How to Live Better

I’ve studied a lot about human behavior. It started with a self-help addiction when I was miserable and stuck in my corporate job, a relationship and a life that wasn’t the life I knew I could have. I had everything I was “supposed to” want, but I knew something wasn’t right — I knew there had to be a way to live better.

The Problem

I don’t believe that any of us are “meant” or “destined” to be or do anything. Each of us has to make a decision about what we want to become. When I was living a life that was a series of sacrifices to support things I didn’t want, I was miserable.

Over the course of my journey, I’ve worked my ass off to make my life what I KNOW it can be, and along the way, I’ve learned a lot about how to be happy. We all want money, some want fame, most want to be liked, but we all just want to lay our head on the pillow at night and feel like we had a good day, go to sleep happy and excited to get up the next day.

Happiness never, ever comes from achievement. Never. But we constantly pursue achievement believing it will create happiness. And it never, ever works. So we ignorantly believe that if we could just achieve more, we’d be happier.

That’s just like a drug addict. After a while, alcohol doesn’t give you the same feeling, so you move on to something else. Then something else, and on and on. We publicly condemn, and even outlaw drug use, but nobody talks about the exact same cycle that makes a majority of humans on this earth live a miserable or (at best) mediocre life.

How to Live More

What we need is to actually act IN ALIGNMENT with becoming the person we want to become. Is what you are doing right now moving you in that direction? Right now, your reading this blog post, but what about the next thing you do? Is it going to move you in the direction you want to go?

Don’t worry if you don’t exactly where you want to go. You just have to ask yourself if the things you are doing every minute, hour, day and week, are moving you in a direction you REALLY WANT to go. Whatever it is, it doesn’t even have to work out the way you expect it to. It just has to move you in that direction.

It’s not really that complicated. It’s not necessarily about figuring out some grandiose life purpose. You just have to want something and take steps that move you toward it. Some things are no-brainers — maybe you want more money, a husband, a wife, a better job… whatever. You want something but if your actions aren’t aligned with ANYTHING, you won’t be happy.

You can always find peace inside yourself by meditating and eliminating outside attachment, but to really thrive, you need more. You need to take actions that are aligned with what you really want out of life.

What we generally do in our world is to accept mediocrity and then take actions that move us towards more mediocrity. It’s not about the result; it’s about the actions that you take to move toward something greater.

Image Credit: Photo by Drew Hays on Unsplash

More Like This: