How To Live Your ‘BEST LIFE’
(The Ultimate 5-Step Guide)
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE': Step#1
How do you want to live your life?
What makes you truly happy? How do you want to feel every morning when you wake up? What things are particularly important to you? What would your best year look like? Or in other words, what would your everyday life have to look like for you to say that you are living your ‘BEST LIFE’?
Nowadays, many of us forget that we have a choice. But that’s exactly what we have. You can choose and decide on how you want to live your (best) life. You can create your own lifestyle and surround yourself with the things that bring you joy or are genuinely close to your heart. You just need a way to put them all together…
In our fast-paced and modern world, we are all usually swamped with the demands of life. Our days are full of responsibility, appointments, and obligations. Crammed with things we have to do, things we should do, and things that we actually take time for and that we want to do. Busyness is celebrated and encouraged in our society as if it makes us more worthy and important.
For some time, however, more and more of us have been wondering whether this ideology still corresponds to our values, which means, whether more things, more commitment, more everything is always better? In this context, the term “balance” appears more and more frequently all around the world.
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE': Step#2
What Is Your Lifestyle?
We all live our lives in a certain way, and with the freedom to choose, it is up to us to decide how we want to live it. The way you live is your lifestyle. It is based on your general view of life, your cultural background, your beliefs, and what is important to you, and it is controlled by your thoughts, decisions, and actions.
Your lifestyle is, therefore, reflected in your daily behavior and habits. For instance, it’s what you eat, what you drink, how you like to spend your free time, how active you are, or how much and how well you sleep. It’s how you interact with people, how you express your emotions, how well you deal with stressful situations, how ambitious you are pursuing your goals or your sense of belonging, and your purpose in life…
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE': Step#3
What Is A Balanced Life?
Living a balanced life strives to put a certain order in everything that consciously or unconsciously fills your everyday life to get the best out of every single day. If you dedicate yourself to a balanced lifestyle, your goal is the highest imaginable quality of life.
It’s about improving and maintaining your overall well-being, health, and happiness by determining what is most important to you and then shaping your life accordingly. It’s about how you use your time and energy and dedicate it to certain areas of your life to attain a happy and rich life.
Simply put, finding “balance” in life is an approach, or rather a philosophy of life, that gives you clear guidance on how to live your ‘BEST LIFE.’
"Living a balanced life means finding and maintaining well-being in all aspects of your life to live a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life."
Balance is often misunderstood as making all areas equal and giving equal weight to all areas. Many of us believe that it is impossible to find a balance because there just isn’t enough time and energy in a day. It just feels like an unsolvable challenge to balance everything that life throws at us on a given day or week.
From this misguided perspective, the idea of balance becomes mistakenly synonymous with “doing it all.” But let me tell you something, your day has enough time and you do have enough energy to live a balanced life. Because, finding balance doesn’t come from giving equal weight to all areas, and you definitely don’t have to do it all.
Instead, it’s a matter of your priorities. First of all, you focus on the areas of your life that give you the most pleasure, you’re passionate about, and that fulfill you, so the areas that obviously deserve most of your time and energy. Once you’ve determined what you want more of in your life, you can choose to give less to other areas, because that’s exactly the point. You have a choice! Finding well-being, health, and happiness comes from focusing on the things that build you up and boost your vitality while, at the same time, eliminating the things that drain you and stress you out.
The next step is to achieve the highest level of well-being in the areas that are most meaningful to you by investing your time and energy in the most optimal way for you. It doesn’t mean that you should neglect individual areas completely. Instead, it means that without feeling guilty, you can simply spend a lot more time in areas that are closer to your heart.
"To live a balanced life, the goal is to achieve well-being in each of the seven aspects of life. Neglecting one area completely can hurt other areas. But in return, every little bit of effort that you invest in one area of your life has a domino effect on all the others and thus a positive impact on your entire life."
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE'
The
7
'Best Life' Areas...
