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Post written by Leo Babauta . Last night I had an amazing dinner with my wife Eva and my friends Scott and Jesse and their wives Chelsea and Joanna. The gathering itself was simple: six people, simple healthy food, a little wine, a little tea, nothing else. Except that we lost ourselves in conversation so deeply that before we knew it, it was 1:30 a.m. and I was shocked at how quickly the time had passed. The secret is also simple: when you talk with people who are passionate about what they’re doing , passionate about life and the people they love, it is transformative. The people I talked with last night are incredibly passionate about what they’re doing. And yes, Brett , I mean passionate : excited, fired-up, feeling-strongly-about, thinking-about-it-all-the-time, can’t-wait-to-do-it-when-you-wake-up passion. When you talk with people who are passionate like that, you can’t help but get fired up yourself. You want to go out and do something exciting. Passionate people not only inspire you, they give you ideas. They read books by other people who are passionate and full of ideas, and they recommend the books to you or pass the ideas on to you. Scott and Jesse, for example, are constantly meeting other passionate people, and that inspires them … and in turn that inspires me. It’s fuel for an intense fire. A nice side benefit is Scott & Chelsea and Jesse & Joanna are some of the most health-conscious people I know — the dinner was extremely healthy and delicious, and I went away even more inspired to get fit and live a healthy life. I love people like that. I’ve met a lot of passionate, smart, inspired people since moving to San Francisco — people like Tim Ferriss and Matt Mullenweg and Tynan and Corbett Barr and Oleg and Barron and more. It’s incredible to talk with people like that, and you can’t walk away from them without getting a bit revved up. While I try to lead a life of minimalism , I’ve learned that minimalism can be done anywhere you go … and it doesn’t require that you move to a farm or give up your contact with people. Just the opposite: minimalism is about giving up consumption in favor of doing things you’re passionate about and having real relationships with a few people you really value. I’d much rather have a conversation with someone doing something amazing than go shopping. You don’t have to live in a big city like New York or San Francisco to surround yourself with passionate people. They’re in small towns, but it might take a bit of looking to find them. Find small businesses who are doing amazing things, and talk with the people there. Look for startups, for artists and writers, for people who are obsessed with doing something really well. If you can’t find them where you live, find them online. They’re everywhere if you look. Read books by people full of powerful ideas who are doing innovative things. Read their blogs, talk to them via email and Twitter. Start collaborating with people like that. Be one of them, and inspire others. — Simply Your Family Life Booksale Speaking of surrounding yourself with passionate people full of ideas … I’m part of a powerful book sale that you might find valuable. The sale includes some of the top authors in the family life space with 30 ebooks worth over $450 — on sale for just $47 for the next four days. See the sale here . A portion of each sale will also be donated to The Mentoring Project , which seeks to rewrite the story of the fatherless generation. IMPORTANT DETAIL: This collection is only available from 2 p.m. on March 21st to 2 p.m. on March 24th. There will be no late sales offered. It’s an amazing collection of books on family minimalism, cooking, green living, marriage, money, organizing, parenting, travel, working at home and personal development. I highly recommend you check it out. The sale ends at 2 p.m. ET on March 24th, and there will be no late sales offered.

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Editor’s note : This is a guest post from Melissa Gorzelanczyk of Peace & Projects . Everyone experiences burnout. Maybe you feel overworked, sick of your marriage or stressed about money. Maybe you’re living a daily cliché: one step forward, two steps back. Life can be tricky like that. Believe it or not, burnout can be a beautiful thing. Instead of surrendering to burnout, what if you could use it to transform your life? Just like the story of the Phoenix, what if burnout was a chance for rebirth? Four years ago I was overworked, stressed and a bit burned out. Now, I’m in a much different place. Here’s what I’ve done since 2007 to help redefine my life. Quit smoking for good (after failing more than eight times) Eliminated over $42,000 in debt. Convinced my employer to let me work from home two days a week. Stuck to a budget so we could live on one income which allowed me to … Quit my day job. Started to eat right and exercise. Ended my relationship with stuff. Wrote a novel in a month. Defined myself as a hybrid homemaker. Now, I am home when my step kids return from school. I’ve also kept my professional identity through freelance writing. Showed others how to live the same way in my first ebook, The Hybrid Homemaker. None of this would have been possible without burnout. If I hadn’t reached a point where I felt exhausted, beaten down, burned out … I never would have come up from the ashes. I’m here to show you how you can rise from the ashes, too. If your path in life feels crooked, you can turn around and take one step forward. That’s the beauty of this story. If I can do it, so can you. Burnout is beautiful. It gives you the chance to: Imagine. I never thought we could live on one income until I imagined a life without debt. Really? People lived on one income? “What if,” I thought and the rest is history. Burnout led me to imagine a life where I didn’t have to work to support the family. That changed everything. What could your life look like? If you’re unhappy at work, there is another way to make money. Start imagining it. Even a simple internet search can help. If you are crushed by debt, there is a way to change that. Imagine your life without limits. Someone else is already living your dream life – start wondering, “How did they do that?” Become the artist. The desire to change starts with you. Once you feel it, use that passion to experiment and try new things. Become the artist – life is the masterpiece. To get healthy, you might challenge yourself to 10 minutes of exercise each morning. Looking to transform your diet? Eat like Leo. Take a stand against debt by cutting up your credit cards. Burnout brings strong emotions like anger, fear, jealousy and sadness. Use those feelings to light your creativity on fire. Keep mixing it up with new ideas and projects. Set people free. Don’t expect your employer to relieve stress at work. Don’t expect your lover to make you happy. Your burnout is not their responsibility. Give yourself permission to do