zen habits

breathe

Purpose-Filled Work & Life

348 posts

2025

January

03

How to Actually Create Meaningful Life Changes This Year

2024

December

13

How to Find the Balance Between Focus & Rest

November

29

A Month of Reflection

October

31

There's Not Enough Time

August

30

Getting Clarity of Purpose (plus: final day for $500 retreat discount)

23

A Short Guide to Dealing with Discouragement

July

25

Forcing Yourself to Do a Task vs. Letting Yourself Off the Hook

12

The Powerful Effect of Bringing Play Into Your Life

May

24

My Morning Routine

April

26

The Moment That Ruins Our Focus

19

The Focus of a Monk

12

Honoring Your Word to Yourself

05

Cultivate a Positive Mindset

January

17

Cultivating Stokedness

2023

December

17

Running & the Challenge of Pushing at Your Edge

November

10

Transforming the Constant Feeling of Being Behind

October

27

How I Get Things Done

September

29

A Powerful Uncertainty Challenge

23

How to Create, When You're Feeling Overwhelmed

14

Learning to Surf the Uncertainty of Life

June

10

6 Powerful Mindset Shifts

May

05

Be All In: Unlock Your Full Power

April

28

Turn Struggle into Creativity

14

Beyond Getting Stuff Done

March

24

Creating When You Feel Resistance

February

24

We Make Everything Harder

January

27

Create Exquisite Focus Amidst Chaos

20

The Art of Effortless Decision Making

13

Spend Your Time Intentionally

2022

November

20

How the Feeling of Pointlessness Can Derail Us

11

Committed & Unattached: A Powerful Way to Work

03

Fearless Mastery: Going Deep & Running Together

October

20

Creating Sacred Focus

September

29

Moving From Desire to Action

22

The Ridiculous Effectiveness of Singleminded Devotion to a Purpose

08

The Urgency of Piles

August

11

On the Shortness of Life

July

15

How to Have a Powerfully Effective Day

07

How to Tackle a Mountain of Tasks

03

3 Questions to Create Your Life

June

24

Where You Get Your Sense of Self-Worth

03

Mindset Shift to Deal with Overwhelm

May

30

Creating Deep Shifts within Fearless Mastery

14

Become Your New Habit

April

21

Reset Ritual to Come Back to Focus

15

2 Questions to Deepen Learning from Life

March

23

My Simple, High Impact Productivity Protocol

February

24

How to Get More Committed to Yourself

10

Overwhelm: The Survival Guide

January

28

Working with Your Inner Resistance

14

How to Make the Most of Your 24 Hours

08

A Quick Guide to Planning Your Year

2021

December

03

Interstitial Ritual: Finding Focus & Mindfulness in Your Day

October

15

Create a Powerful Framing for the World

July

25

A Life of Meaning, Without Buying

09

The Delightful Overwhelm of a Pile of Undone Tasks

June

30

The Practice of Truly Enjoying Time Off

03

How We Shut Down What We Want

May

28

Free Training: 5 Myths About Finding Purpose & a Method for Creating Purpose

22

The High Bar of Expectations Can Crush Our Creativity

04

A Well Lived Life of Purpose

April

22

Wanting More Time for Your Meaningful Work

March

27

The Guilt of Not Working More, When We're Done for the Day

18

The Fear of Putting Our Work Out There

February

25

Creating Impact When You're Overwhelmed

13

Relaxing with Chaos

12

The Quest for Impact, Not Productivity

06

Three Practices to Celebrate Your Day

January

16

How to Do the Thing You're Avoiding

08

A New Year is a Beautiful Fresh Start

2020

December

04

Create a More Spacious Life

November

13

A Guide to Being in Action

October

11

When Your Task List is Overwhelmingly Long

August

21

Staying Connected to Meaning in Your Work

17

Staying Focused with a Simple Method

06

Work Less

July

31

Showing Up Even When You're Not Feeling It

24

The Simplicity of Discipline: Thriving Without the Baggage of Expectations

03

Essential Meaningful Productivity

May

28

The Joy of Bone-Exhausting Work

April

30

When You're Drowning in Tasks, Overwhelm & Stress

March

05

The Power of Getting Clarity

2019

December

31

