10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It, by Leo Babauta
to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin, famously “Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” – Mark Twain Recently, reader Rob asked me about my habit of waking at 4:30 a.m. each day, and asked me to write about the health benefits of rising early, which I thought was an excellent question. Unfortunately, there are none, that I know of. However, there are a ton of other great benefits. Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s g... posted on Jan 8 2012 (168,963 reads)

The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion, by Leo Babauta
supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” - Arnold Toynbee   Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive.   I’m lucky — I’ve found my passion, and I’m living it. I can testify that it’s the most wonderful thing, to be able to make a living doing what you love.   And so, in this little guide, I’d like to help you get started figuring out what you’d love doing. This turns out to be one of the most common problems of many Zen Habits readers — including many who recently responded to me on Twitter.... posted on Feb 5 2012 (86,993 reads)

Redefining What It Means To Grow, by Birju Pandya
recently had the chance to sit down with filmmaker Katie Teague, who is making a movie on money and growth. It is the fuel of finance, thus the economy, and thus the 'developed' world. A world of constant, infinite, compounded growth; without which the majority of our citizens would literally die, as jobs dried up and people couldn't afford basic necessities... but is this really true? Ecologize Growth from Katie Teague on KarmaTube. What's true in the macro is also true in the micro. As we all grow in our lives and careers, it's normal to expect a raise every year. Why? Because it's a signal of growth. Growing is go... posted on Feb 10 2012 (15,771 reads)

From Selling to Serving, by BJ Gallagher
week I meet with a group of Los Angeles business owners and entrepreneurs - men and women from very different fields who share a common vision of being self-supporting through self-employment. Among the group are doctors, accountants, attorneys, real estate agents, writers, architects, artists, actors, PR agents, personal trainers, professional speakers, headhunters, musicians, construction contractors, literary agents, photographers, landscapers, and more. The topic for this week's meeting was: "What are you doing to keep your business going in these crazy-making economic times?" Several people said they have upped the number of cold calls they're making; other... posted on Mar 19 2012 (41,430 reads)

Shelagh was here -- an ordinary, magical life, by Catherine Porter
Star dedicated unprecedented coverage to the funeral of 55-year-old Shelagh Gordon – interviewing more than 100 of her friends and family – to show how a modest life can have a huge impact. I met Shelagh Gordon at her funeral. She was soap-and-water beautiful, vital, unassuming and funny without trying to be. I could feel her spirit tripping over a purse in the funeral hall and then laughing from the floor. She was both alone and crowded by love. In another era, she’d have been considered a spinster — no husband, no kids. But her home teemed with dogs, sisters, nieces, nephews and her “life partner” —a gay man — who would pas... posted on Jan 18 2016 (110,836 reads)

Helping, Fixing or Serving?, by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul. Service rests on the premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing. Serving is different from helpin... posted on Apr 16 2012 (101,534 reads)

Lessons from Those Who Lost ... and Found, by Pavithra Mehta
Bolte Taylor, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy and Chef Grant Achatz are an unlikely trio. What do this brain scientist, late eye surgeon, and a leader of the molecular gastronomy movement [yes there is such a thing] have in common? At a takeoff point in their careers they were each dealt a sucker punch -- one that robbed them of what was arguably their greatest gift. Yet none of them threw in the towel. And each would rise to greatness after mining their unthinkable experience of loss for deeper insight into the human experience. Loss. Consider the paradox of how that one word, brief as a seed, can swallow our world whole. We’ve all experienced it, in ways that range from the m... posted on Apr 25 2012 (32,834 reads)

Meditating With Dinosaurs...Really?, by Karen Horneffer Ginter
I first encountered Pascal's words, I felt like they were telling me, in a poetic way, to sit down and shut up, and that just felt, well... sort of rude. It also felt a bit insulting, in suggesting that for myself or for others, we bring a chunk of our suffering onto ourselves because we're too cowardly to sit quietly and face our thoughts and our feelings. Over time, however, the quote grew on me. I began to see its truth based on my own experience and from many years of listening to clients describe the pain that comes from not feeling connected to themselves. Finding time to sit quietly in a room is no easy task for any of us. I know for myself, even before having kids... posted on May 31 2012 (19,178 reads)

