Motivation

5 Powerful Ways to Keep the Energy and Optimism Up During the Dark and Cold Winter

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“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus

Up here in Sweden the winter is dark, cold and often comes with a mix of rain and snow. And spring is still far away.

It is not easy to keep the energy and optimism up like in the bright and warm summer days.

So today I’d like to share 5 habits I use that make it a lot easier to stay positive even throughout this dark and often grey season.

1. Find one of your biggest energy sucks.

Ask yourself: What is the biggest energy suck in my life right now?

You may for example find that it is a person in your life that is very negative. Or that the report that you have been meaning to finish for a month now is dragging you down.

Then you follow that up with asking: What is one thing I can do about this?

Maybe you decide that you want stop hanging out with that person. Or at least spend less of the time you have in a week with him or her and more of that time with the people that give you the most energy.

Perhaps you can just set off 5 minutes today to get started again with finishing your report.

For some energy sucks there might not be a simple solution. Or a solution at all, at least at this time. Then you may want to find one of the lesser leaks in your life that you can actually do something about.

Take a few minutes or an hour out of your day to plug just one of these biggest leaks and you’ll have more energy to spend on what truly matters to you.

2. Be grateful for the small things and the things you may sometimes take for granted.

When I’m brushing my teeth in the morning and looking out the window over the dark and rainy landscape it is easy to forget about the things I actually have.

Things like:

  • A roof over my head and a warm home.
  • Clean water.
  • Three steady meals every day.

I have found that zooming out on my perspective like this helps out a lot to snap out of any kind of victim thinking and negativity.

3. Vitamin D supplements.

For the past few winters I’ve been taking Vitamin D supplements each day and I’ve found them to give back a lot of the energy I tend to lose during a long winter.

A few people close to me are also taking them and are reporting similar positive effects in varying degrees.

4. Exercise.

An obvious but a very effective one.

Regular exercise will give you more energy. It will help you to release inner tensions, anxiety and stress.

And so it will be easier to stay relaxed, positive and to think clearly with less overthinking and to act decisively.

5. Take action and move forward.

Few things create so much frustration, worries and anxiety as sitting on your hands and doing nothing.

So even though it might be a little extra tough to get started or to keep going with your dreams and goals during this season remind yourself that if you do you will replace those feelings and thoughts above with optimism and self-confidence.

And remember that you do not have to go forward in big or quick leaps.

The most important thing is simply that you move forward. Even if it is by just taking one small or slow step after another.

Because those steps will quickly add up over the weeks even if they may not look so impressive in themselves.

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16 Inspiring Quotes About Determination

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I recently wrote about the power of determination. The fact is, determination is essential for success. You might have all the resources you need, but without determination, it will be difficult for you to achieve your goal.

Below are 16 inspiring quotes about determination that I have found. They have inspired me, and I hope they will also inspire you. Enjoy!

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln

One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.
John Stuart Mill

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.
Henry Ward Beecher

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
Samuel Johnson

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Joseph Addison

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.
Leon J. Suenens

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
Christopher Reeve

What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.
Mary Pickford

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
Les Brown

You cannot fail unless you quit.
Abraham Lincoln

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese Proverb

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill

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Finding Stillness

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By Leo Babauta

I’ve heard from many people who say, “I think too much,” or “I can’t get out of my own head.”

This is pretty common. Thinking isn’t the problem, but the struggle comes when we’re constantly spinning stories in our heads and getting caught up in them.

Our minds jump from one thing to another, seeking distraction or avoiding difficulty. We can’t focus, we can’t be present in the moment, and we feel the need to be constantly busy.

The answer, I’ve found, is finding stillness.

Our mental processes — jumping around and distraction and being caught up in stories — don’t have to cause anxiety, actually. They’re not only common, I think it’s the normal human condition. If this is how our minds are most of the time, then feeling afflicted by this condition is probably going to cause us constant anxiety.

Instead, I find it more helpful to learn to:

  • be aware of these mental conditions;
  • be present with the mental pattern and stay with it; and
  • work with the condition in a mindful way.

The only way to do all of that is to start with stillness.

A Moment of Stillness

Take a minute out of your busy day and try to do the following:

  1. Sit still and look away from all devices and other activities. Just sit there, maybe with your eyes closes, maybe looking at nature or a wall.
  2. Take a moment to assess your condition. How do you feel? Are you tired, anxious, frustrated, calm, happy? What state is your mind in?
  3. Assess how you’ve been behaving recently (today, or just in the last hour) … have you been constantly distracted? In a state of busyness? Focused? Procrastinating? Anxious or fearful? Irritated? Feeling down?
  4. Stay with these feelings for a moment, just being curious and non-judgmental about them.
  5. Face each of the feelings you’re noticing, and notice the mental pattern that caused it. If you’re frustrated, are you stuck in a resentful story about someone else or your current situation? If you’re anxious, is there some desired outcome that you’re holding tightly to? If you’re feeling down, are you comparing your situation with some ideal that you don’t have?
  6. Bring your attention to your body. How does it feel? What sensations can you notice in your head, neck, arms, hands, torso, hips, butt, legs, feet?
  7. Can you find gratitude in this moment? Can you find love or compassion, for yourself or others?

