When I was younger, I had no idea what living a good life meant. I had all sorts of assumptions about it, but I was completely baffled.
Was it being famous and having a lot of money? Or was it having lots of friends who you could rely upon? Maybe it was dancing under the moonlight with someone you love?
What was it really? I looked around me and unfortunately, no one looked like they were living a good life. They were all unhappy and still searching.
If You Are Searching For the Wrong Things, Then the Wrong Things Will Find You
Of course, the more I searched for the wrong things, the more I found them, but they did not satisfy me. What was I supposed to do? I was being misled by a society that was lost, by mentors who were lost, by adults who were completely lost.
It was the blind leading the blind.
I ran after so many things in my teens and twenties, believing that it was going to fulfill me. It didn’t. I tried yet again with different things. They didn’t satisfy either.
I tried climbing the corporate ladder, making lots of money, going clubbing, having lots of meaningless sex, eating a lot of unhealthy food, dancing the nights away with strangers, spending money on useless things, shopping my free time away, and more.
It wasn’t right! It felt draining.
I felt so frustrated. Was I the only one who cared about this? Was I the only one who was lost? I felt angry with the people around me who were satisfied with so little. Who didn’t strive for the good life. Who didn’t need to strive for the good life because they had settled for the average, mediocre, blah life.
It made me mad. I swore I would never be like that.
But, of course, never say never. I ended up in the same boat. I couldn’t find respite. Not knowing what the good life looked like, I lived the blah life for a bit.
Health, Wealth, and Happiness – Simple, Not Easy
I read hundreds of self-help books and listened to hundreds of audiobooks (tapes as well). I wanted the answer. Even if I had to live a blah life, for now, it didn’t mean that it was forever.
Over and over again, the gurus said the same thing. It was all about a few simple things. Simple, but not easy. Make sure, you:
- Have enough money to satisfy all your needs and a few of your desires
- Have good relationships with everyone around you (and be kind)
- Do the things that make you happy, even if it doesn’t make you money
- Focus on your health and never let it deteriorate or fall apart (once its gone, its gone)
- Give back to your community and the world
Seriously? That’s it? What? It seemed too simple. It couldn’t be. Right?
It had to be harder than this, right?
Stop Searching – It’s as Simple as This to Live the Good Life
Once I read the same thing for the 100th time, I realized the universe was trying to send me a message. “This is it. This is the answer. There’s nothing beyond it. Stop searching. Stop. Start living this message now.”
Of course, as a ‘smart’ human, I believed there had to be something more. It couldn’t be this simple.
But I had to build faith. I had to build trust that this was it. Even now, I have days when I want to keep searching. When I want to believe there’s more. When I want to hack away at the simple and find the hard.
Humans are not good with simple steps. We like the complicated and the showy. We like the big and bold and beautiful.
The simple bores us to tears. It makes us feel like we wasting our time. We could be doing something more ‘meaningful’.
Stop believing that capitalistic lie. The simple doesn’t need to be ignored. It can be followed to fruition with great results.
You can do it. If I can.
What I Did to Live the Good Life
The way my good life looks might be different from yours. And that’s alright. Everyone has something different that they want from life.
I wanted freedom. I wanted time, money, location, and familial freedom. Independence from shackles of all kinds is key to me.
Therefore, I minimalized my belongings, sold everything I could sell, moved to a small apartment in Asia, lived on as little as I could, lived a simple life reading, writing, and creating, let my investments grow, and spent a lot of time doing yoga and meditating.
That looked like the good life to me. Now I have a bit more disposable income so I can spend a bit more and live an even better life. As time goes on, I will have more money to live and will change up my lifestyle accordingly.
But the essence of it will look the same. I will still spend the majority of my time reading, writing, and doing yoga. I will still do videos on YouTube and be a minimalist. That will never change. That would never change. As that is the core of who I am.
What is the core of who you are? That will show you what your good life looks like. Get started today! Time waits for no person.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
