I’m 41, and just realized what the 3 important things are for a happy life.
Long Form:
1) Be healthy (eat healthy, exercise, sleep)
2) Surround yourself with family, friends and loved ones (lots of dinners, calls, conversation and games – create multiple ‘homes’)
3) Go for it (challenge yourself professionally, and personally — strive for bold goals)
Short Form:
Do It, Be Healthy, With Friends
Inspired by:
Annie Chen and her thoughts on how homes are created with bunches of friends
Lyndi Thompson and her question about ‘advice you’d give your 10-year-from-now self‘
Are you serious when you say that you just had this realization? If so, I'm curious what you previously considered to be the keys to a happy life.
Couldn't agree more about #3!
I live life by what I call the 30% rule: I go out on a limb and try 10 different things, I figure I fail and fall flat on my face about 70% of the time, which means that maybe I actually come out on top 3 of those tries. However, I also figure that most people only try maybe 1 or 2 things and, sure, they might be successful 90% of the time, but that still only means they got 1 thing done. I might fail 70% of the time but, ultimately, I got 3 things vs. 1 thing done and, not only that but, taking into account risk/return, those 3 things were probably pretty cool things.
It reminds me of an awesome quote I heard from @hnshah:
OH from a smart guy: "I'm not smart, I just have a lot of bruises."
http://twitter.com/hnshah/status/12668706338
And, boy, I don't know about smart or stupid, do I have a lot of scars — forget just bruises. 😉
Yes, I am. It's not that I never realized these three things were important. It's just that it's easy to think about other goals, or to place too much weight on one of them, at the expense of others. Obviously, I'm not saying it's a massive revelation… just that whenever my life gets out of whack, it's normally because I allow one of these to go haywire, and it sometimes takes weeks or months to get recentered.
And a fourth? A great photo to illustrate it!
heh – yeah, i was surprised how hard it was to find a group of friends celebrating on top of a mountain – i was expecting a bunch of photos with folks cheering, with their arms pumped/extended, atop a mountain. it's time for me to go create that photo 🙂
Great post, Dave! I love the simplicity of this and it makes a lot of sense to me.
I think that all three things you listed roll under one larger "prerequisite" category.
Self-Awareness.
In order to be healthy you have to be aware of your body, what it means to be healthy, and listen to your body to understand when you are pushing too hard and know what feels good vs. bad.
In order to have meaningful relationships with friends and family, you need to be aware of your mind and practice empathy and have the capacity to love. These things also stem from the level one truly knows themselves and is aware of their desires, strengths, motivations, values, etc. The depth of your personal relationships is correlated to the depth of awareness you have of yourself.
And lastly, one has to be aware of their soul/spirit/energy (or whatever else you want to call it). This is important for finding your purpose and feeling good about focusing your scarce resources on achieving the RIGHT professional and personal goals — the ones that fit your character.
It will no doubt take hard work, passion and tenacity to execute on any of these points in life, but what I think is often more difficult than the work it takes is understanding and believing in what to do and why to do it.
One book I recently read that I highly recommend is called, "Man's Search for Himself", by Rollo May.
Thanks, Salar — and, for reader's simplicity, here is the link to that book:
http://amzn.to/cXEHwz