You don’t have to do all of these things each time you sit still, but these are all things you can try doing. Pick a couple and focus on them for a minute, then next time pick a couple more. Take a few deep breaths, then give yourself permission to return to work or whatever activity you’re doing.

Cultivating Stillness

As you can see, it just takes a minute of stillness to work with your spinning stories and other mental patterns. We can use this minute of stillness to bring less busyness and anxiety and more calmness, mindfulness and gratitude to our lives. It just takes a bit of cultivation.

Some ways to cultivate stillness in your life:

  • Set reminders to get away from technology for just a minute or two, and sit still somewhere.
  • Build time in your day for just sitting. It could be sitting meditation, or simply sitting somewhere pleasant and doing nothing.
  • Find time for disconnected reading — using a paper book or dedicated ebook reader.
  • Have tea in the morning or afternoon. Just sit and drink tea, noticing its smell, flavor, warmth.
  • Do a couple yoga poses — child’s pose for a minute or two, for example, or downward facing dog or pigeon’s pose. This can be a meditation, where you’re staying with your breath and body for a couple minutes and getting a stretch in as well.
  • Go for a walk. While this isn’t technically stillness, it’s moving your body in a healthy way while not allowing yourself to be distracted.

When you notice your mind racing, when you notice distractions and procrastination, when you notice anxiety or resentment … take a stillness break.

And in this stillness, notice all of the wonders of life that we take for granted.

“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Zen Habits

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By Leo Babauta

Unbelievably, this month marks 10 years since I started Zen Habits. I’ve had an amazing decade, and I’d like to reflect on those years today.

I’ve seen so much change in the last 10 years that I can’t possibly reflect on all of it.

Just a few examples of how my life has changed:

  • Zen Habits became my career. I had a full-time job (and was a freelance writer) when I started the blog in January 2007, with no idea it would change my life. A few months in, I decided that Zen Habits could be my calling, and I went into it full bore. By the end of the year, I quit my day job and never looked back. It has been amazing and gratifying.
  • I published numerous books. By the end of 2007, I had my first book deal, and I published the Power of Less in 2008. I’ve also published numerous ebooks (some of which I’ve taken off the market) and self-published the limited-edition Zen Habits book and then Essential Zen Habits. Last year I published several ebooks. It’s one of my favorite things, writing and publishing a book. These past 10 years have made me so happy as a writer and book lover.
  • I launched Sea Change and numerous courses. I’ve had the honor of starting my membership program, Sea Change with so many amazing members changing their lives. In addition, I created a number of other video courses (including an upcoming course called Dealing with Struggles). I’ve been so happy to be able to teach this way.
  • My kids grew up. When I started the blog, I had kids who ranged in age from under 1 year old to 13. Today, I have three grown kids and one who’s almost 18. It’s been quite a decade watching them turn into their beautiful grown selves.
  • I traveled, a lot. When I started the blog, I’d barely traveled anywhere outside of Guam except the west coast of the U.S. Since then, I’ve traveled all over the world, and it’s been an incredible journey so far. I still have a lot of places I want to visit, but I feel awfully lucky to have been able to go where I’ve gone, and meet people from so many cultures.
  • I learned a lot about habits and mindfulness. I thought I knew a bit about mindfulness and creating habits, but I’ve learned about a hundred times as much through my own experiments and teaching habits and mindfulness to thousands of others. I’ve written books recently on what I’ve learned.
  • I moved from Guam to San Francisco and then Davis. When I started the blog, I’d never lived anywhere else as an adult but Guam (I lived on the U.S. west coast). But we made the huge move from Guam to San Francisco in 2010 with our six kids, and it was quite an adjustment and learning experience for all of us. We went car-free and explored California. We absolutely loved it, and yet we missed our home and family tremendously. Today we live in Davis, California, completely changed because of our moves.
  • Eva & I became vegan. I became vegetarian shortly before starting the blog, and Eva slowly transitioned to vegetarian by 2010. In 2012, we both went fully vegan for ethical reasons (not wanting to participate in animal cruelty) and we have never been happier.
  • I made great friends, and lost one. While I had wonderful family and some really good friends on Guam, when I moved to the Bay Area I formed some of my closest friendships. While we no longer live near each other, I still see many of them regularly and I love them with all my heart. One of those friends, Scott Dinsmore, died tragically in 2015, and I miss him dearly. He was a brother to me.
  • I lost two fathers, gained some family. My father died in the beginning of 2015, and Eva’s father died last month. These were terrible losses for our family. They still hurt to this day. That said, I gained some gorgeous nieces and nephews, and brothers-in-law, and I love them all deeply.