Physical - Your Body
When we think of our bodies, many of us first think about appearance or weight. In today’s world, attractiveness plays a significant role in our society. Unfortunately, our health is lagging behind. But on the flip side, this development means that more and more of us are interested in their physical condition and thus inevitably leads them to the topic of health.
So, there is an upside to this. Being slim and attractive can be a nice side effect of taking care of your body, but the goal should be to be healthy and fit enough so that you don’t have to say “no” to anything. Your physical health is the condition of your body, taking into consideration everything from the absence of disease to your fitness level. It can be affected by your lifestyle (eating habits, level of physical activity, and behavior), your environment (surroundings and exposure to factors such as sunlight or toxic substances), your human biology (genetics and physiology), and availability of healthcare service.
It’s no mystery that taking care of your physical health is extremely important to your overall well-being and happiness. The first step towards physical wellness is to fuel yourself with proper energy.
Already a tiny adjustment of your diet can make you feel more energized in the morning, boost your general mood, and show you how you would benefit from a more balanced diet. Next, support your body with physical activity and fitness. Start with regular walks, ride a bike, go swimming, or try out different sports. It doesn’t have to be a marathon, but every bit of effort towards exercise counts. If you found a sport or training program you genuinely enjoy, stick to it. And trust me, there is something for everyone.
The combination of healthy eating and exercise can ensure that you reach and hold your ideal body weight. You can also treat your body by getting appropriate periods of rest and sleep, transforming bad habits such as smoking into healthier habits and taking care of yourself through proper hygiene.
Being fit and healthy doesn’t happen overnight, but every little change you make is a step in the right direction. Besides, while all areas of your life are equally important to your overall well-being, living your best life without a healthy and fit body is arguably impossible.
That’s why your journey to “how to live your best life” should start with taking care of your body. But, Hakuna Matata, you can kick it off with little things, keep it simple, and be kind to yourself. Every little effort pays off, trust me.Just don’t wait until it’s too late. Start now.
Mental - Your Thoughts
Your physical and mental health are strongly connected. Taking care of your physical health is scientifically shown to improve mental well-being, and vice versa. A balanced diet, getting physically active, proper sleep, and cutting back on unhealthy habits such as smoking, alcohol, and drugs are some of the key physical health factors that can promote mental well-being.
However, taking care of your mind explicitly is definitely as important as taking care of your body. You can keep your mind open, informed, and engaged, by challenging yourself intellectually, cognitively, and creatively. You can do this, for instance, by learning a new skill or expand existing ones. You could become a more critical thinker and develop your own ideas, views, and opinions. You could improve your ability to challenge yourself to see all sides of an issue or expose yourself to new ideas, people, and beliefs that are different from your own.
Mental wellness is nourished by engaging in activities that promote growth, curiosity, and identity development. It can happen by pursuing your interests, exploring new hobbies, reading an eye-opening new book, practicing mindfulness, planning out your daily tasks to keep you motivated, or setting realistic goals that you can work toward every day.
By doing so, you’re able to strengthen your self-esteem and to develop superior study skills. Further you can improve your time and responsibility management, enhance your ability to cope with adversity, learn to manage your emotions constructively and ask for help when needed.
Besides, if you simply ask yourself the questions more often, what do I actually want? What do I need to live my best life? This little “act” allows you to become more aware, which in turn will make you act more consciously, which will eventually allow you to become happier and live your best life.
Emotional – Your Feelings
How good am I feeling today? How happy am I with myself today? Can I do something today that makes me more comfortable? For your emotional well-being, it is essential to ask yourself such questions. It is not about criticism, but about becoming more aware of your emotions and reactions. If you understand where your emotions come from, you can influence them positively and express your feelings more appropriately.
In addition to your perception, your emotional wellness is strongly influenced by your environment. Having a support system, like family and friends, is essential to make you feel cared for and loved, knowing there is someone else that cares about your well-being. It can also be a great feeling to support another person, regardless of whether they’re a stranger or someone you care about.
