essay on live life to the fullest

Live Life To The Fullest Essay Example

All humans struggle with how to live their life, but little do they know, an extremely limited number of the world's population is living their life to the full. Humans’ sinful nature allows them to yearn for worldly desires and possessions. Although many find temporary joy in conforming to the world, Romans 12:2 instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of one’s mind. In Fahrenheit 451 and The Truman Show, one would learn that humans crave entertainment; and only certain individuals find joy in fulfilling their purpose in serving others and worshiping the Lord for the sake of living their life to the full. 

Humans find joy in earthly belongings because of our sinful nature. These desires will grow as life goes on, because we are not seeking the Ultimate Provider, God. The things of this world are tentative. Truthfully, we have no need for worldly possessions. God is who completes us, and we are made to worship Him and desire for Him alone. 1 Corinthians 10:13 remarks, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man, God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (ESV). While there are infinite temptations in this world, if you have the faith to sustain, the Lord will get you through them. Humans need some sort of Sustainer in this world, or we will not survive. The only thing that is immutable is the Lord. Therefore, while the things of this world are tempting, they will not make us feel restored because they are ever-changing and temporary. 

Humans were meant to serve others and flee from their selfish wants. In the Truman Show, Truman lives his life by living for himself, not by serving others. This explains why he is always searching for adventure and for someone to make him happy (the girl who moved to Fiji). If we live to serve ourselves, we will never rid ourselves of our selfish desires and make an idol of ourselves. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag does live his life to serve the government but honestly, he never seeks to serve any individuals in a way that does not include fire. Many would argue that Guy was serving citizens through his job as a firefighter but all he was doing was burning their houses down because of his lack of acceptance of their opinions.  In Galatians 5:13-14, Paul instructs us, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (ESV). There are numerous ways to serve others, and everyone was given a gift to serve in some way, but many decide to ignore this gift. Serving people is a way to ultimately serve God because we are fulfilling His plan He has for all Creation. 

Throughout many centuries, humankind has been struggling with the perfect way to live life to the fullest. While there is no clear answer to this question, Scripture gives a solid foundation to help us understand the purpose of life. For example, Acts 17:28-31 teaches, “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (ESV). While we struggle with how to perfectly live life, The Bible tells us that our mindset is all wrong. We should not focus on living for ourselves or try to make our lives perfect, because the mistakes and trials in our life are what help us grow in our faith with the Lord. So, what is the answer to living life to the fullest? Is it to make every day about you and your desires or to enjoy all the luxuries of life? Shockingly, the answer is quite simple. If we choose to serve God, trust in Him, and stay in His Word, we are living life to the fullest. 

While the things of this world are tempting, God is enough. There is no need for any worldly belongings because God is constant and immutable. Since God is enough, James 1:22 orders us to honor God in our actions. Scripture makes it clear that we should serve others and put them above oneself. All should give thanks to Him for the blessing of life and show appreciation by living their life to the full. The concept of living life to the fullest is not an easy one but can truly be accomplished through fulfilling the different purposes God has given every one of us. 

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Life Potential

How to live life to the fullest and enjoy each day.

Have you ever felt like others don’t understand your pain when they seem to be living a happy life? You’re not alone in feeling this way, but the truth is that happiness takes work, and learning how to live life to the fullest takes dedication and practice.

People who smile in public have been through every bit as much as people who cry, frown, and scream. They just simply found the courage and strength to smile through it and enjoy life in the best way possible.

Life is short, and we only live once. Learning to live life to the fullest is an important step in making the most of every day. Here are 9 ways you can try.

1. Decide What’s Important to You

Whether it’s taking care of your children, working hard on your career, writing a new blog post each day, or baking up fabulous creations, you get to decide how you enjoy spending your time. Your parents, friends, community, and society in general all have their opinions, but at the end of the day, you’re the only person who will be around for every moment of your life.

Do what makes you happy, and everything else will fall into place. This may not mean finding your perfect job if you’re limited by education, location, or job openings. However, you can still do what you love by engaging in hobbies, volunteer work, or mentoring. 

2. Take More Risks

Sometimes there’s danger involved in life, but every reward carries risk with it. If you never take risks, you’ll never get anywhere in life, and you certainly won’t learn how to live life to the fullest.

Staying in your comfort zone is the fastest way to become discontent . Without stepping outside what you’re already comfortable with, you will cease to learn and stagnate in both your personal and professional life.

While it may feel uncomfortable, taking a risk can be as simple as saying yes next time your friends want to go out instead of staying at home alone. It can mean going out on a blind date, buying plane tickets to a new city, or dragging out those paints that have been stuffed away for years. 

When people look back on their lives, they regret the chances they didn’t take more than the ones they did, so find something new to try today and set goals beyond what you currently believe possible.

3. Show Your Love to People You Care About

Family and friends will always appreciate hearing that you love and appreciate them in everyday life. It will brighten a stranger’s day to hear a random compliment. If you like someone’s shirt, tell them. If you notice that they’re doing a great job not losing their temper while their kid screams in the supermarket, let them know. 

If you have a romantic interest in someone, just go for it. There are a lot of ways it may end, and only one of them keeps them in your life forever. In the end, you may look back and wish you had asked them out. 

4. Live in the Present Moment

Your past is important to learn from. Your future is important to work towards. At the end of the day, though, the only thing that exists outside of your head is the present .

In order to ground yourself in the now, you can practice mindfulness , which involves learning to live in the moment by noticing what’s around you, how you’re feeling, why you’re feeling that way, etc. Meditation can also help with this as it helps you get in touch with your thoughts and feelings. 

Gratitude is another amazing tool for living in the present [1] . Each day, practice gratitude by writing down three to five things you’re grateful for. You’ll be amazed and how quickly this helps place you in the moment and start to live life to the fullest. 

5. Ignore the Haters

No matter what you decide to do with your life, there will always be someone around to point out the many ways you’ll fail or what you’re doing wrong with each step you take. 

Know that every winner loses, but not every loser wins. Successful people don’t start out successful. What makes them successful is that they keep pushing through failure.

Next time you run into a hater, work on placing boundaries and practice self-love to build your self confidence and make it impenetrable to the outside forces trying to break it down. 

Take a look at these 10 Famous Failures to Success Stories That Will Inspire You to Carry On .

6. Don’t Compromise Your Values

If something doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Don’t compromise on your internal code of ethics, as this will leave you feeling empty and full of regret. 

Life doesn’t work like a movie. It’s filled with gray areas. Trust your instincts , and do whatever you want so long as you can look yourself in the mirror with appreciation and love. 

7. Be Kind to Others

Every day, you’ll see someone who could use help. While you may not be at a place to help them financially, offering a smile or a kind word can do wonders to help someone feel better about where they’re at in life [2] . When others see you practicing kindness, they’ll also be more likely to do so, which can help everyone learn how to live life to the fullest. 

You can also try these Ways to Carry Out Random Acts of Kindness  in order to live life to the fullest.

8. Keep Your Mind Open

Having an open mind is important for your growth. Just because you’re right about something doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to look at it.

Listening to ideas you don’t agree with or understand keeps your brain active and healthy. You’ll continue to learn as long as you stay open to difficult conversations. Don’t assume you know everything about another person, as they always have more to teach you. 

Here’re 5 Ways to Cultivate a Growth Mindset for Self Improvement .

9. Take Action for What Matters to You

You’ll hear people say, “I had that idea,” every time you see someone create something great. Everyone had the idea for Facebook first. The reason Mark Zuckerberg got rich off of it is because he went out and did it while everyone else was talking about it.

Ideas are useless if you don’t act on them. Less thinking, more doing . 

The Bottom Line

Learning to live life to the fullest is a big step in discovering a path that will lead you to your greatest sense of happiness and accomplishment. We all need moments to rest and relish in a sense of contentment, but staying in one place too long will leave you feeling a lack in life. Discover what makes your life feel meaningful and go after it. 