That’s just the start of the changes, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of big things. Honestly, I’m a completely different person and my life woiuld be unrecognizable now to my 33-year-old self. Life changes all the time, but for me it has felt like accelerated change.

This has been a decade of growth, loss, learning, fatherhood, loving, service and joy.

What I’ve Learned in 10 Years

It’s been a decade filled with learning for me … too many things to put into one post. But as I’ve been reflecting on it all, I have a dozen or so notes I’d like to share with you.

Some of the things I’ve learned, starting with personal lessons and ending with lessons about my business:

  1. Focus on intentions rather than goals. As you might know, I experimented with giving up goals after being very focused on goals for years. It was liberating, and it turns out, you don’t just do nothing if you don’t have a goal. You get up and focus on what you care about. Read more here. Instead, I’ve found it useful to focus less on the destination (goal) and instead focus on what your intention for each activity is. If you’re going to write something … instead of worrying about what the book will be like when you’re done, focus on why you want to write in the first place. If you are doing something out of love or to help others , for example, then you are freed from it needing to turn out a certain way (a goal) and instead can let it turn out however it turns out. I’ve found this way of working and living to be freeing and less prone to anxiety or procrastination.
  2. Small actions really add up. By focusing on getting out and going for a run each day, I ran several marathons and eventually an ultramarathon. By writing a blog post or part of a book chapter every day, I’ve written well over a thousand blog posts and many books, articles and courses. Small actions every day can really add up to a mountain.
  3. Working resistance is the key to habits. What I’ve learned in working with others is that most people fail at habits because of resistance. When the time comes to meditate or exercise or write, resistance arises and we procrastinate. I’ve written a whole book on overcoming this resistance, but until you start to face your resistance and become mindful of it, you won’t be able to overcome it.
  4. Working with attachments is the key to happiness. What gets in the way of happiness? Frustrations, anger, anxiety, feeling down, disappointment, procrastination, self criticism, getting caught up in our stories. The root of all of this is attachment to something — what we want, the way we want things, the way we think others should act. If we can let go of those attachments, we can be happier. I’ve been working for years to get better at being mindful of my (many) attachments, and letting go when I can.
  5. Mindfulness is the key to everything. If working with resistance is the key to habits, and working with attachments is the key to happiness … then mindfulness is the key to both of those things. And more. The deeper I dive into mindfulness, the more I find that you can’t really work with anything important without it. Check out my Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness for more.
  6. Health can be made simple. I’ve done all kinds of experiments to get fit and healthy, and they were all really interesting … but in the end, I’ve learned that only a few things really matter. Eat whole foods — my favorites are vegetables, beans & legumes, nuts, fruits, whole grains. And be active — my favorites are strength training, running, hiking, yoga, cycling and sports. I just pick one of these to do practically every day. In addition, floss, meditate, sleep. Each of these might seem hard, but if you just gradually work towards these simple things, you’ll get healthier over time.
  7. Consumerism & distractions require vigilance. The pull of distractions and urges to buy things (to solve problems or give us pleasure) is incredibly strong. Consumerism pulls on us every day, every time we watch TV, read online, see friends or strangers using products … and results in us owning too man possessions and getting too deep in debt. Distractions are a constant pull on our attention as well, pulling us away from what’s most important, taking attention away from the present moment. How do we overcome these powerful attractions? Constant vigilance: notice when you’re buying too much or becoming too distracted, and start becoming more conscious every day.
  8. Life is incredibly precious. The deaths of loved ones, and the growing up of young ones, are powerful reminders of how short life is. And how important it is to appreciate this gift we’ve been given. I really believe life is a miracle, and to take it for granted is kind of a crime. I do my best to realize the preciousness of life every day, and appreciate as many moments as I can. I try not to take my loved ones for granted, because I have no idea how many more moments I have with them.
  9. Focus on one small project at a time. I often have a bunch of projects on my radar, but I usually focus myself on one small project. A short ebook, a lesson for a course, the redesign of a website. If a project is too big, I make it smaller or focus on just one part of it. I like projects that take less than a month, and ideally just a week or two. Any longer, and it becomes overwhelming. By focusing on small projects, I stay focused, have lots of energy, and feel accomplished as I get things done. Btw, I know that this might seem contradictory to the goal-less method I mention above, but I honestly don’t focus too much on the goal (I hold loosely to them) and try to focus more on my intention.
  10. Copyright isn’t necessary. One year into doing this Zen Habits blog, I uncopyrighted the blog and all my books. It was a scary and liberating move, as no other bloggers or authors that I knew of were doing it at the time. But I really believe in the open-source software movement, and decided that none of the ideas that I write about are my original ideas — I steal them from people before me like everyone else. And though I don’t try to control my work through copyright, I can still sell my books and membership program. I’ve found that people appreciate the uncopyright, and seem happy to support me.
  11. Focus on what matters to the readers. I’ve learned that a lot of things that people seem to focus on for blogs, websites and businesses don’t really matter that much. For example, people track all kinds of visitor stats, focus on how many followers they get, and try all kinds of promotional tactics (like popup subscriptions). These don’t really matter. What matters most? Helping your readers/visitors. I got rid of blog stats and comments and advertising and most social media, and I just focus on writing articles (and books) that help my readers. This has freed me from obsessions and other distractions, and instead I have the happiness of trying to help people.
  12. My readers are incredible. These last 10 years have been a true wonder for me. Not only have I gotten to make a living doing what I really love, but I’ve learned so much from all of you. The kind emails I’ve gotten, the notes of sympathy or joy, the feedback and suggestions … it has meant the world to me. I can’t express how grateful I am for all of you. It has been a true joy writing for all of you, hearing from you, being your friend. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I could go on all day about what I’ve learned, but these are some of the ones that have mattered most to me. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!