By balancing giving and receiving, you ensure inner peace and contentment. Your environment can refer to your immediate surroundings as well. It is crucial that you feel comfortable at home, in your city, at work, or even on vacation. Nature performs miracles for your emotions. Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. So, for a quick fix for your emotional well-being take a hike, invite friends camping, or just take a walk in the park and enjoy the sun. Could being more in nature be part of your best life?
Occupational – Your Vocation
Do you like what you do everyday? Since your career or vocation will likely take up most of your time, it is imperative that you do something that offers some amusement. When we meet people, one of the first questions we ask is, “What do you do?” Answering the question with enthusiasm is when you are doing something meaningful and fulfilling to you.
It’s not just about paid occupations but also includes life roles such as domestic duties, volunteer work, community participation, school, or other activities. Occupational well-being refers to feeling good about the work you do. It’s about finding a career that challenges you yet allows you work/life balance. It’s also about building and maintaining positive relationships with colleagues, managing work-related stress, the safety of the workplace environment, and the climate of the worksite.
People who enjoy their employment have a greater sense of meaning and purpose, and when your occupational wellness is secure, you will present as happier, healthier, and more successful. Consequently, to live your best life, it is essential that you find a “work” that you genuinely enjoy. But to get started, just begin thinking about what you’re passionate about.
Spiritual – Your Connection
Spirituality, in a broader sense, does not necessarily mean being “religious” as defined by the “mainstream” religions. It encompasses a variety of beliefs and practices and could be anything from taking a walk in the woods to making a trip to church on Sunday. It is whatever allows you to recharge your batteries and to refocus.
Spirituality is primarily about listening to your inner self. Your body, mind, and spirit need regular time to refuel. It can be done in the form of yoga, meditation, building awareness through journaling, or simply just being quiet while listening to relaxing or inspiring music. A spiritual perspective can give you a sense of belonging and purpose in life.
Even if you are exuberantly happy with your job and you experience success in many areas of your life, you still might feel unsatisfied. Looking for spiritual wellness can help you to explore your inner self and find who you truly are, what you really believe in, what your real talents are, what you genuinely love and want to be, and ultimately, what your connection is with the rest of humanity.
In other words, spirituality is what can crown your best life. Ultimately, it is the area that can bring you clarity and can tell you what your best life is and why it’s worth striving to live your best life.
Financial – Your Wealth
Whether we like it or not, finance plays an essential role in our world and our lives. It includes your career, work, or sources of income and also your budget, savings, investments, and overall financial security. People who have concerns and worries about their future and financial security can fall into a highly stressful cycle, which consequently has a negative effect on all the seven areas of life.
Finances can also have a massive impact on your lifestyle and important decisions. For instance, what work you do and how many hours you work. Where you live, how you can afford to spend your time, how much quality time you spend with your family, or what kind of leisure activities you can enjoy.
The key to personal financial wellness is to feel in control and to know that you have enough money to have options. Start simple by creating a budget that enables you to cover your current expenses. Once your budget is in place, think about tackling other financial goals, such as saving for your dream vacation, buying a home, paying off your debt, or securing your pension. Ask yourself, what do I really need and how much money do I need to live my best life?
Social – Your Relationships
Life is so much more exhilarating, more rewarding, and worth living when you share it with people who are close to you. It is vital to invest time in your relationships and maintain healthy relationships with people who bring positive energy to your life and help you grow. You can build a network of friends, business contacts, work partners, and hobby buddies, or just have some people around you that you like and trust.
Social wellness is about finding a balance between satisfying your social desires and taking time for yourself. If you’re having a hard time talking to people, work on your social skills, and practice effective communication. Conversely, you may want to rethink some toxic relationships and ask yourself if it might be better to end them.
If you´ve always been inspired to contribute something positive to this world, get involved in your community, join volunteer groups, and ministries. It can help you connect with others, giving back and showing gratitude. Even if you enjoy being alone, your best life is guaranteed to be better if you share emotional moments with others every once in a while.