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Reflective Essay on How To Live Life To The Fullest

The human nature is interestingly afraid of change. It is constantly clinging to habits because it links what is different with much more effort. From my point of view, that is not what life should be based on. This letter will be discussing the concept of a life lived fully and how it differs for each individual, as it is highly subjective. 

A handful of people may believe that having a cozy night in with friends and family is far more enjoyable than what others look forward to, such as travelling, exploring, trying extreme sports. What brings everyone together at a common point is the essence of a happy life: laugh, love, take risks, dream, be thankful for the time and chances you are given, and make a lot of memories as that is what remains in the end.

People are predisposed to find reasons and excuses, not to take risks.  

Getting overwhelmed by things that are not of high importance, ruining the moment or even the entire day. How many times have you felt depressed because you couldn't buy something you didn't need? Stressing yourself out thinking about problems that never even occurred, not enjoying the present because you were mourning over something that happened in the past, are the reasons that prevent people from living life at its fullest. 

In conclusion, we cannot change the world, but I strongly believe we can change ourselves. Living life to the full depends entirely on our approach, therefore cherishing our time on Earth, being completely present and open-minded to enjoy the experience that is given to us every day.

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• 101 Ways To Live Your Life To The Fullest
• by Celes     |    
• Filed in Self-Improvement

This article is available for download as an ebook. Click on the button below to download.

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

How do you feel about your life today? Do you live every day in excitement? Do you look forward to tomorrow? Are you living your best life?

If your answer is a no, not sure, or maybe, that means you’re not living your life to the fullest. This shouldn’t be the case as your life experience is yours to create. We all have good and bad days, and the most important thing is to make the best out of each day, whether good or bad.

Ultimately, you only have one life to live. While you can’t control all the bad things that happen, you can change your attitude toward them — and in the process, create your best life yet.

In this post, you’ll find 101 tips to live your best life. Don’t be overwhelmed by the tips here — use them as a guide and apply just one or two tips a day. As you do so, you’ll notice that you become more conscious as you live each day. You’ll notice that the bad things start to faze you less and you start to proactively take charge of your life and create positive experiences.

Be sure to bookmark this page and refer to it daily!

I present to you, 101 ways to live your life to the fullest:

• Be true to who you are . Stop trying to please other people or to be someone else. It’s better to be an original version of yourself rather than be an exact duplicate of someone else.
• Quit complaining . Don’t be like the howling dog , always howling and never doing anything. Stop complaining about your problems and work on them instead.
• Be proactive . Stop waiting for others around you to do something and take action yourself instead.
• Rather than think “what if,” think “next time.” Don’t think about the things you can’t change. Instead, focus on the things you can act on. That’s the most constructive thing you can do in any situation.
• Focus on WHAT vs. How . Focus on WHAT you want first before you think about HOW to do it. Anything is possible if you set your mind, heart, and soul to it.
• Create your opportunities . You can wait for opportunities, or you can get out there and create your own. The latter is definite and much more empowering.
• Live consciously each day . Stop sleepwalking through life . Your life is something to be experienced, not coasted through.

• Know your inner self . This means knowing who you are and what you represent. Be clear about your identity. Read: Finding Your Inner Self
• Discover your life purpose . Set the mission statement for your life, one that will drive you to live your life to the fullest. Read:  How To Find Your Life Purpose (7-part series)
• Live in alignment with your purpose . What can you start doing immediately that will let you live 100% in alignment with your purpose? How can you live true to your purpose within every situation you are in, every second of the day?
• Set your life commandments . Define your personal commandments to live your best life. What adages and principles do you want to follow in your life?
• Discover your values . Values are the essence of what makes you, you.
• Hold yourself to the highest conduct . Every one of us has our own set of ethics and principles. Live true to them every day. Also, live in full alignment with your purpose (#12), commandments (#13), and values (#14).
• Stop putting life on hold . Are you putting any parts of your life on hold ? What is one area of your life you have been putting off ,  avoiding, or denying ? Uncover that and start working on it.
• Create your life handbook . Your life handbook is your manual to live your best life. It contains your mission statement, values, goals, personal strengths, blind spots, and action plans. Start with a few basic pages, and then build on them.
• Design your ideal life . What is your ideal life? Design it. Firstly, assess your life via the life wheel . Then, ask yourself what it takes to live a 10/10 life. What is the life that will make you shout for joy? There are no limits in life — only those you set for yourself!

• Take action on your goals and dreams. Create an action plan for your goals and work on it!
• Create your bucket list , which is a list of things to do before you die. Then, get out there to achieve them.
• Don’t do things for the sake of doing them . Always evaluate what you’re doing and only do it if there is meaning behind them. Don’t be afraid to quit the things that don’t serve your path .
• Do the things you love  because life is too precious to be doing anything else. If you don’t enjoy something, then don’t do it. Spend your time and energy on things that bring you fulfillment and happiness.
• Discover your passion in life . What sets you on fire? Go out there to discover what you love to do. Read:  How To Know What You Want To Do In Life
• Make your passion a full-fledged career . Then, start pursuing it. Stop working in a job you feel passionless about. Quit your job when you are ready to do it full-time. Read:  How To Pursue Your Passion (series)
• Turn your passion into a huge success . Turn your passion into a multi-million dollar business. Better yet, make it a multi-billion dollar one .
• Learn from criticism. Be open to criticism but don’t be affected by it. Criticism is meant to help you be a better person. Learn from it. Watch:  5 Tips To Deal With Negative Criticism [Video]

• Don’t badmouth other people . If there’s something you don’t like about someone, say it to his/her face — otherwise, don’t say it at all. It’s not nice to badmouth others, and it also reflects a small mind .
• Be empathetic . If everyone only sees life from his/her perspective, we’ll forever be close-minded and insular. See things from others’ shoes.
• Be compassionate . Show compassion and kindness to everyone around you.
• Develop 100% self-belief . Believe in yourself and your abilities. Remove your limiting beliefs and replace them with empowering ones (In Days 26-27 of Be a Better Me in 30 Days , you identify your limiting beliefs and replace them with empowering ones). If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect others to believe in you? Read:  How To Be The Most Confident Person In The World
• Let go of unhappy past . This means past grievances, heartbreaks , sadness, disappointments , and anger .
• Forgive those who have done you wrong in the past. This includes backstabbers , those who took credit for your achievements , and those who have done you wrong. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and realize it was you.” — Lewis B. Smedes
• Let go of attachments . Don’t get fixated on achieving a certain status , fame, wealth, or material possessions . These are impermanent and will ultimately disappear one day when you die. Focus on growing and living life to the fullest instead.
• Let go of relationships that do not serve you . That means negative people , dishonest people , people who don’t respect you , people who are overly critical , and relationships that prevent you from growing .

• Build genuine, authentic connections with people around you — friends, family, colleagues, business partners, customers/clients, and acquaintances. Spend time to know them better and foster stronger connections.
• Connect with an old friend . There is no end to the number of friends you can have. Reach out to people from the past.
• Do a kind deed a day . What is something you can do today that will make the world a better place? Go and do it.
• Help other people who are in need . Volunteering is one outlet. You can also start with your friends and family.
• Help people when they least expect it, without reason . You don’t need any reason to help others. Do it because you want to. Share the love with everyone.

• Fall in love . ♥ :) Read:  How To Find Your Soulmate (7-part series)
• Review your life . Set a weekly review to assess how you are doing for your goals. Review your purpose once every 3-6 months so that you know you’re on the right path.
• Overcome procrastination . Procrastination is a huge waste of your time (and your life). Get rid of it once and for all. Read:  How To Overcome Procrastination (5-part series)
• 30 minutes a day . Set aside at least 30 minutes every day to work on a Quadrant 2 goal that, when you achieve it, will bring about the biggest fulfillment and happiness in your life.
• Get out there and make new friends — whether at your workplace, online, or in social groups. Read: 10 Tips To Make New Friends  and  Cooped Up Indoors? Get a Life with These 7 Tips
• Make deeper connections . Beyond making new friends, aim to make deeper connections. Read: How to Have More Best Friends in Life
• Be your advisor (from the future) . Imagine you’re the future you from 5 years later. How would you advise yourself? Write this advice down. Now, apply them.

