people will get excited about it and share it on their blog, email it to friends, link to it from Twitter and Facebook and MySpace. Good books will spread, while bad ones won’t. That’s the model of the future — unlike the current model, where the publisher is the decider of what gets published and what is successful, and what’s not.

So how does the author make money? Several ways:

1. He can charge for the digital book on his site. Sure, you could get it for free elsewhere, but there will always be people who pay for it, if only to show thanks for the great book. This is what I do with Zen To Done, and it works.
2. He can sell a hard copy of the book. Many people will always want to read a book in paper form, so they’ll buy it, even if they could get it for free digitally. Many people will want to give the book as a gift, and who wants to email a gift to someone? They’ll buy the paper version and wrap it and give it as a gift.
3. He can sell services. If the book does well and spreads, people will want more from the author. They might want him to help them implement ideas from the book. They might want him to do speaking engagements, or seminars, or teleconferences. They might hire him as a consultant. You can make a lot of money doing these things, and if you release a great book, there will be demand.

An author can make a real name for himself if a book does well. His website (such as Zen Habits!) will see a big increase in traffic from a successful book. He can then sell ads on the website and make money. His future books will be in greater demand. He’ll have a reputation as an expert and be in demand for radio and TV shows. Maybe he’ll even get a radio or TV show for himself, or some other cool job, just from the reputation of the book.

You can see what I mean: free distributing of a book might not make you a lot of money directly, but can lead to money in the future. This is true not only of authors but of all artists.

And what’s more: money is not the only definition of success. If you don’t make a lot of money, but thousands or even millions of people learn from your book and lead better, happier lives … is that not worth the time it takes to write and promote a book? I would say that’s more important than making money, although making a living obviously is important.

OK, Cool … So What About Your Book?

And so this leads to the question: why am I selling The Power of Less? How does this reconcile with my philosophy? Great question. Several points:

1. I decided to go with a traditional publisher only because they have a much better distribution channel, especially when it comes to physical bookstores, which at this point are still pretty popular (that might change in the future). Why? Because I wanted to reach people who don’t read blogs, people who read paper books. There are millions of these people, and without a hard copy of my book, they’d never be exposed to my ideas. I’m hoping the book will help them.
2. I’m also doing it as an experiment. I’ve never been a published author (except in the digital sense) and I want to see how it works out, and what the advantages might be. It’s also a thrill, I must confess, to have a hard copy of my book in my hands, and see it in bookstores. :)
3. I still want to freely distribute the information. First, many of the ideas in the book are here on Zen Habits (I go deeper into them in the book), but spread out throughout the site. So the information is already free, if you don’t mind sorting through hundreds of articles to find it. Second, I’m distributing much of the information in other ways, through my free ebook, in audio podcasts, in excerpts, etc. Third, I want to distribute the entire book freely, in the future. More on this below.

What About Frugality? Why Should I Buy the Book If You Recommend Being Frugal?

An excellent question. I often talk about frugality, and living with less, and getting away from the consumer culture. So why buy a book, then?

First, you don’t have to buy it. You can borrow it from a library, from a friend. Or you can buy it used. Or you can not buy it or read it at all.

Second, I don’t actually advocate never buying anything, especially books. Buying some things can actually help. If you spend $15 on something and it makes a huge difference in your life, then isn’t it worth it?

Third, in regards to clutter, I don’t think you should keep buying lots of things and clutter up your life … but if you just had a few good things that really meant a lot, that’s a good thing. I hope that my book can be that for some of you. For others, read it and pass it along.

I hope my book will help people, will make a difference in their lives. People buy a lot of self-help books, and many of them don’t really change anything. I believe The Power of Less will change things, if you put them into action. And the book is designed to be put into action easily.

My Desire to Make The Power of Less Free

I haven’t actually talked to my publisher about this (although I plan to soon), so this will probably freak them out … but I would love to release The Power of Less for free, in the public domain. Someday, maybe in the near future (like later this year, or next year).

It would still be for sale as a paper book, and I could even sell it at a discounted rate here on Zen Habits. But it would be released into the public domain (in my dream scenario), meaning people could spread it around after they buy it, and re-use it.

I don’t know if this can or will be done, but I think it would be cool.

I believe that it would actually increase the sales of the book … because as I said before, if a book is good people will spread it widely … and the wider it spreads, the more physical copies will be sold, if my theory holds true.

I don’t know if this is true. I believe it to be so. Only time will tell what model of distribution will work for information, but I believe things have to change, and inevitably will. Let’s hope free wins out.

To read more about The Power of Less, check out the website … or order it now:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Indiebound

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Elsewhere:

• Exclusive Lifehacker interview with Leo Babauta
• Green Talk Radio interview with Leo: The Zen of Living Less to Have More
• Video interview with Leo about blogging
• Simply Stated on RealSimple.com: Email Limits to Increase Productivity
• Ali Edwards’ Inspired By
• Interview with Leo on ThirdAge: When Less is More

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If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or StumbleUpon. I’d appreciate it. :) ]]> http://zenhabits.net/2009/01/the-culture-of-free-and-the-power-of-less/feed/ 98 http://zenhabits.net/2009/01/the-essential-zen-habits-of-2008/ http://zenhabits.net/2009/01/the-essential-zen-habits-of-2008/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:11:15 +0000 Leo http://zenhabits.net/?p=2167 Thank you, all of you!]]>

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.