Source: http://www.theminimalists.com/learn/

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram

Surprisingly, one of the most frequent questions we get at The Minimalists isn’t about minimalism—it’s “How did you start your blog?” We always point people to this detailed blog post: How to Start a Blog: Step by Step.

The most important advice I can give, though, isn’t the how-to—it’s the why-to. Starting our blog was the best decision Ryan and I ever made, because it encouraged us to express ourselves and communicate our story with the world. It kept us accountable, it helped us improve our writing skills, and, perhaps most important, it allowed us to contribute beyond ourselves in a meaningful way.

The other bit of advice I wish I’d received before we started this blog—before writing hundreds of essays, before publishing three books, before filming a documentary, before reaching millions of people with our simple-living message—is start today. Don’t wait! If you continue to put off something meaningful—if you continue to wait for “someday” to arrive—you’ll miss out on today’s meaningful creation.

Over the last six years, my life has changed several times over. This blog was the catalyst for all of tho…

Source: http://zenhabits.net/unsolved/

By Leo Babauta

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for the perfect productivity system. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist.

The problem isn’t with the productivity system — the problem is that none of them can solve a few really important (and related) problems:

Procrastination
Fear of uncertainty
Fear of discomfort

For example, at the top of my to-do list today is “write Zen Habits post” and “write intro to declutter course” … pretty simple, right? Two fairly straightforward tasks. But as I started this post, I went to check and respond to email, sent a message to my wife, checked on my finances, cleaned the kitchen a little. I’m super productive at the little things when I’m putting off the big tasks!

No matter how good the productivity system is, it falls apart when I start procrastinating.

When a task is uncomfortable, I procrastinate, just like most people. When I’m facing a lot of uncertainty with a task, I procrastinate. Like most of us.

Often, we’ll work on a new productivity system, try out a new to-do list app, start organizing, or start getting our email inbox to zero, or start reading about a new way to be productive (like you are now) … all as a way to procrastinate on uncertain or uncomfortable tasks.

And it’s so much easier to follow the path of distractions and little tasks, than to face a big important but scary task. It…

Source: http://zenhabits.net/book-sale/

By Leo Babauta

UPDATE: The book is now sold out. I recommend my new book, Essential Zen Habits.

I’m happy to announce that I’m offering my Zen Habits book to purchase, for the first time since I put it on Kickstarter at the end of 2014.

The book is called, “Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change.”

The Kickstarter campaign did extremely well, and people gave me wonderful feedback on the book. I didn’t allow anyone to buy it after that, because it was a limited, special edition.

However, I have about 500 copies sitting in a warehouse, so I thought I’d offer them to you guys! Update: I’ve now sold out. I recommend my new book, Essential Zen Habits.

Some things to know about the book:

1. It has my most important learnings about forming habits, being mindful, finding happiness, and dealing with changes in life.
2. It is a hard-copy (not digital), paperback book.
3. It is beautiful.
4. I’m very proud of it, and everyone who has given me feedback on the book has been very happy with it.
5. I won’t print any more after these sell out.

What It’s About

This book is for anyone who has struggled.

Anyone who has gone through loss, who is struggling with a major life change, who is frustrated.

Anyone who, like me, has struggled to make changes in their lives. I was stuck there 9 years ago, and I’d lost hope. Then I scraped and dug my w…

Source: http://clubindustry.com/profits/todays-health-clubs-are-divided-self-service-or-supported-models

Health clubs struggling with competition can take two paths to brand differentiation, Ray Algar told a Club Industry webinar audience.

read more

…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/food/berry-acai-bowl/

Start your summer holiday with a sweet frozen breakfast packed with superfoods such as açai, bee pollen, and fresh berries. This berry açai bowl recipe provided by Sambazon is quick and easy to blend together, and with a little extra time and creativity you can make it a beautiful and festive treat!

The post A Red, White, and Blue Berry Açai Bowl appeared first on Sonima.

…

Source: http://zenhabits.net/no-trace/

“When you do something you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.” ~Shunryu Suzuki

By Leo Babauta

Zen master Suzuki Roshi spoke about the idea of leaving no trace — doing something with complete presence, and then moving on to the next thing without holding on to previous activities.

His wonderful advice for doing any activity was to do things with “a simple, clear mind.”

One way to apply this is with a simple decluttering habit: clean up your mess when you’re done. This is a more literal way to “leave no trace” … not exactly what Suzuki Roshi was talking about, as he meant that we should leave no trace in our minds … but still a very useful practice.

For me, this means simply putting things away and cleaning up a bit when I’m done with a task:

Wash my dish and clean the table and counters after I’ve eaten.
Put my clothes in the hamper (or hang them up if they’re still clean) after I’ve showered.
Put away materials that I’ve used after I do a work task.
Make my bed after I wake up.