all the work. Setting people free from your expectations will put you back in control. You can be burnout’s victim or victor. Find one reason to do something, not a million reasons to quit. Now, no one stands in your way. Focus on tiny movements. That’s all it takes to change your life. If you want to quit smoking, you can stop putting a cigarette in your mouth and lighting the end. Once you master the way you move, you can do anything. You can decide to write instead of go out to lunch. You can put away the beer and go to bed early. You can feel your feet on the ground for a run. Movements, no matter how small, shape your entire life. How you go through the motions is up to you. Ask yourself today: Is the way I move beautiful? Or destructive? Start over. Change can be slow, but it has to start somewhere. For me, burnout became beautiful when I fed new ideas to my broken spirit. Inspiration was everywhere once I wanted to look. Sites like The Happiness Project and Zen Habits gave me courage to begin a new life. I know now: Burnout is just the beginning. It might feel awful at times. If it didn’t, how would you know when to try something new? Let your imagination fly. Learn what lights up your world before burnout defines it. Ask yourself for help first. Then, start with tiny movements. Tiny actions. Like building a new foundation, brick by brick, you can create something strong and beautiful. Read more from Melissa at her blog, Peace & Projects , or follow her on Twitter .

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Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Benny the Irish polyglot of Fluent in 3 months . When I was 21 years old, the only language I spoke was English. I had done quite poorly in languages in school and believed that I was too untalented and even too ‘old’ to consider ever speaking a foreign language, even basically. Now seven years later I speak eight languages fluently and can get by quite well in several others. In my day-to-day life I almost never speak English and my travels and scope of friendships have been greatly enriched because of this. How I reached this stage was not by studying a lot or investing thousands in software or courses. It was by applying the simple principles outlined here. Having the right learning approach What mostly surprises people is my confidence that anyone can reach a high level of fluency in a language in just a few months. Many of us will have studied a language for years in school and are barely able to string a sentence together, so this idea might sound nothing short of arrogant. However, considering what you are actually doing in school; a couple of hours of theory, using the language unnaturally for exam purposes, and some half-interested homework – this barely adds up to a few weeks of real work even over half a decade. After just two months living in Budapest, with no previous exposure to the language, I was ready to be interviewed entirely in Hungarian on video. I am not smarter or more talented than anyone else who might attempt this, but I am much more committed and serious about reaching my goals. You don’t have to devote your life to the language, but you must invest at least an hour a day, ideally more, which involves focused use of the language. Casual interest can only get you so far – if you just ‘want’ to speak a language, that gives you no edge. Who wouldn’t want that? To make real progress, that want has to become a need . With focus and your full attention you can learn much quicker And there is only one way the language will become a true necessity: you need to start speaking it with other people, now . Stop learning the language, and start speaking it! If I had to summarize what definitely separates those who fail in attempts to reach conversational fluency and those who succeed, based on my experience of meeting thousands of language learners, it is simply the fact that the latter group actually use the language. Not for exams, not for listening to podcasts or reading, but to communicate with human beings. If your goal is to be able to read perfectly or understand the radio perfectly, then lots of reading and listening will be precisely what you need. However, to speak well, you need to speak often! You can’t avoid this, it’s kind of the whole point! Seriously, stop studying the target language so much! A language can’t be treated like a subject in school such as history or biology; in the real world you cannot ‘fail’ when you make a certain number of mistakes. Other people are very helpful when you are genuinely trying to speak with them. People told me that in Berlin I would find it hard to convince Germans to not speak English to me all the time, but even when I was initially struggling they would be very helpful and patient with me as I spoke. They could see that I was serious about speaking their language and rewarded me for my efforts. I can assure you, if you start speaking now with the little you know, you will indeed make mistakes but other speakers and natives will forgive you for this and you will realize that you always had the ability to communicate and get your point across. Thanks to this practice, any studying you do will be focused on real use of the language relevant to your life, rather than theoretical applications recommended in generic courses. Don’t wait to finish the course – take matters into your own hands! What so many courses miss is that no matter how much you study, unless you start to use the language with others on a regular basis, it will have no real context in your mind and it’s very hard to make any real progress. I know people who are like walking dictionaries – they know the most obscure words in the foreign language and can explain precisely how the grammar works. And yet they are still not confident enough to speak. One of these was another foreigner I lived with in Spain who could run circles around me if you put the two of us in an examination. Despite this, Spaniards I met when we were together would tell me that I spoke much better than he did. I wasn’t thinking too much about saying things perfectly – I just let the conversations flow. People focused on perfection still need to learn ‘just a little more’ and they’ll be ready ’some day’. There are seven days in a week and ’some day’ isn’t one of them! Those with much less theory behind them, but more experience actually speaking, will outdo the academics every time. This has nothing to do with natural talent , it’s about simply opening your mouth and really using the language. A language is a means of communication. If you think of it as a list of vocabulary to learn off, or a table of grammar to memorize, you are missing the point entirely. When you start practicing, you will improve on your speaking skills dramatically. It won’t be easy, but once you accept that you simply cannot skip the stage of making mistakes and try to enjoy it, then the mistakes will disappear quicker. You don’t need to travel to speak