• Declutter . Start from your computer, then proceed to your work desk, your bedroom, and your home. When you throw unwanted stuff away, you make room for new things and new energy to enter your life.
• Keep learning . There is something to learn from everything you see, hear, and experience. This includes your mistakes and past mishaps (if any). Learn to interpret each event objectively. Focus on what you can learn from it so that you can apply the lessons moving forward.
• Keep developing yourself . Equip yourself with a huge breadth of knowledge. Learn different skills, pick up different hobbies, and study different fields.
• Keep upgrading yourself. Equip yourself with a huge depth of knowledge. While you can usually only reach level 99  in video games , in real life you can level up to infinity. Go for further studies if need be. Develop your skills . Level up . Invest your >10,000 hours in each skill .
• Try new things . What is something you would normally not do? Get out of your comfort zone to try something different. It can be something simple like taking a new bus route, trying a new food item, picking up a new hobby, or something bigger like studying in a different field, learning a new skill, and traveling to a country you’ll never visit. There are no limits (except whatever is illegal and morally wrong of course)!
• Get yourself out there . (a) Get out there geographically . Go out, travel, and explore the world. Set sail into the sea. Go backpacking by yourself and visit as many countries as possible. Get on a road trip and visit all the places that you see during your trip. (B) Get out there situationally . Stop sticking to routines and comfort zones. Try something different. (c) Get out there in life . Stop watching TV and living vicariously through the TV characters. Go and live the life of your dreams.
• Be the absolute best at what you do . Go for the #1 position in what you do. If you want to spend your time doing something, you might as well be the best at it!
• Don’t settle . In the same vein as #58, don’t settle for less. Don’t settle for someone you don’t like as your partner. Don’t settle for a job you don’t like. Don’t settle for friends who make you feel like a lesser person. Don’t settle for a weight you are unhappy with. Go for what you really want.
• Stretch yourself . What are you doing now? How can you achieve more? Set bigger goals. Explore your limits and break them.

• Create your inspirational haven . Turn your room into a place you love. Do the same for your work desk. Get rid of things that make you unproductive. Surround it with things that inspire you and trigger you into action. Read more: Create Your Inspirational Room
• Behave as your ideal self will . All of us have an ideal vision of who we want to be. What is your ideal self like? How can you start to be your ideal self now?
• Set your role models in life . With role models, you become much better than you can be by yourself. I am personally inspired by Oprah Winfrey (for how she has impacted millions of lives), Lady Gaga (for her talent and not being afraid to be different), Leonardo Dicaprio (for his dedication to his craft and his commitment to environmentalism), and many more. Seeing them and what they do reminds me of what I can be and what I can do, so they drive me to greater heights.
• Get mentors/coaches. There’s no faster way to improve than to have someone work with you on your goals. Not only will they drive you to achieve more, but they’ll also share important advice which you can use to create even more success for yourself. Many of my clients approach me to coach them and the net result is this: they achieve significantly more progress and results than if they had worked alone.
• Uncover your blind spots . The more you uncover, the more you grow, and the better you become. Read: Blind Spots In Personal Growth
• Increase your consciousness . Having a high consciousness level means being able to transcend beyond fear-based reactions and make wise choices that positively impact everyone.
• Ask for feedback. As much as we can try to uncover our blind spots (#66), there will be blind spots that we cannot identify. Asking for feedback gives us an added perspective about ourselves. Some people to approach are our friends, family, colleagues, boss, and even acquaintances. Day 17 of the Be a Better Me in 30 Days is about getting feedback from others to uncover our blind spots.
• Generate passive income . Create passive income streams so that your income is not tied to the time you spend on work. Of course, you’ll continue to work, but only because you want to and not because you have to.
• Help others live their best lives . There is no better way to grow than to help others grow. Ultimately, the world is one. We are all on this journey of life together.
• Get married / Start your family / Have kids!

• Spearhead a humanitarian cause or organization  that you are passionate about.
• Give more value than you receive . There is so much unspeakable joy that comes from giving. And when you give, you’ll find that you receive a lot more in return.
• Be big-picture focused. You can either set your eyes on the big things or get hung up by the nitty-gritty details. The former will help you get a lot more out of life than the latter. Focus on your big rocks  and put first things first .
• Be clear about your end objective . What is the end goal you seek? Is the task that you’re working on bringing you there? If not, put it aside. As long as you keep working on tasks that match your end goal, you’ll eventually reach there.
• Go the 80/20 route . For every goal you have, there are different paths to achieve it. Pick the 80/20 path, i.e. the most effective path that brings you to your goal with the least amount of effort. Read:  The 80/20 Rule: How To Achieve More With Less In Life (3-part series)
• Work on the 80/20 actions (Prioritize) . As you embark on the 80/20 path for your goals, focus on the important tasks and cut out the less important ones. Work on the 20% actions that give you the 80% results.
• Live in the moment . Do you often have a very busy mind? Calm your mind down. Be present. The only time you’re ever living is in this moment. Meditation helps remove mental clutter. Read:  How To Meditate in 5 Simple Steps
• Relish in the little moments . Snuggling under warm covers on a rainy day. Having ice cream on a hot day. A kiss with your loved one. Being with your best friend. A walk by the park. The breeze on your face. Quiet, alone time. Watching the sunrise/set. Soak in all these little moments of life. They are what make up your life.
• Take a break . Being the best also requires you to take breaks when needed . Make sure you rest when needed. Doing so lets you walk the long road ahead.

• Focus on creation . Think about what you can bring to the world and create that.
• Don’t criticize or judge others . Respect others for who they are.
• The only person you can change is yourself . Stop expecting others to behave in a certain way. Rather than demand that others around you change, focus on changing yourself. You’ll be happier and live a more fulfilling life this way.
• Practice gratitude . Be grateful for everything you have today, and everything you will get in the future.
• Express gratitude. Let the people who’ve touched you know about your gratitude towards them. You’ll be surprised what a little act like this can do. If you don’t tell them, they’ll never know.
• Let loose and have fun . Sing at the top of your lungs. Dance in the rain. :D Run barefoot and feel the ground underneath your feet. Hug everyone you know. Release yourself of your self-imposed shackles and be free! :D
• Get into nature . Many of us live in concrete jungles. Get out of the urban city environment and soak in the beauty of nature.
• You have a choice . Recognize you always have a choice in how to live your life.
• Laugh more. :D Are you reading this with a straight face? Smile and have fun. :D
• Embrace change . The only thing that’s constant is change. Change means growth. Rather than resist change, learn to be versatile so you can make the best out of the changes that come. In fact, become an agent of change.
• Be more risk inclined . Don’t be afraid to take risks. The bigger your risks, the bigger your return.
• Embrace mistakes . The more mistakes you make, the more experienced you become, and the higher your chances of success. Make sure to identify lessons from each experience so that you can build on them.

• Challenge your fears . All of us have fears. Fear of uncertainty, fear of public speaking, fear of risk… all these fears keep us in the same position and prevent us from growing. Rather than avoid your fears, recognize that they are the compass for growth. Address and overcome them. Read: 4 Reasons We Should Overcome Fear
• Maximize your mind, body, heart, and soul . Living your best life requires you to maximize yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you are highly successful, have lots of money, have a big circle of friends, and are very spiritually aware but you neglect your physical health, that’s not living your life to the fullest. The same for other scenarios where you block off a part of yourself. Maximize all 4 aspects of you.
• Be your best self . When we work on being better people, we live a richer life. Read: 101 Ways To Be a Better Person
• Love yourself . You are the one constant in your life. Remember to always treasure and love yourself. ♥ You deserve nothing less. Read:  How To Love Your Body
• Love others . Be grateful to all the people around you because they help you grow. They enrich your life experience. Without them, your life would not be the same.
• Finally, Love life . I find living to be a fascinating experience. How we’re all on earth with millions of species, 30,000 different life forms, and over 7 billion people, and everyone is thriving in their own way, existing, co-existing, and co-creating. There’s so much we don’t know out there and so much to be experienced that it’s just wonderful. As you live on earth, remember to love life. It’s the only way to live.

