Living a fulfilling life is one of the keys to long-term satisfaction and happiness. But to live a fulfilling life, it helps to know what a fulfilling life is. In simplest terms, a fulfilling life fulfills your emotional needs. It’s important to know that material possessions don’t have much of a role in this. So with that in mind, here is how to live a fulfilling life:
Pursue your dream.
If you have something you call a dream, then you owe it to yourself to pursue it. Otherwise, you will turn your dream into a wish. And calling a dream a wish is unrealistic. Also, not pursuing your dream would be telling yourself that you won’t get what you want out of life.
When you pursue your dream, you add passion and purpose to your life. You will experience great personal growth and self-discovery. Also, you improve your chances of getting what you want out of life.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
It is easy to think that your achievements need to make the news to be worthwhile. After all, that’s all you ever see on the news. But you don’t need to make the news to make a difference. What you do only needs to be important to someone. This is true even if that person is you.
Remember that life is not a competition.
Many people spend their time trying to outdo or keep up with their neighbors. This is common because people, in general, like to win. But this definition of winning is unfulfilling. This is because you can spend your whole life outdoing everyone else and still not get what you want.
A better definition of winning is getting what you want. This can include achieving your dreams, enjoying your hobbies, and doing other things. After all, someone else doesn’t have to lose for you to win. As an analogy, a movie doesn’t need an Oscar Award to be a big hit.
Don’t compromise your values.
Your values are the things that you believe to be important in life. They even include the things that you use to judge character. Needless to say, a fulfilling life must be consistent with your values. If your lifestyle and values clash, it can degrade your self-image and self-worth. But if they are consistent, then you will feel good about yourself. For example, if you value generosity, then giving to a charity will be rewarding.
Don’t wait for perfect conditions.
Perfectionism is often the enemy of excellence. Perfectionism causes people to wait for perfect conditions and skills before taking action. But conditions are never perfect, and neither are we. So perfectionism can prevent you from doing the things that bring fulfillment.
Pursuing excellence forces you to take action and learn from your mistakes. You will also get better at coping with less-than-perfect conditions. This continual improvement will make you achieve excellence. It will cause you to master the activities that fulfill you.
Persevere.
Some things in life will force you to endure difficult times. This is often the case when you are pursuing your dream. Sometimes you must be willing to work for long periods with no reward in sight. These are the times that separate the people who achieve their dreams from those who don’t. If you make it through these times, the result can be rewarding and fulfilling.
Don’t treat life like a destination.
If you are pursuing a dream, you should not treat it like a destination. Instead, you should see achieving your dream as a new beginning. Otherwise, you can achieve your dream and still not be happy. This has happened to many successful people. But if you see your dream as the beginning of an exciting new journey, it is more likely to be fulfilling.
Focus on experiences.
Comfort is the sign that you are meeting all your physical needs. For example, you wouldn’t be comfortable if you are starving to death or dying of thirst. But once you have met your physical needs, extras will not make you more comfortable. So if your stomach is full, then eating more will not make you more comfortable.
So you might as well focus on fulfilling your emotional needs. Fulfilling your emotional needs come from experiences including activities. These include the following:
Doing and experiencing things you enjoy
Spending time with people who you love being around
Doing things that make you feel better about yourself
Enjoying moments of tranquility
To sum it up, it’s what you experience and not what you have that will bring fulfillment.
Remove whatever you find useless.
For every useless thing you keep, you waste something useful just to keep it. The things you waste can include time, space, money, attention, or even the quality of your home. By removing useless things from your life, you have more resources available. You can use these resources on whatever brings fulfillment.
Take time to enjoy the moment.
When you pursue your dream, you should also take time to enjoy special moments. If you don’t create this habit now, you will be less likely to do so after achieving your dream. This is because achieving your dream will place you on a new journey with a new set of challenges. Remember that a happy and fulfilling life includes many happy moments.
Take care of yourself.
The most valuable asset you have is you. So your most important investment should be in yourself. This is not to promote narcissism or selfishness. It’s only to show that it’s hard to help someone else if you cannot help yourself. So you should take care of your physical and mental health. This will allow you to do things that fulfill you. Also, doing fulfilling things benefits your mental health. In a way, this is a feedback loop.
Help others if you can.
When you help others, it helps you to feel better about yourself. This is because you know that you are making the world a better place. It also helps you to recognize your good fortune. These good feelings about yourself and your situation can be very fulfilling.
Spend time with people you love.
Your time is precious, so how you spend it is important. Spending it with people you love will bring great enjoyment. If you are doing something fun with them, then that’s even better. Moments like these will bring great joy and fulfillment to your life.
Be true to yourself.
Instead of trying to fit in, you should live life on your own terms. It means going after what you love instead of what society says that you should like. If you are in a situation that you don’t like, don’t try to fool yourself. Instead, you should admit that you don’t like it and then get out. Fulfillment only exists if you are honest with yourself.
In summary, living a fulfilling life is about fulfilling your emotional needs. It includes things like pursuing your dream and being true to yourself. It also includes persevering while taking time to enjoy the moments. You will also notice that there is no mention of material possessions. Instead, you should focus on experiences.