A life worth living is a life that is meaningful, purposeful and productive to you, at your own terms, and according to your own personal definition of success. If it inspires others around you, and those you encounter along the way to success, especially your loved ones, it even becomes so much better!
Imagine you’re eighty years old. You have diligently worked all your life to pay the bills and take care of your family. And now, your days go by watching TV, taking medicines, and wondering why your grandchildren won’t get off the phone and talk to you.
You often catch yourself saying:
“Something is missing. How does my life matter? Is life really worth living?”.
You could have chosen to do the things you wanted. But that time will never come back. You have to make peace with the fact that, you played it safe and never sought to make your life worth living.
Here are the Five Major ways to Make Life Worth a Living
1.Take Time To Know Yourself
Knowing yourself means understanding your strengths and weaknesses, your passions and fears, your desires and dreams. It means being aware of your eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, your likes and dislikes, and your tolerances and limitations. Knowing yourself means knowing your purpose in life.
Self-awareness is very important for happiness in every area of your life. When you know your emotions, desires, character, and goals, it is easier to move forward.
Ask yourself, have you taken the time to find your purpose? You don’t have to think too far ahead. Keep a journal to know what your values are and what really matters to you.
Knowing yourself is the process of understanding you – the human being – on deeper levels than the surface. It is an unpredictable road that you must bewilling to explore. It brings you face-to-face with your deep self-doubts and insecurities. It makes you take a serious look at the way you are living your life and put it to question.
The whole thing can suck for a little while but then it gets better, and like anything else, a little hard work at the start pays dividends in abundance for the rest of your life.
Knowing yourself means respecting your values in life, your beliefs, your personality, your priorities, your moods, your habits, your magnificent body, and your relationships.
Knowing yourself means understanding your strengths and weaknesses, your passions and fears, your desires and dreams. It means being aware of your eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, your likes and dislikes, and your tolerances and limitations.
Knowing yourself means knowing your purpose in life. Or coming really darn close to finding it out! Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom
2.Do what you love and love what you do
Our lives are so incredibly short, which is why you need to maximize your impact, time, and resources to live your best life. This is also part of the reason why people are so eager to uncover their life purpose and do work they truly love.
You only live once, so might as well live it by doing something that you love! There are times when people find themselves in jobs they do not like and certainly did not pick. If you are in a situation like that right now, then it may be best for you to seek elsewhere.
Working in an unfulfilling job is unhealthy and can lead to severe depression. Do not be afraid of what other people might say, take the risk, work hard, and do what you love!
3.Help others who are in need.
Be a volunteer for an organization, donate your unused clothes, or feed the homeless, these are only three of the many ways that you can do to help others who are in need. The world is full of heroes and you can always be one of them! You need not have superpowers, having a good heart and working hands are all it takes to bring a smile to a person’s face.
Helping others can also be your advocacy in life, or in other words, it is what makes your life more interesting and worth living. This is your life’s purpose.
There is a Chinese saying that goes: “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.” For centuries, the greatest thinkers have suggested the same thing: Happiness is found in helping others.
I don’t want to discourage people from giving to good causes just because that doesn’t always cheer us up. If we gave only to get something back each time we gave, what a dreadful, opportunistic world this would be! Yet if we are feeling guilt-tripped into giving, chances are we will not be very committed over time to the cause.
The key is to find the approach that fits us. When we do, then the more we give, the more we stand to gain purpose, meaning and happiness—all of the things that we look for in life but are so hard to find.
4.Do not be afraid to make mistakes.
“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” –Coach John Wooden.
We live in a world where people are obsessed with success. Things we say and do are quickly scrutinized. People love to put labels and are the first ones to point out the moment you commit a mistake — intentionally or unintentionally.
It is intriguing how making mistakes and failing is ridiculed and put to judgment. People forget that success comes from doing and things often go wrong when you’re doing them for the first time.
Be a smart risk-taker! Do not be afraid to make mistakes because we are only human. If you make a mistake, you should move on from it and take it as a lesson.
If you dwell too much on the many mistakes that you have made in the past, then you will be completely hung up about it and may even continue to make the same mistakes again in the future.
You might be stuck in a cycle that never ends, a cycle full of regret and frustration. Allow yourself to be free to make shortcomings. The important thing is that you always know to get back up whenever you fall down.
5.Work with Passion
As what Steve Jobs said, the key to have a great performance at work is to love what you do. When you enjoy every single effort you make to finish your job, it means that you should have passion in it. You just have to notice what you love and what makes you are willing to spend your time with more joy.
When people describe work that they are passionate about, we assume they mean work that makes them happy, but it should be about work that is meaningful, that makes us struggle through something, and that elevates us beyond our individual self-interest. Passion without some challenge may not be passion worth pursuing
Whatever it is that you do, do it with ultimate passion, because if you do, then you will never get tired of doing it. Even the simplest act of sweeping the floor can be done with passion.
Remember that each person in this world has his or her own role to play. If you perform your role with passion, then it will not only be fulfilling for you but also to those who are around you and experience the outcomes of your works.
If you are a teacher, then make it your principle to properly educate the future of the nation! Take your job to heart and it will always be fruitful in the end.
At present, the maximum number of individuals do the job, just to earn money. In reality, they are not passionate about it.
Maybe you are also one of them! But this is not correct. You spend most of your daily hours working, and if you are not passionate about what you do the entire day, then surely you will not secure results that you desire.
You want a promotion, a salary hike, a bonus, but you are not at all passionate about your job, then definitely you will not gain what you wish. Individuals should, therefore, do things that make them stay happy at work