S1 Ep0 - Introducing Season 1, Fear + Wonder

Welcome to the Zen Habits podcast, where we dive into how to work with uncertainty, resistance and fear around our meaningful work. This is for anyone who wants to create an impact in the world and cares deeply enough to do the work. I'm your host, Leo Babauta, creator of the Zen Habits blog. Hello and welcome.

I am Leo Babauta, creator of Zen Habits, the blog, and now the podcast. This is the Zen Habits podcast. And in this introductory episode, which I'm calling episode zero, we're going to talk about the podcast, what it's about, just introduce you to it, but also what we're going to focus on in this first season, how the season's going to work, which is going to be a little bit different than most podcasts.

And how I'm going to invite you to be a part of this, not just listening to it, but be a part of the conversation, be a part of the journey. I'm going to ask you to actually play along while I play along as well. I'll get into what that means in a minute, but first let's talk about the name Zen Habits Podcast and what that's about.

And then we'll talk about the season and then how that's going to work. So Zen Habits Podcast is, well, it's an extension of the name that I came up with. Uh, what was it? 16, 17 years ago, which was Zen Habits, the blog. And on the blog, when I first started out, it was writing about simplicity and productivity and changing your life, self improvement, but also mindfulness and eventually minimalism and health and finances and clutter and a lot of really amazing things.

And so that's where the blog started. But the real genesis of the name Zen Habits came from. What I was going through at the time, which was learning about mindfulness and Zen and learning to dive into that area, while also creating the life that I wanted through repeatable habits, through things that I had a hard time changing, and then learning how to change those require the mindfulness.

So I came up with this kind of mashup name, Zen Habits, and a lot of people resonated with it, and it's grown over the years. You might be someone who's been a part of this journey with me since 2007. And so that's where it started. But over the years, I've deepened into my personal practice with Zen, deepened into my learning about habits and changing your life.

I've started coaching people. I've worked with my own coaches. I've dive deep into not only mindfulness but zen and what that means. I'm now a zen student working with a zen teacher and as I've deepened into this what I've really been looking at is the underlying things that get in the way. The things that we don't understand why we're not able to stick to something, why we're not able to do something.

And so now at this point in my journey, in what I'm sharing in the world, Zen habits means something a little bit different for me, Zen. for me is about learning to get closer to who I am, um, to really understand myself and to be the fullest expression of myself in every single moment, which is not just who I am, but who we are and, and being a part of, uh, something larger than myself, my kind of like egoic self.

There's a bigger version of that. So that's what Zen is and habits. It's about something else even than it has been over the years. I'm still here to talk about how to change your habits, whether they're good habits or bad habits. So I'm still here to talk about the science behind that and what I've learned in working with thousands of people on changing their habits, but Habits for me has a deeper layer.

It's really looking at what we have learned to habitually become. And how do we undo that so that we could be anything we wanted to be? How do we start to change? You know, how we be in the world, but also, you know, the limits that have hold it, held us back over the years. So Zen Habits, the podcast is really an expression of all of that, but the season, so I'm going to break it into seasons and I think the season is going to be about four months long.

So this first season is going to be focused on doing really hard things that are meaningful to you. So something that's scary, you have resistance to, but that is something that you would like to offer to the world. Something that's meaningful and purposeful for you. So if you want to have purpose, how do we actually do that in the world and face all of the resistance?

All of our limitations, all of the ways where we talk to ourselves and tell ourselves we can't or we shouldn't or Maybe it's not the right time or I need to take five more courses before I can finally do this. So that's what this first season is about is doing something hard and scary and meaningful and working with all of the stuff that comes up.

So how do we work with our procrastination or our overthinking over this, you know, like thinking too much about decision making? How do we Overcome our resistance to putting ourselves out there in the world or marketing ourselves or working with people more deeply, how we work with leadership issues when we're leading a team or a community, how do we learn to work with the leadership issues that are there for ourselves?

Leading ourselves through a lot of uncertainty. So these are some of the topics we'll touch on here, but how this season is going to work is that I'm going to ask you to play along, you are going to be a part of this, so the podcast isn't like Leo, just telling you some things, giving you answers, teaching you, but it's actually having you be a part of this.

So how that will work is I'm going to ask you. To choose a project and we'll talk about that in the next episode, but choosing a project is like, Oh, I want to write a book, start a podcast, create a nonprofit organization to help empower people. And so I'm going to ask you to choose a project and then actually be doing that project over the course of the next four months.

So it's not just let me listen to some things and like another course, another podcast, get some good tips, but I'm actually asking you to put it into practice because that's where the rubber meets the road. That's where real change happens. When you start to take the stuff that we're talking about here and put it into action.