Zen Habits Lessons: 10 Powerful Things I've Learned This Past Decade

04

Sacred Bow Challenge: Review Your Year & Set Intentions for 2020

November

15

How to Be Kind to Yourself & Still Get Stuff Done

October

31

You Can't Do Anything That is Shamefully Wrong

24

How to Not Believe Your Ultra-Persuasive Rationalizations

21

Creating the Habit of Not Being Busy

10

A Magical Way to Work with Our Habitual Patterns

September

30

Why We Never Have Enough Time & What to Do About It

26

Live on Purpose

05

Transforming Overwhelm & Burden to Something Powerful

02

The Create Daily Challenge

August

22

Meaningful work: A Simple 3-Step Method for Getting Your One Thing Done

20

Creating Impeccable Structure for Your Life

01

The Courageous Self-Discipline Challenge

July

29

Cutting Through Indecision & Overthinking

12

Practicing with the Fear & Pain of Missing Out on Opportunities

08

You Don’t Need to Clear the Decks to Focus on Important Work

May

02

Simplify Your Day to Have a Greater Impact

March

12

How to Do Your Scariest Tasks of the Day, with Joy

February

21

Vast Mind: 3 Ways to Open Beyond the Self-Concern of Our Small Mind

11

Connecting Your Work Tasks to Meaning

2018

October

29

3 Simple Mindset Shifts to Transform Your Work Tasks

September

24

When Fear is Stopping You From Pursuing Meaningful Work

07

A Simple Technique for Launching Your Project in 20 Minutes

July

26

The Three Most Powerful Motivations

June

05

A Guide to a Life of Purpose

May

21

Act with Devotion & Intention, Letting Go of Attachment to Outcome

14

Two Simple Habits of Non-Procrastinators (Plus One Bonus Habit)

08

How to Choose Your Purpose-Filled Career

April

20

Haiku Productivity: The Power of Limits to Increase Our Focus

March

08

Creating Structure to Go Deep

February

12

Powerful Courageousness: Practices to Expand Yourself & Your Gift

06

To Find Your Deeper Purpose, Listen

January

29

Primer: When You Have Too Much to Do

18

Bring Purpose & Mindfulness to Your Work

15

A Guide to Moving Courageously Into a New Uncertain Space

03

My Depth Year 2018: The Constraints of Deep Focus

01

A Guide to Making This Your Best Year Ever

2017

December

07

Designing a Well-Lived Life

November

21

How to Form the Decisiveness Habit

13

How We Lose Sight of the Profound Awesomeness of Life

06

In Love with the Heartbreaking Beauty of the Discomfort

October

20

The Incredible Progress of Daily Practice

03

The First Hour: Creating Powerful Mornings

September

26

The Ideal vs. the Reality of Changing Your Life

21

Procrastination is a Practice Ground for Life Mastery

14

The Action Habit: Put Everything Into the First Step

04

The Amazing Self-Confidence Habit

August

25

Starting, Over and Over Again

July

18

The 4 Keys to Learning Anything

June

30

Conquer Your Day with Mini-Missions

02

The Building Self-Discipline Challenge

May

23

A Guide to Developing the Self-Discipline Habit

April

14

The Perfect System

03

Undone: How to Change Our Procrastination Patterns

March

27

The Main Reason Changing Your Life is Tough

February

21

Join Me: The Zen Habits Mindfulness Retreat in April

January

13

How to Cultivate a Year of Mindfulness

12

Sea Change Program: Change Your Life in 2017

2016

September

27

A Short Guide to Starting, if You're Struggling

14

Not Doing All the Things We Want to Do

12

Dealing with the Sweat-Inducing Fear of Launching a Major Project

02

The Unprocrastination Challenge for September

August

31

Self-Help List

15

To Those Who Are Struggling

July

19

8 Experiments in Motivation

June

29

Training to Be a Good Writer

May

19

The Get Fit For Summer Exercise Challenge

April

29

The Downward & Upward Spiral of Health & Productivity

26

Set Powerful Deadlines

March

22

Shannon's Method: Overcome Habit Procrastination

February

02

The Monthly Review

January

07

Instead of Goals or Resolutions, Try Creating Rules

2015

December

29

The Practice of Year-End Reflection

19

What I've Been Excited About (& How I Work)