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE': Step#4
What Does A Balanced Life Look Like?
Let’s illustrate how prioritizing and an individual life balance could look like, and how every little bit of effort that you invest in one area of your life has an immediate positive effect in all others.
Michelle has been happily married for many years. She has two children, a full-time job, and also takes care of her sick mother. What makes her most happy in life is spending time with her kids and her husband. She is proud of her family, her organized household on a good day, she loves binge watching series and occasionally reading a good book, and sometimes tries to volunteer at school.
All in all, she is satisfied with her work, her family lives a comfortable life, and they even take a yearly family vacation. She used to exercise regularly, but due to her busy everyday life, she prefers to concentrate on more sedentary activities, which has recently had a noticeable effect on her fitness. Further, her friends are particularly relevant to her, she feels determined to maintain old friendships and every now and then find new ones.
Michelle’s life balance focuses very clearly on her emotional and social well-being. She invests most of her time and energy intending to maintain and increase it. In the other areas, she has also found a balance in which she says that she is satisfied with herself.
Only her physical well-being seems to have left the balance somewhat, as her fitness has noticeably deteriorated recently. Her physical well-being is not a priority for Michelle, but the new imbalance can negatively affect other areas. Fortunately, an improvement can have a positive effect on all others.
"Your physical health and mental health are strongly connected. Taking care of your physical health is scientifically shown to improve your mental health, and vice versa."
Living a balanced life means that you automatically ensure a measure of well-being in relation to your body. It is up to you how much time and energy you invest in it. But if we’re honest, your physical health plays an undeniable role in keeping a certain balance. You don’t have the option of spending your time as you please if you are unhealthy.
Many of us think we can burn the candle at both ends, work many hours, sleep little, eat junk food, get hardly any exercise, and still can function at a high level. If you are young, you may be able to get away with it for a while, but eventually, this lifestyle will catch up with the best of us.
Having a strong defense is particularly important these days, but our immune system weakens naturally as we age. As a result, a person living an unhealthy lifestyle has an increased chance of getting affected by diseases. Fortunately, you can pay attention to your health and make sure that you can meet your own needs and fit enough to take on the daily challenges of life. Even better, you’re able to take care of your body to ensure you can live your ‘BEST LIFE.’
"Living healthy doesn't mean living a life of sacrifices and limitation. It's not about making the taking care of your body your purpose in life. Instead, it means making small positive adjustments that you're healthy and fit enough so that you don't have to say "no" to anything."
For example, let’s imagine you are not in the best shape physically, like Michelle. In this case, you might have a buzz in your head that you should hit the gym every day because that’s what others do. But if you don’t like it there, then just let it go. You don’t have to attend classes or lift weights every day to be healthy. And you don’t have to make your physical well-being a top priority in your life.
However, there might be some reasons to ensure that you’re fit enough that you don´t have to miss anything. For instance, if you love to spend time with your friends, like Michelle, and your friends play tennis once a week, you definitely don’t want to sit it out just because you’re not in shape. So, it might make sense to find some physical activity that you enjoy, and to invest some time and energy into getting fit, then you´ll be able to join your friends and spend more quality time with them.
Your focus is, therefore, on your social well-being, but to improve it, you have to invest in your physical well-being. However, by taking up a physical activity and improving your physical well-being, you don’t only improve your social well-being. It also has a positive effect on your emotional well-being, as you share new experiences with your friends, and you can now have fun playing tennis together and not sitting it out.
Your mental well-being will be promoted by the challenge of learning a new activity. Your newly gained energy can make you feel happier at work, which satisfies your occupational well-being, and your better performance there is going to be reflected in your financial well-being. Last but not least, your newly gained physical consciousness can make you spiritually receptive to new things and opportunities. And the list of positive effects goes on and on …
You don’t have to do things that you should do. You should do things you want to do. And to do things you want to do, you sometimes have to do things first, that you don’t really want to do. But even if it is not always easy, every small investment in one of the seven ‘BEST LIFE’ areas pays off.