Stranger Dinners -- I Made This For You :), by Arianna Davalos
Stranger,   I think we need to talk.   My mom always told me never to talk to you, even if you offered me candy. The news tells me not to trust you–that you will kidnap, rape, rob, or kill me given half the chance.   But I never believed those lies. I know you’re just like me, trying to make your world turn as best as you can. I know you have dreams, ideas, and favorite recipes just like me. You might even have some insight to share that will make my life better. Maybe you know my future partner. Maybe you know the solution to something I’ve been trying to figure out for a long while.   Sometimes... posted on Jun 22 2012 (13,277 reads)

The Measure of Meaning: A Pilgrimage to Port Royal, Kentucky, by Sandra McCracken
Berry may not quite be a household name. But I, for one, mention his name on a regular basis in my house, while traveling around the country, and when talking with neighborhood friends about produce, local happenings, or politics.   Wendell Berry is a farmer, writer, and preservationist from Kentucky. He splits his time between three quiet activities: 1) writing fiction, poetry, and essays, putting pen to paper (quite literally) in a tiny hut on the Kentucky river; 2) working his farm; and 3) engaging in non-violent civil disobedience supporting various humanitarian or agrarian causes. He has spoken out in his 76 years against wars, corporate corruption, nuclear p... posted on Aug 15 2012 (14,571 reads)

The 'Greener Grass On This Side' Farm, by Neil Patel
Grass   During the second part of our South India trip where we spent three or so days with Ragu and Nisha on their farm near Coimbatore. I've been dreading writing this post because there is so much I want to capture about the experience, and I'm a bit at a loss on how to organize my thoughts and give it all the justice it deserves. The best I can muster is to break my reflections into mini-blogs (blogbites? bloggets? blots?) on particular topics. So here we go: Ragu and Nisha I am so inspired by the path they have taken in their lives. Both were high-flying professionals in Silicon Valley (Ragu a marketing whiz, Nisha a hardcore so... posted on Aug 23 2012 (26,027 reads)

Living with Just Enough, by Azby Brown
now we are all extremely familiar with the litany of challenges we face as a global species, the threats of scarcity which pit state against state and community against community, problems manmade and visible in nature: growing population, increasing urbanization, deforestation, damaged watersheds, over-consumption of resources, energy shortages, waste, pollution....All of us could easily add to this list. We know there will be no easy fixes, no panaceas, but nevertheless as we try to set priorities and search for the most promising ways to approach these problems, many of us find ourselves looking to different cultures and to earlier eras for inspiration. In this regard, the Edo ... posted on Sep 19 2012 (25,865 reads)

How To Work With Someone You Don't Like, by Peter Bregman
[Name has been changed], like me, is a writer, a speaker, and the head of a consulting company. As far as I can tell, he’s professional, well respected, capable, honest, and has a popular following. Someone we both know has asked us to collaborate on a project and there’s clearly a mutual benefit to our working together.]. It all sounds great except for one thing: I don’t like Jeff. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. He seems too self-serving or egocentric or self-satisfied. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I know I don’t like him. I mentioned that to the person who wants us to work together. She told me, essentially, to get ... posted on Oct 22 2012 (43,116 reads)

The Connection Between Business & Poetry, by Knowledge@Wharton
Gioia (pronounced Joy-a) claims to be the only person in history who went to business school to be a poet. Having earned a degree from Stanford's graduate school of business, he worked 15 years in corporate life, eventually becoming vice president of General Foods. In 1991, Gioia wrote an influential collection of essays titled, "Can Poetry Matter?" in which he explored, among other themes, the nexus between business and poetry. Since 2002, he has been chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts where he has overseen programs aimed at making Shakespeare and poetry recitation more popular in the U.S. Gioia, who is a speaker at the Wharton Leadership Conference in Philade... posted on Jan 28 2013 (15,137 reads)

