How to Create a Lifestyle you Love
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If you’ve taken a look at social media whatsoever in the past few years I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of people posting the highlights of their days with #livingmybestlife and thought “I want to live like that, too.”
I love that you’ve taken that thought a step further and moved into the next steps of making that happen. We all have the power inside ourselves to make the most of our life and reach our full potential, but that intention can sometimes become drowned by the overused hashtags and lacks the steps we can take to truly execute it.
I bet you can think of a friend or a celebrity you’ve met who doesn’t seem as happy in person as the posts you’re seeing — making you wonder if we can actually “live our best life.” I want you to know it’s completely possible with the right execution.
Don’t let this overused, popular phrase without solid meaning hold you back from creating a lifestyle you genuinely love. I decided one day enough was enough and I wanted to be able to genuinely mean it when I said it.
Setting intentions and truly executing them doesn’t have to be super complicated and I want to help you realize how easy it can be for you. Not everyone’s perfect life looks the same and not every day is going to be perfect — this is still real life after all and it doesn’t always go according to plan — so let’s get personal, aim to live every day with purpose and do Better Together.
You have to know where you are, where you want to go, and have a plan for how you’re going to get there if you want to actually end up there.
I love the pursuit of something more and that is possible with personal goals — emphasis on the Personal. A goal needs to be personal because if something doesn’t mean something to you, you’re not going to be locked in and committed the same way as if it’s your own personal idea or wish.
5 Powerful Steps to Create a Life You Love!
1) CREATE A PLAN
First things first, we need to make a plan. The same way we would make a plan for a road trip, is how we want to make a plan for our lives. Do you have a plan for where you’re headed in life or do you have an idea of the roads you’ll take and then hope the highway signs direct you well enough? Are you stopping at random places in life because you’re seeing everyone else go there?
The problem with not having a plan is that it’s easy for you to get lost and wander around aimlessly. Eventually, you’ll want to get back on the road to where you really want to go.
Now, the thing about having a plan is you do need a little wiggle room. Progress over perfection is the key to any good plan. You want to be moving towards your goal with purpose and intention, but don’t be so hard on yourself if you hit some bumps along the way. If you get a flat tire on a road trip you don’t stop where you are forever, you simply change the tire and keep going.
Get out a blank sheet of paper and list out everything that matters to you in your perfect life. Get excited! Get fired up! Visualize everything in your perfect life that would make you feel happy, excited, strong, fulfilled, intentional, successful — write down your BIG dreams! This is going to help build the road map to your goals that will help you get to where you want to actually end up.
Once you have this page full, you can see where you want to go and can move on to the next step, creating the path to get there.
3 THINGS THAT HELP CREATE YOUR PATH:
1) Clarify Your Vision
Figure out what your vision for the future is to such a detailed point that there’s no question in your mind where you’re moving towards – what you are fighting for. If you want something in your life (or removed from your life) you’re going to have to make it happen.
Having that clear vision of what your perfect life looks like is key so you can take responsibility of your actions & make that your reality. When we don’t take responsibility for making things happen, someone else will and that leaves us in a place, not of our choosing.
There are some really great resources out there for helping you get vision on what you want.
A favorite resource of mine is Rachel Hollis’ Podcast Episode “72: This Daily Practice Changed My Life and Business” where she gives wonderfully detailed tips on how to journal each morning and keep your dreams and goals active in your mind so they can actually be executed.
2) Acknowledge Your Current Situation
Once you know what you want, doing a life audit and acknowledging where you are is the next step to figuring out what action you need to take to make a change.
To do this, evaluate the 8 major categories of life. Here’s how to break it down:
Career
Making Money, Work/Life Balance, Skill Set, Ambitions
Finances
Income, Budgeting Skills, Debt
Health
Eating Habits, Exercise, Lifestyle Choices
Home Environment
Atmosphere, Physical Space, Organization
Personal Development
Self-Growth: Mental, Emotional, Physical, Spiritual
Time Management, Decision Making, Goal-Setting
Relationships
Family, Romantic, Work, Friendships
Self-Care
Learning About Yourself, Inner Growth, Processing Old Griefs & Circumstances
Rest & Rejuvenate: Mentally, Emotionally, Physically, Spiritually
Social Time
Spending Quality Time, Fun, Vacations, Hobbies, Volunteering, etc.
3) Set Your Goals
So, now that you know what you want in life, you know where you are, you can set solid & measurable goals to accomplish that will get you from here to there.
I love what Rachel Hollis Says in her book Girl, Stop Apologizing – “A goal is a dream with its work-boots on.”
Goals in action are how you make your dreams a reality.
My favorite resources for setting and accomplishing goals are Atomic Habits, The 12 Week Year and Rachel Hollis’s Podcast — especially The Start Today Journal Practice.
2) CUT OUT WHAT IS NOT FUELING YOU
Often times when we make changes to our life we think of what to add to it, which is correct, but those additions need room to live and grow.