So, if you find that you are paying little or no attention to one of them, it might be worthwhile investing some time and energy to let your whole (best) life benefit from it. In the end, all your investments ensure the achieving and maintaining of your own unique life balance. It is up to you to get the best out of it, live truly happy and fulfilled, and live your ‘BEST LIFE.’
How To Live Your Best Life
Why
To Get Started?
- Increase Your Charisma & Enhance Your Physical Appearance
- Your Ideal Body Weight - Lose, Maintain, or Gain -
- Get A Strong Immune System & Combat Diseases, Injury, And Aging
- Reduce Stress, Get Positive & Boost Your Energy
- Be Perseverant & More Self-Disciplined
- Happy Family & Friends
- Feel More Relaxed & Get A Good Night's Sleep
- Become A Role Model & Inspire Others
- Reach Your Dreams & Live Happily and Fulfilled
-
Increase Your Charisma
& Enhance Your Physical Appearance -
Your Ideal Body Weight
- Lose, Maintain, or Gain - -
Get A Strong Immune System
& Combat Diseases, Injury, And Aging -
Reduce Stress, Get Positive
& Boost Your Energy -
Be Perseverant
& More Self-Disciplined -
Happy Family
& Friends -
Feel More Relaxed
& Get A Good Night's Sleep -
Become A Role Model
& Inspire Others -
Reach Your Dreams
& Live Happily and Fulfilled
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE': Step#5
How To Use Balance To Achieve Well-being In Every Aspect Of Your Life?
To exploit the full potential of a balanced lifestyle you can additionally balance each of the seven areas individually. It is the easiest way to achieve well-being in every aspect of your life and benefit from this approach every single day.
We all know best what’s good or bad for us, and most of the time, we know exactly whether we should be doing it or not. In a world full of temptations, it’s up to you to decide which values you follow and which goals you strive to achieve.
By defining your principles and your very own idea of well-being, for each of the seven areas, you can build an inner ‘BEST LIFE’ compass, which, if calibrated well, navigates you through your everyday life and keeps you on a “balanced” and ‘BEST LIFE’ path.
"You can achieve well-being in every aspect of your life by balancing your thoughts, decisions, and actions. It's about defining your values and goals to build an inner compass that guides your behavior throughout life. A 'BEST LIFE' Compass that keeps you on a balanced path where you can truly enjoy your life, live with no regrets, and that makes you perpetually happy."
By clearly defining your values and goals, it becomes much easier to take control of your life. If you know what you want and how you want to live, you can think purposefully, make thoughtful and wise decisions, acting accordingly. It is easier for you to be able to control your behavior, to say no and stick to no if you don’t want something, or genuinely enjoy it, that is if you wish.
Many of us never take this step. They walk through live with no real vision of what they want out of it. They wander around with no zest for life with little or no reason to resist temptation. Consequently, they often have a guilty conscience and cannot enjoy wholeheartedly. As a result, they cannot find balance and therefore, no sense of well-being in the individual areas of their lives.
"Life is often black and white. But life offers you a colorful array of opportunities with many spectacular colors to choose from to enrich your lifestyle. The greatest satisfaction usually comes from enjoying the entire spectrum and balancing it out. And the best thing is, it´s never too late to start cultivating a balanced life and making up for lost time."
Once you have an idea of how you set your priorities between the seven areas of your life, you can start thinking about how your personal best possible well-being looks in each of them. With this definition, it is particularly important, to be honest with yourself. The goal is to develop a realistic idea of how your “life” should look in each of the seven areas.
You can be ambitious because it is all about improving the quality of your life. It’s all about living your ‘BEST LIFE.’ However, no need to go overboard, just find the golden standard that works for you, to calibrate your inner ‘BEST LIFE’ Compass, which will lead you to long term satisfaction in life. Accordingly, the feeling of balance means that you are on the right track to achieve your best possible well-being in one aspect. So, to make use of your inner compass, you can ask yourself kindly the question:
“How am I doing with balance?”
