8 Essential Steps to Living Your Life to the Fullest

Hi Everyone,

I have been on this planet many for years. How many years have you been here? The longer you live the more you think about your time spent here on earth. I’m not sure about you, but I often reflect on my time by asking myself pointed and sometimes difficult questions. . . .

How much have you accomplished? How much have you enjoyed your life? At your current rate of progress, will you get to do everything you want to do? Or, will you reach the end of your life and experience regret?

Few people make a conscious decision to live their life to the fullest. Too many people decide to get serious about living life after wasting decades. You don’t want to be one of those people. You must consciously choose to make the most of your life. Many make the unconscious decision to learn life’s lessons the hard way, often leading to an unfulfilled, lean and less than their best life.

The use of a mentor, coach or person who has successfully traveled life are not always sought out. Everyone wants to independently “go their own way”. Traveling life’s journey an easier way does not make it any less traveled. You simply choose to avoid some of the unnecessary and sometimes painful trips.

I’m not suggesting that your life journey should be completely smooth and easy. There are some lessons that must be learned first-hand. Who wants the Grand Canyon described to them?  Some things you MUST see, feel, hear, smell, taste and experience for yourself.

After traveling this journey for some time, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that there is really nothing new under the sun. Most things that I experienced had been experienced by someone already, in some form. Their experience may certainly not have been exact to mine, but there can always be a message or lesson in the experiences of others. Learning that lesson was most valuable in moving forward in the direction of a more fulfilling life.

In reflecting on my past, I realized that many times I ignored the advice of some peers, most elders or unrecognized potential mentors with “just because it turned out that way for you, doesn’t mean it will turn out that way for me.” That statement is so very true, but heeding advice, hearing constructive criticism or accepting guidance could have helped me in my approach to certain experiences.

 “You just have to determine to settle for nothing less than being fully alive, to show up, be who you are, and share your gifts.”

~Gabrielle Roth~

Choose to make the most of your life with these 8 tips:

1. Clear your mind. Planning your life is serious business. You want to be relaxed and emotionally sound. Avoid planning out your life when you’re upset or tired. Take a walk, listen to some music, or get out of town for a day. Do whatever you need to do to get yourself into a neutral mental state.
   
2. Decide what you want. What kind of life do you want to live? What do you want to achieve? What would you like to own? Where do you want to visit? What do you want to see and do?
   
3. Create the ultimate bucket list. Write all of these things down and create a huge bucket list. You may not have time to do everything you want to do in life, but most of us have some things we want to do. Just write it all down. List every single thing you can think of that appeals to you.
   
4. Prioritize your bucket list items. Now it’s time to decide what matters the most to you. It’s not necessary to order every item on your list, because your priorities will change. Choose the five most important things on your list.
   
   • Ensure that you can do some of them in the short-term. It won’t be much fun if everything you’re working on will take 5+ years to accomplish. There should always be several items on our list that will be done in a very short time. This will help us in living in the “now” and not constantly in the “when”.
     
   • When you complete these five items, create a new list of five items. Keep this up for as long as you can!
     
5. Set goals to achieve these items. Create goals that will allow you to achieve the items on your list. You might need to save money to go to Rome, lose weight to complete a triathlon, or find a piano teacher to learn piano. Figure out the logical steps to complete the items on your list and get busy.

6. Take risks. To live life to the fullest, you need to be bold. Some of the things that you want to do might make you nervous and hesitant. If you limit yourself to the things that are comfortable for you to do, you won’t live a full life.
   
7. Ignore the noise. Plenty of people will criticize your plans and decisions. Just ignore them. Allow the mediocre people in your life to live their mediocre lives. 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. Seek out those you know who will/can provide constructive advice or food for thought.

8. Be somewhat 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 important thing in your life. Plan your time as if you’re planning the most important trip in your life. To avoid frustration, realize that flexibility is also just as important. Be flexible enough to bend, not erase, but re-schedule when necessary.
   
   1. 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.

Remember these are just tips to get you thinking about living life forward. It’s up to you to wring as much living from your life as you can. There’s no way to add time to your life. It’s constantly flowing away from you. Make a decision today to live your life to the fullest. What are you waiting for?

“Success is loving life and daring to live it.”

~Maya Angelou~

 “Living life to the fullest means continually reaching out for newer, richer, deeper, life-changing experiences. It means using those experiences as a means for personal growth and pushing the boundaries of yourself mentally, spiritually, and intellectually for the betterment of yourself and the world at large.”

~Zero Dean~

Your Future Pilot to Transformation,

BA Design ~ MA Ed ~ Certified Life Coach ~ Workshop Facilitator