Live a Better Life in 30 Days

If you love this post, you’ll love the Live a Better Life in 30 Days (30DLBL). Also known as “personal growth on steroids,“ 30DLBL is a 30-day intensive life transformation program designed by me to help you live a better life in just 30 days. It is packed with 30 high-impact tasks, some of which are inspired by this 101 list post, to be done one task per day.

At the end of the 30 days, you’ll find yourself at a completely different place compared to a month ago.

Read more: Live a Better Life in 30 Days

This is part of the Inspiration & Motivation series. Check out the other articles in the series:

• 10 Powerful Graduation Speeches You Don’t Want To Miss
• 13 Meaningful Movies With Life Lessons To Learn
• 20 Amazing Commercials To Inspire the Greatness in You
• 56 Most Inspirational Songs of All Time
• 15 Beautiful Inspirational Wallpapers For Your Desktop
• 15 More Beautiful Wallpapers With Positive Affirmations
• 101 Inspiring Quotes of All Time
• 101 Things To Do Before You Die
• 101 Ways To Be a Better Person
• 101 Important Questions To Ask Yourself in Life
• 101 Life Principles to Live By Daily

(Images:  Man on mountain , Daisies , Set goals ,  Person meditating , 3 Glasses , Five people , Couple , Letter , Brainstorming , Save the world , White flower , Freedom )

Hi, I’m Celes. Thanks for reading. Personal Excellence is where I write about how to live our best life as we tackle life’s challenges. About Me »

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Home › 27 Ways To Live Life To The Fullest

27 Ways To Live Life To The Fullest

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Do you want to know how to live life to the fullest? If so, you’re far from alone. The sad thing is that most people go through life having never really experienced what  life  has to offer.

Do you feel like you’re “sleep-walking” through life? Do you wish you had more freedom? Do you wish you had more adventure? Do you wish you had  more time ? Do you wish you had  more love ? Do you dread Monday mornings?

When you live life to the fullest, you are thriving, prospering, and enjoying yourself. You are content, happy, satisfied, having fun, savoring life, and blossoming. You delight in what you do in life.

You need to understand that everything holding you to a life you don’t want to live is a prison created by your mind.

That doesn’t mean you can just wish yourself into a new life, but it does mean that you can actively work towards living life to the fullest.

Page Contents

What Does it Mean to Live Life to the Fullest?

There can be multiple answers to the question of what it means to live life to the fullest. It is different for everyone. For some, it may mean traveling the world; for others, it might mean spending more time with those they love or a little thing like just enjoying what you are doing.

Many studies over the years have shown that these feelings about life can contribute to a greater overall sense of well-being, especially when it comes to developing relationships with yourself, those around you, and your community.

Love and joy can often overshadow feelings of anger, shame, and sadness. Living life to the fullest just may be pivotal for our happiness.

In this article, you’ll find ideas you can put into practice to make your life better. Some of these ideas you’ll have heard before, and some of them you’ll dismiss.

You’ll be able to put some of these ideas into practice right away, and some of these might plant the seed for ideas you’ll put into practice in the future. Still others you’ll spend your life working towards. Either way, here’s our list of positive steps to start taking now.

1. Create a Bucket List and Start Doing More

You will die one day, but before you do, experience as much of this world as possible. A bucket list is simply a list of experiences or achievements you hope to accomplish during your life. They are things you haven’t previously done, but you want to cross off your list before dying. They don’t have to be big things. They can be small, simple things you may have been putting off.

A bucket list is a great way to create new and lasting memories and gives you a sense of accomplishment as you start crossing one thing off after another. It is a to-do list you can use to inspire others to live their lives to the fullest also.

A bucket list also forces you to take a good look at your life and where you are. What are your dreams and aspirations? Use your bucket list as motivation and inspiration to start living the life you always wanted.

Examples of Bucket List Items

Ready to write out your own bucket list and start on your journey of trying new things in life? Here are a few examples taken from others as they created their own. Pull some inspiration from these and step out of your comfort zone:

• Learn to play a new game
• Run a marathon
• Go bungee jumping or sky diving
• Travel overseas
• Set a Guinness World Record
• Live, study, or work abroad
• Go on a road trip across the US
• Fly in a hot air balloon
• See the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)
• Learn how to surf

2. Set Goals and Write Them Down

Set goals  by month, year, 5-year, and 10-year periods. You can even just start by setting a goal for tomorrow! Know what you want to achieve for each stretch of your life, and make sure to look back and see if you actually made the progress you wanted.

This list will constantly evolve, and you won’t reach every one of your goals, but writing your goals down will make it more likely that you will achieve them.

3. Live Life Your Own Way

Don’t choose your path in life based on the expectations set on you by others, whether it’s your parents, friends, family member, or society in general.

Don’t let others choose your path for you, but don’t choose a path that will hurt those around you. It’s easy to get caught up in your own life, but if you don’t care for those you love, what is it all for in the end?

Examples of living life your own way:

• Pay your bills on time and save money
• Get comfortable being alone
• Accept responsibility
• Accept help when it is needed
• Build a budget and live independently
• Set clearly defined goals

Find out what matters to you most and eliminate your inner critic. You are responsible for your own happiness.

4. Maintain an Internal Locus of Control

There are two kinds of people, those who focus on what they can control and those that focus on what they can’t. Don’t blame others for your own failure – there’s always someone out there who was dealt a worst hand that made more of it than you did.

5. Don’t Complain or Get Jealous

If you’re unhappy with something in your life, you can complain about it or actively work to change it. Which one will you choose?

When living life to the fullest, try nourishing a positive attitude. To do this, you need to change the way you think sometimes. Be more mindful and assertive and less judgmental of yourself and others.

You also shouldn’t be jealous. Not because it’s morally wrong, but because  jealousy is a destructive emotion . It’s also a symptom that you’re not living your life to the fullest – people who are fulfilled can celebrate other people’s success. People who aren’t fulfilled fill up their emotional void through negative emotions.

Let’s look at some examples of how to be more positive toward yourself. 

Don’t Be A Crab in The Bucket

You’ve heard the expression “ crabs in the bucket ” – it’s the tendency crabs have to pull other crabs back down right when they’re about to climb out. When you break from the norm, you’ll get pushback from your loved ones. It’s not jealousy – they genuinely care for us.

But people living the life society tells them to live get scared when they see others going for it. Even if they do it subconsciously, and even if it’s out of genuine concern – it’s still harmful. It creates a culture of conformity, mediocrity, and quiet desperation. Don’t be a crab in the bucket.

Understand That It’s Okay to Fail

The only way to avoid failure is to not try anything. Don’t be afraid to fail…that’s how you succeed. Besides, it’s only really a failure if you stop trying. You can overcome the fear of failure by visualizing the worst-case scenario.

A great way to overcome a fear of failure is to confront your worst possible nightmare. If you try it and fail, what is the worst thing that will happen? Write it down, then write down what it would take to get back to where you are now.

Most of the time, you’ll find that the worst-case scenario isn’t nearly as scary as you thought it would be, and your own mindset is the only thing holding you back.

6. Ignore the things you can’t change

Ever notice how insanely emotional YouTube comments are? People cling to their opinions like they’re a lifeline. Yet these are almost always opinions about things that have absolutely no effect on their daily lives. Yes, bad things are going on in the world. Unless you plan to do something about them, only focus on the things you can change in your own life.

You can make a difference – once you stop dismissing yourself. Approach challenges with the mindset of “how am I going to accomplish this?” instead of “what can I possibly do?”. But if you’re not going to work to change something, see the point above. Time to put up or shut up.

We all have things in our lives, whether it’s our circumstances or personal flaws holding us back from doing things we truly want to do. You can either accept it, rationalize it away, or face your fears. Which one will you choose? Here are some examples to help put this in perspective:

Take Care of Your Body

Eat healthy when you can, get a good night’s sleep, and exercise. Your only connection with this world is through this fleshy meat vehicle we call our bodies. Take good care of it.

