The 6 ingredients that make up a great life

When I was a kid and I thought about what my life would be like when I was 25, I thought I might be in the NBA or the NFL, or I might be famous somehow. Either way, I knew I’d be a multi millionaire with a huge LA apartment and a super sport car.

Well here I am, 25 years old, and none of those things happened. And that’s fine. I’m happy with my life and the progress I’m making over time. I actually do think I’ll become a multi millionaire with whatever apartment and car I want at the time. It just means that my route to a those things isn’t the one I expected growing up. And figuring out exactly what my route in life is has been a long process.

So the question, “what does a fulfilled life look like for me?” is something I’ve asked myself a lot over the years. I think that’s a question we should all ask ourselves.

Well a few weeks ago I was looking for some good ole Youtube motivation and randomly came across this Earl Nightingale video.

I felt like the video gave a good layout for what I think would be a pretty fulfilling life. Since then, I’ve been wanting to write that layout down, but more custom to me and what I’d personally find fulfilling.

The rest of this article will explain my layout, or the things that would make up a fulfilled life for me. That layout is “my route”. And ultimately that route is just to become a great man who lives a great life.

I think the kid me would’ve been pretty happy about that turnout too.

#1 - A skill that's both very enjoyable and very profitable

At the time of writing this I’m still a young guy, and as far as money goes I started from pretty much zero. So a large part of my life involves working. And I think it’s gonna be that way for a while.

Even if I hit the lottery tomorrow, I’d need some type of work that I could go for on a daily basis with other people. I’ve had long stretches of time where I just didn’t have anything I “had” to do. It’s cool for like the first month, maybe two. But after that it starts to get boring, and I begin to realize that even though I get to chill with my days most of the people around me are still moving and busy. At that point I kinda need a good way to stay busy too.

So if I’m gonna spend a big chunk of my time working, I wanna spend it doing work that I find very enjoyable or impactful to others.

But also, I’m gonna have bills during this time. And I won’t wanna go hungry, and I’ll probably wanna go do fun stuff with my friends who invite me places. To pull this off, I’ll need money. So whatever my work is, I also need it to be profitable enough to support the lifestyle I want.

Q: How do I find this type of work for myself?

A: Personally, I got a piece of paper and wrote down all of the skills I believed I had. Basically I decided to focus on finding work around a skill that I enjoy doing

Q: How do I know what skill to pick?

A: Read this article and follow along with the instructions on a piece of paper. It’s short and will walk you through finding the right skill for you. The skill I chose is selling.

With a skill that I’ve decided to focus on and good work around it, hopefully I’ll be spending most of my days doing stuff I enjoy and getting paid well for it. I think that’s fulfilling.

#2 - Being a professional at what I do

Whatever my skill and my work are, I’d want to take them seriously. And ultimately, I’d want to be considered great at what I do. I thought about things that seem to be common between people in different professions who are considered great at what they do. It seems like all of them are real pros or professionals in the way that they approach their work.

When I say “professional”, I mean things like…

• showing up early, always being prepared for moments instead of surprised, always performing or overperforming on whatever the main goal or statistic is, being a good teammate, caring for customers, dressing appropriate for the gig, not letting extra curricular stuff get in the way of getting paid.

I think that if I just focus on working at a skill over a long enough period of time and do these things, I’ll get good at it or even great. And I think that if I’m great I’ll get rewarded for it.

#3 - Setting and going after goals in my work and personal life

At this point in my fulfilled life, I

1. have a skill that I enjoy doing and work around it that pays enough to support my lifestyle. And…
2. approach my work like a professional

While those things are pretty important, I can see how a life of just going to work and being the “ultimate professional” every day can get pretty repetitive after some time.

So to keep things spicy and adventurous, I’d at any given time have 1 big goal set for my work life and 1 big goal set for my personal life.

For example, my goals right now are

• work goal — get a management position
• personal goal — get customers for my side business

In my fulfilled life, I’d think of the single most important action or habit that would get me closer success for each goal. Then I do at least one rep of the habit or action every day. If I do this, I’ll reach my targets over time.

In my experience, it’s been really cool to accomplish the goals I set. But what’s always been even cooler than accomplishing my goals has been the process of going after them. To reach a goal, I’ve almost always had to either meet a new person, go a new place, learn a new thing, start a new habit, or do some type of thing that I’ve never done before. That’s fun.