In practice, this means you have to be mindful of what you’re doing, and conscious that you are moving from one task to another. Most of us rush from one thing to the next without thinking about the transition, but when you’re done with one thing, this is a good time to appreciate the space between things, to breathe and notice if you’re staying present, and to clean up your me…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/gd6PaGEoY90/

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” ~Jack Canfield

Buried deep within the broken heart of every great loss is a nugget of wisdom. I experienced the greatest grief of my life just a few months ago, and with it came an opportunity to uncover ugly truths about myself I’d been hiding from.

In facing my pain, I have discovered that underneath the conscious, big-hearted, beautiful person that I am lives a small girl who is terrified of being misunderstood and abandoned by those she loves most.

The surface signs alerting me to these fears looked something like this:

My boyfriend and I are lying in bed reading one night. His mind is lit up in fiction while my soul is on fire with a spiritual book. We have often shared these evenings with one another, smiling and supportive.

This night I want more. I want him to be as excited about this chakra healing book as I am. I want him to crawl into my body and feel everything I’m feeling and see everything the way I’m seeing it.

I think he can feel me wanting more, and it freaks him out. He energetically hides in the bushes, further away than I’ve ever felt him go, and I panic.

The warning signs that go off in my body read: IF HE DOESN’T GET THIS HE IS GOING TO LEAVE YOU. DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU ARE GO…

Source: http://www.theminimalists.com/p027/

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

In this episode of The Minimalists Podcast, Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus discuss passion, and they answer the following questions:

How do you focus on one passion when you enjoy many passions?
How do you find your passion?
How do you make a living from your passion?
How do you prioritize your time to accommodate all your passions?

Stream

Subscribe

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Mentioned in This Episode

Book: Everything That Remains
Book: Essential
Book: Live A Meaningful Life
Essay: A Rich Life with Less Stuff
Essay: A Simple Year
Essay: ‘Follow Your Passion’ Is Crappy Advice
Essay: How to Start a Blog
Essay: Packing Party
Essay: Retirement Planning
Essay: The Minimalists Open a Coffeehouse
Meetup: Minimalist.org
Own: Minimalism Film
Podcast: Tim Ferriss
Recommendation: Art of Charm — Cal Newport
Recommendation: The Wright Brothers
Tour: Minimalism Film
Watch: Minimalism Film
Workshop: How to Write Better

This episode was produced by Shawn Harding. Our theme music was written and performed by Peter Doran. Our podcasts are completely free, so if you found value in this episode, and you’d like to help us produce mo…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/03/482854462/as-chinese-iranian-and-indonesian-as-apple-pie?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Apple pie: The all-American dessert we eat to celebrate Independence Day actually reveals our dependence on foods with far-flung origins.

Chelsea Beck/NPR

The fireworks are stacked high, the beer is on ice, and lumps of charcoal glow hot under the grill in anticipation of hot dogs and hamburgers. Fourth of July is a holiday celebrated through food. There’s potato salad, popsicles, watermelon slices — and, of course, apple pie.

But the all-American dessert we eat to celebrate Independence Day actually reveals our interdependence on the rest of the world. With few exceptions, we have always relied on foods with origins in far-flung places. As recently reported by The Salt, research shows nearly 70 percent of the foods we now grow and eat originally came from somewhere else.

“When we say, ‘As American as apple pie,’ we think of baseball and hot dogs without ever considering not one ingredient in apple pie orig…

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/06/my-time-magazine-op-ed-we-are-still-confused-about-calories/

While I was in Israel last week, Time Magazine published an op-ed it had invited me to write.  Here it is.

Even in ‘healthy’ foods, calories can tick up fast

Nutrition professor that I am, if I could teach just one thing to the American public, it is this: Larger portions have more calories.

Please don’t laugh.

If we all understood this, the United States would not have an obesity problem. And the recent revelation that places like Chipotle and Panera serve meals with more calories than McDonald’s would surprise nobody. We would realize the former’s “health” aura blinds people. But this basic rule applies to those places, too.

We would also, strangely, thank McDonald’s for at least one thing: It limits portion sizes. It’s easy to pile on calories by asking for a little more of this, then a refill of that—without realizing that the calories surpass those in McDonald’s meals.

It’s not easy to understand calories. They are not intuitive because they’re abstract. They cannot be seen, tasted or smelled, and are extraordinarily difficult to count accurately, even for scientists. My colleague Lisa Young, author of The Portion Teller, once asked an entry-level nutrition class to guess the calories in 8-ounce and 64-ounce soft drinks. We didn’t expect students to know that an 8-ounce Coke has 100 calories—but we certainly expected them to multiply whatever they guessed by eight for t…