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: Force yourself to do the task anyway; or Let yourself off the hook And while there isn’t anything wrong with either of these choices, I’m here to remind you that...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...