![]() ![]() That was the most heartbreaking part, was that I was failing my wife and kids. I’m failing myself and failing my family. I felt like I had to save my life, and so I think that was the realization, was like I am killing myself in a lot of different ways. There were just a number of points where I just felt despair and like a failure. My wife was pregnant, so she quit smoking while she was pregnant, but I knew that she was going to start again as soon as she gave birth, so I had to quit in order to set an example for her, but I also knew that my kids were much more likely to smoke, and so I had to quit for them as well. I remember one heartbreaking moment of that depth was when I had to break open my kid’s piggy bank to be able to put some like milk and cereal on the table, and so that was a real dark point where I felt like a failure as a father. One of them was, as I talked about debt, just not being able to put food on the table for my family. Leo Babauta: People say sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can climb out of it, and so I hit a number of really deep, low points for myself. We start there, and what happens over the subsequent handful of years or the catalyst, so to speak, for some of your successful changes? What actually happened that was the impetus or the spark, so to speak, for some of the subsequent changes? ![]() I was in the Island of Guam, which is where we’re from, me and my family. Tim Ferriss: Geographically, where were you at the time? It was just really tough for me having to provide for people but not being able to make ends meet, feeling terrible about myself as a father, not a good example, and just feeling really discouraged about my ability to make any change stick in my life. I was a big procrastinator, very deeply in debt and really not being able to pay my bills and just really felt stuck and felt really bad about myself, which I think a lot of people can relate to some aspect of that story. I was a smoker, sedentary, kept trying to change a lot of these habits. Leo Babauta: Yeah, that was definitely a difficult period of my life, and really, it feels like a whole different lifetime ago, a different person, but 2005, I was married with a huge family, mixed family, five kids with one more on the way, in a job I didn’t like. I’d like to flash back to more than 10 years ago, and I want you to correct the timing if I’m not getting it just right, but around 2005, prior to Zen Habits, the phenomenon, prior to the bestselling books, prior to all of that, could you paint a picture of where you were, what you were doing, your circumstances and situation at the time? Tim Ferriss: I figured for people who don’t have context, we could start at the beginning, or I should say maybe just the beginning of a transition of sorts. Leo Babauta: Yeah, it’s great to be here. This is just the round one, but welcome to the show. That is a lot, and Time Magazine has named it one of its top 25 blogs and top 50 websites. Zen Habits has more than two million readers. ![]() He is founder of Zen Habits, a website dedicated to finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives. My guest today is a friend, Leo Babauta, B-A-B-A-U-T-A on Twitter. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. Tim Ferriss: Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. For the sake of clarity, media outlets are permitted to use photos of Tim Ferriss from the media room on tim.blog or (obviously) license photos of Tim Ferriss from Getty Images, etc. WHAT IS NOT ALLOWED: No one is authorized to copy any portion of the podcast content or use Tim Ferriss’ name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above. WHAT YOU’RE WELCOME TO DO: You are welcome to share the below transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The New York Times, LA Times, The Guardian), on your personal website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Medium), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “The Tim Ferriss Show” and link back to the tim.blog/podcast URL. Tim Ferriss owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, with all rights reserved, as well as his right of publicity. DUE TO SOME HEADACHES IN THE PAST, PLEASE NOTE LEGAL CONDITIONS: ![]()
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