By Leo Babauta People often think, when they’re tired or don’t feel like doing a task (or a habit), that there are really only two choices: And while there isn’t anything wrong with either of these choices, I’m here to remind you that they are choices. And they’re not the only choices. What else can […] The post Forcing Yourself to Do a Task vs. Letting Yourself Off the Hook appeared first on zen habits ..read more

By Leo Babauta Every day, there are things we’re resisting, avoiding, feeling some fear about. We don’t often recognize that, but what we most often do is turn away from these things. This turning away leads to a couple of impactful things: A shrinking of our lives, as we turn away from things we’re not good at, where we don’t know how things will turn out, when we aren’t sure of success. A loss in trust in ourselves, and a feeling that we’re not living up to our best selves. This isn’t wrong — it’s just how things tend to go. It’s all very human. There’s something magical about swimming aga ..read more

By Leo Babauta How much of your day is spent either 1) trying to make yourself do something you really don’t want to do, or 2) avoiding doing that thing you don’t want to force yourself to do (and feeling guilty about it)? In truth, this is most of the day for many people. Trying to coerce ourselves to do stuff. So a few things to say about coercing ourselves: It doesn’t work really well — we’ll put up a lot of resistance if we’re trying to force ourselves. Even if you can do it, it’s super not fun! And then when you’re done forcing yourself, you have to do it again. Over and over again. Hopi ..read more

By Leo Babauta Recently I had a reader write in to me about not being good at finishing things. A few examples of things they haven’t finished: They bought a course and never finished it They can’t seem to stick to a diet They’ve only gone on half of the hikes they want to go on in their area I can relate! It can be hard to finish things — we get excited about something at the start, but when we get busy or things get hard or boring, our commitment wavers. So how do we get better at finishing things? We have to deepen into commitment, and get support. Before we get into the details, it’s imp ..read more

By Leo Babauta Most of us are operating on mistaken ideas about what gives us happiness — and these errors are costly. Think about how you normally spend your days — and then think about whether that’s making you happy. Now think about the cost to your health and long-term happiness. Let’s give a few examples, so you can see what I mean: Social media: If you spend a lot of your time on social media, perhaps for it’s entertainment value or distraction from things stressing you out … notice if this leads to better or worse happiness and mental health. For many, it leads to worse mental health a ..read more

I find that almost all problems are a breakdown in trusting ourselves. If we could trust ourselves fully, so many things become effortless. Let me give some examples of where we don’t trust ourselves: Procrastination: We procrastinate when we think we can’t handle the stress or difficulty of one or more tasks, or we don’t trust ourselves to handle any bad outcomes we fear from doing those tasks (people judging our work, for example). If we trusted ourselves completely, we could just do the task and deal with the stress that comes from it, and deal with whatever comes after. Overwork: We work ..read more

Lately I’ve been waking up early (5:30am), because I traveled to London for a couple of weeks to lead a retreat, and my sleep schedule shifted. I really enjoy it! Someone asked me recently what my morning routine is like, and I told them: It changes regularly, depending on what I need. That said, I haven’t shared my morning routine in awhile, so I’ll share it here. Please remember that this routine is provisional — it will change when I need it to. Here’s what I’ve been doing lately: Wake and brew some coffee. I went about 6 months without coffee, and I think it was better for my sleep. But l ..read more

Every new day is a tremendous gift. And yet we often take these days for granted, rushing into everything we need to respond to, distracting ourselves, forgetting to feel wonder. Wouldn’t it be lovely to create a morning ritual to greet your day? The purpose of the ritual is to practice full appreciation of the gift we’ve been given, and to set the rest of the day up for wonder. What would that create for your life, if you had a ritual like that? My suggestion is to create your own ritual, not copy mine, because ritual is best treated as a creative act. Ask yourself, what would be amazing for ..read more

By Leo Babauta Our days are a busy rush, often from the moment we wake up. Even in our moments of rest, we are often on our phones or using technology to distract ourselves. The result is a life of stress, overwhelm, and habitual patterns. What would it be like to slow down? To find stillness in your day, moments of rest and quietude? The possibility of slowing down goes much deeper than just having a bit less busyness in your day … Slowing down, if we go deeper, allows us to: Notice what’s coming up for us, and to attend to our emotions. This is much, much more important than people realize ..read more

By Leo Babauta For many of us in the Northern hemisphere, Spring has fully arrived: gorgeous sunshine, warmer weather, green trees, blossoms. It’s glorious! With Spring comes life springing into action, full of abundance. This is the chaos of life, full and energetic and exuberant. It’s chaotic but in the most affirming of ways. This abundance and chaos can fill us up, if we let it. If you’re feeling drained and empty, then you can let yourself feel the nourishing abundance of life all around you. Chaos can be stressful, or restorative — depending on our attitude towards it. Here’s the practic ..read more