So choose a project that's going to take you about four months. We'll talk about how to do that in the next episode, but I want you to really consider right now, playing along, if you really want to get something out of this. If you want to learn to finally face your resistance and fear and uncertainty and do something meaningful in the world, or to take what you're already doing that's meaningful to the next level, or unblock yourself in certain areas.

Then play along, choose something, and actually be doing it each week. And each week we'll have a topic that we'll talk about, so I'll come and talk, you know, I'll do some solo episodes where I'll teach you about something, we'll examine something and learn about something, and I'll show you how to put it into action.

And so that'll be some solo episodes, but also bring in experts, guest experts, so that they can talk about what they've learned. And I've got some really amazing experts lined up and, and others that I'm looking for as well. So guest experts, but beyond solo episodes and guest experts, I'm going to bring you on and we're going to do that in a few different ways.

But one of the ways is that you can submit questions, email me and submit questions, submit, like, Your story, how things are going, submit your challenges and like, how do I deal with this? And then I can talk about those in some episodes. So that's one way that you can come on. Another is I can invite you to come on to video and let's talk about something so you can share your story or I can do some coaching with you.

And so live coaching is another thing that I'll do. I'm going to highlight some of the best episodes, I mean, best stories of people who are doing this. So you get a chance to be on the podcast as well, whether it's submitting questions, telling your story or getting coached by me live. And that's putting your skin in the game.

This is getting into the arena off of the seats where you might be sitting on your hands, just hoping to listen and, and get something out of this, but actually put yourself in the game. And that's where the real transformation is going to happen. If you. Ask questions, if you share your story, if you get coached, there's a real willingness to put yourself into the unknown, that's where transformation happens, not in the seats where you get to just kind of watch on the sidelines and, you know, kind of get something out of it, where you're actually putting to action what we're talking about, and then Hitting up against some of the fears, some of the resistance, some of the stories and beliefs when you start hitting up against that, that's where real change is going to happen, because then you'll be like, ah, I don't know how to deal with this.

Maybe I should just quit. Maybe I should, you know, maybe Leo's full of it. So play along. So if you are game to play along, we will talk about that in the next episode, the episodes are going to be once a week. every Wednesday morning. We might have some bonus episodes in between if I feel inspired to share something or I have a cool reader, you know, listener story or some questions that I want to answer, a coaching session, but generally look for a new episode every Wednesday.

Before I finish this, I really want to ask you to help this podcast.

I believe this is going to be of benefit to anybody who has anything meaningful to do in the world, who has a gift to offer, who is trying to do something that has purpose. If you're someone who has purpose, or you know someone else who might want to have purpose in their lives, or they are someone who's already on purpose, and they could use a discussion about this, because how often do we get to talk about this kind of thing, then share this with them.

This is not just to help me out, but help them out as well. And then you get to be a part of the spreading of these ideas, the spreading of the empowering of people, being able to do their meaningful work in the world. That's what this season is about. I'm really excited about it. It's something I've been diving into for the last.

Decade and a half. I've been not only doing my own work, but I've been getting coached. I've been doing work with groups of people. I've been doing one on one coaching with other people where I'm the coach. I've been doing teaching. I've been, I have a membership program called Fearless Living Academy where people are doing this and struggling and I'm learning from them.

And so I'm obsessed with learning about fear. resistance and uncertainty and doing your meaningful, purposeful work. And the result of this obsession is this season. You get to see what I've been learning, what I've been practicing, what I've been teaching others, but also you get to be a part of it. So if you're down.

Please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app, share it with others, and play along. Don't just sit on the sidelines. If you sit on the sidelines, you can still listen. It'll still be really cool. But in the end, I'm asking you to be a part of this. And the way that I'm going to play along is I am going to be writing, finishing writing a book that I've been trying to work on for years now.

It's a book about my grandmother. I've, I interviewed her, got all her stories, she's 94 years old, and she's been waiting on this book. And I've had a lot of resistance, so I've worked on it in different times, but I'm going to, in the course of these next four months, face my resistance and actually, finally finish that book.

And then you get to see that book. I will share it with her and with the rest of my family. And that'll be my meaningful work as we do this season. And I'm asking you to do the same. Pick something and play along. Okay. This is going to be an incredible ride. Thanks for being on this. I'm Leo Babauta. I will talk to you soon.

If you haven't already, please subscribe to this podcast and your favorite podcast app. If you found this episode useful, please share this podcast with someone you know, who cares deeply. That would be really meaningful to me. And if you'd like to dive deeper with me into this work, please check out the blog at zenhabits.net or get in touch at [email protected]. 

Thanks for listening. And I hope you'll join me every podcast.