Living your best life is about learning how to step into your own control, your own power and really owning who you are. Even if you are not yet the ideal person you want to be, knowing that you are working towards being that best person is how to live your best life. Only you know what living your best life means for you.
In this article, I will be sharing some tips and focus areas that can assist you in living the life you deserve – because you can create it! Life does not just happen to you.
Time for reflection
Let’s do some reflection: How do you feel about your life today? Do you live every day in excitement? Do you look forward to what’s coming next? Are you feeling as if life isn’t going the way you would like it?
If your answer to any of these questions is a no, not sure or maybe, it means you’re not living your life to the fullest. Which really shouldn’t be the case, because your life experience is yours to create.
We all have good days and bad days, and the most important thing is to make the best out of each day – regardless of the good or bad. You only have one life to live. You can’t control all the bad things that happen, but you can change your attitude towards them, and in the process, shape your future and create your most amazing life experience.
Change your ways
Would you like to learn how to live your best life? Here are a few ways to do it.
BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
The next time something negative is clogging your mind, try to remember all the good things that you already have going on in your life. You already live a great life, and to learn how to live your best life, you simply need to remember that. This is the power of positive thinking at its best.
You can be thankful for your family, friends, job, a past experience, opportunities and more. Thinking about all the good things you already have in your life, can make something negative seem very trivial. You may even laugh at yourself for being so negative!
CREATE A BUCKET LIST
If you don’t have a bucket list, create one. A bucket list is where you list all the major goals you want to meet, places you want to visit and things you still want to do in your life.
Creating a bucket list can give you the motivation you need to work harder towards your dreams. It can give you a sense of direction and a great feeling of fulfilment as you tick things off your list.
When does a dream become a reality? When you write it down!
GIVE LIFE TO YOUR PURPOSE
There are a rare few who seem to soar into the purpose stratosphere, where the view is breath-taking and the returns rewarding. But that’s them, and this is you. Where are you? You are in the reality that there are bills to pay, kids to raise, being busy with daily farming activities, corporate ladders to climb and dirty jobs to do.
Purpose can guide life decisions, influence behaviour, shape goals, offer a sense of direction and create meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation – meaningful, satisfying work. For others, their purpose lies in their responsibilities to their family or friends. Others seek meaning through spirituality or religious beliefs. Some people may find their purpose clearly expressed in all these aspects of life.
Purpose will be unique for everyone. What you identify as your path, may be different from others. Your purpose can actually shift and change throughout your life in response to the evolving priorities and fluctuations of your own experiences.
The best advice is to know your purpose. Do things that connect to your purpose every day. Do that for enough days and the way to purposeful living will ‘magically’ emerge. The path emerges as you move forward. Stop talking yourself into ‘responsible living’ and start talking yourself into meaningful work that gives you a chance to do what you love as often as possible. Stop trying to please other people or to be someone else.
It’s better to be an original version of yourself, rather than be an exact duplicate of someone else. Focus on what you want first, before you think about how to do it. Anything is possible as long as you set your mind, heart and soul to it. Create the life you want and live it with intent, not by neglect.
LIVE EVERY DAY WITH A FRESH NEW START
Don’t be held back by what happened yesterday, the day before, the week before, the year before or even decades ago. Life is short, so live in the present moment. We live two lives – in our thoughts and in our experience of the present moment. Freedom comes as our life in thoughts diminishes and our experience of the present moment predominates. Notice the world around you, the small things, and be thankful for them.
Living for the moment and taking notice of the small things will help you cultivate more positive experiences. It’s much harder than it sounds, but try to remember that worrying today won’t change what happens tomorrow. Every second you spend worrying about the future is a second of the present wasted, because worrying takes you out of this moment and transports you into the realm of future possibilities. It’s impossible to live in the moment and worry at the same time.
Instead, if circumstances are troubling, focus on ways you can solve an existing problem now or otherwise improve the current moment. Spending time focused on what may happen down the line robs you of fully experiencing what is happening now. Life in the moment moves quickly – don’t miss it.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
Living your best life is learning that working on yourself from the inside first is the best thing that you can do for yourself and to drop all needs of external sources or validation.
Life is special and all of us are constantly striving for that true state of bliss, true joy and happiness because that’s what you are put on this planet to experience. You are not supposed to be here just to be in misery. You are supposed to experience all emotions and working on getting to these high emotions is literally everyone’s life work.
Getting honest with yourself is living your best life, because it will help you become more self-aware and be able to do things for yourself that need to be done in order to grow.
There is so much you don’t know out there and so much to be experienced, and this is what makes life worth living. As you live on earth, remember to love life. It’s the only way you have to live. Remember – you have only one life to live. Live it to its full potential – with purpose.