As well, I’ve always come across new problems that hurt my progress or cause me pain along the way to reaching my goals. That sucks😔 But the process of looking for solutions to these problems and then trying them out to see what works vs doesn’t keeps life interesting too.

I equate a life of setting and going after progressively bigger and bigger goals with a life of adventure. Sometimes just as much adventure as I’d get from going on an expensive trip, but this is in my daily life. I think that’s fulfilling. That’s the life for me.

#4 - Financially independent at a lifestyle that I’m content with

If I’m spending my time working at a skill I really enjoy, being a professional, and setting progressively bigger and bigger career goals, I’m probably gonna make enough money at some point to live a lifestyle I really really enjoy.

Whatever my monthly expenses are when I reach that point in life is how much I’d need to make passively every month to be considered financially free.

I’m definitely not a financial advisor, but on a basic level I’d have money automatically invest in stocks until I can make enough interest or dividends to cover my monthly expenses. I’d have the automation set to invest money every week.

I can’t see a fulfilled life for myself where I’m not financially free just because I know what it’s like to have to worry about money all the time. I don’t want that. In fact, I don’t ever wanna have to worry about not having enough money for something I need or want.

#5 - Getting fly

Initially I wanted to name this section “physical health and plenty of energy to make it through my days & weeks”. The section would’ve been about getting healthy.

But as I thought about it more, I think getting fly is a better goal for reaching the same purpose. And when I say “fly”, I just mean that on a pretty much daily basis I’d…

• smell good
• dress good
• keep my house and car clean
• either be physically fit or working towards it
• have something I do for peace of mind, like journal. You can’t be a “fly guy” with no peace of mind and a bad vibe
• have fun and do stuff I find really cool in my free time. For me, this 100% includes finding creative ways to give and help other people or causes

I use the first 5 things on that list as my morning routine before work(the physical fitness one first though. This is when I’d stretch or workout and get all sweaty/stinky). Then I try to do the 6th thing after work.

I just always wanted to be a cool, fly guy. That’s something my friends and I growing up always talked about, so it’s something I can’t see not being a part of a fulfilled life for me.

But also, I find doing these things and doing them with the purpose in mind of “being a cool, fly guy” to be energizing. I think that if I just focus on getting fly and doing my routine everyday, I’ll be physically healthy and have plenty of energy to make it through my days & weeks.

As well, I currently work a corporate job where you have to deal with highs and lows but keep coming in every day, week after week, seemingly forever. And I think this routine helps me avoid feeling burnt out.

#6 - High trust relationships

Up to this point, the things I’ve talked about making up a fulfilled life have pretty much only been about me. I wanna have a skill, be a pro, have personal goals, get fly and get money… Those are all about me.

I think that’s a good thing because metaphorically speaking, it’s hard to help someone whose drowning if I’m drowning myself . So I’d need to focus on myself first to make sure I’m staying afloat.

That said, this section is about how I’d interact with other people in my fulfilled life.

I’ve found it useful for myself to have categories of what roles the people around me play in my life.

Those roles are

• family
• close friends
• coworkers, relatives, and people I’m cool with
• online followers I don’t know personally
• or any woman I’m with romantically

Between me and the people in my life who play each of those roles, I want to have high trust relationships where both sides feel they’re getting more positive than negative out of the time & energy spent together.

I believe that if I consistently do what’s needed to tend to those relationships, I’ll get the rewards that each type brings.

From family or close friends I’ll get love and help in my personal life.

From coworkers, I’ll get love and help in my work life.

From my relatives and the people I’m pretty cool with, I’ll get plenty of opportunities for fun.

From my online followers I’ll get engagement.

And from women I’ll get romantic love and great sex.

I think a life where I’m surrounded by great people, consistently doing well by them without expecting anything in return, and getting those rewards as an unanticipated result would be nice.

In conclusion, I think everyone should sit and get a good picture of what a great, or fulfilled life looks like for them. I think that just by me having my version of this written down in a blog post, I’m a lot more likely to reach it. Also, I think that often times when we imagine living some type of ideal life it seems like none of that stuff is achievable in the present moment. But writing this down made me realize that almost all of the things I’d want are achievable now at some level. So I can start living the life I want(or at least part of it) right now.

Have a business or personal goal you’re currently going for but struggling to reach? I’ll help you put together a game plan to get it done. You can sign up for one for free at goaldoctors.com. We’ll be happy to help! — from Nick