Tenniversary Gifts

I thought about creating a gift for all of you on the 10-year anniversary of Zen Habits, as a thank you. But I just haven’t had the time, with our monthlong Guam trip (necessitated by the funeral last month). I am creating a new course called Dealing with Struggles that I think you will all love, but it’s not quite ready yet.

Instead, I will highlight my best offerings, as a hope that you will consider them a gift, or at least consider supporting me in some way:

  1. My Sea Change Program. I have worked for years to create the content in this program, and each month I offer a new monthly challenge with course content to accompany the challenge. I hope you’ll check it out.
  2. My best books. In the last couple years, I’ve created a handful of books that I think will help most people in a powerful way. Check them out here.
  3. A plea to try veganism. I know many of you truly love animals, and a wonderful gift to me would be to try to be vegan for 7 days. It’s not hard, and I would be deeply grateful. As would the animals!

Thank you all for being a huge part of my journey for the last 10 years. Your love and support has brought me to my knees.

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An Essential Rule in Building Your Skills (and 3 Ways to Apply It)

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Do you want to have a successful career? Even better, do you want to have a fulfilling one?

To have such a career, your skills play an important role. Why? Because your skills can make your career both successful and fulfilling.

The question is: how should you build your skills?

To answer that question, I believe that there is an essential rule you should follow in building your skills. The rule is this:

Build upon what you’ve built

Don’t start something from scratch. Instead, build upon what you’ve built.

I read a book related to this titled So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport. It has an interesting concept called career capital. Here is the definition: the skills you have that are both rare and valuable and that can be used as leverage in defining your career.

Career capital is something you need to build if you want to have a remarkable career. You build it by developing your skills until they become rare and valuable.

Doing this requires consistency. You can’t achieve that level of expertise if you keep switching from one thing to another.

There is an example in the book of someone who had worked in advertising for years. One day, however, she decided to leave her job and start a yoga studio, something that was totally unrelated to her previous career. She did this with just a 200-hour certificate in yoga training. And what happened? The yoga studio ended up failing.

The lesson here is that you should look at the skills you already have and build upon them.

There are three ways to apply this:

  1. Take your current skills to the next level. If your skill is writing, for instance, then aim to become a better writer.
  2. Build a related skill. If your skill is teaching, then build a related skill such as public speaking. This is what I did. I have years of experience as a lecturer, so I have some skills in teaching. I then decided to improve my public speaking skills.
  3. Combine your skills. Combining your skills is a good way to reach the top of your field. For example, it’s difficult to become the best writer, but becoming the best photography writer is more manageable. In this case, two skills are combined: writing and photography.

To apply these three ways, you may want to ask yourself these three questions:

  • How can I get better at what I do? (#1)
  • What related skills can I build? (#2)
  • How can I combine my existing skills to achieve something new? (#3)

By answering these questions and acting upon them, you will be on your way to a successful and fulfilling career.

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How to Cultivate a Year of Mindfulness

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By Leo Babauta

In 2016, I practiced mindfulness more than I ever have before, after 10 years of sporadic practice.

I meditated regularly, practiced with a local Zen group, did a great one-day sitting, went on a retreat, took courses, read books, practiced mindful eating and exercise, learned some great new practices, and taught several mindfulness courses.

I learned a lot about how to cultivate a more mindful life, and I’d like to encourage you to try it this year.

Why? A few good reasons:

  • You learn to be awake to the present moment more, and lost in the daydream of your thoughts less.
  • You begin to see your mental patterns that affect everything you do, and thus begin to free yourself of those patterns.
  • You learn to be frustrated less, and let go more. And smile more.
  • You learn to be better at compassion, equanimity, love, contentment.
  • You learn to be better at not procrastinating, and better at building better habits.

