personal development

“There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.” ―J.K. Rowling Let me distract you for a moment and tell you four short stories. These are old stories – familiar stories.  The people and the circumstances differ slightly for everyone who tells them, but the core lessons remain the same. I hope the twist we’ve put [...]

By Leo Babauta Often we’re discouraged because of some tough challenge or obstacle in our way. But a shift in mindset from a Zen proverb can change everything: “The obstacle is the path.” The obstacle isn’t something standing in our way. It’s the way itself. That might seem strange, so let’s look at a few [...]

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” ―Voltaire If you keep asking yourself the wrong questions, you will never get an answer you like. So take a deep breath and stop asking… 1.  “Why don’t they like me?” The worst misery and loneliness is to feel unsure of yourself – like everyone else is ahead of [...]

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” ―Jean-Paul Sartre “Promise me that you will live and love to the point of tears.  That you will do something every day that moves you.  That you will become an expert at what truly matters,” my grandmother said to me just a few days before she passed. Although she [...]

By Leo Babauta I sat in a crowd of 45,000 about 10 days ago, watching super-billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger riff off each other and deliver quick wit and worldly wisdom about finances and life in general, at the famous Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha. As I listened to these titans [...]

by Vincent Nguyen of Self Stairway Letting go is difficult, but it’s something you constantly have to do as you live from one day to the next.  It’s a necessary process of adapting to the ever-changing environment you live in – leaving behind the old to make way for the new. There are many reasons you may [...]

By Leo Babauta There’s a tendency to get caught up in the tasks of our day, the urgency of what’s coming up, the distractions of being online. And we forget to smile. In the rush of the day, the stress of wanting things to happen a certain way, we lose the enjoyment of each moment. [...]

Tweet When we were young, we had no trouble dreaming big. There was no other way to dream. We dreamed big, often, and with reckless abandon. But somewhere along the way, our heart got broken. A dream didn’t come true and it hurt like hell. That hurt stayed with us, even if only on a [...]

Tweet I first started living alone about a year ago. I moved out of town for a great new job. I was accustomed to being surrounded with sisters, and later in life a roommate. However, moving to a city where everyone is a stranger meant it was finally time to rip the band-aid off and [...]

It is better to be alone than in bad company. Your dignity may be attacked, ravaged and disgracefully mocked, but it can never be taken away unless you willingly surrender it.  It’s all about finding the strength to defend your boundaries. The manipulators of the world will test you from time to time to see if you [...]

Tweet It can be one of the most harrowing experiences you will ever go through in your life. Maybe someone in your family is having a problem licking drug abuse. They could be popping pills, taking painkillers to get through a day or just finding a way to relieve stress. Even worse, the drug abuser [...]

Tweet “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” ~ Seneca Thinking big — whether to create a new business or more balance in your life — is great, but actually taking steps towards those goals can be scary because [...]

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. ―Vivian Greene Over the past decade Marc and I have dealt with several personal hardships of varying degrees, including the sudden death of a sibling, the loss of a best friend to illness, and an unexpected, breadwinning employment layoff. These experiences were [...]

Tweet At the end of last year, jazz aficionados everywhere shed a tear when Dave Brubeck passed away at the age of 91. Even if you are not familiar with Brubeck’s entire body of work, you have likely heard his greatest accomplishment, “Take Five”. If you want to hear something different and introduce yourself to [...]

For the longest time I had tunnel vision and expected life to be a certain way.  I studied my failures until I lost sight of my successes.  I surrendered my dreams to feel a sense of comfort.  I crafted limiting beliefs and shielded myself from love and happiness by refusing to put myself out there.  [...]

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lissa Rankin of 6 Steps To Healing Yourself. Take a moment and check in with yourself. How is your body feeling right in this moment? If you’re generally healthy, check in for subtle symptoms. Is your neck feeling tense? Does your lower back ache? Do you have [...]

To eliminate debt, you have to be both patient and persistent. There is no overnight solution to owing lots of money, but there are ways to minimize the obligations over time. Some of the most common techniques are reducing spending, making larger credit card payments and getting a second job. These strategies will definitely help [...]

The morning is extremely important.  It is the foundation from which the rest of the day is built.  How you choose to spend your morning can often be used to accurately predict what kind of day you’re going to have. Here’s how to make it a happy one… Final Reminder:  We just released the Audio Book [...]

Getting out of debt is a lot like baking a cake. Mix in the right ingredients, in the right proportions, and pop it in the oven. Then the waiting begins. You can smell it baking, the sweet aromas of vanilla, butter, eggs, and flour. You can see it baking as the once gooey batter transforms [...]

Tweet It’s May in Montana! One of my favorite months of the year when the snow that has been holding on starts to melt away, the dreary days of winter slowly moving from sepia tones to hues of innocent pastels that invite new life. Just last week, I awoke to my maple tree in the [...]

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. ―Douglas Adams Life has no purpose; you have a purpose and you bring it to life.  There isn’t one big cosmic purpose for everyone either; there is only the one you give to yourself – [...]

By Leo Babauta One of the most common problems I hear from readers is the difficulty in finding calm and peace in the middle of a work day. Work for many people is stressful, full of too many things to do, too many meetings and emails and incoming information and interruptions and irritations and distractions [...]