08

Inspiration + Aspiration

04

How to Build an Empire

November

21

Change Your Story to Change Your Life

October

28

Overcoming the 10 Biggest Obstacles to Creating

September

22

The Truth About Your Uncertain Life Path & Purpose

09

The Gentle Art of Trying Something & Sucking at It

07

How Not to Do It All

01

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

August

11

Level Up to Lose Weight

07

3 Small Discipline Habits You Can Train

04

Advice for People in Their Early 20s

July

09

6 Things to Know About How to Get Out of Funk Town

07

Staying Motivated to Work on the Road

June

23

My Grand Travel Experiment

17

The Best & Less-than-Best Motivations for Learning

May

19

Feeling Determined to Change

13

Hold Your Own Feet to the Fire

07

Don't Waste Your Opportunity

April

30

How to Beat Procrastination with Daily Training

March

26

Leave Yourself Wanting More

19

The Anti-Bucket List

05

The Futility of Always Pushing Myself to Be More

February

23

Getting Lost in Just Doing

09

What You Can Say Instead of "I Don't Feel Like It"

January

01

5 Ideas to Create an Amazing 2015

2014

December

18

Overwhelmed by All the Changes You Want to Make

15

My 2014 Successes and Failures

11

Finding the Motivation to Change Your Entire Life

November

24

The Power of Delay

19

Writer as Coder: The Iterative Way to Write a Book

14

Are You a Lift or Drag Force?

12

When Resistance Smacks You in the Face

October

22

A Guide to Changing Self-Destructive Behaviors

20

Pushing Past the Terrifying Dip in Motivation

16

It's Not Too Late to Change Bad Habits

06

What I Do When I Fail

02

How to Put Your Writing in Public

September

12

How to Get Motivated After a Vacation

02

7 Discipline-Mastering Practices

August

22

The Lies Your Mind Tells You to Prevent Life Changes

11

How to Find Your Life Purpose: An Unconventional Approach

04

Making Yourself Work

July

15

The End of the Day Philosophy

June

19

How to Stop Your Habit Changes From Getting Derailed

06

The Frustratingly Slow Pace of Making Changes

May

23

Turn Inspiration Into Action

20

Coming Back From a Setback

13

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

April

25

How I Tackle a Big Writing Project

23

The Habit Action List

18

Confidence in Your Business

16

10 Ways to Do What You Don't Want to Do

14

On Making It Through Tough Journeys

10

The Hard Stuff Often Matters Most

March

26

You're Not Worse Than Other People

03

What I've Learned as a Writer

February

19

The 3 Do-What-You-Love Conundrums

12

The Habits of Five Amazing Founders

10

The Incredible Importance of Sleep for Habits & Motivation

08

What Really Motivates Us to Stick to a Project?

06

I Tried to Quit & It's Too Hard!

January

16

How Repetition Can Kickstart a Habit

10

When You're Feeling Self-Doubt & a Lack of Motivation

07

The Child That Holds Us Back

2013

December

11

16 Surprising Lessons from My First 50-Mile Ultramarathon

04

Struggles with My Morning Internet Fast

November

25

When You Run Out of Ideas

September

16

8 Creativity Lessons from a Pixar Animator

09

Overcoming the Social Costs of Being Different

August

23

My Advice for Starting a Business

08

The Fear of Being Found a Fraud

June

26

I Failed

May

21

The Obstacle is the Path

April

26

Why You Should Write Daily

24

Achieving Without Goals

March

22

The Not Knowing Path of Being an Entrepreneur

February

25

Tremors of Psychitude: One Little Trick to Find Purpose and Motivation

2012

December

18

The Do Plan, or Why We Know But Don't Do

05

Tim Ferriss vs. Leo Babauta Showdown: On Whether Goals Suck

03

The Work You Love is Waiting For You

November

21

How to Learn Anything

13

Untrack: Letting Go of the Stress of Measuring

09

15 Great Excuses Not to Form the Fitness Habit

October

29

The Willingness to Think Differently

16

Just For Fun

09

A Journey Without a Goal

August

10

Be Inspired

July

26

The 7-Step Write a Book Fast Program

03

Tynan's Rules for Living

June

29

The Wisdom of Allowing Things to Happen

May

03

What I've Learned About Learning

April

19

Crazy Talk: The Do-What-You-Love Guide

17

Why We Overplan

March

02

How to Build the Muscle of Change

February

21

It's Not Too Late to Change Your Habits

09

The Pause Upon Which All Else Relies

January

09

Clearing Your Life for a New Year

2011

November

03

The Rut, & the Way Out

October

05

Become a God of Learning Your Trade

September

15

5 Shortcuts to Finding Your Passion

August

17

The Quiet Theory of Influence

July

16

Do One Thing Well

June

20

Living With Chaos

07

Joyfear

May

21

The Myth of Discipline

12

Place Yourself in the Presence of Greatness

April

18

Create.