Six Ways To Become A Wise Leader, by Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou, Adapted from their book
leadership perspective is based on the sum total of the knowledge, experiences, and choices we made before. It defines us, shaping our thoughts, decisions, and actions. It represents the way we see ourselves and situations, how we judge the relative importance of things, and how we establish a meaningful relationship with others and everything around us.  Smart leaders tend to look at the world through colored lenses that skew or limit their perspective, which affects their decisions and actions. Some have a perspective that's narrowly focused on short-term goals, deepening their depth of knowledge in their domain of interest. Other smart leaders are guided by broadly fo... posted on Apr 2 2013 (40,519 reads)

Life on a Farm, by Luanne Armstrong
act of communication is an act of translation." Gregory Rabassa I live on a farm that was once part forest, part swamp. I live with animals both domesticated and wild, with plants, with flowers, with a garden. My grandparents lived here, my parents, my siblings and I, and then my children too. I walk on the land every day and never get bored. There is always something new to see and learn. In the summer, I sit on my deck, which overlooks a pond, a field, and past that, the lake. Barn swallows nest over my head. Paper wasps build small grey cones among the swallow nests. Once, I was sitting on my deck with a group of young people. A wasp came by to have a... posted on May 9 2013 (17,242 reads)

Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain, by Louis Cozolino
an excerpt from his new book, psychologist Louis Cozolino applies the lessons of social neuroscience to the classroom. The human brain wasn’t designed for industrial education. It was shaped over millions of years of sequential adaptation in response to ever-changing environmental demands. Over time, brains grew in size and complexity; old structures were conserved and new structures emerged. As we evolved into social beings, our brains became incredibly sensitive to our social worlds. This mixture of conservation, adaptation, and innovation has resulted in an amazingly complex brain, capable of everything from monitoring respiration to creating culture. This added com... posted on Jun 2 2013 (149,031 reads)

Uncovering The Blind Spot of Leadership, by C. Otto Scharmer
live in a time of massive institutional failure, collectively creating results that nobody wants. Climate change. AIDS. Hunger. Poverty. Violence. Terrorism. The foundations of our social, economic, ecological, and spiritual wellbeing are in peril. Why do our attempts to deal with the challenges of our time so often fail? The cause of our collective failure is that we are blind to the deeper dimension of leadership and transformational change. This “blind spot” exists not only in our collective leadership but also in our everyday social interactions. We are blind to the source dimension from which effective leadership and social actio... posted on Jul 9 2013 (93,376 reads)

Talking It Out: The New Conversation-centered Leadership, by Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz
year, hundreds of thousands of new graduates enter the business world, eager to climb the corporate ladder. Their progress on the early rungs of that journey will often be determined by qualities like hard work, determination, knowledge and technical proficiency. But business consultants Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz argue that those same qualities prove less helpful at higher rungs on the ladder, and may even be one's downfall if they are not balanced by a very different set of leadership qualities. They sum up the thesis of their new book, Leadership Conversations: Challenging High-Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders, like this: "As you move into upper leade... posted on Jul 2 2013 (36,665 reads)

Radical Joy for Hard Times, by Richard Whittaker
a recent visit to the Bay Area, I had the pleasure of meeting Trebbe Johnson and found her a charming and intensely passionate advocate for the healing we need both individually and in a global sense. In 1997 she founded Vision Arrow, a program that combines wilderness exploration and the search for meaning. A few years later, she founded a second program, Radical Joy for Hard Times, which evolved naturally from the first. The two programs complement each other. In her notes for Vision Quest she writes, “I don’t know anyone whose life hasn’t been an incredible journey of ups and downs, sorrow in the midst of great joy and, even more amazing, joy in the midst of the deepe... posted on Jul 22 2013 (18,767 reads)