Essential Zen Habits of 2017 - zen habits zen habits

By Leo Babauta

If living in interesting times is a blessing, I have to say that 2017 has been full of blessings for me and Zen Habits.

I’m very grateful to have had all of you this year. In this post I’d like to share the top Zen Habits posts of 2017, along with an update on my personal journey …

Personally, it has been a year of change, struggle, growth, and more … here are some of my personal headlines of the year:

Guam & Bali: We started the year on Guam, after Eva’s dad’s funeral, and it was a great (if hectic) time for all of us with family. Eva and I also went to Bali for the first time, and it was gorgeous!
Adult kids: Our fourth child became an adult (only two of our kids are minors now!) … Maia not only turned 18, she studied hard for the her high school equivalency degree and passed, got a job, and decided to move to Japan to study to be an anime animator. My two adult sons got jobs as well, and my oldest daughter Chloe spent the entire year working on Guam at the local newspaper. I’m proud of all of them.
Mindfulness retreats & intimacy: I did meditation retreats at Spirit Rock and the SF Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farms, and took a workshop called the Art of Fearless Intimacy as I worked on deepening my marriage and getting better at keeping my heart open.
Travel: Eva & I took a trip to Costa Rica for the first time (it was also a scouting trip for future retreats I want to hold), and we traveled to NYC together too. I didn’t travel as much this year, which was actually a good thing.
Learning Go: I got a little obsessed with the strategy game Go for a few months (starting in June). I really loved learning it, but had to pull back so I could focus more on my work projects. It’s a beautiful game. My 13-year-old son Seth learned with me and is still progressing up the ranks, he’s far better than I am now!

Those are just the bigger points, but overall, I would say there were times of stagnation, times of obsessions, times of stress, and also times of incredible learning and growth and love. Interesting times.

Zen Habits in 2017

Other than the personal headlines, I’m pretty proud of what I created here at Zen Habits this year:

Zen Habits Mindfulness Retreat: I conducted my first retreat, in San Francisco in April, with a small group of beautiful people. It was an experiment, the first retreat/workshop of many I hope to hold – the next one is a 5-day mindfulness & habits retreat in Tulum, Mexico.
Dealing with Struggles course: I launched my first standalone video course in March, Dealing with Struggles. I really loved working with the participants on transforming struggles into openness and joy.
44 Training Program: I launched the free 44 Training Program as a gift on my birthday, to all of you. It’s 44-day video training program to get good at mindfulness, uncertainty and discomfort.
Habit Mastery course: In November, I launched my second standalone video course, the Habit Mastery Course. It is my best course on habits yet, helping you to level up your habit skills, no matter what level of mastery you’re at. I still highly recommend it, if you’re looking to create new habits in 2018.
Zen Productivity workshops: One of the biggest things I started doing was creating live workshops in different cities. I started with NYC, SF, LA and SD, but I’m planning to do a bunch more in 2018. Sign up here to get notified of upcoming workshops.
Nearly a dozen Sea Change courses: I was productive in my Sea Change Program in 2017, creating nearly a dozen new video courses. Now that I have about 20 video courses, and 20 other article-based habit modules, I’m going to change up Sea Change in 2018 to be focused on going deeper into these topics and holding each other accountable, rather than creating new courses. More on this soon!
Habit Zen habit app: This year I worked with two excellent developers and we really created a great web app for tracking habits, called Habit Zen. It’s invite-only for now (and there’s no phone app yet), but we made it look great, added some excellent habit stats, a habit log/journal, and soon will have daily habit tips and accountability groups.
My mission: In April, I announced my new personal mission: To Help the world transform fear & uncertainty into mindful openness and joy. It’s what drives all of the projects you see on this list, and will drive even more projects in 2018.
Attended three events: I had the pleasure of speaking/participating at three amazing events this year: Camp GLP, Tribe Conference, and the Rich Litvin Intensive. All were amazing, and I met a lot of incredible people there. More events in 2018!
Honored on the Fuel List: I had the honor of being named one of the people on Thrive Global’s Fuel List (from Arianna Huffington). Some really amazing people on there.

As you can see, it was a busy year for me. I plan to do some new things in 2018 too, more info on all of that coming up!

The Best Zen Habits Posts of 2017

To wrap up this year, here are my favorite Zen Habits post from 2017:

And more

For more best of Zen Habits: