Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Cait Flanders started Blonde on a Budget to document her debt repayment journey. After paying it off, she adopted a minimalist lifestyle, tossed 75% of her stuff, and is currently doing a two-year shopping ban. She shares stories and lessons learned every week. Episode 105: You Weren't Born to Pay Off Debt and Die by Cait Flanders of Blonde On A Budget (Cait Reads Her Blog Post to You). The origin...

Neil Pasricha is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Book of Awesome series, which has been published in 10 countries, spent over 5 years on bestseller lists, and sold over a million copies. Pasricha is a Harvard MBA, one of the most popular TED speakers of all time, and today serves as Director of The Institute for Global Happiness. He has dedicated the past 15 years of his life to devel...

Ben Greenfield is the author of the New York Times Bestseller “Beyond Training.“ His 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 on...

The Minimalists are Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, who 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 101: Live Like Stan by Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists (Joshua Nar...

The Minimalists are Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, who 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 101: Live Like Stan by Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists (Joshua Nar...

Derek Sivers reads to you. Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek 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....

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-revie...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 094: Decluttering Mental Clutter by Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists (A Different...

Derek Sivers 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 published 34 books, including “Anything You Want” whic...

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...

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 91: Fiscal Fitness: Eliminate Debt with 10 Successful Diet Principles by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (Paying Off Your Loans). The original post is located here: http://...

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...

Steve Kamb of NerdFitness 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 one...

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...

A professional author and international speaker, Colin 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 the same...

Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek Sivers 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 p...

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. Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 85: How to Deal With Your Family's Bad Habits by Leo Babauta...

Cait Flanders started Blonde on a Budget to document her debt repayment journey. After paying it off, she adopted a minimalist lifestyle, tossed 75% of her stuff, and is currently doing a two-year shopping ban. She shares stories and lessons learned every week. Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 84: What a Year of Being...

Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 83: Understanding Others by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists (Tolerance, Respect, Appreciation). 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,...

Steve Kamb (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 one...

Optimal Living Daily: Reading you the best content on personal development, productivity, and minimalism. Episode 81: Why I Don't Want Stuff by Derek Sivers (Don't Give Me Gifts for my Birthday or Christmas: Self Help Post for Minimalists). Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek Sivers created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M...