Take Care of Your Mind

Stop feeding it a constant stream of junk. A little downtime is alright, but don’t dedicate every free hour you have watching reality TV, watching gossip blogs, checking sports scores, and doing other stuff that requires little mental energy. Even the news can rot your brain with its constant barrage of negativity and biased sensationalism.

Improve Your Body Language

Did you know that your posture and body language not only shapes how people see you but also shape how you feel about yourself?  Improving your body language  is a great starting point you can do anytime and can alter the way you see yourself and are seen by others.

7. Be Conscious in the Present

We all get into ruts and routines to get through the day, but we only have a limited number of days on this earth. Don’t put life on auto-pilot – live consciously. Always ask yourself – why am I doing this? If you wake up too many mornings in a row without a good answer, then it’s time to make a change.

Improve Your Social Skills

Some people are natural social butterflies. For those of us who aren’t, make an effort to improve your social skills. There’s nothing wrong with being an introvert and enjoying time alone but don’t poor social skills hold you back when you need them. Improving your social skills will also help you in whatever line of work or business you choose.

Do Work You Love

Not everyone gets to play football or in a rock band for a living, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find something you love waking up in the morning for. Keep looking for it, and don’t give up until you find it. Life is too short to fear Sunday evenings.

Follow Your Effort

One of  Mark Cuban’s  keys to success is to follow your effort, not your passion. If you don’t have a passion for anything in particular, pick something and do it as best you can. Passion often comes from doing something well.

If you haven’t discovered what you’re passionate about, read more about the Key To Finding Your Passion .

8. Prepare to win but remember you don’t always have to win

Another of Mark Cuban’s keys to success is that everyone has the desire to win, but very few are willing to do the work to prepare to win. If you care about winning, do the work.

On the other hand, life isn’t always about winning.

No matter how strong you are, no matter how rich, no matter how beautiful, no matter how smart, no matter how talented, no matter how loveable, there will always be someone better than you. Ultimately, we all end up in the same place – wherever that place may be.

9. Don’t Confuse Pleasure with Happiness

Pleasure comes from the quick fixes that give us joy – shopping, alcohol, sex, listening to great music, and seeing great beauty.

Happiness comes from self-actualization and meaning. Pleasure is important to a happy life, but pleasure alone is insufficient.

10. Find Time for What You Want to Do

Many of us constantly complain about not having enough time or being too busy to do things we want to do/accomplish. We need to realize that we’re putting ourselves in those situations in the first place.

If you feel trapped in a job, are you actively taking steps to extricate yourself from the situation? If you are, then you shouldn’t waste time complaining. If you’re not, what are you complaining about?

11. Don’t Chase Money for It’s Own Sake

Having money is important in life, but only because it gives us the freedom to chase what we really want in life. You only get one life, and money is no good when you’re 6 feet in the ground.

12. Overcome Laziness

Do you have big goals and dreams? Do you stop short of taking steps to make changes because you’d rather watch TV? Do you quit after a few tries?

A little procrastination here and there is natural, but if you look back year after year and don’t see any changes, you probably need to work on overcoming your laziness.

13. Analyze Your Weaknesses

One of the hardest things for people to do is to be objective regarding their weaknesses. We’re naturally inclined to rationalize away things we’re not good at or believe that we’re better than we are.

Once you recognize your weaknesses and understand how they’re holding you back, you can take active steps to work on yourself.If you’re not doing something to improve yourself every day, then you’re not going to reach your goals.

14. Understand Personality Traits Aren’t Static

While we all might have some natural inclinations and gifts based on genetics and the environment we were raised, everything is changeable.

If aspects of your personality are holding you back, whether it’s laziness, social awkwardness, or mediocre intelligence, know that these are all things that can be improved if you’re willing to work on them instead of accepting them as immutable personality traits.

15. Surround Yourself with The Right People

There’s a saying that you’re the average of your five closest friends. While this may not be a scientific fact, it’s a useful thought exercise. You’ll also become negative if you constantly spend time with negative people.

If you spend time around people with no ambition, you’ll find your own dreams slipping away as well. On the other hand, surrounding yourself with awesome people who want the same things you want in life will set you up for success.

16. Design Your Ideal Life

It’s easy to go through life on autopilot if you don’t know what you want. Your first step is to figure out what you want from life. Read The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss if you want a great framework for accomplishing this.

17. Plan to Attain Your Ideal Life

Nothing will be handed to you. If you wait around to “find your direction” in life, you’ll find yourself on track for your exciting career at MegaCorp, moving paper from one account to another.

There’s no good reason to wander aimlessly through life once you’re out of college. If you need more direction after school, start laying a foundation for your future by bettering yourself i your spare time.

18. Stop Giving Up

Have you ever heard the story (urban myth?) of the man who was lost in the desert? He was found half a mile from a large oasis city. The point of this story is to illustrate the danger of quitting.

Things are always hard until they get better, but you’ll never know how close you came to achieving your goals if you quit before seeing them all the way through.

19. Move Past Negativity

Constructive criticism is one thing but know that if you’re out there trying to accomplish great things, you will attract haters who want to criticize for the sake of criticism. You’ll find haters frequently trolling message boards and YouTube comments.

Don’t take their comments personally, and don’t get sucked into flame wars. Instead, find a positive attitude about things and move on quickly from negativity. While it can be hard not to dwell on negative things, it can affect your outlook and bring you down. This stops you from enjoying life.

20. Accept Constructive Criticism

At the same time, haters can be good because sometimes they can be right. Haters show us our weaknesses. You’ll likely recognize legitimate criticisms when you feel the sting of cognitive dissonance – you want to dismiss the thought because it comes from someone critical of you, but you can’t help but shake that pit in your stomach.

Instead of burying that feeling, accept that you might be in the wrong, and work to improve yourself, so you don’t make the same mistake in the future.

21. Be The Hero of Your Own Movie

Does life feel tedious, joyless, and hopeless? Do you feel stuck in a rut with no way out? You already know how to get out – be the hero of your own movie. Pretend you’re the hero character in a Hollywood blockbuster.

There’s a point in every movie where the hero is down and out, with seemingly no way out, yet he always finds a way to overcome the odds.

Pretend you’re that hero, you’re in a tough spot, and it’s your job now to overcome the odds and come out on top – because it’s in the script. Pretend there’s a documentary crew following you around, and your kids will see what you’ve been doing one day.

Do you want them to see a hero who overcomes the odds or a loser who plays the victim? Last time I checked, the hero doesn’t overcome the odds by watching TV 5 hours a day. Do what needs to be done, no matter how hard it is.

22. Take Time to Enjoy Yourself

Incredible food, great company, and engrossing conversation – it doesn’t get much better than that, at least not in this lifetime. Cherish those moments of bliss and make them happen as frequently as possible.

It’s easy to pass on social occasions or family holidays, but these times are when some of our best memories are made.

23. Get Free of Preconceived Ideas

Kamilah Martin is a nonprofit executive who became a consultant focused on empowering black women through community. Martin admits that her life was taken over by her “supposed to’s” for many years.

Martin said there was a way she was supposed to carry herself. There was a way she was supposed to speak. However, she says, “The joy and fulfillment come in the journey of releasing and in the confidence of trusting yourself.”

24. Find Helpful Techniques to Use

Awareness, accountability, and action are the three A’s in life. You must figure out and become aware of your unhappiness and decide you are ready to change things. Accountability comes down to taking control over your life and what you are doing to change it, and then comes the change itself.

Take the time to develop yourself and visualize what you want in your life. Here are a few examples of how you can develop yourself:

Practice Mindfulness

When you practice mindfulness , use all five senses. Bring your attention to the present moment, focus on your breath, and observe your thoughts. When you practice mindfulness, you can also practice active listening, which is another way to help someone else while also helping yourself.

When you practice meditation, you can achieve a sense of calm and peace, and it helps you find balance in your life that is positive for your mental health and overall well-being.

It can be a relaxing technique to cope with stress or anxiety in your daily life that may inhibit you from living life to the fullest. Ten minutes a day of meditation should do it. Find a quiet place to reflect and focus on yourself.

