By Leo Babauta I challenge you to do a test before you read the rest of this post (well OK, read the next two paragraphs then go do the challenge) … Open an email that’s been sitting in your inbox but that you’ve been avoiding responding to or acting on. Pick the hardest one. Try to sit there, read the email, and then act on it...

By Leo Babauta As I write this, I’m on a long plane ride — I’ve written many posts on planes and trains, and I find it actually much easier to write this way despite the shakiness of my laptop on these rides. It’s easy to write on planes and trains because there’s not as much to do. I don’t get the Internet option on planes because...

By Leo Babauta There is a power to our word that is very often underdeveloped — words are magic, and can create the world around us. But most of us use this magic as if it weren’t powerful. The first way we see this is that we often don’t honor our word to ourselves. In his wonderful book, The Four Agreements, Don Miguel...

By Leo Babauta One of the best long-term things you can do for a happier life and better relationships is to cultivate a positive mindset. People with positive mindsets live longer, happier lives. They have lower rates of heart disease, cancer. They live about 7.5 years longer, on average. That’s huge. So developing...

By Leo Babauta On average, people spend more than 3 hours on their phones each day, picking up their phones nearly 60 times a day … with some people spending closer to 4 hours. These numbers aren’t meant to be judgments — it’s not a bad thing to look at your phone — but instead are meant to bring some awareness to our phone usage....

By Leo Babauta Developing a strong sense of self is one of the most under-appreciated ways to be happy. To have healthy relationships, with others and with yourself. It’s not often understood, and as a result, problems in this area cause problems in all areas of our lives. Let me point out just some of the common symptoms...