Six Tips for a More Fulfilled Life
Category: Priority Focus
To have a more fulfilling life, it is helpful for you to try to run your life rather than having it “run you.” Here are some tips to help you do that.
Know and Live your Values
First of all, it is important for you to know what your values are. Values drive the way you live your life. They are the backbone that will help you make decisions when there is no roadmap. Values are personal, and they should be yours alone. Take some time and write them down.
It’s a challenge to continually live your values. That’s why it is important to write them down and review them regularly. It has been said that people judge you by your actions, while you judge yourself by your intentions. Make sure your actions and intentions match!
Have Goals
Once you’ve articulated your values, it’s time for you to think about your life goals. Some of these are long term, and some can be short term. The harsh reality is that only about 2% of everyone in the world has goals. Yet goals are instrumental in helping people achieve what they want. But even more than that, it is important to have goals that are BIG. It’s true that if you write goals down, you’ll be much more likely to accomplish them. So try it. See what happens!
When you have goals, you have focus. They will give you direction and purpose. They enable you to work your plan, rather than planning your work. They give you a greater sense of control and excitement for your life.
Live in Balance
Values and goals are lived best when you have balance in your life. Fulfillment in one area fuels each other area. Too much emphasis in one area can drain the others. It’s important to assess your balance, from time to time, and to take steps to assure that your life is well rounded physically, emotionally, intellectually, attitudinally and purposefully.
Live in the Moment
When you believe that only YOU control your attitude, and you combine it with recognizing your ability to live in the moment, you can truly control your enjoyment of life. Too many people live in the past or the future, and it inhibits their abililty to enjoy the actual moment they’re experiencing. You have a CHOICE to be happy or sad, a CHOICE to worry or anticipate, a CHOICE to be positive or negative. What is yours?
Be Passionate
Lastly, it is important that you fill your life with passion. Be passionate about who you are, what you have, and what you do. If you don’t have passion for these things, you are just walking through your life. Knowing that your attitude is your choice, you can also have a choice about being passionate.
Be Willing to Change
When some part of your life doesn’t seem to be working, you should be willing to make changes. Changing is difficult, but a lackluster life may be even more difficult over the long run! Figure out what it is you want to change, set a goal to do it, work that plan, then celebrate your new fulfillment!
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How to Determine Your Values:
When you write your values, write them in the present. Here are some examples: “I am financially secure,” “I add value,” “I am physically fit.” Here are some areas that you might consider for articulating your values: finances, community, family, relationships, work, education, health, and attitude.
The best way to set about articulating your values is to take some private time, and write down as many of your values as you can. They will start to fall into groups or categories with a major value defining them. They’ll fall into values with clarifying statements. Here’s an example:
I am financially secure
–I pay my bills in advance
–I save x% of my income
–I have X% of my salary in reserve
–I review my insurance annually
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How to Write Goals
Goals should describe the result, or what success looks like, rather than the way you will get there. Don’t say, “I will be on the ABC diet for 3 weeks,” because that describes the means, rather than the end. Goals should also be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound. Instead of saying, “I want to lose weight,” it’s more effective to say, “I will lose 10 pounds by May 1. By giving yourself definite targets with specific dates, your chances of meeting or exceeding your goals will increase.
Some of the goals might drive directly from your values; as an example, if your value is to save x% of your income, and you are not there yet, That could be one of your goals.
I like to have my clients vision themselves at age ninety, sitting on their front porches, rocking happily, thinking back on their lives, smiling over what they’d accomplished. If that were you, what would those accomplishments be? To put a child through college? To run a marathon? To visit every state in the US?
