Have you ever stared in the mirror thinking that your life would be more by now?
Do you lay awake at night wondering what happened to the amazing life you planned?
Do you feel stuck and aren’t sure how to get out of the rut?
Know that you’re not alone. So many people out there are in the same vicious cycle – it goes a little something like this:
You dream of a better life – you want, you envision more – but in the end you decide that you can’t do it. Either it’s not the right time, you don’t think you’re good enough, you’re worried about the bad things that MAY happen, you don’t think you’re ready, or you’re concerned about what other people will think.
And every single one of those excuses is fear-based. Yes, I said excuses, and you’ll realize that soon enough. Sure, they sound like a good reason to put it off or give up now, but when you look back on those decisions in five years, they won’t sound so good, and they’ll fill you with regret (sorry for the tough love, but I know, because I’ve been there plenty of times.)
So the question is: How do you live your best life right now?
Because there’s no doubt that the time is now.
If you keep going down this path, you’ll continue putting off everything that excites you for the reliability of comfort.
And you’ll never grow. And you’ll never live the life you want to live. The life that makes you happy.
And in six months, you’re going to find yourself in front of the mirror again, asking the same ol’ question.
So what do you have to do?
Note: Read towards the bottom for some great quotes on Living Your Best Life.
How to Start Focusing on Your Best Life
You have to make sacrifices, ask for help, get active in your goals, and prioritize what’s important to you.
You also need to focus on the present moment and stop worrying about the past or the future.
You’re going to have to be selfish. And that’s okay, because it’s to focus on yourself and your happiness. But sometimes that can be difficult – because to say “yes” to this, you have to say “no” to other things, including people you care about. And that can be difficult.
For example, you may not be able to sit and watch TV every night, you may have to skip your weekly happy hour with your friends, and you may not be able to do everything others want you to do.
But these are (often short-term) sacrifices that are well worth it to live the life you want.
8 Steps to Take Now to Live Your Best Life
It’s time to be bold and live the life you’ve always wanted.
Remember, YOU deserve to live your best life.
You deserve to be happy.
You deserve all of those hidden dreams and aspirations that put you to sleep every night.
But you’re going to have to make a choice to go after them no matter what. A choice to not give up, even when you’re scared and full of self-doubt. A choice to not let what others say or do dictate what you say or do.
This is YOUR best life—no one else’s.
Read on to start living your best life today.
1. Clear Your Mind
Sure, you should clear your mind to start this exercise (specifically steps 2-4), but it’s a great idea to have a way to clear your mind daily.
It helps with focus, energy, flow, positivity, happiness, stress, and so much more that will help you along your journey.
So what are some tips you can use to clear your mind?
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Exercise
- Massages
- Staying active
- Take a walk outside
- Positive visualization
Pick a few of these and start doing them every day. Even a 15-minute walk or 15 minutes of meditation can help tremendously.
2. Decide What You Want in YOUR Life
It’s time to step back and think about the things you really want in your life.
What do you want right now?
What have you been dreaming about?
What exciting things have you wanted to do in your life that have kept you up at night?
How about thinking of the future: Where do you want to be five years from now? How about ten?
Do you still want to be stuck in a miserable job? Still living in the same place? Still stuck and trying to get out of this miserable rut?
Or do you want to live an epic life and do all the things you’ve always wanted to do?
Sit down with a notepad and write it all down.
And don’t hurry the process. Brainstorm on it. Meditate on it. Visualize it all.
3. Create Your Ultimate Bucket List
Now that you’ve thought about it and written it all down, it’s time to create your ultimate bucket list.
Remember, this isn’t anyone else’s. So forget about what others think.
This is all about you.
List everything you’ve thought of. Everything you’ve wanted and everything you still want.
And list what you have to do to get there.
What’s on your bucket list?
4. Prioritize Your Bucket List
You may have to make some tough decisions in prioritizing, but it’s essential.
Think of prioritizing as taking baby steps to eventually getting to everything on your list. But if you try to do too much at once, you’ll fail.
You may want many things, and you can get everything you want, but focus on one thing at a time.
Is it going to school? Starting a business? Traveling more? Starting your family? Moving to another country? Becoming a digital nomad?