I could go on about better mental and physical health, better relationships, less fear … but the reasons I’ve given are strong enough. It’s important stuff.

So how do we cultivate a year of mindfulness? I’m glad you asked.

Tips for Cultivating Mindfulness

I’m just going to dive in and share my favorite tips for creating a year of mindfulness:

  1. Commit to sitting daily for a month. It would be great to commit to a year of sitting meditation practice, but I think that’s too long for the brain to commit to. So I recommend trying to sit everyday for a month. Tell people about it, set reminders on your phone and calendar, put a note somewhere you won’t miss it, and keep the meditation short — just 2-5 minutes to start with, until you become more regular. This is the foundational practice for being more mindful, so make a big commitment to sitting.
  2. Find a group. If you can find a meditation group in your area to sit with once a week, that’s ideal. It doesn’t matter much what kind of group it is (Zen, Tibetan, Vipassana, etc.), just meet with them and meditate however you like when you’re on the cushion. If you can’t find a group in your area, find a group that meets online (San Francisco Zen Center has an online practice group, for example). This commitment to a group deepens the practice.
  3. Practice mindful eating. I’m gonna be honest here, I don’t practice this as much as I should. But it’s a good example of how you can take something you already do every day, and use it as a meditation. Simply commit to doing nothing but eating — single-task instead of multitasking. As you eat each bite, pay attention to the food, the textures and flavors and colors. Notice when your mind wanders. Savor the food. Showering, brushing your teeth, washing your dishes, walking and sweeping are other good activities to use as meditation.
  4. Take a course. This is a bit self-promotional, but I’m offering mindfulness courses in my Sea Change Program. However, you can take any online or in-person course, free or paid — I find that they force you to practice and reflect on your practice, so that your learning deepens even further.
  5. Find a teacher or partner. I am lucky to have a teacher who I meet with every couple months … I find that just knowing that I’m going to be talking to her means that I’ll try harder to learn, remind myself a bit more, reflect on my learning more so that I have something to talk to her about. If you can’t find a teacher, a learning partner can function the same way.
  6. Watch your frustration. When you get irritated, frustrated or angry … let it be a mindfulness bell! It is a great opportunity to drop out of your story, and notice how your body is feeling. What got you hooked? What story are you telling yourself? What is your mental pattern when you get hooked? What is the physical feeling in your body at this moment? Practice as much as you can!
  7. Read a good mindfulness book. You learn mindfulness by practicing, but a good book can guide your practice. I recommend checking out my recently published Zen Habits Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness, and I also like Mindfulness in Plain English.
  8. Practice yoga or mindful movement. Yoga is moving meditation, and I highly recommend it. If you aren’t drawn to yoga, try walking or running or doing other exercise while trying to pay mindful attention to your body and breath. Either way, see it as an opportunity to meditate as you move.
  9. Sit with procrastination & fear. Whenever you start to procrastinate or run to distraction, there is fear at the root of your urge. Instead of running, sit with it. Notice the fear or resistance. Stay with this feeling, become intimate with it, be friendly towards it, smile at it. Stay, stay, until it dissolves.
  10. Journal & review regularly. The best learning is deepened by reflecting what you’ve been learning about, reflecting on your obstacles and challenges, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t. You evolve your learning through reflecting. Journaling is a great tool for that — it helps you reflect in a mindful way. Journal daily, weekly, or monthly, reviewing what you did the previous day (or week or month) and what you learned from it, and what your intentions are in the coming day, week or month.

That might seem like a lot of things to do, but you don’t have to do them all at once! Nor do you have to be “perfect” at this (perfection doesn’t exist). Just try one or two things, try another couple things later, and explore with no real desitation or outcome in mind. Play with these practices and tools. See what happens.

Challenge: A Month of Mindfulness

To start your year of mindfulness, I challenge you to do a full 30 days of mindfulness, starting today. That means meditating every day, for at least a few minutes (start small), and trying to incorporate mindfulness practices in your life in small ways.

Are you up to the challenge? If so, commit to it by announcing it to your loved ones, on social media, or emailing your friends. It’ll be an amazing way to start this year.

If you’d like to go deeper with mindfulness, sign up for my Sea Change Program. We’re doing a Month of Mindfulness in January, and I’ve issued the same mindfulness challenge to my members (we check in once a week). Don’t worry if you’re starting mid-month … it doesn’t matter. Go on your own schedule, let go of the idea of perfection.

Join us in Sea Change today!

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10 Simple Ways to Start Your 2017 Off on the Right Foot

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“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
Marcus Aurelius

“So many fail because they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.”
W. Clement Stone

A start in the form of just one small step can take you further than you might have dreamed. No matter if we’re talking careers, relationships, a habit or an actual journey somewhere in the world.

