Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change

The page presents the book as a guide for people who have struggled with loss, frustration, debt, clutter, procrastination, illness, or major life change. It says the book begins with habit change but goes further, focusing on how to live and how to work with change itself.

It also explains Babauta’s own path from being stuck in 2005 to making one change at a time, including quitting smoking, running marathons, eating better, losing weight, simplifying, getting out of debt, and writing books. The book frames the heart of many struggles as attachment to ideals, which leads to frustration, anger, disappointment, stress, and worry.

Reading notes

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• The book is aimed at people dealing with loss, frustration, major life change, procrastination, debt, clutter, and stress.
• It treats habit change as one part of a broader project about living and mastering change.
• It says following the book’s steps can build Zen skills that support peace, contentment, and adaptation.
• Babauta describes his own change as gradual, with small experiments and one step at a time.
• He lists changes he made: quitting smoking, running, eating healthier, becoming vegan, losing weight, simplifying, getting out of debt, starting a blog, and writing books.
• The book argues that the heart of struggle is attachment to ideals about comfort, behavior, and how things should go.
• It says this attachment creates frustration, irritation, anger, disappointment, stress, and worry.
• The Kickstarter funds would pay for editing, design, printing, shipping, fees, an event in San Francisco, project management, and taxes.