★★☆☆☆
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2022-08-17
Goal of the day: 235 words. Written: 1486.
"This book was inspired by the desire to show people how action can achieve extraordinary results, and to show the world how life-changing habits can be implemented in small steps."
- Leo Babauta
This is how he presents his book, one of the most read blogs in the world, author. Leo Babauta has long been one of my heroesand now I've read his book too.
Rating if you're not going to read on:
- I personally find the topic(s) interesting: 8/10
- Writing style and words: 2/10
- Consistency of information: 4/10
- Enjoy reading: 3/10
- Overall: 3/10 🙁
Things I've discovered and repeated:
- "If a change is unpleasant, it's not worth making. They should make you happy." - Leo, in the introduction. Very well said. That, after all, is the essence of new challenges.
- Leo proposes the following changes, trying a different one each week:
| Change: | Why? | What can I say about the idea: |
| Meditate | It raises awareness, which is the basis for other changes. | I have never tried. Is it worth a try? |
| Don't delay | Helps you not to waste time. | I try to do it myself. I'm looking for the right tools and techniques. |
| Take a walk | Hello. | It's a pity I live in a slum/industrial area where there is no room to walk. Literally. No sidewalks. |
| Run | Helps you to manage your emotions and change. | It is. There is. The Force. I recommend Tadas Rakauskas and Rytis Lukoševičius - these two men talk about it the most in Lithuania. |
| Focus | Highlight the most important parts of life. | I say: Ask "why?" and then "is it really necessary?". |
| Mindful eating | Healthy, helps with weight management. | I've been helped by the book "The Happiness of Laziness", which made me give up breakfast when I realised I didn't need it at all. |
| Focus II | Helps you to use the Most Important Work of the Day exercise and finish it first thing in the morning. | I tried it once, and it turned out weird. |
| Shelf management | Order helps you focus and live happier. | I do it by giving up things altogetherthat could be on those shelves. |
| Savings | Money, money, money, money - Abba | I need to earn something first, so I have something to save. Or, for that matter, to buy more so that I have something to save - so I naturally have piles of unused money. The simplicity effect. |
| Yoga | Healthy, relaxing. | I'm thinking of trying it sometime - I've heard it's quite a man's sport, with more challenging asanas. |
| Interdental cleaning | Hello. | After a visit to the dentist and the news that if I didn't start cleaning them, my gums would continue to bleed painfully... somehow I started doing it. |
| Debt repayment | Money - Pink Floyd. | I have no one to pay back. |
| Exercise | Healthy, enjoyable, relaxing and focusing. Like meditation. | If I ever started doing it, I would do it as one version of meditation. Research shows that it is beneficial. |
| Monitor your budget | Money - Notorious BIG. | I like that it encourages you to keep it simple - no complicated programmes or spreadsheets required. |
| Support team | Community, helping you to find friends, like-minded people and support. | It's basically the creation of mastermind groups. Damn good idea! |
| More vegetables | Watch your health - Vytautas Kernagis. | My shame. I should probably be doing this. 🙁 |
| Thank you | Happiness. | Psychological research shows that people who are more likely to thank others or even abstract entities (e.g. God in prayer) live happier, longer, more enjoyable lives. |
| Slowing down the pace | When the Cherry Trees in Suvalkija are blossoming - Vytautas Kernagis | Enjoy. Where are you going? |
| Game | It's fun and healthy. | Sometimes being a child and laughing and playing is the most direct route to personal happiness and growth. I experience this myself every third day. |
| Focus III | Zen Buddhism's idea of "flow". | (Again?) |
| Getting rid of Yoda | Wouldn't it be a good idea to kick the negative habit? At least one? | (Yes, that would be good.) |
| Reconciliation | It's time to stop thinking about the past and what might have been if things had been different. That's good. | All is well. Don't worry - you're not the first with a life story like this, you'd better move on. |
| Emptying the cupboards | Simplicity can start with a single wardrobe. | Personally, I don't have any stuff... And wow, I haven't had a wardrobe for 4 years. |
| TV - slash | Do you still need comments? Really? Still not sure? | It's nice that Leo doesn't call for an immediate ditching of TV, films and Youtube. He just encourages us to try to go a week without videos. I used to do it for a month. |
| More sleep | If you don't get enough sleep, you're killing yourself, your creativity, productivity, efficiency and happiness in life. | I believe this is very important. Sometimes getting up earlier (e.g. at 4am) is not a good idea. |
| Time => money | Money comes and goes. And time is disposable. Why should you waste your time on a few euros? And so on? | I only try here if I know that something will save me time. If they don't, then I keep the money. It also helps me to remember that it is important to do the important things. |
| Preliminary opinion => curiosity | It helps you grow and look at the world critically. | Everything is true (or false). Time to see the bigger picture. |
| Read more | Ugdo. Ramina. Raises. | You're already doing it now. Cool! (Although Leo encourages reading books.) |
| Purchase - damn (almost) | Because what do you need things you'll never use? | I: a month without purchase. I seem to have been inspired by the same Leo, but a few years earlier. |
| Reconciliation | You are a good enough person. All is well. | It's like a launch. Only the words are different. Still, it is important! |