the language Successful language learners don’t aim to speak well some day – they use it now . Make all of your focus on immediate use of the language. Study can help, but it is most effective when it has immediate applications. Find natives and other learners to practice with and arrange to meet up with them immediately. It will be hard at first, but you need real pressure if you want to make real progress. Rather than downloading podcasts and buying too many courses, meet up with actual people and use the language! A few resources I like to use include: Meetup.com for language meet-ups in major cities. You can also read advertisements in newspapers and your local library to see if people meet up interested in speaking the language you want to. Join Couchsurfing and host foreign travelers in your home. The same site also has international meetings and a feature to search your city for people who speak a particular language. You can also find native speakers online and practice over Skype, through many language learning social networks available for free online. You can do this in your home town. The only reason I feel that travel really does make a difference for some people is because of the pressure to perform being constantly there. But many expats still waste the opportunity. I met a man who had been living in Prague for ten years and still didn’t speak any Czech, even though his own children did. He had created a bubble of his mother tongue that ‘protected’ him via his social circle and routines. If he can do this in a foreign country, why can’t we do it from home with a foreign language? You don’t have to avoid your mother tongue (that is not a realistic solution for many due to work and family / friends), but you can create a ‘bubble’ where everything you do is in the target language, even if just for that hour a day. A positive attitude is the key No matter what language I learn, I always try to look at my cup as ‘half full’. It’s possible to answer this post with a list of reasons why learning a given language would be too hard for you, but this bogus focus on excuses is what actually makes it hard for many people. You can also make it easy by deciding to have a positive attitude accompany you in your language learning journey. This positive attitude creates a feedback loop in your mind where you will look for more evidence to support the idea that it isn’t that bad after all and this will further fuel your openness to learn more without creating any invisible barriers. Progress will flow and you’ll be speaking confidently before you know it. So stop reading about it, stop listening to others doing it, and stop over-studying and dreaming about ’some day’. It’s time to get out there and speak it! Benny is a language hacker who takes on a new intensive language ‘mission’ every few months. Subscribe to his blog Fluent in 3 months to follow these stories and get his best tips. Read his best strategies for speaking any language in his Language Hacking Guide . — ar twitter

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Post written by Leo Babauta . When we are faced with a crisis or struggle we often despair. But it’s in this struggle that the best opportunities emerge. If we’re keeping our eyes open. A crisis is an opportunity to change grow learn reflect and become better. It’s where we discover who we are and how we can find a new way we couldn’t have imagined before the crisis presented itself. It allows us to practice patience and acceptance and find renewed hope — which is the most beautiful thing. When I’ve lost my job it was an opportunity for reinvention and to strike out on my own. When I’ve lost a family member to the unrelenting grip of death it was an opportunity to reflect on that loved one’s wonderful life and for our family to come together in a way never possible before. When I failed at work I learned to improve and grow better. When I injured myself I learned patience and new ways to be healthy. When my children throw tantrums they are teaching me more patience and the power of raw emotions and the wonder of childhood and what happens when you lose perspective. When my wife and I had arguments it was an opportunity to learn more about each other and grow closer and become better at finding common ground. When I moved and missed my family on Guam terribly it was an opportunity to learn introspection and self-sufficiency and grow closer to family here in the States. When I daily face the terror of the void staring at me face to face it is my chance to push back and assert my will and imprint my soul upon this malleable world. And that my friends is beauty. It is the finding of renewed hope and growth when all else seems bleak and lost. In the struggle is the possible if we dare to look. il Twitter

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Post written by Leo Babauta . It was only a couple years ago that I was completely focused on goals … and I accomplished a lot by setting and working on goals. I ran several marathons, lost a lot of weight, got out of debt, started a fairly successful blog … the list of goals I achieved is long. These days, for more than a year now, I’ve pretty much given up on goals , though I’m still learning how that works. The question most people have is: how do you achieve anything without goals? And the short answer is: the same way as you always did — get excited about something and do it! how we really achieve Goals take credit for our accomplishments, like a bad boss does in the company’s annual report. But we all know who did the work to get those accomplishments — the workers. The boss just acted as a taskmaster but mostly got in the way with a lot of pressure and asking for time-consuming reports. Goals are the same: we give them a lot of credit for our accomplishments, but they didn’t do the work. They might have given us a direction, but in the end, the work is done on a daily basis. Goals also require that we do a lot of admin work — assess and report on how we’re doing with our goals, etc. But remove goals from the picture and look at the gritty details of how work gets done and accomplishments happen: You get excited about something. Sometimes that’s through setting goals, but it could be other ways: inspiration from someone else doing something, setting a challenge for yourself, joining a group doing something exciting, or just waking up and wanting to do something great. Or you put on ‘Hey Mama’ by Black Eyed Peas and start shaking your booty and want to get moving. You take action. Maybe you report your new thing to others — on your blog or Twitter or Facebook or an online forum, or just telling your friends. You might make it a part of your life for a little while. You take more action. You tell people about how you’re doing. Pretty soon you’ve done something amazing. Notice that goals are only one way to do this. with or without goals A minimalist blogging friend, whom I respect, said in a little discussion on