One way to be in the present moment is through practicing mindfulness and meditation. It allows one the opportunity to notice surroundings, focus on just one thing at a time, and practice gratitude. Accept things as they are instead of how you want them to be.

Realize that material possessions aren’t the most important

25. Help Someone Else

Living life to the fullest doesn’t mean everything has to be about you personally. Find someone you can help out. We experience joy when helping others, which can give us an emotional high.

To do this, volunteer your time for a cause you are passionate about, and donate money or items. Any support you provide someone else should support your values and bring you happiness.

26. Remember that Life Is Finite

Steve Jobs talked about this in his famous commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. “Do we live as though we will never die; then die never having lived?”

The Dalai Lama also echoed a similar message:

“Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” – The 14th Dalai Lama

27. Have No Regret

Finally, have no regret. When it comes to the end of your life, you don’t want to realize you have missed out on what is most important to you. Avoid regret . The important thing is to remember that you matter, and so does having a fulfilling life.

Your life matters. Make a conscious decision to ensure your time counts instead of just mindlessly going through the motions.

We hope this list of great ways to live life to the fullest gives you new ideas and inspires you to live a better life today. Want to know the secret of how to live life to the fullest? Stay inspired and have a positive attitude!

Quincy Seale

11 thoughts on “27 Ways To Live Life To The Fullest”

Aspire to inspire before you expire….

Really great article. Make others inspiring and also help in generating positive vibes.

Thanks for inspiring me through this site

My fellow Hindus never taught me this. Thanks to your attempt for making me think about leading life.

I pray that everyone here would know how much Jesus loves them.

Brilliant! I will save this up whenever I lose hope and direction. No.1 read I have ever come across or the timing is just right.

We humans tend to forget our time is limited. If a person can be conscious every moment that very soon he is going to die, we all could live a great life.

Each of the points are valid and helpful in letting us living a meaningful life to the fullest. I believe the most important thing is to have a clear Goal well identified. Most of the times we find ourselves struggling in our life without even knowing what actually we want from it. This happens due to lack of a Goal in our Life. A clear cut well identified goal helps us plan for it well in advance, and most wonderful thing about it is that we are aware of what we are doing.

A great article indeed.You don’t need years or any perfect moment to improve your life just that single moment is enough when you realize to change it.This article was a great inspiration for those who want to change and improve their life.

I am the woman who messed up her life and is now inspired to improve the direction. This article was exactly what I needed to pull myself out of the victim role and reset my mindset on what it is I want to accomplish and be determine to write that shit down. I will be the hero of my own life for me and my son. Thank you for all the recommendations. I already downloaded the audible version of the 4 hour work week and have been listening to it. Action is required in making my life the way on want it. Here we go.

Hi thanks for posting this it really touch my soul. I never know who you are, but i pray that you will have a blessed and abandunt life of sucess keep on doing this you inspire a lot of people. =)

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“Begin at once to live and count each separate day as a separate life.” ~Seneca

At times, it’s seemed as though life contains an endless supply of days.

I thought this for sure when I was younger. It didn’t matter how long I held a grudge or how long I waited to do something I wanted—there would be an unlimited pool of other opportunities. At least, that’s what I thought back then.

Maybe it’s a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, the moment when you realize life happens now and that’s all you’re guaranteed. It doesn’t really hit you when you merely know it intellectually, like you know your ABCs, state capitals, and other concrete facts.

It hits you when somehow you feel it. Your health declines. You lose someone you love. A tragedy rocks your world. It isn’t until you realize that all life fades that you consider now a commodity, and a scarce one at that.

But maybe that’s irrelevant. Maybe living a meaningful, passionate life has nothing to do with its length and everything to do with its width.

With this in mind, I recently asked Tiny Buddha’s Facebook friends, “How do you live life to the fullest?” I was inspired by what they had to say, so I’ve used them to create this list:

1. Live in the moment. Forget the past and don’t concern yourself with the future. (Tanner Christensen)

2. Fully embrace the now, no matter what the situation. (Patrick Flynn)

3. Do the things you love. (Diego Felipe Villa Serna)

4. Learn to forgive and embrace unconditional love. (Ann Glasgow)

5. Live every day as if it’s your last, embracing each experience as if it’s your first. (Jennifer Fertado)

6. Believe in “live and let live.” (Satyendra Pandey)

7. Use quiet reflection, honesty, and laughter. (Erin Rogers Kronman)

8. Be other-centered. (Tricia Mc)

9. Find calm in making art. (Z.r. Hill)

10. Focus on today and how you can do your best to live it to the fullest. (Amelia Krump)

11. Participate in life instead of just watching it pass you by. (Lindsey Wonderson)

12. Stay healthy, eat right, and most importantly, be kind to all. (Tho Nguyen)

13. Forgive yourself, appreciate others, listen to your gut, do things you enjoy, and remind yourself that we are all loved and connected. (Sandra Lumb)

1 4. Don’t sweat the small stuff. (Allison Gillam)

15. Question everything, keep it simple, and help whenever and however you can. (Lynda Corrigan Sutherland)

16. Try to enjoy every minute of every day. (Maria Ahlin)

17. Appreciate life’s every second. (Anna-Karin Boyaciyan-Demirciyan)

18. Step through new doors. The majority of the time there’s something fantastic on the other side. (Terri Mindock)

19. Remember that all is a gift, but the most precious of all gifts is life and love. (Debbie Teeuwen)

20. Keep your spirit free, be flexible, let go. (Leslie Brown)

21. “Do one thing every day that scares you.”   ~Baz Luhrmann (Adam Raffel)

22. Don’t attach to outcomes. (Wp Ho)

23. Spend as much time with a two year old as possible. (Jackie Freeman)

24. Enjoy each and every moment of life. Every day is a new challenge and opportunity to discover something new. (Chirag Tripathi)

25. Budget travel. It is always an adventure! You get to enjoy what fate has to offer with limited means. (Ruby Baltazar)

26. Be honestly thankful for every breath you take. (Jonathan Carey)

27. Just be. (Catherine Halvorsson)

28. “Trust yourself. Trust your own strengths.” ~Gandalf the grey (Jonathan David Evan Fulton)

29. Pause momentarily before everything you do so that you notice everything you should or could notice. (Scott Hutchinson)

30. Follow your hopes and not your fears. (Jody Bower)

What have you done today to live life to the fullest?

Photo by gaborbasch

About Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others do the same. She recently created the Breaking Barriers to Self-Care eCourse to help people overcome internal blocks to meeting their needs—so they can feel their best, be their best, and live their best possible life. If you’re ready to start thriving instead of merely surviving, you can learn more and get instant access here .

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12 Ways to Live Life to the Fullest

Feel like you’re lacking a life purpose? Here’s how to get out of that rut—and start finding more fulfillment.

So we spoke to wellness experts, therapists, and doctors, each of whom gave advice on what it means to live a fuller life—and tips on how to actually make it stick!

Listen to your inner being.

“Learn to trust and listen to that spirit inside of you that wants nothing more than to direct you closer to the person you are meant to be and the life you are meant to live,” says Kamilah Martin , a nonprofit executive turned consultant focused on empowering Black women through community. “Accepting, even celebrating, the discoveries that show up” is her advice for anyone looking to live a fuller life.

Understand the power of authenticity.

“Being your true, authentic self ...allows you to follow your passion,” says Jason Phillips , a licensed therapist. Authenticity is about being true to one's own personality, spirit, or character. “When we don't accept who we are," he continues, "we live life—but it's not to the fullest because we're operating from someone else's perspective and doing what someone else wants us to do.”

"Living life to its fullest means not holding back, having the courage to live the life that is truest and most authentic to each of us—and not the life that is expected of us by others or society,” says Tammie Chang , MD, a board-certified physician and author of the book Boundaries For Women Physicians , which focuses on self-care and avoiding burnout.

Get rid of the “supposed tos.”

