Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Mary Jaksch is an authorized Zen master (Diamond Sangha lineage), psychotherapist, and author. She has two nationalities,--English and German--and lives in New Zealand. She's the mother of a grown-up son and lives happily ever after with her partner David. She's been awarded an MA in Religious Studies, holds a 4th Dan Blackbelt in karate, started professional life as a flautist and loves dancing A...

Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist and his family decided to live with fewer possessions after a conversation with his neighbor in 2008. As a result, they found a better way to live, centered on more important pursuits. Their story has been seen on the CBS Evening News, NPR, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal and countless media interviews around the world. Their books have sold in the te...

Leo Babauta created Zen Habits, which is about finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness. Episode 303: Meditation: The Most Fundamental Habit by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (Mindfulness & Personal Growth). The original post is located here: http://zenhabits.net/fund...

Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 302: Living a Life of Joy by Steve Pavlina (Being Happy & Optimistic). Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, with his work attracting more than 100 million visits to his website, StevePavlina.com. He has written...

J. Money of Budgets Are Sexy is a 6’1, hyperactive, rock a ‘hawk who loves drinking beer, blaring hip-hop, talking about money, and now playing with his two adorable baby boys. He also has a podcast: M.O.N.E.Y. He tracked his expenses for 3 months, made a budget, read some books, and stumbled into personal finance blogging and idea sharing, randomly turning BudgetsAreSexy.com into his full time “r...

Dr. Chris J. Patti (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Appalachian State University, nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. As an ethnographic writer, his research highlights intimate, relational processes at the heart of human experience through listening to and richly representing stories of love, loss, and transformation. He has published several peer-r...

Kristin Wong of TheWildWong.com was laid off in 2013. She took on some freelancing gigs to earn extra cash while she searched for a new, full-time job and over time, her freelancing gigs increased. She started writing for sites that she loved reading and produced videos for new clients. Her side gigs began to bring in more income than any potential full-time jobs. She launched a blog all about fru...

Colin Wright, a professional author and international speaker, co-founded a publishing company, and travels full-time, moving to a new country every four months or so--that country determined by the votes of his readers! He also blogs. Colin's a minimalist in that he owns very few things and is careful in how he consumes. He tends to buy less, but invest in quality when he does, and trends toward...

Courtney Carver was stopped in her tracks with a scary MS diagnosis after decades of debt, discontent, and trying to do it all. She had to slow down, prioritize her health, and figure out what was really important in her life. She discovered what mattered most by getting rid of everything that didn’t matter at all. In the end it all came down to love and health. She went from a busy, overwhelmed a...

Derek Sivers, originally a professional musician and circus clown, created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians. In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22M, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with over 5 million views of his talks. Since 2011 he has...

Ramit Sethi of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com wants to use money to say YES. He knew there was a better way to live a rich life—if we could use psychology to focus on what actually works. Not just for personal finance, but all aspects of life: money, careers, relationships, business, fitness and more. Since then, he's been testing and sharing his findings with the world via I Will Teach You To Be Rich....

Kalen Bruce is the founder of MoneyMiniBlog. His story is simple… he and his wife were $24,000 in debt and became a student of finances to get out. They are now debt-free and building wealth. Kalen shares everything he has learned on his blog, writing informative, entertaining, mini blogs to help you with your finances. Finances can be intimidating, so he keeps his posts short, sweet, and simple....

Mark Manson was a full-time professional dating coach for men from 2008 until 2011. In 2011, sick of the industry, he wrote his first book, Models: Attract Women Through Honesty, and changed the name and focus of his business to address broader self-development topics for men. The book took off, selling tens of thousands of copies. As he branched out into deeper issues of masculinity, self-worth,...

Mark Manson was a full-time professional dating coach for men from 2008 until 2011. In 2011, sick of the industry, he wrote his first book, Models: Attract Women Through Honesty, and changed the name and focus of his business to address broader self-development topics for men. The book took off, selling tens of thousands of copies. As he branched out into deeper issues of masculinity, self-worth,...

Mary Jaksch of Good Life Zen is an authorized Zen master (Diamond Sangha lineage), psychotherapist, and author. She has two nationalities,--English and German--and lives in New Zealand. She's the mother of a grown-up son and lives happily ever after with her partner David. She's been awarded an MA in Religious Studies, holds a 4th Dan Blackbelt in karate, started professional life as a flautist an...

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus are The Minimalists and write about living a meaningful life with less stuff for 4 million readers. As featured on: ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, TODAY, NPR, TIME, Forbes, The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Post. They live in Missoula, Montana. Episode 290: Excerpts from the Book Essential by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicode...

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus are The Minimalists and write about living a meaningful life with less stuff for 4 million readers. As featured on: ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, TODAY, NPR, TIME, Forbes, The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Post. They live in Missoula, Montana. Episode 289: Excerpts from the Book Essential by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicode...

This Minimalists (Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus) write about living a meaningful life with less stuff for 4 million readers. As featured on: ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, TODAY, NPR, TIME, Forbes, The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Post. They live in Missoula, Montana. Episode 288: Excerpts from the Book Essential by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus o...

Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 287: Shaking the Scarcity Mindset and Shaking Things Up by Dan Warren (Fearless Living & Being Optimistic). Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Cain is a writer and entrepreneur living in Winnipeg, Canada. On a particular boring day at his office job in 2009, he started Raptitude. His interest has always been human society and the internal human experience, and Raptitude became his megaphone for his thoughts about those things. It found an audience rather quickly and it’s been central to his life ever since. In 2013, he left his day...

Marc and Angel Chernoff are professional coaches, full-time students of life, admirers of the human spirit, and have been recognized by Forbes as having “one of the most popular personal development blogs.” Through their blog, book, course and coaching, they’ve spent the past decade writing about and teaching proven strategies for finding lasting happiness, success, love and peace. The site has at...

Episode 284: The Science of Luck from Hustle by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, & Jonas Koffler (Creating Success & Happiness). You can find the book, Hustle, here: http://neilpatel.com/hustle Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leo Babauta created Zen Habits, which is about finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness. Episode 283: The Quickstart Guide to a Decluttered Home by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (Simple Living & Happiness). The original post is located here: http://zenhabits.net/decl...

Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, with his work attracting more than 100 million visits to his website, StevePavlina.com. He has written more than 1300 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help topics, including productivity, relationships, and spirituality. Steve has been quoted as an exper...

Joshua Becker and his family decided to live with fewer possessions after a conversation with his neighbor in 2008. As a result, they found a better way to live, centered on more important pursuits. Their story has been seen on the CBS Evening News, NPR, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal and countless media interviews around the world. Their books have sold in the tens of thousands. Becomi...