In order to make room for those new changes we need to let some other things go. We’ve become so conditioned to fill every single space in our lives and even celebrate those who seem to do a million things at once while still keeping it together that we haven’t stopped to realize how much this can set us back.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed, worn down and ultimately not reach the goals we genuinely want to accomplish when we live at 110%. When we’re constantly going, moving, wanting, filling empty spaces we don’t give ourselves the ability to reflect or add changes that fuel us — we are only filling our calendars & overfilling our cups.
“In order to make room for things that will create a lifestyle you truly love, you’re going to have to get rid of some things. ”
When you were acknowledging your current situation above, what did you find that was unnecessary, toxic or just didn’t really matter to you? Whatever those things are, cut them out. Establish boundaries on your time you set for yourself the same way you establish boundaries on the time others get from you.
Don’t worry — I know it can seem difficult choosing what gets to stay and what has to go, but setting the boundaries for yourself will help you narrow down necessities and truly fulfilling factors.
Take some time to get really clear on what you value in life. What truly matters to you? Figuring out what actually matters to you and living by those values changes everything.
If you want to create a lifestyle you love – be super passionate and go all-in on the things that matter to you. Everything else is extra, unnecessary, and toxic to your life.
3) GIVE YOURSELF TIME & GRACE
I’m super passionate about living your most intentional life, but I’m also highly aware that it’s not an overnight shift. You can shift your intentions in life overnight but the results of your actions are going to take some time.
This can be hard given the world we live in now with so much instant gratification, but think of all the things you got right away. How much do they matter to you now? Can you even remember what they were? Or do you remember the things you put time and effort into like earning a degree, paying off your first car, finally fitting into those perfect jeans you held onto after working out for months? Quality over quantity applies here, too.
Don’t let the time it takes to see results discourage you. Creating a lifestyle you love takes time and effort, but that time is going to pass whether you make the most of it or not.
On top of that, the first plan you set for yourself may not be the perfect fit for you. Getting this right for you is going to take some maneuvering. Think of it as a puzzle. Getting the outside & corners is easier, then working your way in takes some adjusting, but eventually you get it completed and get to enjoy what you see.
Taking action to live a lifestyle you love successfully doesn’t mean you write down everything in your plan, execute it perfectly right away and all’s happy in the world. It’s about progress over perfection, sticking with it when things get tough, remembering why you started and resisting the urge to fall back into habits that don’t serve you well.
Tell yourself now, the rest of today, tomorrow and so on that you will give yourself the time and grace you need to make your life better.
4) FIND RESOURCES & A SUPPORT SYSTEM
When we look back on how far we’ve come in certain aspects of our lives and think of taking our first steps again it seems like the easiest thing to do now. But when we’re starting out, that first step feels the biggest and hardest thing to do.
Creating a life you love is forging a new path from the one you’ve been on, which can be intimidating.
Luckily for us, the world we live in offers resources and connection right at our fingertips. Almost every fitness app, creative outlet, etc. has a community of people working on themselves the same way you are. There’s also Youtube tutorials, podcasts, books or blogs like this that are here to support and help you achieve everything you want.
Finding support from other people and resources is crucial to success. No one ever climbed a mountain alone. They had people on the ground cheering for them, store owners who helped them find the best material to reach the top, people who climbed to the top before them who could provide knowledge on the same task. It takes a village to do all things and I highly encourage you to seek out your village.
Consume your time with people and messages that you want to align yourself with. A quick Google search should help you find these things.
5) MINDSET SHIFTS ARE EVERYTHING
As much as I’d love to tell you things will be all peachy keen now that you make a positive change in your life, I can’t. Life is still messy — things happen, tough days still come around and there are still things out of your control.
You are, however, in control of your own mind. I’ve lived by a saying for years now that’s helped me when I feel like I’m struggling: “Change your mind; Change your world.”
The results you get are the ones you choose. You get to decide how to react. That is your strength and I encourage you to use it. It’ll never run out of power and there’s no cap for how often you can take a breath and look for a change in your mindset.
Stand firm in your decision to live every day with purpose. I promise you, it’s oh so worth it.
You get one life… live it with purpose, love it passionately, make it matter.
One of my favorite resource for fighting resistance is the 5 Second Rule or using the Calm App to take a quick breather and shift my focus for the better.
FINALLY,
Remember that creating a lifestyle you love living is about taking control of your own life. If you want your life to look a certain way, you’re going to have to make it happen. No one else can do it for you.
You’re going to have to be honest with yourself, know who you are, what you want and never apologize for wanting to be the best version of yourself.
Being your best self and loving your life doesn’t only make your life better, it allows you to offer better to others, too. Think of the happiest person you know and how good you feel when they’re around. You’re on your way to making others feel that along with yourself and that to me is worth everything.
You’ve got this!
Let’s do BetterTogether!