And a good start to your morning can set the tone for your whole day and greatly help you to make it a good or even great one.

But we can also expand our perspective. Zoom out and see a whole new year in front of us.

How can you start your 2017 off on the right foot and set a good or great tone for the year?

Here are 10 of my simple and favorite tips – that I plan to focus on during this year – for doing just that.

1. Keep things simple.

This year, keep things simple.

And get back to the basics that you may already know work well for you but have for some reason fallen by the wayside during last year.

  • Stop trying to come up with the perfect plan before you get started. Instead, come up with a good plan and then take action on it. You can always readjust along the way towards your goal. And it’s a whole better with a good plan that you actually take action on than a perfect one that you just keep polishing for weeks, months or years.
  • Focus on what matters the most – the tasks and steps forward – first thing in your day and if possible first thing in your week (when you are likely most rested and clearheaded).
  • Do just one thing at a time to do the best and most focused job you can. No matter if it’s at work, in school or in your personal life. Trying to do several things at once usually just leads to mediocre results or half-finished jobs.

2. Reduce the distractions.

Distractions are all around us and it’s so easy to get swept away by them and get stuck in not very important busy work or in procrastination.

So remember to reduce them to protect more valuable time, energy and focus during your day and week.

A few ways that I’ll be doing that during 2017 are:

  • Put my smart phone in silent mode while I work. And then put it at the other side of our home and only check it 1-2 times during my work day.
  • Take 5-10 minutes to go through my inbox and reduce the recurring emails that I haven’t read or gotten something good out of in the past 30 days. Doing such a cleanup and unsubscribing to various email lists can make a big difference throughout the year.
  • Keep a reminder – just below my computer screen – that I see every day of what the current month’s biggest and most important goal or focus is. So that I stay on track consistently and get what truly matters done step by step.

3. Replace one negative influence with a positive one.

What we let into our minds can have a big effect on what we think, feel and on what we do or not do.

So be careful about what influences you let into your mind on a daily or weekly basis.

A simple way to improve this area of your life is to ask yourself this question:

What is the biggest negative influence in my life right now?

You may for example find that it’s a person in your life that is very negative or drags your life down. Or a website, online forum or other media source that impacts you negatively and may make you feel worse about yourself and put a lot of pessimism about life into your mind.

Now, ask yourself:

What’s one person or other source that lifts me up, adds energy and that I want to spend more time with this year?

When you have an answer then follow up with this question:

What action can I take today and over the coming week to make a change in my reality and spend less time with the negative influence and more time with positive one?

Think about it and come up a small action plan – maybe just 1-3 steps – that you can take action on. This can have a huge impact on your year.

4. Get regular exercise.

During the last few days of 2016 I got started with a 30 day challenge of working out every day – on some days that means lifting heavy weights, on others a walk in the wintery landscape – and I’m half-way through it now.

The focus of this challenge for me is not so much about getting stronger or faster but about the mental benefits.

Because one of the simplest ways to more easily think optimistic thoughts, remain focused for a longer time, be more decisive and to reduce stress and inner tensions is in my experience to get regular exercise.

Besides the mental benefits the aim is also to make the exercise such a natural habit for me that I don’t skip out on it even if I have a setback in life or a tough day or week (this is something I’ve sometimes done in the past).

5. Accept what is.

If you’re, for instance, honestly not in the physical shape you were a couple of years ago then accept that this is what is now. Don’t deflect or try to push it away. Then it only persists, it takes up much of your attention and time and it can cause anxiety, worry or other negative emotions or behavior.

And this isn’t just about your fitness level but can be applied to any negative situation in one of your relationships, at work or in school or with money or your home.

If you’re in a negative situation then accept it first. That will give you clarity and you’ll be able to direct all your mental energy towards making a change about what is in your life.

6. Take daily breaks to reboot your mind.

My favorite time during the work week is the mornings. My mind is rested and empty. Thinking clearly is most often quite easy.

It feels like a new and fresh start.

But as the day passes the mind tends to fill up with events, thoughts and feelings.

It becomes tired and thinking clearly becomes less easy.

Here’s what I do when that happens.

  • I sit down in a comfy chair or couch. I close my eyes. I breathe through my nose.
  • I make sure that I’m breathing with my belly and not my chest.
  • Then I just relax my body for about 2 minutes and focus only on the air going in and out.
  • After those 2 minutes are up I open my eyes.

And my mind feels clearer again, usually like it does early in the mornings (or something at least close to that). I’m back in the present moment instead of lost in mental cobwebs.

It’s like I have rebooted and refreshed my mind and then the rest of the afternoon goes smoother, with less stress, inner tensions and a sharper focus once again.

7. Ask yourself questions that set you free.

One of the most common habits that drag us down and hold us back in life is in my opinion that we ask questions that aren’t so helpful. Questions that zap your personal power and add pessimism and victim thinking.