Let’s think about Michelle again. When she asks herself, “How am I doing with balance in the social aspect?” She will probably feel balanced and comfortable because she spends a lot of time with her family and friends according to her values and goals.
When she asks herself, “How is my physical balance doing?” She will probably feel uneasy because she has neglected her body and health and as a result, she could put a little more time and energy into her fitness. By neglecting her physical well-being, this area of her life has become out of balance. The art is to recognize these imbalances as quickly as possible and to counteract them consciously to restore a healthy balance and thus well-being.
So, what does the application look like in reality? It may sound like a big task, but in the first instance, it is about starting with little things to generate more attention for your well-being. It is about creating individual balances where you think it would be good for you, your body, mind, and soul by simply asking yourself kindly: “How am I doing with balance?”
If you had a very stressful day, you might treat yourself with a quiet evening. If you know you’ll be eating a piece of cake in the afternoon, you might start the day with a healthy breakfast. If you’ve spent a lot of money lately, you might want to cut back on spending for a week. If you are currently watching a lot of Netflix, you could read a book for a change or invite over some friends. If you have been busy lately and have worked a lot, you may treat yourself to a spontaneous weekend away. If you haven’t been particularly active in the past few months, it may be time to do more exercise over the next few weeks…
Over time, this principle internalizes in your behavior. You tend to automatically want to find balance in areas that make sense to you until your everyday life fills more and more with thoughts, decisions, and actions that harmonize with your well-being. It is never about tenaciously finding compensation for everything but living in harmony with yourself by trying to ensure a holistic balance.
After a short time, you suddenly enjoy asking yourself: “How am I doing with balance?” And by answering this question, you develop a lightness, an inner peace, and contentment. The feeling of a guilty conscience, which may accompany you from time to time, vanishes into thin air. Because, if you can honestly reply: “My balance is fine,” then you’re living in harmony with your values and goals, you feel confident and encouraged with your behavior, and you can enjoy life to the fullest. In short, you will be living your ‘BEST LIFE.’
How To Live Your 'BEST LIFE'
The Bottom Line
Why are you reading this? What motivates you? Do you just want to improve your life a bit? Or do you have unfulfilled dreams and goals? If you haven’t started working towards these yet, what has kept you from doing so? A lack of ambition or motivation? Wrong priorities? Do you lack energy and time after work?
Whatever the reason might be, engaging in a balanced lifestyle can be your golden ticket to achieving exactly what you desire. By considering all areas of your life and finding your own unique life balance, you take yourself physically and mentally to a whole new level.
This way of life finally equips you with the energy and self-confidence you need to take on your journey to success. Empowered with a healthy body and positive mindset, you get closer and closer to living a happy, rich, and fulfilling life. In short, this philosophy shows you exactly how to live your ‘BEST LIFE.’
To improve and maintain your overall well-being, health, and happiness, it is crucially important that you become consciously aware of all seven ‘BEST LIFE’ areas of your life. Eventually, it is entirely up to you to what extent you start deliberately devoting time and energy to them and whether and how you want to balance them.
However, I’ve found that the first step to living a fulfilling life is treating your body right. So, getting started with “physical.” Why? Because if you keep yourself physically fit, you have more energy, drive, and endurance. And this physical change will immediately affect your mental well-being, leading to more motivation, passion, and persistence. Which, in turn, drives you to live more mindful, keep growing, and find happiness. This is also why “physical” is in the center of the 7 ‘BEST LIFE’ areas illustration
Consequently, you can transform your whole life by taking full control of your body shape. Therefore, I recommend kicking it off by paying more attention to your body and treating it accordingly.
But whatever you start with, let the spark that inspired you to read this article ignite a fire that reveals your true potential. Don’t settle for less than the highest quality of life you can imagine. Start living your own unique, balanced lifestyle and make your life into what you have always dreamed of. Today is the day: Start living your BEST LIFE!
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