this yesterday that he accomplished a lot with goals — and that’s true. But I believe he would have accomplished great things even without goals — they just might not have been what he expected. He also said, without goals, a lot of people wouldn’t do anything — which I don’t believe is true. Freed of goals, I highly doubt that most of us would just sit around doing nothing. That would bore us — interesting, talented people want to do something. So we would — we’d get excited and create. Sure, there would be a few people who sit around doing nothing — but those people are setting goals for themselves and are sitting around not achieving those goals, and feeling guilty about it. That’s the thing: even with goals, some people aren’t going to achieve anything, because they haven’t figured out how to motivate themselves. Goals don’t do that for you — they just make you feel guilty that you haven’t gotten them done. And even without goals, people who are motivated are people who will get excited and do stuff. They’ll accomplish something great, no matter what. I’ve done just as much without goals as I did with: I’ve self-published my latest book , moved to a city , given up my car , created bootcamps for bloggers, gotten in better shape than I’ve ever been in, read a ton of books, created another blog , eliminated ads on Zen Habits while making it more profitable than ever, and countless other things I won’t even mention. life purpose A few years ago, I did a post talking about your life’s purpose: The Key to Dying Happy . It’s still a good method, but I don’t do it anymore. That doesn’t mean the things I set out as my purpose aren’t important to me anymore — I just go about doing them differently. Let’s take a quick look at how I do that. From the post: Leo’s Mission He was an amazing dad. He made his wife happy. He was a good, compassionate person. He made the lives others better (especially those in need). He was a great writer. He was happy. Here’s the remarkable thing — you could say those things about me right now . I mean, whether I’m a great writer or whether I make the lives of others better — those are debatable, sure. But I definitely try: I’m happy, and I do my best every day to be a good father, husband, writer and compassionate person. So I’m not so focused on the end of my life — but on right now. Instead of setting these goals for the end of my life (which I did several years ago), I get excited about all these things, right now, and do them every day because I’m excited about them. I love being a dad, a husband, a writer, a friend. I absolutely get up excited about these things every day, and am grateful I have the chance to do them. get excited and do things You don’t need goals to tell you what to do. You know what to do (if you don’t, read this ). You’re excited about doing it already — you just need to focus , and get to it. Goals keep you focused on something in the future, instead of being present and enjoying what you’re doing right now. Goals keep you fixed on one path, which might not be the best path in a week or a month or a year. They keep you fixated on one thing, rather than being open to new opportunities, being flexible as the landscape changes, being free to pursue something you’re newly passionate about rather than sticking to something you’re tired of. Being liberated from goals means you will always be excited about what you’re doing. And yes, you’ll accomplish things. You’ll get somewhere great — you just might not have known you’d ever end up there when you started. Get excited, and do stuff. Also: shake yo bambama. — de Tweet

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Post written by Leo Babauta . There isn’t a single one of us who has overcome the human condition of self doubt. Whether you’re a supremely confident person, a content Zen monk, a successful writer … it doesn’t matter. You have doubts about yourself. The question is whether these doubts stop you from doing amazing things, from leading the life you want to lead. I was one of those people who toiled for long years under various masters — kind and unkind — because I doubted my ability to be my own boss. I doubted whether I was a good enough writer to succeed in a world of immensely talented writers. These doubts weren’t overwhelming, but that’s the sneaky thing about them. They aren’t in your face — they creep into your subconscious so that you don’t realize they’re there, tugging at you, wearing at you, grinding you to a stop. They lurk in the dark, extending an influence so pervasive that it seems a part of the fabric of our being, even if it’s only a corroded thread that’s snaked itself into that fabric. But these doubts are there, even if we rarely think about them. They’re that silent voice in our heads that say, “I can’t do it. I’m not good enough. I’d never make it. I’d only fail and embarrass myself. Why should I dare dream?” They’re there, and they are more powerful than we can put into words. I let them hold me back. I worked for years doing things I wasn’t proud of, just for the safety of a job and a steady paycheck. I thought working for yourself was something you needed money to do — you had to have capital to start your own business, right? I thought becoming a “real” writer — one that’s made it in the world of real writers — was an impossible dream. how i beat them I was wrong. I overcame those fears not through a tremendous burst of courage, not with a push through the front lines of doubts … but through information. This information came in little doses, but practically daily. I started a little blog on a free, amateur blogging platform. I wrote, just little posts that no one would read. A few people read them, and said they were good. That was information. I kept doing it, and kept getting good feedback, even if it was just from a handful of readers. One of those early supporters was a guy named Kamal, a great guy who I finally met in person here in San Francisco yesterday. He told me I was good, that I spoke from the heart, that I would be big one day. He believed in me, and that was more information. My incredible wife Eva supported me, with praise and faith. My wonderful mom was proud of me, and that was more information. Every new reader who commented on my site gave me further information … and it was valuable data indeed. Through these little packets of data, I was able to build a database, a 3D model in my heart that told me my old doubts, they were wrong. They were just flimsy façades that I had built up into something so solid they seemed indestructable. They seemed so real they were unquestionable, the foundation for my everyday reality. But they were wrong, the new data was telling me. That was disruptive, and it shook me. How could everything I had believed all these years be so wrong? But the data was consistent, and it never stopped coming in. It comes in to this day. My reality today is different, thanks to this data. And though I still have self doubts, I no