| Creation | Instead of just existing, we can leave our mark on the world. | Leo comes up with a whole bunch of ideas. But the bottom line is that creativity is everything. Even the new pancake recipe (and the sharing of this one) is creative. |
| Food => Real food | Semi-finished products from Maxima and the like... I don't know, is it food or poison? Seriously? | I limit myself to cooking/baking pasta. Although this is also essentially processed and semi-processed food. I doubt the benefits myself, but to be honest, I don't know anything about healthy food. |
| Cashing in on a lucky job | There are hundreds of job opportunities all around us (even if you live in a small village). Why should you work for someone you hate? | Personally, I have never had such a need. I was lucky. But maybe it's for you? |
| More help for others | Healthy, community, useful (useful dating and "debt" in your favour). | This should always be done. Even when we are selfish, it is possible to help without giving up our own wishes. |
| Breathing | Perhaps the most important change: peace, health, simplicity and living in the present tense. | I really recommend it. Conscious breathing is power. |
| Indulging habits | By now, you must have picked up a few habits. Enjoy them. | This is important. |
| Being alone | It's healthy (psychological studies show) and, ironically, helps you to communicate better with others. | That's fine, even if you're already a private person. This is a test of extreme closedness. |
| Room cleaning | … | Still cleaning up? After the thunderstorms, I don't have that much to tidy up! Do you? |
| Repeating the change | If you don't succeed, you can try again in a different way. | It's not always good to quit after one try. (And sometimes it's quite good.) |
| Focus IV | Leave unimportant work behind - leave only the important. | (Repeating...) |
| Disconnect from electronics | Health, attention, happiness, relationships. | I've done this in my month without internet. And that was power. Leo, though, urges us to start with smaller steps - minutes a day, not months. |
| Abandoning targets | Goals are not as valuable as direction. It helps to avoid stress. | Personally, I have long recommended it. My only regret is that I still haven't written a broader article about the idea. Letting go of goals is good. |
| Learning to learn | When you start to see failures as opportunities to learn, learning becomes much more fun. | Because not all doubles are bad. Some help you to see what you don't know and to focus on learning that subject even more. |
| Reducing liabilities | Because too many "yeses" turn our lives into other people's lives. | You don't have to say "yeah, let's do it" to everyone. Because if you do, you'll quickly waste yourself. Learn to say I gave and then "no". |
| Problems => opportunities | … | Isn't that a change from the past? |
| Enjoy | … | Wasn't this one too? Enjoying life and the little moments? |
| Emptying your email inbox | All those unanswered letters and opportunities, subscriptions and offers are depressing. | I do it once a week. I clean up my emails completely - reply, archive or delete. That's it. Peace of mind! |
| Training others | Teaching is one of the best ways to learn. Didn't know? | You can do it, even if you don't have the courage. Seriously. Guess how I started Cloudsyl? |
| Compassion | Compassion increases the production of positive hormones and reduces the production of stress hormones. This is healthy and even promotes longevity. | Research, surprisingly, also shows the benefits of this change. Christianity (gratitude, surrender, reconciliation - which I have already mentioned - and compassion) seems to be based on damn good foundations. I am not suggesting that we start following a religion, but look - those things that are already part of a religion help us to live longer, happier, more fun. |
| Reflection | It is worth taking this moment to reflect on the changes you have experienced over the past year. | Although "reflection" is a word I understand, it is probably better called "rethinking" or "analysis". Basically, after the changes and experiments, it is time to check which ones worked positively. |
| Awareness that we are not missing anything | The world doesn't collapse without us. Just as we won't collapse if we take a moment away from Facebook, email, constant requests and attention thieves. We can live in peace. | When you realise that, realistically, the world is deeply invested in you and your life, life becomes much easier, more fun and more enjoyable. No more worrying about jobs, obligations, some "important news" or other nonsense. We can live. Happy. Free. By ourselves and with our families. Stress-free. 🙂 |
- Although the fourth exercise is labelled "flexible approach", the term "launch" is more appropriate here. Because this practice is just that. But I guess it's no big deal - at the time of translation it was not yet widely discussed in Lithuania.
Observations and comments to the author:
- I don't know if it's the translators' mistake or yours, Leo, but my God... Despite the fact that the subject matter is very interesting to me, it was a REALLY boring book! God bless. Too boring, no emotion, no jokes, no drive. I didn't like it. In fact, not only while reading, but also while writing this review and translating the book for the second time, N+N times I wanted to throw it away and go to sleep.
- Some of the changes were repetitive or broadly similar. As a minimalist, why not break them up?
- In future, I would like to see more validity and less lengthy text. Concreteness!
- But it is good that many ideas for change have been proposed. It's a choice. And it's good that not all of them are proposed as a necessary start. Thank you.
After reading effect:
I put the book on the shelf. But not because I liked it, just so that I can repeat and expand the ideas in my own texts, challenges, programmes in the future. In a year's time (or sooner), I will sell, give away or gift the book.
Interested, but disappointed with the translation,
Daniel