By Leo Babauta

It’s hard to believe it’s the end of 2025 already! It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for me — some deep lows, but amazing highs. I’m loving life at the moment.

It was 20 years ago when I started this journey — in 2005, I quit smoking, started running, started meditating, started waking earlier, and began the domino effect of positive changes in my life that resulted in everything I am today. Then in January 2007, I started Zen Habits. What a ride!

This year, I went through a family crisis (everyone’s OK now!) and lost my 96-year-old grandmother. My grandma (Marion Murphy) was a massive influence in my life, a huge presence of love, and brought laughter into my whole life. I’m at peace with her death — she was ready to go, lived a full life, left behind a huge thriving family, and her love remains.

There were lots of highlights as well:

  • Fearless Mastery relaunch: I revised and relaunched my Fearless Mastery small group coaching program (now open!) for 2026, more affordable and with three separate cohorts (Productivity, Creators and Business).

  • Book writing: I started writing 2 separate books! The first one is on hold, but I’m still writing the second book, which is called Meditations in a Crisis.

  • Fearless Living Academy: We’ve been revising and improving my Fearless Living Academy membership program — to focus more on taking action in your life, mindfully.

  • Coaching clients: I took on a good number of new 1:1 coaching clients, and I’m really loving working with them. They’re inspiring. I have one coaching spot left — get in touch!

  • Chess study: I studied the game of chess for about 8 months this year. It was an obsession, one that I enjoyed thoroughly, and I learned a lot and got a lot better. I decided to take a hiatus from chess study, though, to give my mind a break and focus on other things.

  • Fitness: My fitness dropped off while I was studying chess, but I’ve been back into it for the last couple of months and feeling great about my health. I don’t have any particular goals, but am getting leaner, feeling healthy, while doing strength training, running, mobility work, bodyweight exercises, yoga, indoor cycling, and lots of walking. My vegan diet is protein and veggie centered and feels great.

  • Zen study: I’ve deepened into my Zen practice and study the last couple of months, sitting with and reflecting on my life, where I have attachments and aversions, and more.

Thanks for being on this journey with me, my friends. It’s deeply meaningful to me.

Best Posts of 2025

I’ve collected the best Zen Habits posts for the past year. I hope they help you in your life. These are the certified best posts of 2025:

And More

For more best of Zen Habits:

Best of Zen Habits in 2007
The Essential Zen Habits of 2008
The Essential Zen Habits of 2009
The Essential Zen Habits of 2010
The Essential Zen Habits of 2011
The Essential Zen Habits of 2012
The Essential Zen Habits of 2013
The Essential Zen Habits of 2014
The Essential Zen Habits of 2015
The Essential Zen Habits of 2016
The Essential Zen Habits of 2017.
The Essential Zen Habits of 2018
The Essential Zen Habits of 2019
The Essential Zen Habits of 2020
The Essential Zen Habits of 2021
The Essential Zen Habits of 2022
The Essential Zen Habits of 2023
The Essential Zen Habits of 2024