Top 10 tips for living your best life
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- Prioritize your health. You cannot be your best or help others if you’re mentally or physically sick. It is never selfish to share your feelings, exercise regularly, or visit a doctor. This is how we put on our own oxygen mask before helping others. It is the foundation for everything that follows.
- Create what excites you (not others). Not being true to one’s self is the number one regret of the dying. When deciding what you want to do, never let a family member, friend, society, or logic decide for you. Follow your heart or die with regret.
- Take time off. Working too much is the number two regret of the dying. So enjoy downtime on weekends, nights, and periodic vacations. Don’t work extra hard for money you don’t need. Enjoy the limited time we’re given instead.
- Keep a calendar. You can’t spend your time with purpose without keeping a life calendar. Failure to keep or outsourcing your calendar is a great way to let others decide how, where, or who you spend your time with, which is how we end up unhappy.
- Swallow your pride. Hey, you over there. You’re not that special. You’re one of billions of humans, most of which have done much more impressive stuff than you. So please, suppress your ego and accept your averageness. You are a social creature and not the exception. So act like it, and you’ll enjoy life a whole lot more.
- Count your blessings. This is hands down the fastest way to happiness, regardless of circumstances. Harvard research proves this.
- Stay curious. Formal education is overrated. Asking lots of questions everyday is not. So ask questions, even big, broad, and hard ones. Seek truth. Talk to people smarter than you. Read books. Watch documentaries. Enroll in classes. Learn something new at an old age. Then learn something else. Do this again, and again, and again. This keeps the mind active and helps us grow, which is a huge factor in living large and finding fulfillment.
- Invest in relationships. You don’t want to live or die alone. Like physical fitness, you must spend time on relationships if you want lots of friends and family. At the same time, you must understand that saying “no” to others is saying yes to yourself. True friends and family will support you in that regard, so long as you’re taking an interest in them, initiating social encounters, and reciprocating.
- Be adventurous. Travel the world. Go skydiving. Do something that scares you. Visit the “wrong” side of town. Talk to people that look, act, and think differently than you. Do at least one daily thing that makes you uncomfortable. Doing so challenges your beliefs even better than a formal education.
- Invoke God. Sorry atheists and agnostics. You’re not gonna like this, But prayer, mediation, and recognition of a higher power does wonders for the soul. You might think it’s a placebo effect. But it doesn’t matter. Invoking God works.