You don’t have to order everything on your list for this exercise because your priorities will change. So let’s just prioritize the top 5.
And make sure you have a sprinkling of short-term and long-term at the top of your list. It won’t be much fun if everything you’re working for will take 5+ years to accomplish.
And once you complete these five items, go through this exercise again, and create a new list.
5. Set SMART Goals and Take Action
Create goals that will allow you to achieve the items on your list. For example, you might need to save money to go to Rome, lose weight to complete a triathlon, find a piano teacher to learn piano, or start learning how to create the business you’ve always wanted.
Figure out the logical steps to complete each item on your list and get busy.
“Visualize your success then take action.”
~Anonymous
Use SMART goals (as pictured above and linked below) because they’ll help you break down your goals into easy to accomplish steps all along the way.
Not only does this help ease your stress, but it also gives you a much-needed sense of accomplishment along the way.
Without accomplishments along the way of significant goals, so many give up – don’t let that be you.
Note: Here’s a great guide on creating SMART goals.
6. Take Risks, and Be Bold – Live Outside Your Comfort Zone
Some things that you want to do might make you nervous and hesitant.
And that’s how you know you’re on the right track. Because getting outside your comfort zone (and into your growth zone) can be scary.
But if you limit yourself to the things that are comfortable for you, you won’t live a full and happy life.
You’ll instead look back with regret on all the things you always wanted to do, yet never even attempted.
And you’ll shake your head at all the excuses and other things that got in the way.
7. Ignore the Noise of Others
“Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.”
Plenty of people will criticize your plans and decisions.
Many will question what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Some will even tell you that you shouldn’t.
And what’s the hardest is that many of these people will be close to you.
But the truth is, some are just trying to protect you from failure (much like your brain does), while others are simply jealous.
And some just don’t want to see you step out of the line.
But the time has come just to ignore them.
Allow the mediocre people in your life to live their mediocre lives. But please don’t allow them to drag you down to their level.
You have things to do, so you don’t have time for their silliness.
It’s easy to allow them to drag you down, but remember, nobody has been successful in their hopes and dreams without going down this same path.
8. Be Brutal When Scheduling Your Time
How you spend your time each day is the ultimate determiner of the quality of your life.
View your time like it’s the most crucial thing in your life.
Plan your time as if you’re planning the most important trip of your life.
Go to bed with a detailed plan of what you’re going to do the following day.
Your goals and plans are simply a guide for how to spend your time.
If you’re not focused on how you’re spending your time, little things that don’t matter nearly as much will continually get in your way.
Set aside the time you need to focus on your path to living your best life, and stop letting these other things slow you down or stop you in your tracks.
Here are a Few Live Your Best Life Quotes
We all love quotes, don’t we?
Well, at least I do.
So I dug up some of my favs for you.
“To live, to TRULY live, we must be willing to RISK. To be nothing in order to find everything. To leap before we look.”
“While grief is not fun to deal with, it is a valuable tool to bring about amazing change and growth. The key to this deep level of learning is attitude. How will you respond to the pain you’re feeling?”
“Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.”
~Grace Hansen
“There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.”
~Oprah Winfrey
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
~Robert F. Kennedy
“Take life by its throat, do something. Stop being f$*@ scared.”
~Gary Vaynerchuk
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
~Joe Lewis
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
~Suzy Kassem
“Don’t go through life, grow through life.”
~Eric Butterworth
“Think about it: What’s the worst thing that can happen to you if you just totally go for it?”
~Grant Cardone
What Are You Waiting For? It’s Time to Live Your Best Life Now
You could look back over your life, full of regret for all the things you wanted to do, but never took the chance.
You could look back over all of your excuses and realize that, while at the time they sounded good (we’re all just looking for a reason to return to our comfort zone), they don’t age well.
You could look back and wish you had a do-over – but do-overs aren’t possible. We all have one life to live on this beautiful planet.
Or you could decide, right now, to live your best life, not letting anything get in your way because it’s never too late to start living your best life.
It’s up to you to wring as much life from your life as you can.
There’s no way to add time to your life. It’s constantly flowing away from you.
So decide today – what are you waiting for?