“My life for many years was dictated by the ‘supposed tos,’” Martin says. “This is the career I'm supposed to have, the marriage and family I'm supposed to have. This is the way I'm supposed to carry myself. This is how I'm supposed to speak, look, behave.” But when you clear all that away, you’re left with the person you truly want to be. “The joy and fulfillment comes in the journey of releasing and in the confidence of trusting yourself,” she says.

Discover helpful techniques.

Phillips employs what he calls the three A’s: awareness, accountability, and action. “First, have awareness that [you’re] not happy with where [you are]…and want to change something,” he says. “That can come through conversations or an event in your life.” Second, accountability is about being in the driver’s seat. “Take control of this narrative,” Phillips says. “Feel like [you] can control [your] life.” Third, make the change. “Maybe that’s going to therapy. Maybe that’s developing yourself personally. [It’s] whatever you need to do...so that you can now take action and control your life.”

Visualize your future self.

At the Co-Active Training Institute , Chang learned a technique called future self visualization. “[It] takes us to meet ourselves 20 years into the future, and to gain the wisdom of our own older, experienced, and wiser inner selves,” she explains. “Some of the greatest wisdom we have is right there inside of ourselves. Just like getting to know yourself and leaning into your authenticity, letting your inner voice guide you is a way to achieve a fuller life. “The experience empowers us to live in a way that is more full, more in alignment with who we really are, and to give ourselves permission to let go of the ‘shoulds’ in our lives."

Define your core values.

“So many of us struggle to find our meaning, purpose, and anchor in life,” Chang says. Her solution? Uncovering the three to five core values that make you tick. This might seem easier said than done, but Chang has a few questions that can help you explore. “What would you take a stand for? What makes you mad—like mad —and why is that? What are the peak moments of your life until today? What are the common threads between these moments or experiences?” For Phillips, identifying those values is crucial, too, whether it’s gaining financial security or finding a sense of spirituality. “Once you define your values, you can look at your behavior and notice [if] your value is in alignment with your behavior,” he says. “If there's a disconnect, you now have a starting point of where to remedy as opposed to feeling lost and stuck.”

Let beliefs lead to passions.

Once you’ve defined your core principles, you can follow that path to finding things you’re passionate about—in turn, filling your days with what you enjoy. “When we do the things we're passionate about, we can wake up looking forward to the day,” Phillips says. For Martin, that was learning photography recently. “That gift has blossomed into some incredibly beautiful opportunities,” she says. “Leaning into this hobby and passion has brought so much unexpected joy and fulfillment.”

Help someone.

One possible thing to feel passionate about: . “We are wired to experience joy in the serving and helping of others ,” Chang says. “It’s the most natural form of experiencing an emotional high.” Giving back can come in a variety of forms, from volunteering your time to donating money. Whatever it is, the cause you choose to support should align with those values you defined earlier.

Strengthen your inner circle.

Adding more fulfillment to your life might also mean seeking out connections with those around you. “ Finding your people , the ones who cheer you on and lift you up on a soul-level, is life's work,” Martin says. “Your community is going to be one of the biggest factors to propel you and your dreams forward—or hold you back.” That means you should always be on the lookout for ways to improve your circle, even if it means making a change when that community is no longer serving you. “The older I get, the more important it is for me to really surround myself with the people and energies that bring me growth, safety, and pure joy and peace,” Martin adds.

Seek peace, not happiness.

“Chasing happiness can actually lead to misery,” Martin says. Phillips agrees: “Sometimes we may not be happy on the journey to actually becoming who we are or becoming who we want to be.” A fuller life doesn’t necessarily mean being happy all the time—rather, it’s about being in touch with your inner self and deciding what you need in that moment. Martin suggests letting the happiness come to you instead of doggedly searching for it. “Listen to what life is putting in front of you and lean into the surprising things that bring you true peace,” she says.

Feel all the feelings.

“We are human beings, designed to experience the full range of emotions—good, bad, ugly, scary, and wonderful,” Chang explains. “The deeper we can feel into our daily experience, the more fully we are living in integrity.” She cautions against “dulling our emotions” with mindless activities or substances, because even though they might help numb some of the less pleasant feelings, they ultimately will not lead to personal fulfillment.

Hold no regrets.

"When you come to the end of your life, what is it that will have meant the most to you? To your loved ones? To those you’ve never even met?" says Chang. "Know that you have an impact on countless others throughout your lifetime, and that the ripple effects of you, your being, and your impact, is there. You matter. Make your life on this Earth count. Don’t just go through the motions. What will your life have been all about when you come to the end of yours?"

Cassie Hurwitz (she/her) is an associate editor at Oprah Daily, where she covers everything from culture to entertainment to lifestyle. She can typically be found in the middle of multiple books and TV shows all at once. Previously, Cassie worked at Parents , Rachael Ray In Season , and Reveal. Her love language is pizza (New York slices, Chicago deep dish, and otherwise). 

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Book Reviews

'i am' living life to the fullest, despite its perils.

Heller McAlpin

I Am, I Am, I Am

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About halfway through her first book of nonfiction, Edinburgh-based author Maggie O'Farrell explains her latest project to her mother: "I'm trying to write a life, told only through near-death experiences," she says. It's not exactly an autobiography, more like "snatches of a life. A string of moments."

Most of these dramatic moments will come as no surprise to her mother, who miraculously survived the various near-fatal accidents and illnesses of O'Farrell's hair-raising childhood along with her daughter. "You were," she says with a sigh, "a nightmare to rear" — contrary, wild, willful, intractable, rash. She adds, "If you have easy children there's no justice in the world." As readers of these often harrowing pages will discover, justice has been served.

I Am, I Am, I Am takes its title from what Sylvia Plath described in The Bell Jar as "the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am." O'Farrell's memoir is a frequently nerve-wracking read, particularly for cautious, apprehensive worst-case scenarists. Several chapters into it, with my heart beating Yikes, Yikes, Yikes after intense descriptions of a terrifying encounter with a man seething with ill-intent on a remote solo lakeside hike, an ill-advised night dive off a pier spurred by teenage bravado, and a plane losing altitude as rapidly as the dashed academic ambitions from which O'Farrell was fleeing, it occurred to me that this might be precisely the wrong book for me. And yet, it isn't. As its title suggests, its pounding pulse is ultimately life-affirming. It's an extraordinary book, a reminder that while life has its limits and can be unpredictable, we should push against limitations and not give in to fear.

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It is also, like O'Farrell's seven intricately constructed, blissfully absorbing novels, full of surprises. As in her fiction, including The Hand That First Held Mine and This Must Be the Place, moments of beauty ambush the reader as unexpectedly as malevolent predators. An intrepid adventurer, O'Farrell emerges from a lung-and-body-bashing riptide in the Indian Ocean with a heightened appreciation for her exotic experience: "The feeling of having pulled my head, one more time, out of the noose becomes intermingled with, indivisible from, the mimosa trees, the goats, the wave that turned me over, the toasted-resin smell of cinnamon bark," she writes. Her senses — and sentences — are vividly alive.

O'Farrell eschews chronology, instead dipping and swerving through time, as she does in her novels. By saving for last the seminal experiences that have most strongly shaped her past and present, she amplifies their impact. Unlike many of the common, not-so-near-misses enumerated in earlier chapters, these are unequivocally traumatic. "Cerebellum 1980" revisits her terrifying hospitalization with severe encephalitis at age eight, which she calls "the hinge on which my childhood swung." The illness left her with permanent damage, and she credits her mobility to the determined physiotherapists who ignored her doctors' bleak prognoses.

Her survival against all odds explains much of the risk-taking detailed in earlier chapters. "Coming so close to dying as a young child," O'Farrell writes, "only to resurface again into life, imbued in me for a long time a brand of recklessness, a cavalier or even crazed attitude to risk." She acknowledges that it could have gone the other way, adding, "It was not so much that I didn't value my existence but more that I had an insatiable desire to push myself to embrace all that it could offer." She had become, she says, "sanguine — perhaps to a fault — about death."

