Are you living your own life? Or are you living someone else’s life?
The questions above might seem simple, but they are important. After all, one of the most common lifetime regrets is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
Many people just follow the crowd, though. They just follow the “safe” path. You are unique, one-of-a-kind, but it’s not easy to live your own life.
So how can you live your own life? Here are some tips.
1. Know Yourself
First of all, you need to know yourself. You need to know your personal strengths and causes. This helps you know the kind of life that you are supposed to live. If you don’t know what makes you unique, you wouldn’t know the kind of life that is yours.
2. Determine Your Priorities
Next, you should determine your priorities. What is most important to you? What do you value above anything else? Knowing your priorities helps you make decisions. Otherwise, you might just follow the crowd.
In my case, two of my priorities are balance and freedom. I use them to assess opportunities that come my way. If an opportunity doesn’t meet these criteria, I would reject it, even if it seems attractive.
3. Get Rid of Debt
Debt is a snare that could prevent you from living your own life. It limits your options and may force you to do things that you don’t like. For example, you might need to take a job that violates your priorities because you need the money.
That’s why I believe that being debt-free is essential. It gives you the freedom to live life your way. But being debt-free requires you to learn to be content and not to love stuff.
4. Build a Financial Cushion
In addition to getting rid of debt, you should build a financial cushion. Why? Because life could throw things at you that put you off balance. Your cushion helps you absorb these things.
5. Be Around Positive People
Community is essential because that’s where you can find people who support you. So surround yourself with positive people and be a positive person yourself.
6. Take One Step at a Time
Going after your ideal life might seem overwhelming, but you just need to take one step at a time. As long as you keep moving in the right direction, you will get there.
7. Review Your Life
Along the way, you should be careful not to get distracted. Review your life every now and then. Do you still follow your priorities? What about your debt and cushion?
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The tips above can help you live your own life. Life is too short to live someone else’s life, so do whatever it takes to live yours.
Good Day,
What great advise Donald! I was stuck in that same situation when I was younger only because I needed a direction in my life but that was only because of lack of experience in life. Now, I have a totally different outlook about what I need to do to be successful. It has only been the last 15 or 20 years that I have truly found my niche in my life. I’m what you call a late bloomer in life. Better late then never I would say. Figuring this out is such a sense of freedom that I have experienced in my life. So many more opportunities have come my way because of it. I can truly say that the only way to get to this point is by capitalizing on your life’s failures which worked for me. I think today’s world is so tied up in technology and what’s the “Next Big Thing” that it may take longer to figure out for some. I think the faster society stops hiding behind their smartphones the faster society will figure this out.
Thanks for sharing, Orlando! It’s great that you have found your niche in life. I agree that failures can often help us find the way.
Nice thoughts… Capitalizing on your failures… I find that really interesting.
One of the monsters I see in the human race is ”comparing yourself to your fellow man”. I think this has its own serious dangers – not living a life of your own. We always put ourselves down because we do not measure up to our fellow man’s standard(s).
As for me, I have natured something I call; BEING A PURPOSE driven kind of person. Day in Day out I measure myself against my GOALS and always being an INSPIRATION to others.
Yes, comparing yourself with others is not a good way to live because you are unique. Thanks for sharing, Moses!
If you don’t mind, I’d like to add an 8th one – seek out ways to become a better version of yourself. Too often people go through life without any sort of self-reflection or desire to grow. This is a big mistake. It’s not just enough to plan for the future. We need to plan to become better than who we are now.