With all the overthinking, anxiety, and doubts piling up, sometimes you ask what this life even means.
Truly, life is a rollercoaster ride where good and bad times often collide. But how can you make the most of it? How do you live a good life?
1. Live more outside of social media.
Giving updates about your life isn’t inherently wrong. As the digital age emerges, social media has become a way to check on your friends. However, the new path of seeking validation traps you to mirror people’s actions, follow the trend, and limit your productivity.
To have a life well-lived, spend your time on experiences. Go to places, and meet real people in real life. Nothing beats a late-night conversation with friends behind a campfire, or see the sunrise altogether, or involving yourself in sports.
While you’re “active” online, have a good dose of action in real life.
2. Think of yourself less.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less”
–C.S Lewis
If you’re too disappointed, too angry at people, easily embarrassed or offended, then maybe you’re zooming into yourself a little too much.
Putting yourself in the center of everything leads you to fear criticism and become excessively self-conscious.
If you want to live happier, you need to loosen up about how you see yourself. Despite your position, status, or reputation, you’re still human. Steer away from chasing the standards of perfection.
3. Don’t be afraid to try new things and “fail”.
Life is a trial-and-error journey. The more you fail, the louder your success becomes. The beauty in failure is “growth,” and it’s what you should look forward to.
Truly, you only see a person’s success from an outside point of view. But when you’re inside the progress, instead of highlighting your success, you look back and hold the failures you have overcome dearly. It’s because the intensity of failure catapults you to a larger success.
Embrace failures as redirection and stepping stones.
4. Don’t compare success.
Instead of comparing your success with other people, ask yourself first, “am I growing?”
Have you grown from your last year’s version? Or are you still stuck in the same old rut? For me, one of the purposes of life is to build yourself and make use of such growth to extend a helping hand. Life mustn’t be a competition.
The only time you look at others is to see if they have enough on their plate, and not to compare if you’re doing better than them.
Even my mom, who’s in the food business, wished her competitors to earn enough, too. At the end of the day, money can’t buy the inner peace and satisfaction of extending a helping hand to those in need.
5. Track your growth and appreciate every inch of them.
There’s success in learning how to fry an egg, achieving morning runs, or drawing your first-ever portrait. The tech-noob in me still remembers the first time I converted a pdf file into a word document. I was like, “Wow. I didn’t know this before,” and I just recognized that’s growth.
As you can see, growth doesn’t always appear big and grandiose. You barely notice them. But when you take your first-times, new knowledge, and experiences as success, you will always be grateful for how much you can improve.
6. Flow in a situation you can’t control.
Are you overthinking about the future?
Are you anxious about it? Don’t be. There are enough problems you can have today, so don’t try to control everything in life all in one go.
While you can shape a part of your life, it may be hard to take control of people’s preferences, policies, and even unfortunate events.
Plan on things within your reach. But if you are in a situation where you think it’s unsolvable, let time do its job and flow with them until they unfold. Keep your mind on situations you can control.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:34
7. Understand people better and realize that not everyone thinks like you.
I was in my early 20s when I realized people are not as self-conscious, observant, or sensitive as I was. I’ve been always sensitive about people’s thoughts and emotions, and it frustrates me how much other people can work the other way around.
But let me tell you, disagreeing with you doesn’t mean they’re wrong. They are just different. And one way to live a well-lived life is to understand people’s varying motivations, goals, and ways of life. If you don’t find security or peace in their ways of thinking, you can compromise, or just leave. Your mental and emotional health is a top priority.
Sooner or later, you will find strong relationships that appreciate and respect you, and they will be your best treasures.
What’s the purpose of life?
Success is relative to a person. But for me, a good life is when you’re free of your doubts and criticisms, have maintained close and loyal relationships, and have grown to be of service to people.
People will realize sooner or later, that when you reach the dawn of life, what matters the most is how much you’ve grown from the gifts given to you by the Most High and how much you impacted people with it.
– M. Mathias
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