Zen Habits’ Take On A Simple Marriage

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you may not have heard of Zen Habits. If you’ve logged on to the Internet within the past year, then without a doubt you’ve heard of Leo Babauta.

Not only is Leo behind the incredibly successful blog Zen Habits (over 60K subscribers), he launched Write To Done (a blog for writers) earlier this year as well as Web Warrior Tools (an e-book publishing venture).

Today I am pleased to present an interview Simple Marriages had with Leo and his wife Eva. Hope you enjoy.

Q: Brief bio data:

Leo and Eva Babauta, of Zen Habits, have been married for five years and have a total of 6 kids (only the two youngest kids we had together). He’s a full-time blogger and former journalist, and she’s a teacher who is currently homeschooling three of the kids. They live on Guam. Leo is 35 and Eva is 31.

Q: How have you and your spouse simplified marriage effectively?

Marriage, for us, has never been a complicated thing. We’re two pretty unassuming people who just really like to spend time together. Our two main focuses in our marriage are simple: spend as much time doing things with the kids as possible, and always schedule time that we can spend together, alone as a couple. We like to exercise together and go on dates — usually a dinner and a movie or something like that.

Q: How do you find harmony in marriage, parenting, work, blogging, fun?

We try to stay on the same page and work together as a team in everything we do. So in parenting, we’ll talk over all our decisions and try to work together as parents, so we don’t have conflicting efforts. We solve problems together, so we agree on the solutions. We consult each other on any major career decisions, and support the other in what he or she wants to do. Eva has always been supportive of my blogging, and I owe her a great debt of gratitude for that. As for fun … we have the most fun doing things together, either alone or with our kids, so there’s no problem in harmony there!

Q: What can other couples learn from your marriage?

The basic keys for us, again, have been 1) working together as a team in everything; 2) talking everything over together; 3) spending as much time together as possible. That’s really all there is to it, I think.

Q: What are your marriage dreams?

We both hope we’re just as much in love in 50 years from now as we are now.

Q: Any other thing Simple Marriage readers would benefit from knowing?

Never take your partner for granted, and always show gratitude and appreciation for whatever the other person does. Try to show consideration for your spouse, and do kind things every day.
Most of all, keep your sex life alive!

If you missed the interview with Art of Manliness, you can read it here.

If you missed Awake @ The Wheel’s take, go here.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Corey is the editor of Simple Marriage as well as a licensed marriage & family therapist. While he has a Ph.D. in Family Therapy, he only occasionally likes to be called doctor. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe so you don't miss any future posts.