There comes a time when you realize that your life can be so much more, that point when you suddenly desire to make the most out of your existence.
For a lucky few we find our path into fulfillment but for the most, we settle for less than we can be. This for me is one of life’s greatest tragedies.
In this article, I will be sharing with you the 20 keys to living your best life.
1. Take responsibility for your life: Taking responsibility for your life is the first step to living your best life. The choices and decisions you make become the blueprint with which your entire life is built. No one else has this power over your life.
2. Deal with unresolved hurt and pain: Holding on to past hurt is an unhealthy way to live. It hinders your ability to heal, your ability to move on, and robs you of the opportunity of abundant life. If you must make progress in life then you must heal from and let go of the past.
3. Prioritize your emotional and mental health: To live your best life you must have a healthy mind. A state where your emotional and mental health is balanced, thus allowing you to be productive and at your best. Anything that affects this balance affects the quality of your life.
4. Know yourself: Who are you? What makes you, you? Why do you act the way you do? What is your philosophy about life as a whole? Why are you here? Having these answers will better position you to live your best life.
5. Live Intentionally: Leave nothing to chance, be intentional about your choices, recognizing that “You, and only you, are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are.” Rachel Hollis
6. Be decisive: A lot of persons never get to their fullest potential in life because of indecision. This indecisiveness is mostly born out of the fear of making wrong choices. What we often don’t know is that “A wrong decision is often less disastrous than indecision.” Bernard Langer
7. Take risks: Life is inherently risky to avoid risks is to avoid living. If you must live your best life, risk-taking has to become part of your core attributes. “Risks may make you win, or they will make you learn. Either of the benefits is worth daring for.” Israel More.
8. Set smart goals: Wishful thinking will not get you far, intentionally setting and following SMART goals will. It’s not enough to know what you want, knowing how you can get it and committing to that process are pertinent to achieving success. If you can see it you can achieve it, if you can make it a SMART goal you are halfway there. For more on smart goals click here.
9. Invest in yourself: Investing in yourself speaks to investing in your personal growth and development. This is important because “Success is not what you get but who you become.” Asad Meah. The more you improve your life the higher your chances of living at your best.
10. Practice diligence: It is easy to set goals and desire growth, following through on the plans is usually the hassle. Diligence is that tool that takes you from desire to fulfillment. Amidst distractions, diligence keeps the focus. “Few things are impossible to diligence. Everything eventually yields to it.” Antiphanes
11. Be accountable: To be accountable is to be answerable to someone else for your choices and actions. Accountability creates an enabling environment for growth and success. To succeed you must be accountable to yourself and others.
12. Build and maintain the right relationships: Building and maintaining healthy relationships has its benefits. You find yourself achieving more when you have good personal and professional relationships. These shared connections we have with others are what give us the opportunity for a full life.
13. Always show empathy: Learning to be kind, generous, patient, forgiving, compassionate can help you develop high levels of empathy. “Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle, so please be kind and polite.” Plato. Showing empathy will help you lead more intimate and successful relationships.
14. Respect people’s boundaries: Everyone has a way and manner in which they desire to be interacted with. People will naturally be more comfortable and productive in relationships that recognize and respect these desires.
15. Love and allow yourself to be loved: The secret ingredient to an abundant and happy life is love. According to John Updike, we are most alive when we love. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage. You won’t live your best life otherwise.
16. Use your voice: “What is the source of our first suffering? It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak. It was born at the moment when we accumulated silent things within us.” Gaston Bachelard.
17. Be genuinely grateful: Learn to identify the blessings in your life and be grateful for them. You may not have all you want but you have something. Be grateful for what you have and what you don’t have but need will gravitate towards you.
18. Be generous: When you give you do more for yourself than the other person. Whatever you are lacking or want to experience more of, give it. “Giving always opens the way for receiving” Florence Shinn
19. be humble: Don’t think too highly of yourself than you ought to and there will be no limit to the heights that you attain in life.
20. Enjoy your life: “The purpose of life is to live it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for a newer and richer experience.” Eleanor Roosevelt. Enjoy your life, you only live once.
I hope these 20 secrets help you to unlock and live your very best life.