longer let them define my reality. They’re just hypotheses, waiting to be tested by actual data, waiting to be disproven, just like the hypotheses of previous doubts have been disproven time and again. you’re not alone Everyone has these doubts. My sister Kat became enveloped by the world of health and fitness, became so enthusiastic about it that she dreamt of doing it for a living. She wanted to go to school for it, so she could eventually get into training and educating others. I told her, “Just do it! Find a client, train her, get the experience, learn as you do it, get better, get another client, get even better, let word of mouth be your advertising, and live the dream, now!” But she had doubts, and it held her back for a little bit. That’s understandable — they held me back for years and years. She did it, though, getting certification and then training a few clients and then starting some bootcamps. She’s now living her dream , and I’m overwhelmingly proud of her. Everyone has these doubts. My sister Ana lost her job awhile back, and I told her to start her own marketing firm. She said she knew herself, and knew that she couldn’t be her own boss. I said she was wrong, that if she loved it she would do it. I told her that if she loved cooking, she could start a supperclub and just start cooking for people. If she loved teaching ballet, she could teach classes after school to kids at their schools. Just start doing it! She doubted herself, but these days she’s taken the plunge into marketing consulting, and she’s starting to take off. I’m ridiculously proud of her too, and I know she’ll soar on her own. Everyone has these doubts. You do. Some of you have beaten them to the point where you’re doing what you love . Others haven’t, and might not even realize those doubts are holding you back. They are — and you can beat them. I’ve done it, my sisters have, thousands and thousands of others have too. We’re no better than you — we’ve just stumbled on better information. Get the data. Do something, get feedback, keep doing it, get better at it, get feedback all along the way, and see what the data says. Put your doubts to test, let them be disproven. And when the results finally come in, and you know what reality really looks like, be proud of yourself for at least putting the doubts to test. I’m already proud of you, just for reading this far, and letting some small light shine on the doubts quivering in the darkness. It’s me who is my enemy Me who beats me up Me who makes the monsters Me who strips my confidence. ~Paula Cole — le tweet

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‘It’s like the wind at my back, the sun in my face. It’s like running down a grass-covered hill.’ ~Leo Babauta Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Katie Tallo of Momentum Gathering . It can carry you like a strong current carries a fallen leaf. It can ground you like an early morning walk through the woods. It can move you like wind moves a cloud across the summer sky. It can ignite your spirit and make you feel like you can do anything. It is momentum – that invisible, universal force that can saturate your every choice, your every step, your every breath, your every moment of resolve with vibrant, joyful energy. Momentum can surge you forward and it can pull you under. It goes with your flow, follows your lead and enhances your trajectory. It can be harnessed, gathered and used as an incredibly transformational tool. How do I know this to be true? I’ve been actively gathering momentum for almost six years now, ever since I quit smoking. That one simple yet meaningful change shifted my direction just enough to spark momentum. I triggered it without even knowing it. All I knew at the time was that if I could quit smoking after twenty years of trying, I could do anything. That’s what momentum feels like. It seeps into your pores and tingles the back of your neck. It feels like possibility. That one success of quitting smoking led to another success … and then another. I took up running and yoga after years of sedentary living. I became a mindful eater and adopted a vegetarian diet after a lifetime as a meat-eater. I felt like I was waking up. I became aware for the first time in my life that I could make different choices from the ones I’d been taught – from the ones that had become habits. I let go long held beliefs, pounds and lethargy. Momentum was helping to shape a new me, inside and out. I found inner strength after years of feeling like someone who repeatedly started a new exercise regime or eating regime only to quit a few weeks in. I now knew I was capable of profound and lasting change. I gave up the haze of red wine soaked evenings and instead wrote the first draft of a novel I’d been talking about for a decade. Momentum was gathering all around me. Even the word, momentum, kept popping up everywhere like red cars do after you buy a red car. I was seeing the word in books, hearing it in random conversations, feeling it as I ran and waking up with it on the tip of my tongue. Six months ago, while reading one of my favourite blogs, Leo’s blog, this very blog, I linked to another called Write to Done which carried me to yet another called The A-List Blogging Club . That’s when I decided to write a blog about momentum as a means to express it, sustain it, understand it, embrace it, share it, inspire it in others and live it completely. Momentum has propelled me and supported me. It has been like a coach, mentor and teammate, and it has been my constant companion for the past six years of incredible life change and over the past six months of my new venture. It has ushered into my life the unexpected gifts of friendship, community, passion and life purpose. I have harnessed momentum and I never want to let it go. How can you begin to gather momentum in your own life and make it work for you? How can you harness it’s power to create lasting and joyful life change? Simply let it. Let momentum carry you Dip into the warm waters of momentum by trying, experimenting, taking a first step, forgiving yourself for slip-ups and then trying again. Plunge into whatever you’ve been putting off for “some day” and make today the day you begin. Imagine how incredible it will feel to let the current of momentum carry you from this one success towards another. Each can be a wave you ride to the next. Let momentum ground you Feel the earth beneath your feet as you step in a direction that makes sense to you – just you. Ground yourself in the feeling that comes from reflecting upon what you believe in, doing what feels right to you and living by your own convictions, counsel and sense of right and wrong. Get solid about who you are and then feel the power and ease with which your choices come to you. Let momentum move you Take that first step in a direction of your own choosing, then with each bold statement, each strong stride, each clear-thinking choice let momentum joyously lift you higher and farther. Exceed