When we were younger, we all had hopes and dreams of living a spectacular life and actually making a difference in the world. However as we grow up, we end up settling for leading a mediocre life. We end up living in a very predictable routine, waking up in the morning, going to work, doing some stuff we don’t particularly enjoy doing and then going back home to repeat the cycle the next day.
Good news is that even though you might not have had much luck in your life so far, you don’t have to settle for living a mediocre, ordinary life. Your life can become extraordinary! You might not become the next Michael Jordan, Tupac, or Steve Jobs like you dreamed of becoming when you were a kid, but you too can lead a life that is much better than that of your peers.
Most people just end up going through the motions and don’t do anything to improve their lot and shake things up. Some even become satisfied with leading a boring, predictable life. You don’t have to be like them. You can get a lot more from life.
There are three rules that you should follow in order to make your life extraordinary:
1) Always work on improving yourself
2) Lead a life of adventure
3) Always strive to achieve more
These things are not hard to do and you don’t have to be born lucky, have any special talents or have huge loads of money in order to fulfill these three rules. All you need is willpower and a little bit of planning.
The journey to an extraordinary life starts off with a little self-analysis and reflection. Who are you and where do you want to be?
Rule 1: Always work on improving yourself
For me it’s hard to understand the fact that most people don’t work on improving themselves. They like to complain, yet instead of sitting down and picking up a book or going to the gym, they just sit their ass down in front of the tv and watch whatever is on.
If you want to have an extraordinary life, you need to work on it. You need to figure out things that interest you, things that you should know and things that you can improve on. Then go out and do all that.
Self-improvement has two parts: mind and body. In order to be extraordinary, you need to work on both.
If you look closely at your average day, you will realize that you have wasted a significant part of the day either doing nothing or doing meaningless things. Imagine how much better you would be if you had used at least a part of that time doing something meaningful.
So now go and try to figure out what things you should do in order to become extraordinary. Set some goals and start forming some healthy habits. Start going to the gym, learn a new language, set a goal of reading a new book every month… The possibilities are endless here. Just remember that you need to be doing both something physical as well as something mental. In that way you will have a good mind in a healthy body, something that very few people in modern society achieve.
Rule 2: Lead a life of adventure
We don’t live anymore in an era where you can go out and discover new lands or become the first person to climb a particular mountain. Those things have been done already. However our modern era makes it much easier for the common man to lead a life of adventure.
We have the possibilities of modern technologies, which has made many things much more accessible to us, as well as safer. You can hop on a plane and be in an exotic location within hours, you can go on a hike in the mountains far away from where you live or even do an around the world trip. Just a century ago, these things would have been almost impossible for most people to do.
Now we have those possibilities, but very few people take advantage of it. Yes, some people might take a vacation to the beach once in a while, or maybe go skiing, but really setting out and exploring is something that has been lost.
With the advent of cheap flights, you can get on the airplane and go to a new city or country for one weekend and come back, and then the next weekend, you can go to another one.
If you prefer nature to cities, you can go on hikes in the forest, climb mountains or go diving. All these things are much easier to do than they have ever been. Once these things were the domain of specialists, now you too can access them. Why not take advantage of it?
Rule 3: Always strive to achieve more
Are you satisfied with how you are and what you have achieved? If yes, then you most likely won’t progress anymore. In order to lead an extraordinary life, you need to be hungry for new experiences, for new adventures, for new achievements. You can never be satisfied with the way you are.
Of course the way to do this is to be confident and proud of all the accomplishments you have achieved so far. You cannot be negative with yourself, because it will hold you down, however you also need to be driven to achieve more. You need to have a fire that will force you to improve.
You always need to be on a path to perfection. You need to be reconciled internally with the fact that you will never achieve it, but you can always come close. You need to be on a path of continuous self-improvement and learning.
You should measure your achievements not in the material things that you gain, but in the personal growth that you have achieved. You will achieve more if you stop focusing on the material things, but instead view the entire journey as a process to transform and improve yourself.
Don’t let obstacles stop you. Don’t make excuses. If you think you don’t have time, then make time! If you think you don’t have money, then find ways to make money or achieve things without money. Obstacles should not stop you, but instead propel you onto achieving greater things!
Start your own journey towards an extraordinary life right now. Go pick up a book, sign up for a class, and hit the gym. You only have one life to live, so be the best that you can be.
Read more:
My personal end of year challenge
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