March

29

How to Start

24

The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination

21

Surround Yourself with Passionate People

2010

December

21

How to find opportunity

November

24

achieving, without goals

12

the insidious perfidiousness of doubts, overcome

August

11

The importance of enjoying the habit

July

27

The Best Goal is No Goal

14

The Elements of Change

March

01

The Little Guide to Inspiration

February

24

The One Deadly Sin of Changing Habits

January

26

The Reason You’re Stuck (and the one best way to avoid the six ways that will keep you stuck)

04

How to Make the Most of the Fresh Start of a New Year

2009

December

28

The Definitive Guide to Sticking to Your New Year's Resolutions

07

20 Key Questions on Motivation and Habits, Answered

November

16

The Simple, Ridiculously Useful Guide to Earning a Living from Your Passion

11

The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion

04

The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something

October

19

The Breath of God Inspiration Method

September

22

Bonus Video Podcasts for The Essential Motivation Handbook

08

Do Interesting Things

August

17

The Get-Started-Now Guide to Becoming Self-Employed

05

The Little But Really Useful Guide to Creativity

July

21

The Essential Motivation Handbook

June

24

How to Kill Your Excuses

May

31

The Best Way to Successfully Overhaul Your Life

14

The Art of the Small: How to Make an Impact

12

6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline

06

Stop Reading About It and Do It

April

27

30 Incredible Places to Turn When You Need Inspiration

22

A Guide to Beating the Fears That Are Holding You Back

16

The Leo vs. Bellyfat Challenge

March

04

How to Deal With Major Disruptions to Your Routine

February

19

Achieve Your Dreams Despite Pressures of Work and Family

10

Conquer the Fears Lurking in the Dark Corners of Your Mind

02

What's Your Groundhog Day Resolution?

January

28

What Would You Do If You Only Had a Short Time to Live?

26

Why You Should Celebrate Your Mistakes

15

Exclusive Interview: Leo Talks With Tim Ferriss of 4-Hour Workweek

14

Personal Branding: Be Aware of Your Pigeonhole - It's Hard to Switch

13

Become a Career Renegade: Interview with Career Expert Jonathan Fields

05

The Single Secret to Making 2009 Your Best Year Ever

02

The Essential Zen Habits of 2008

2008

December

31

My Four Commandments

16

My Kick-Butt Marathon Strategy: Smile, Breathe and Go Slowly (Plus, Why I LOVED Honolulu)

November

23

My Most Recent Failures and What I've Learned

October

08

The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself You'll Ever Need

September

25

Attack Your Limitations: Turn Your Weaknesses Into Strengths

24

Blogging God Steve Pavlina Interview: On Motivation, Handling Email, Daily Routines, How He Got Started, and Much More

22

Really Simple Goal Setting

August

12

Top 5 Most Inspirational Videos on YouTube

08

The Five Things You Need to Know About Finding the Work You Love

June

08

Autopilot Achievement: How to Turn Your Goals Into Habits

08

Why the Law of Attraction is Wrong, But Why It Still Works

05

The Ultimate Guide to Motivation - How to Achieve Any Goal

March

27

Notes on Life: Mantras, Small Things, Lists, and Such

12

The Magical Power of Focus

10

How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals

04

Flip Your Karma: 8 Tricks to Turn the Bad Into the Awesome

February

17

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

10

7 Steps to Turn Your Self-Improvement Desires Into Reality

January

16

So I Quit My Day Job - Holy Cow! I Took the Plunge

02

7 Essential Tips to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever

2007

December

03

The 10 Key Actions That Finally Got Me Out of Debt; or, Why Living Frugally is Only Part of the Solution

November

22

How to Doggedly Pursue Your Dreams in the Face of Naysayers

October

29

How to Stick to Your Goals When Life Disrupts 'Em

August

30

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

June

25

A Simple Guide to Setting and Achieving Your Life Goals

May

29

Refresh Your Focus Every Week to Achieve More

20

The Key to Dying Happy

April

01

Turning Habits into Goals

March

20

Weekly Review: Goal revitalization time

09

Pretend You're Who You Want to Be

05

Discipline is an illusion; Motivate yourself instead

February

26

Review Your Goals Weekly

18

Weekly Review: Key to GTD and achieving goals

17

Top 20 Motivation Tips

17

Happiness tip: Volunteer at least once this month

14

Reward Yourself Without Spending a Lot

11

Think about your life goals

01

Ben Franklin's hack tweaked - tracking my goals

January

28

Achieving Goals with my Son: Our Harry Potter Marathon

10

2007: My Greatest Year Ever

09

2006 Year in Review - A great year!

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