your own expectations and strengthen your resolve to be who you were meant to be and nothing less. Don’t strive and stress – instead simplify and find success on your terms. Let momentum ignite you Once you feel it growing, let momentum fan the fire inside you – a fire that may have been burnt out or smoldering under the surface for a long time. Let yourself feel love and passion towards yourself, your life and everything you do then begin to recover, uncover or discover your true potential. If often leaps out of the flames. Momentum thrives on you. It is the water, the earth, the wind and the fire of your being. It embodies the elements of a life lived fully and on your own terms. It can fill your heart, sooth your soul, propel your body forward and, if you let it, momentum just might make you feel like you can do anything – and then likely, you can and will. Katie Tallo seeks to inspire simple, joyful life change at Momentum Gathering . Her new book is The 7-Week Life Cleanse: A Simple Guide to Infusing Your Life With Momentum .

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“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” ~Confucius Editor’s note : This is a guest post from Scott Dinsmore of ReadingForYourSuccess . How can a mountain better prepare us for life? At over 14,000 feet, there’s more to learn than I would have thought. Last week I sat on top of Mt. Shasta, a 14,179 foot mountain in Northern California. It was my first real summit and I was proud. Getting there took me through two days of snow, ice and below-freezing camping conditions, using crampons, an ice axe, and more layers than I thought I owned. As I climbed, and especially on my way down, I began to realize the lessons required to reach the top and make it back down safely. As it turns out, the most important rules are just as relevant in the snow as they are in conquering our everyday challenges. When was the last time you reached a mountain summit, whether outdoors or in life? We face our own mountains everyday. Some small. Some big. There’s always a summit we want to reach. Maybe it’s running those few miles before work, making that intimidating sales call, or running your business. Goals, no matter the size, require a strategy for success. A cold tall mountain reinforced an approach that can convert life’s everyday challenges into gratifying accomplishments. A Guide to Reaching Life’s Summits: Pack light . I wish I took this more seriously. Every unnecessary piece of gear complicates things and detracts from the experience. Aside from the bare necessities, things do not make life better. They often cause more stress and keep you from what’s most important. The lighter your pack the better. Life is too short to be burdened with excessive possessions, emotional baggage or regrets. Positive thoughts, relationships and experiences weigh nothing at all. Pile them on and leave the rest behind. They’ll lift you to the top. Take one step at a time . Any major accomplishment can be broken down into a series of single steps. My pattern for the mountain was 15 steps up, 15 breaths of rest. I did that for 7 hours. If I would have only focused on the very top, frustration would have overcome me. If your summit is too intimidating, break it into smaller steps. Focus on those one by one. Eventually one step will be the one that puts you on top. Don’t go at it alone . When climbing, a partner is a must. For safety, support, camaraderie, motivation and simply to share the journey. You’d be silly (and putting yourself in great danger) to go up alone. Life is meant to be experienced with others. It makes the valleys shallower and the peaks higher. Relationships magnify experiences and help you do things that prove impossible alone. Don’t leave home without your support team. Listen to the experts . Halfway up, a passing guide told us if we couldn’t get to the top by 12:30 at the latest, then to turn back. Chances of late day thunderstorms were too great. As amateurs we would have had no idea. While we all ought to experience our own paths, it’s foolish not to learn from and observe the guidance of experts. Choose your life models wisely and keep them close by on your journey. Slow down . As Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia says, “It’s about how you got there. Not what you’ve accomplished.” Despite what colleagues and competitors may tell you, there is no rush. Rushing on the mountain risks slipping, not acclimating to thinning air, exhaustion and possibly death. In life the biggest risk is that you miss the wonders of everyday experiences in your pursuit to the top. The top is secondary to the process. Look back and take in the view . There’s never any guarantee that you’ll get to the top, but you always have the ability to stop, take in a deep breath, smile and enjoy the view-whether it’s miles of wilderness or two feet of fog. It’s all wonderful. Every moment of life is a new view to appreciate. Save some energy for the trip down . We thought the summit was “just over that peak” half a dozen times before it actually was. Conserve energy. Things will inevitably take longer than expected. Don’t be discouraged. Budget your capital, energy and drive appropriately. Rarely is anything in life an all out sprint. Treat it like a marathon. You may need your reserves when you least expect it. Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory . These are Ed Viesturs’ famous words; the first U.S. man to summit all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters with no bottled oxygen. The summit will be there tomorrow and likely so will yours. If more planning, a stronger team or more support is required, then save the summit for a time when the payout is safer and more probable. If you are outmatched, know when to turn back, only to return stronger and more savvy tomorrow. Stay objective and don’t let short-term excitement get in the way of long-term fulfillment. Failure is a part of the process . If we would have started our climb the week before, conditions would have been too grave to make it. Be ok with not reaching the summit every time. Falling short is inevitable. You will never learn more than from your failures…at anything. Embrace them. A daunting summit is nothing more than a challenge. A challenge is simply an opportunity in disguise. You won’t summit every one you come across, but you will become a better person with each attempt. There will always be another mountain. You are not meant to conquer them all. Past summits are simply preparing you for the next. With the right strategy, you’ll put the top within reach. When your summit arrives, you will be ready. “It is not the mountains we conquer but ourselves.” ~Sir Edmund Hillary Read more inspiring articles from Scott Dinsmore at  Reading For Your Success where he is committed to discovering your own path to personal and career success, on your terms, through “action-based reading.”  Subscribe here to Scott’s future articles.

