Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com is a professional author and international speaker that 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...

David Cain of Raptitude.com 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...

Mary Jaksch of GoodLifeZen.com 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 a...

Steve Kamb of NerdFitness.com started exercising back in high school without really knowing what he was doing. Through high school and college, he made every training mistake known to man and got zero results. It wasn’t until he graduated college and learned the right way to train that he started to see positive changes. He's a nerd, but likes fitness… so why not combine the two and turn life into...

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,...

The 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 150: The Tweet That Changed My Life by Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists (H...

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...

Marc and Angel Chernoff of MarcAndAngel.com 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 pe...

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 147: Get to the Root of Work Stress by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (Happiness & Productivity). The original post is located here: http://zenhabits.net/workstress Please...

Ramit Sethi 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. He's also written a New York...

Ben Greenfield is the author of the New York Times Bestseller "Beyond Training." Ben's balanced approach to fitness, nutrition and health comes from his extensive experience in the fitness and wellness industry as one of the country’s leading personal trainers and wellness consultants. In 2008, Ben was nominated by the NSCA as America’s top personal trainer, and in 2013 and 2014, Ben was voted as...

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...

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...

Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com is a professional author and international speaker who 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 h...

J. Money of BudgetsAreSexy.com 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...

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...

Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness started exercising back in high school without really knowing what he was doing. Through high school and college, he made every training mistake known to man and got zero results. It wasn’t until he graduated college and learned the right way to train that he started to see positive changes. He's a nerd, but likes fitness… so why not combine the two and turn life into on...

Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 137: Screw Finding Your Passion by Mark Manson (The Secret to Success & Inspirational Living Might Be Right in Front of You). From 2008 until 2011, Mark Manson was a full-time professional dating coach for men. In 2011, sick of the industry, he wrote his first book, Models: Attract Wom...

Courtney Carver: After decades of debt, discontent, and trying to do it all and have it all, a scary MS diagnosis stopped Courtney in her tracks. 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 b...

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...

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...

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 133: When You're Feeling Self-Doubt & a Lack of Motivation by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (Motivate Yourself & Get Unstuck). The original post is located here: http://z...

David Cain (Raptitude.com) 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,...

A guest post on Nerd Fitness. Steve Kamb, the founder of Nerd Fitness, started exercising back in high school without really knowing what he was doing. Through high school and college, he made every training mistake known to man and got zero results. It wasn’t until he graduated college and learned the right way to train that he started to see positive changes. He's a nerd, but likes fitness… so w...