ZEN HABITS

11/19/2010

Zen Habits

1.  Breathe
Just STOP.  BREATHE.

2.  Be still
Savor the Silence.

3.  A Brief Guide to Life
The Brief Guide

• less TV, more reading
• less shopping, more outdoors
• less clutter, more space
• less rush, more slowness
• less consuming, more creating
• less junk, more real food
• less busywork, more impact
• less driving, more walking
• less noise, more solitude
• less focus on the future, more on the present
• less work, more play
• less worry, more smiles
• breathe

4.  The Best Goal Is No Goal
Don’t limit yourself with goals – it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

5.  The Lost Art of Solitude

• time for thought
• in being alone, we get to know ourselves
• we face our demons, and deal with them
• space to create
• space to unwind, and find peace
• time to reflect on what we’ve done, and learn from it
• isolation from the influences of other helps us to find our own voice
• quiet helps us to appreciate the smaller things that get lost in the roar

6.  The Elements of Living Lightly

There is no “bad” or “good.”  Things just happen.  They are what they are.  Don’t judge, don’t expect.  Just experience and accept – and learn.

7.  The Zen of Doing

If you’re washing a dish, do it slowly, and feel every sensation. If you’re eating a fruit, taste it, feel the textures, be mindful of your hunger or lack of it. If you’re writing something, pour your heart into that writing, become the writing, inhabit the words. Just do.  It’s just you, and your doing. And you realize: this is all that matters. In this, there is everything.

8.  The Ultimate How to Get Lean Guide

• Sleep 8-9 hours per night.
• Eat whole natural foods 80% of the time; limit grains/carbs.
• Limit alcohol; take fish oil.
• Train with intensity as opposed to training for duration (more does not necessarily mean better – short and intense, or long and slow).
• Relax more to bring down stress hormones and burn fat (Meditation, Visualization, Deep Breathing).

9.  Simplify, and Savor Life

• simplify
• do & consume less
• slow down
• be mindful & present
• savor things fully

10. How Not to Hurry
Slow Down

• Do less.
• Have fewer meetings.
• Practice disconnecting. Give yourself time to get ready and get there.
• Practice being comfortable with sitting, doing nothing.
• Realize that if it doesn’t get done, that’s OK. There’s always tomorrow.
• Start to eliminate the unnecessary.
• Practice mindfulness.
• Slowly eliminate commitments.

11. Email Sanity: How to Clear Your Inbox When You’re Drowning

12. The Barefoot Philosophy is:

• Light
• Free
• Naked
• Pleasureful
• Aware
• Present
• Non-conformist
• Non-consumerist

How to Live a Barefoot Life

• Try walking barefoot.
• Get rid of a couple boxes of clutter today.
• When you leave your house, take less with you than usual.
• When you find yourself worried about the future or past, breathe, and focus on your breath going in and out.
• When you find yourself wanting to buy something, pause. Then think of how you can live without buying it.
• Take time to fully enjoy a few simple pleasures today: the slow savoring of a small portion of something delicious, watching nature, spending time with a loved one, walking.
• Try some minimalist fun.
• Think of the restrictions you impose on yourself, and see if you can lift a few of them.
• Smile, and breathe.
• Most of all, be present and enjoy life.

13. The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People

Creativity flourishes in solitude. 

The No. 2 habit when it comes to nurturing creativity is: participation. This can come in many forms, but it requires connecting with others, being inspired by others, reading others, collaborating with others.

Creativity requires inspiration from without, but creation from within.

14. The Little But Really Useful Guide to Creativity

• Play.
• Don’t consume and create at the same time — separate the processes.
• Shut out the outside world.
• Reflect on your life and work daily.
• Look for inspiration all around you, in the smallest places.
• Start small.
• Just get it out, no matter how crappy that first draft.
• Don’t try for perfect. Just get it out there, asap, and get feedback.
• Constantly make it better.
• Ignore the naysayers.
• But let criticism help you grow.
• Teach and you’ll learn.
• Shake things up, see things in new ways.
• Apply things in other fields to your field, in ways not done before.
• Drink ridiculous amounts of coffee.
• Write all ideas down immediately.
• Turn your work into play.
• Play with kids.
• Get out, move, see new things, talk to new people.
• Read wildly different things. Especially stuff you disagree with.
• Get lots of rest. Overwork kills creativity.
• Don’t force it. Relax, play, it will start to flow.
• Allow your mind to wander. Allow distractions, when you’re looking for inspiration.
• Then shut them off when you’re going to create.
• Do it when you’re excited.
• When you’re not, find something else to be excited about.
• Don’t be afraid to be stupid and silly.
• Small ideas are good. You don’t need to change the world — just change one thing.
• When something is killing your creativity, kill it.
• Stop reading creativity advice, clear away everything, and just create.
• Most of all, have fun doing it.