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“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Post written by Leo Babauta . Follow me on twitter or identica . The idea of having concrete, achievable goals seem to be deeply ingrained in our culture. I know I lived with goals for many years, and in fact a big part of my writings here on Zen Habits are about how to set and achieve goals. These days, however, I live without goals, for the most part. It’s absolutely liberating, and contrary to what you might have been taught, it absolutely doesn’t mean you stop achieving things. It means you stop letting yourself be limited by goals. Consider this common belief: “You’ll never get anywhere unless you know where you’re going.” This seems so common sensical, and yet it’s obviously not true if you stop to think about it. Conduct a simple experiment: go outside and walk in a random direction, and feel free to change directions randomly. After 20 minutes, an hour … you’ll be somewhere! It’s just that you didn’t know you were going to end up there. And there’s the rub: you have to open your mind to going places you never expected to go. If you live without goals, you’ll explore new territory. You’ll learn some unexpected things. You’ll end up in surprising places. That’s the beauty of this philosophy, but it’s also a difficult transition. Today, I live mostly without goals. Now and then I start coming up with a goal, but I’m letting them go. Living without goals hasn’t ever been an actual goal of mine … it’s just something I’m learning that I enjoy more, that is incredibly freeing, that works with the lifestyle of following my passion that I’ve developed. The problem with goals In the past, I’d set a goal or three for the year, and then sub-goals for each month. Then I’d figure out what action steps to take each week and each day, and try to focus my day on those steps. Unfortunately, it never, ever works out this neatly. You all know this. You know you need to work on an action step, and you try to keep the end goal in mind to motivate yourself. But this action step might be something you dread, and so you procrastinate. You do other work, or you check email or Facebook, or you goof off. And so your weekly goals and monthly goals get pushed back or side-tracked, and you get discouraged because you have no discipline. And goals are too hard to achieve. So now what? Well, you review your goals and reset them. You create a new set of sub-goals and action plans. You know where you’re going, because you have goals! Of course, you don’t actually end up getting there. Sometimes you achieve the goal and then you feel amazing. But most of the time you don’t achieve them and you blame it on yourself. Here’s the secret: the problem isn’t you, it’s the system! Goals as a system are set up for failure. Even when you do things exactly right, it’s not ideal. Here’s why: you are extremely limited in your actions. When you don’t feel like doing something, you have to force yourself to do it. Your path is chosen, so you don’t have room to explore new territory. You have to follow the plan, even when you’re passionate about something else. Some goal systems are more flexible, but nothing is as flexible as having no goals. How it works So what does a life without goals look like? In practice, it’s very different than one with goals. You don’t set a goal for the year, nor for the month, nor for the week or day. You don’t obsess about tracking, or actionable steps. You don’t even need a to-do list, though it doesn’t hurt to write down reminders if you like. What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos? No, you simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion. And in practice, this is a wonderful thing: you wake up and do what you’re passionate about. For me, that’s usually blogging, but it can be writing a novel or an ebook or my next book or creating a course to help others or connecting with incredible people or spending time with my wife or playing with my kids. There’s no limit, because I’m free. In the end, I usually end up achieving more than if I had goals, because I’m always doing something I’m excited about. But whether I achieve or not isn’t the point at all: all that matters is that I’m doing what I love, always. I end up in places that are wonderful, surprising, great. I just didn’t know I would get there when I started. Quick questions Question from a reader : Isn’t having no goals a goal? Quick answer : It can be a goal, or you can learn to do it along the journey, by exploring new methods. I’m always learning new things (like having no goals) without setting out to learn them in the first place. Another question from a reader : So how do you make a living? Answer : Passionately! Again, not having goals doesn’t mean you stop doing things. In fact, I do many things, all the time, but I do them because I love doing them. Tips for living without goals I am not going to give you a how-to manual for living without goals — that would be absurd. I can’t teach you what to do — you need to find your own path. But I can share some things I’ve learned, in hopes that it will help you: Start small . You don’t need to drastically overhaul your life in order to learn to live without goals. Just go a few hours without predetermined goals or actions. Follow your passion for those hours. Even an hour will do. Grow . As you get better at this, start allowing yourself to be free for longer periods — half a day or a whole day or several days. Eventually you’ll feel confident enough to give up on certain goals and just do what you love. Not just work . Giving up goals works in any area of your life. Take health and fitness: I used to have specific fitness goals, from losing weight or bodyfat to running a marathon to increasing my squat. Not anymore: now I just do it because I love it, and I have no idea where that will take me. It works brilliantly, because I always enjoy myself. Let go of plans . Plans are not really different than goals. They set you on a predetermined path. But it’s incredibly difficult to let go of living with plans, especially if you’re a meticulous planner like I am. So allow yourself to plan, when you feel you need to, but slowly feel free to let go of this habit. Don’t worry about mistakes . If you start setting goals, that’s OK. There are no mistakes on this journey — it’s just a learning experience. If you live without goals and end up failing, as yourself if it’s really a failure. You only fail if you don’t get to where you wanted to go — but if you don’t have a destination in mind, there’s no failure. It’s all good . No matter what path you find, no matter where you end up, it’s beautiful. There is no bad path, no bad destination. It’s only different, and different is wonderful. Don’t judge, but experience. And finally Always remember: the journey is all. The destination is beside the point. ‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu — If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter . Thanks, my friends.

