For many, Leo Babauta is best known for his creation of the acclaimed website, ZenHabits.net, a Top 25 blog with over 200,000 readers according to Time Magazine. Others may best know him from his appearance in the 2015 award-winning documentary, Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things. But for the uninitiated, Leo Babauta is a minimalist blogger, a best-selling author, a husband, a father to six children, a former smoker, a runner, a meditator, debt-free and (as the central theme of VegWorld suggests) a vegan. But most importantly, Leo is a mindful, compassionate human being who’s made it his life’s mission to help others through their struggles by teaching–among other things–self-compassion, mindfulness and simplicity.

Recently, I had the honor of speaking to Leo on a wide range of topics, including his life before Zen Habits, minimalism, veganism, mindfulness, what he’s doing now and what keeps him motivated to help others make meaningful changes in their own lives.

Leo Babauta was born in Portland, Oregon, but his story begins in earnest on the tiny Pacific island of Guam. Leo spent most of his childhood, and until about a decade ago, his entire adult life on Guam. It was there he became the editor for his local newspaper, a freelance writer and eventually a speech writer for the governor of Guam. Guam is where he met his wife Eva and where he became a father to six children. Guam is also where Leo developed a myriad of bad habits.

By his early thirties, Leo was overweight, disorganized, deeply in debt and discontented with much of his life. He worked too much–sacrificing valuable time with his family–and despite the long work days, the Babauta family was still living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet. Like so many of us, Leo attempted to change several of his habits time and time again, but nothing ever took hold. He had tried to quit smoking, give up junk food, exercise more, make time for writing and stop procrastinating, but every attempt would eventually fizzle out. Leo wasn’t doing meaningful work, but he needed to provide for his large family. The debt was piling up, but you can’t live without stuff, right? Leo was stuck in neutral and felt that he was simply unable to change.

The seeds of change were planted in late 2005. After several failed attempts to quit smoking, Leo made a vow to his wife and daughter that this attempt was going to be different–it was going to stick. So, Leo researched the mechanics of habit change–what worked, what didn’t. All this led him to realize just how powerful our entrenched habits are. He poured everything into his effort to quit smoking. He found accountability and a community of support in online forums and became more mindful of his triggers. He started running in order to cope with the urges and stress.

Armed with this new strategy, Leo was able to finally give up smoking once and for all. This success served as a template on which Leo could build further habit changes. It also allowed Leo to establish something very important...TRUST–trust that the process would work and most importantly, trust in himself. Eventually in early 2007, Leo started the blog, ZenHabits.net, to share his journey, and an entirely new adventure began

ZenHabits.net has become one of the leading blogs about minimalism, but Leo didn’t start with the intention of becoming a minimalist. Rather, he started with a very basic idea–simplification. Leo’s life felt disorganized and cluttered, and the easiest way to organize both his home and his life was simply to have less stuff in both. 

So, Leo cleaned out his closet, filed or disposed of large stacks of paperwork and decluttered his garage. He realized that neither the large amounts of debt nor the things purchased with that debt were making him happy, so he eliminated both. His children didn’t play with the mass of toys in their rooms, but the toys could bring other children joy (don’t worry, he made a game out of it...they had fun). The long work hours weren’t resulting in paid bills or making meaningful contributions to other people; so in 2008, Leo quit his job and eventually tripled his income while doing something that made a positive impact to others’ lives.

As he pruned more and more things from his life, Leo realized the joy of less vs. more, simple instead of complex and laser focus as opposed to multitasking. Leo learned that this preference for simplicity and intentionality in every aspect of life, from possession to personal relationships, is called minimalism.

In 2006, Leo was 70 pounds overweight and unhealthy; his diet was full of meat, cheese, fried foods, sweets, fast food, pizza and chips. He’d tried a number of diets to lose weight and get healthy, but none felt quite right to him. So, Leo made the decision to go back to a diet he’d eaten for a six-month time span a few years earlier–vegetarianism.

Leo enjoyed exploring vegetarianism; he incorporated tons of vegetables and experimented with a wide range of cuisines. As Leo’s diet continued to evolve, he became increasingly aware of where his food came from. Even though he was decreasing the animal suffering he contributed to the world, he realized there was still much more he could be doing. Milk, eggs, cheese and butter all involved animal suffering and eventually led to animal slaughter.

The cruel ways in which animals are treated for consumer goods also began to weigh on Leo; he felt his compassion for animals should stretch beyond his diet. He found it difficult to support a system that treated animals in such an awful manner. Veganism’s ethos–not causing pain or suffering to any sentient being–deeply aligns with Leo’s Buddhist spiritual practice.