So ask yourself better questions. The ones that open up your mind to possibilities and set you free to do what you deep down want.

If, for example, fear is holding you back from doing something ask yourself:

What’s the worst that could realistically happen?

Then make a small plan for how you could bounce back from that worst thing if it were to happen to find clarity and to reduce your vague fear.

If you dream of having or doing something but always think it’s something you just have to wait for maybe for a couple of years or a decade then question that assumption by asking yourself:

How can I take one small step towards my dream not sometime in the future but today?

Quite often you’ll discover that you don’t actually have to wait to get started. If you want to write that book, go on your dream vacation or start a side business don’t let it stay a daydream by putting imaginary obstacles in your mind.

Instead, find a first small step you can take towards it and take action on it today.

8. Choose to do the opposite in one common situation in your life.

We all have negative patterns we repeat.

To start this year off on the right foot, choose to do the opposite compared to what you did in 2016 in a common situation in your life.

Choose to:

  • Just ignore or take the high-road with a person that usually makes you angry or irritated.
  • Find one thing you can learn from a setback instead of feeling sorry for yourself the whole day or week.
  • Eat some carrots or go exercise when you have a bad day if you usually go for eating unhealthy food to handle such a situation.

Make a choice that is contrary to negative pattern that you know you usually follow. Do it just one time. And start breaking your pattern.

9. Be kind to yourself when you stumble or fall.

As you work towards what you want this year there will likely be a setback or two in January or February.

It might be tempting to beat yourself up in these situations and to use that as motivation to do better the next time.

But that way of handling a mistake or failure is in my experience often counterproductive as it leads to lower self-esteem and self-confidence and sometimes to going down into a spiral of negative thoughts and inaction.

So I suggest being kind and constructive instead.

  • Zoom out. After you’ve stumbled remember that a failure does not make YOU a failure. The setback is only temporary. Just an event in your life. Not something that will last forever if you do something about it.
  • Ask yourself: How would my friend/parent support me and help me in this situation? Then do things and talk to yourself like he or she would.

10. Truly appreciate and enjoy your lazy time.

I’ve found that I do a better job when I work if I also set off plenty of time in my week for guilt-free relaxation and just lazying around.

Because that – just like many parts of my work – makes me happy. It recharges me. It renews my creativity and helps me to clear my mind and let go of stress.

If I spend most of that time consciously. And not by just, for example, aimlessly watching TV-shows that are honestly just OK.

But by:

  • Spending time on walking in the woods or just lying in the grass and watching the clouds during the summertime.
  • Reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching a movie or playing a game that’s exciting to me.
  • Spending time with people I really like spending time with.

I’ve learned that if I spend my lazy time in this more conscious way I appreciate my life and recharging time more. And I’m also more motivated and energized to go back to work when it’s time for that.

So be careful so you don’t fall into the trap of treating yourself like a robot that’s always working at the start of this year and make time for conscious recharging time too. If you’re anything like me then it will benefit you in several ways.

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Sea Change Program: Change Your Life in 2017

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By Leo Babauta

I believe the freshness of this year brings a renewed energy for changing our lives. I believe 2017 can be great for all of us, with a bit of focus and effort.

So I’ve created a revised Sea Change Program that’s geared to creating a great 2017 for all of you, full of positive life changes.

How can Sea Change help you change your life in 2017?

  1. Video Courses: I’ve created a huge library of content: video courses and articles that are aimed at helping you practice mindfulness, exercise, eat healthier, declutter, stop procrastinating, get out of debt, overcome fear, find gratitude and more. I’ve been building up this content library for 5 years! I think it’s pretty awesome.
  2. Challenges: Every month I plan to have a new challenge. This month, it’s a Mindfulness Challenge — try to meditate every day of the month. Report on your challenge once a week. It really helps you to stick to change more to participate in a challenge.
  3. Forums: You can discuss the challenges, report your progress each week, and in general support each other’s changes.

So video and article content on changing your life, a monthly challenge, and a forum to connect with and get support from other people who are making similar changes. I’ve found this to be a simple but effective method for change.

If you’re ready to make changes in 2017, try my Sea Change Program for one week free (and $15/month after that).

Deeper Levels

In addition, if you want to go deeper, I offer Gold and Platinum memberships to help support people who are ready to fully commit to life changes.

