5 Key Principles of Living a Good Life

The concept of a good life is very subjective because everyone has their very own definition for what a good life is. For instance, for some people, a good life is one in which they are monetarily superior to the masses. For other’s it may be success in their careers, and for others still, it may be the rewards of recognition.

One thing can be derived, regardless, is that all human beings strive for success in their respective lives in one way or the other. The key here is to ensure that you have a clearly defined objective of how you keep score. 

You see, I wouldn’t suggest that you define a “Good Life” as I do, as our definitions likely do not match up. However, there are some key things that should be considered in defining a “Good Life”, which I outline in my book “Success with Goals – Designing Your Life with Purpose”.

The 9 categories that I introduce in my book, should be considered when evaluating and making goals for your life. I feel they provide for a well-rounded and balanced life, which should be part of what you determine as a “Good Life”. How much emphasis you put on each category will be different than the billions of other people in the world, and it will likely be different depending on where you are currently in your life cycle.

With that being said, I can’t, nor can anyone, provide you a definition of what a “Good Life” should mean to you. You can however, take this subjective term and use my Goal Setting process to create a more objective definition of what a “Good Life” means to you.

Now, properly armed with this information, I can provide you 5 Key Principles that will help ensure that you find your destination in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

The first step towards a good life includes positive thinking and the positive perception of things. As discussed in last Friday’s blog, the power of positive thinking has been proven scientifically to improve your health, both physically and mentally. To achieve the good life, one needs to be almost unrealistically positive, because positivity gives one the strength to fight all the odds. You must maintain a positive mental attitude to push through the most challenging times. That same positive attitude will help you cut through the emotions to find the best solution when attempting to take your projects to the next level. 

AMBITIOUS

Dreaming is a fantasy-like environment where you envision what you would like to be, do, and have in your life. Goal Setting is where dreaming is brought into the “Real World” and combined with processes and systems to make those dreams a reality. Dreams are significantly important to engage those starry-eyed ambitions we conjure up and use as a guiding light to keep us moving forward. However, being willing to turn those dreams into actual goals that we strive for, is the definition of ambitious.

Being ambitious is significantly important to achieving the “Good Life”, as nothing of value was ever achieved with good intentions. You must have the courage, energy, confidence, and willingness to engage in the difficult challenges that you will face in turning dreams into reality. Lacking ambition is a sure way to become lazy and slothful, a path that can’t possibly lead to a “Good Life”. Remember, in life you are either growing or dying, moving forward or regressing, there is no neutral in life.

ACCEPTANCE

A smart and capable person knows his or her strengths and weaknesses.  Accepting that your capabilities may have some limitations and being accepting of that, can help you process things more effectively. If at 49 years old, the likelihood of being a professional football player is out of the question, but you don’t want to give up on that dream. You could instead, convert that to a more practical but equally ambitious dream of being a coach in the NFL. To be able to make such a distinction requires a level of acceptance that some people are incapable of, well… accepting.

Additionally, acceptance plays a significant role in grasping that not everyone will see things your way. In knowing this and accepting this fact, allows you to be more practical in your approach. For instance, knowing and understanding that not everyone will have the same ambitions and goals, but also, they likely won’t have the same preferences and being tolerant or accepting of these differences is a huge step in achieving the good life.

FAILURE AND SUCCESS

Failure and success are a part of life, and they are going to impact you on your journey but to take a negative view of things after a few failures is not the way of winners. Had the great inventors, business people, or our brightest leaders given up on the first two to three failures we would not have the inventions, businesses, or dynamic leaders who have changed our world for the better.

The willingness to eat the bitter fruit of disappointment, when a setback occurs, is an essential development in one's character. Humility, experience, persistence, and determination are just some of the things gained from setbacks, disappointments, and yes, failures.

Success is another part of that equation to having a good life. You see, to have a good life you must learn to be grateful for what you have. To do this, you must have had some disappointments, or you can never really appreciate what you gained in your successes. If it comes too easy, then the success isn’t truly earned. But without successes well, you are likely to lead a very depressing and disappointing life. People must have the opportunity to achieve amazing things in life that they didn’t know they could accomplish, this is what life is all about!

LEARN FROM YOUR EXPERIENCES

Successful people are not void of depression, regrets, setbacks, and disappointments. Rather, they are likely filled with more disappointments than the average soul. You see to succeed on a large scale, you must continue to persevere. To do this, means that each disappointment in your quest provided you some learning you needed. That experience taught you something, and you need to learn from all your experiences, good and bad, to prepare you for the bigger projects down the road in your life.

Life is just a series of experiences, each one preparing you for the next set of experiences. So, rather than getting hurt and feeling down from disappointing and painful failures, people who lead the good life choose to rise from the ashes and piece themselves together.  Learning from experiences is their ultimate drive because they know and understand that they just uncovered the next piece in this puzzle we call life.

Hope you found value in today’s post. Let me know your thoughts by commenting below or connecting with me on my Facebook page or other social media sites. I’d love to hear from you.

Have a wonderful week!

ETW