15. The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion

• What are you good at?
• What excites you?
• What do you read about?
• What have you secretly dreamed of?
• Learn, ask, take notes.
• Experiment, try.
• Narrow things down
• Banish your fears.
• Find the time. Make the time!
• How to make a living doing it. This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to do something, get good at it, be passionate about it. What’s important is to have fun.

16. The Simple, Ridiculously Useful Guide to Earning a Living from Your Passion

• Learn.
• Do.
• Get amazing at it.
• Start charging.
• Keep improving.
• Build multiple income streams.

17. Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It

• Greet the day.
• Amazing start.
• Quietude.
• Sunrise.
• Breakfast.
• Exercise.
• Productivity.
• Goal time.

How to Become an Early Riser

• Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual.
• Allow yourself to sleep earlier.
• Put your alarm clock far from you bed.
• Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm.
• Do not rationalize. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.
• Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important.
• Make waking up early a reward.
• Take advantage of all that extra time.

18. Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

(In a Nutshell:  Identify what’s most important to you.  Eliminate everything else.)

1. Start with priorities:  Make a list of your top 4-5 important things.
2. Evaluate your commitments.
3. Evaluate your time. How do you spend your day? Redesign your day to focus on what’s important.
4. Simplify work tasks.
5. Simplify home tasks.
6. Learn to say no.
7. Limit your communications.
8. Limit your media consumption.
9. Purge your stuff
10. Get rid of the big items.
11. Edit your rooms.
12. Edit closets and drawers.
13. Simplify your wardrobe.
14. Simplify your computing life.
15. De-clutter your digital files.
16. Create a simplicity statement. What do you want your simple life to look like?
17. Limit your buying habits.
18. Free up time.
19. Do what you love.
20. Spend time with people you love.
21. Spend time alone.
22. Eat slowly.
23. Drive slowly.
24. Be present.
25. Streamline your life.
26. Create a simple mail & paperwork system.
27. Create a simple system for house work.
28. Clear your desk.
29. Establish routines. The key to keeping your life simple is to create simple routines.
30. Keep your email inbox empty.
31. Learn to live frugally.
32. Make your house minimalist.
33. Find other ways to be minimalist. There are tons. You can find ways to be minimalist in every area of your life.
34. Consider a smaller home.
35. Consider a smaller car.
36. Learn what “enough” is.
37. Create a simple weekly dinner menu.
38. Eat healthy.
39. Exercise.
40. De-clutter before organizing.
41. Have a place for everything.
42. Find inner simplicity.
43. Learn to decompress from stress.
44. Try living without a car.
45. Find a creative outlet for self-expression.
46. Simplify your goals.
47. Single-task. Do one task at a time.
48. Simplify your filing system.
49. Develop equanimity.
50. Reduce your consumption of advertising.
51. Live life more deliberately.
52. Make a Most Important Tasks (MITs) list each day. Set just 3 very important things you want to accomplish each day.
53. Create morning and evening routines.
54. Create a morning writing ritual.
55. Learn to do nothing.
56. Read “Walden,” by Thoreau. The quintessential text on simplifying.
57. Go for quality, not quantity.
58. Read “Simplify Your Life,” by Elaine St. James.
59. Fill your day with simple pleasures. Make a list of your favorite simple pleasures, and sprinkle them throughout your day.
60. Simplify your RSS feeds.
61. (But subscribe to Unclutterer and Zen Habits.)
62. Create an easy-to-maintain yard.
63. Carry less stuff.
64. Simplify your online life.
65. Strive to automate your income.
66. Simplify your budget.
67. Simplify your financial life.
68. Learn to pack light.
69. Use a minimalist productivity system. (Zen To Done.)
70. Leave space around things in your day.
71. Live closer to work.
72. Always ask: Will this simplify my life? If the answer is no, reconsider.

19. A Guide to Creating a Minimalist Home

20. Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump

1. One Goal. Choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely.
2. Find inspiration. Inspiration can come from others who have achieved what you want to achieve.
3. Get excited. If you want to break out of a slump, get yourself excited about a goal.
4. Build anticipation. If you find inspiration and want to do a goal, don’t start right away. Many of us will get excited and want to start today.. Set a date in the future — a week or two, or even a month — and make that your Start Date. Mark it on the calendar. Get excited about that date.
5. Post your goal. Print out your goal in big words and put it on the wall.
6. Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of others.
7. Think about it daily. If you think about your goal every day, it is much more likely to become true.
8. Get support. It’s hard to accomplish something alone.
9. Realize that there’s an ebb and flow. Motivation is not a constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes, and comes and goes again, like the tide.
10. Stick with it. Whatever you do, don’t give up.
11. Start small. Really small. If you are having a hard time getting started, it may be because you’re thinking too big.
12. Build on small successes. You can’t fail if you start with something ridiculously easy.
13. Read about it daily.
14. Call for help when your motivation ebbs. Having trouble? Ask for help.
15. Think about the benefits, not the difficulties.
16. Squash negative thoughts; replace them with positive ones.

This information was “borrowed” from zenhabits.net – I did not include all of the information here, you will want to visit the Source.  (Thank you, Leo Babauta.)