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Editor’s note : This is a guest post from David Damron of The Minimalist Path . Let’s start with an exercise … 1. Grab a small sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. 2. After you read the following question, please take 5 deep breaths before answering. 3. Write your response to the up-coming question on your piece of paper in one sentence. Here is your question to answer: If you had the opportunity to do one activity for one week without any worry about finances, cost, or other outside commitments, what would you love to do for this week? I hope you answered that question on the piece of paper. If not, please finish following the original instructions and then continue reading. So, what did you come up with? Was it travel around your favorite Hawaiian Island? Was it to spend a week at Disney World with your family and friends? Was it take that honeymoon you and your significant other missed out on? Or was it watch television while you munched on chips and salsa for eight hours a day, seven days straight? I doubt it was that last one. However, for some reason, the last response should be answered the most. At least by Americans. In 2008, we watched an average of 5.1 hours/day of television and that doesn’t include the 3 hours/month average of internet video watching. For Americans, that is a total of 10.92 weeks / year watching television. If that figure doesn’t shock you then I don’t know what will. In America and much of western culture, our infatuation with materialism comes from the opportunity to have such. Being a minimalist pre-cable/satellite television was not just a fad. It was a way of life. People were these things called ACTIVE and ENERGETIC. Once television became such a monumental part of our lives, we began being consumed by this sedentary form of life that co-existed with unhealthy and unfit lives. In many other parts of the world, being active is living . In Japan, Leo Babauta experienced the countering idea to the lives of western cultures. He found that many Japanese lives revolve around basic physical activities like walking and biking and there isn’t a focus on exercise. Those that have not accepted the forms of materialism similar to the addiction in America and beyond live longer and are happier. Though this may be for many reasons, such as financial, I like to believe it is for the health and life reasons that many the world over choose the anti-materialism way. Health is not the only factor in the fight against materialism. You do not need me to tell you about the financial situation the world is in. The abundance of commercials and other highly influential advertising through our modes of electronic communication have caused personal debt to become just as bloated as our waste lines. In America, we spend 5.4% of our income entertaining ourselves . That’s $2700/annually that could be going towards savings, retirement, and/or travel. How different would your mindset be if you had $2700 set aside for a random, spontaneous week vacation? If you think that’s a lot, we spend $1881/annually just on apparel and services. Assuming we just cut those two totals in half, we would have an additional $2290 to our name. For me, just that half is a lot of money that could be used for activities that would be much more fulfilling than 500+ television channels. The point of reducing our sedentary forms of entertainment is not just to save money and lose a few pounds. It is to save our lives! Just imagine how different your life would be if you spent one more hour with your family daily or a few more hours a week chasing your tour card on the PGA or training for a marathon . When we spend our time doing the things we love, it ends up being more valuable than any half hour sitcom can be. Remember that question I asked you to answer earlier. Your response was only addressing one week. So, if you chose to spend your gifted week at the Great Barrier Reef finding Nemo, imagine what your life would be like if you took just half of that 10+ hours/week spent in front of the television and spent those additional 5 weeks exploring the entire Great Barrier Reef. Surely, your boss may not let you have that much vacation, but without that television being such a major priority, you could do many of the things you dream of doing, whatever they may be. Being a minimalist and simplifying your life does not mean you need to eliminate all that you somewhat enjoy. I, to this day, like to watch a handful of hours of television per week. However, if you are able to reduce the quantity of time and money spent on that which you just like and apply both to that which you love , you may be able to live a longer, more pleasureful life. Try cutting your cord to materialism and start appreciating more of the things you don’t just like but love . David Damron is the author of PROJECT M-31: Simplify Your Life in 31 Days, and chronicles his journey to a more simplified life at The Minimalist Path .

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