How do these levels help you go deeper? A few key ways, in addition to what’s above:

  1. Live Webinars (Gold and Platinum): Gold members have access to monthly live webinars where I give a talk about the current challenge and answer member questions. My members have found these to be a great resource.
  2. Ask Questions (Gold and Platinum): Members can submit questions during the month and I’ll do my best to answer them. I highly recommend asking questions, as it deepens the learning process and helps me to see where you need help. People who ask questions are much more likely to see change.
  3. Accountability Teams (Platinum): I’ve created a Sea Change team on Slack for Platinum members to discuss their life changes, and more importantly to provide accountability teams of about 5-10 members to support each other’s changes.
  4. Twice-monthly Calls with Leo (Platinum): I’ve just added this feature for the new Platinum membership level … I’m going to have twice-monthly calls where people can ask questions and I’ll answer them, and other members can share their progress, I can even do some one-on-one coaching on the call with other members benefitting from listening. I think this will be a great help for people who are ready to go deeper into their learning and habit changes.

So four tools for more personal support, which I’ve found to be a key ingredient to lasting change.

Key Ingredients to Lasting Change

Through changing my own life in a hundred different ways, to helping others change theirs, I’ve found some things to be incredibly helpful if you want to make a change that sticks:

  1. Motivation: Do you really want to change? If you care about the change, and are willing to focus your life on it for a little while, you can make it happen. If it’s just “it would be nice,” then it probably won’t last until you are ready to get serious about it.
  2. Small changes, gradually: Most people hear this and ignore it, but they are missing one of the most important ingredients. If you want to meditate, start with just a couple minutes. If you want to exercise, just do five minutes. Start small, increase only gradually. Do less than you’re capable of, and the change will last.
  3. Reminders and focus: If you forget to do your habit, you won’t change. If you can set reminders, put up physical, visual reminders around you, and keep your focus on the habit, you’re much more likely to stick to it.
  4. Social support: Doing the change with other people is remarkably powerful. I haven’t found another tool more effective than this, if you are willing to put it to use.
  5. Gratitude & mindfulness: OK, you can have lasting change without these final ingredients, but I’ve found them to be essential in my personal changes. Why? If you aren’t mindful, you’ll give in to urges to procrastinate or quit your change, because you won’t even notice the urge, you’ll just follow it. And if you find gratitude as you do the habit, you’ll enjoy every step of the way, which means it won’t be a sacrifice but a joy. These are two amazing ingredients, use them!

So those are the key ingredients. You can change your entire life over the course of a year or two if you make small, gradual changes with mindfulness, gratitude, motivation and social support. I’ve seen it over and over.

It’s possible. Take the step today and join me and thousands of other members in Sea Change:

Join Sea Change

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The Power of Contentment: How Being Content Can Help You Live a Full Life

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Everyone, of course, wants to be happy. The question is: how? How can we be happy? For many people, the answer is to have more: more money, more fame, more achievements.

I don’t think that’s the right answer, though. Why? Because having more is a never-ending journey. Yes, you might be happy for a while when you get what you want. But then the cycle repeats itself. After a while, you want even more to be happy.

No, having more is not the way to happiness. Instead, I believe that the way to happiness is the opposite of wanting more. The way to happiness is being content.

What does being content mean?

Being content means being happy now with what you already have. You don’t need this or that before you can be happy. You don’t say to yourself, “If only I have that, I will be happy.” No. You already have all you need to be happy.

If you are content, you will be happy even if you don’t have much. But if you aren’t, you won’t be happy even if you have much. Benjamin Franklin put it well: “Contentment makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”

Contentment is powerful because it gives you the space to do things that fulfill you. Instead of spending your time on chasing more stuff, you can now spend your time on realizing your potential and contributing. These will give you inner fulfillment.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs describes this concept well. Those who want to have more will spend their time on the lower parts of the hierarchy, especially the physiological (material stuff) and esteem (reputation) parts. Those who are content, on the other hand, will spend their time on the higher parts of the hierarchy: the self-actualization and self-transcendence parts. Self-actualization corresponds to realizing your potential, while self-transcendence corresponds to contributing to a cause that matters to you. Both are how you can live a fulfilling life.

One thing to remember: being content doesn’t mean just staying where you are. In fact, it’s the opposite: you will still get better at what you do. But what’s different here is your motivation. Your motivation is not to get more stuff (physiological) or reputation (esteem). Instead, your motivation is to realize your potential (self-actualization) and contribute (self-transcendence). Because you want to realize your potential and contribute, you will get better at what you do. You will achieve more. But the motivation is different.

Being content is essential for living a full life. It allows you to be happy now, not later in a distant future. It also gives you the space to realize your potential and contribute. These will lead you to live a fulfilling life.

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Just 24 Hours to Go to Until Stop Procrastinating Now Closes

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“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb

Just a quick heads up today.

There’s only 24 hours left until the registration for The Stop Procrastinating Now Course closes.

Until 1.00 p.m EST (that’s 18.00 GMT) on Monday the 9:th of January you can still join it.

So if you are interested in that – and in getting the free bonus course 31 Days to a Simpler Life worth $27 + the 6 extra bonus guides – then now is the time to take action.

Click here to learn more about Stop Procrastinating Now and to join it before the doors close

 

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