Such sanguinity does not extend to her three children, as we learn in a searing final chapter that opens with a mad race along Italian roads to find a hospital during one of her middle child's periodic anaphylactic attacks brought on by a life-threatening immunological disorder. O'Farrell's un-self-pitying ferocity recalls the heartache of Dawn Davies' powerful title essay in Mothers of Sparta, which chronicles the maternal grit required to raise her sociopathic, autistic son. O'Farrell describes the challenges such parents endure: "Your lives are conducted with a constant background hum of potential peril. You begin to experience the world differently ... You must always be tabulating and assessing risk."

Dedicated to her children, I Am, I Am, I Am is filled with lessons the rest of us would be wise to heed. Mortal threats are more common than we think, her book demonstrates, but you can't let them stop you from experiencing life to the fullest. "You need to expect the unexpected, to embrace it," she writes, adding, "the things in life which don't go to plan are usually more important, more formative, in the long run, than the things that do." O'Farrell is here to prove it. And so, she asserts movingly, is her daughter: "She is, she is, she is."

Live your Life to the Fullest

The majority of people are like drones, nowadays. It seems as if they are living their lives in a trance – numb sleepwalkers that do the same things day in and day out – while being stuck in various routines that have accumulated during the years. Routines that give them the sensation of stability in an unstable and ever-changing world. There is no variety other than the regularly changing television program, new computer and console games or the newest scandals of celebrities and politicians.  People have no time anymore to call their friends and to spend time with them, but waste hours of their valuable time online, on Facebook – checking status messages, addictively playing games, chatting with random strangers or watching videos on YouTube. You can hear people mumble, “ I’m in a rush ” or “ Haven’t got any time ” while they rush from their workplaces to their entertainment stations, called home.  People have mastered the skill of multi-tasking and can perform various tasks simultaneously, but they lack the ability to focus on only one thing at a time and wonder why they don’t get anything done or why they aren’t happy with the outcome of their multi-tasked work.

Yet, the state of being a numb sleepwalker can be very promising – after all, all you have to do is lean back and start drifting through life , which can be an exciting journey full of adventurous hours in front of the television or your video console. This is one possible way of life, but there will always be the remaining emptiness within yourself that you will not be able to fill – not with entertainment, not by accumulating riches, gathering tangibles or continuously changing partners. That’s the burden of being a sleepwalker – you won’t reach true fulfillment and consciousness; to put it simply: you aren’t able to fill the emptiness within yourself.

Part I: The Active Mind

Start living your life now.

The sleepwalkers I was talking about in the above certainly do fulfill their specific needs for nutrition, security, love, happiness and entertainment, but are they really living their lives – actively and consciously – or are they still dreaming and behaving on auto-pilot? Let’s look at it this way… I’m sure you have heard about the people who had a near-death experience and reported about the phenomenon that they saw their whole lives flashing before their inner eyes, just like a movie. The film that was flashing before their eyes contained all the emotional and exciting moments they had experienced throughout their lives. The only question is: do you really want to see yourself sitting in front of a TV or a computer when “watching the movie of your life”? Watching yourself observing something else, when the “director” zooms into the best moments of your entire life? I certainly don’t! I’d rather prefer to see myself really living my life – not observing the fictional life on the TV screen or playing a fictional role in whatever game.

The courage to live your life to the fullest

All it takes to live your life to the fullest is courage – nothing more and nothing less . This sounds rather minimalist and easy to cope with – but a lack of courage is a key factor that prevents most people from living their lives to the fullest. These people aren’t necessarily cowards or scared-chicken – not at all – as they are simply being stuck with their quite comfortable everyday routines. To express it metaphorically: t here are some dreams that you do not want to end . Courage is a crucial factor – as you cannot live your life to the fullest if you don’t dare to do it or shy the risks that could come with it.

Listening to your heart

The following can be observed ever since in the history of mankind, so it isn’t just a recent trend: young people choose – influenced by the advice from their parents (or friends) – to walk the predetermined path that was selected for their lives – a path that might have been chosen by their parents or dictated by the society they live in – often before they were born . Some others pursue the smell of banknotes and follow where the desire to accumulate as much money and tangibles as possible will lead them. There are many other examples where people make important decisions for their lives solely based on external factors – some earn a living with jobs they absolutely dislike and hate, jobs that might even interfere with their beliefs, others become lawyers just because their whole family consisted of lawyers for decades. The mistake we make is that we put way too much emphasis on the importance of external factors – such as money, family tradition, and honor, etc. – rather than listening to our hearts and following where it leads us.

You don’t necessarily have to break with your family tradition when you follow your heart, absolutely not ! But there is a huge difference in between the choice to become a firefighter “because my dad, my grandfather, and my great grandfather were fireman as well” or to choose to become a firefighter as it is your true desire and you dreamt of it ever since you were a little child that wanted to help others that are in danger.

Listen to your heart when you make important decisions and try to neglect the promising external factors ( money, etc. ) just for a moment. Have the courage to follow where your heart leads you! Become aware of the things that your heart desires and ask yourself the question if you really think that your heart might desire something as superficial and material as money, fancy cars and jewelry. When looking behind the scenes you might discover that it isn’t tangibles that your heart truly desires, but – more valuable things such as – true friendship , happiness , love , but also fulfillment , consciousness , awareness and inner peace with yourself .

Part II: The Importance of Responsibility

Reconciling and accepting the past.

Nearly all of our thoughts, questions, and worries revolve around events and situations in the past or the upcoming future. The closer you look at it, the more will you realize that only a slight percentage of our thoughts revolve around the present. If you so want, “ thinking in the present ” is an oxymoron in itself, as the line between past, present and future are continuously shifting, which makes it nearly impossible to continuously think about this very moment. Therefore, nearly all human beings are either very focused on the future and the changes that will come along with it or clearly living in the past full of regret about the drastic changes in the nowadays world, (overlapping does exist as well, of course).

Make the most of your life and live it to the fullest

Nevertheless, worrying about the future or struggling with the past – no matter what happened – can be a huge obstacle when it comes to the ambition to live your life in this very moment to the fullest , which might even prevent you from doing so. Accept the past as that what it is, bygone and not changeable. Spending a single second with regret about your past will take you the chance to enjoy this moment, in this second and so on. If you so want, worrying about the past could be seen as a vicious circle; it does not only take you the chance in this very moment to change whatever you dislike, but it also supplies you with another pretty good reason to struggle in the prospective future, aka “Why didn’t I do anything about it when I could?”, etc.

As you can see – worrying about the past and the future can be a vicious circle that occupies your mind with thoughts and situations that aren’t related to this present situation, which finally prevents you from living life to the fullest. The key to success lies in the acceptance of what happened and the reconciliation with the past, the opportunities you’ve missed and with whatever you regret. The realization that the only way to change anything in life is to take action now, in this very moment, will further help you to reconcile with your past. Living your life to the fullest, in this very moment, cannot be accomplished when mentally living in the past and continuously visualizing all the golden opportunities you’ve missed throughout your life.

Don’t pass the buck

The second part of this article was named “ the importance of responsibility ”, as I believe that it takes a lot of courage but also the willingness to take responsibility to accept what happened in the past and to reconcile with it. After all, it is by far easier to blame other people for your own mistakes and to make specific external influences accountable for the development of your life, rather than acknowledging that it might have been your own fault and seeking the reasons within yourself.

Doing so will take a lot of pressure from your shoulders, it might even be a very good feeling to know that you’re not guilty for negative developments in your life as you can always blame others for it, but it will also let you become a helpless victim. Being a victim does not only make you vulnerable, but it also takes you the last chance to change anything about your current situation – as you clearly do not see yourself as the sole reason for a negative trend, but the victim of it. Accusations will redirect your focus ( from doing something about it or making the best of it ) towards the problem that might lie many years in the past and can neither be changed nor undone. Taking responsibility for your past and reconciling with it will allow you to gain back the power over your life, which helps you to accept the past, forgive others and to wipe the slate clean, but most important of all: you will start focusing on the present and live in this moment. Make yourself clear that the one who lives in the past and the one who regrets misses the chance – in this moment – to make the best of it, to change it or to start all over again.

Accept the past, let the bygone be bygone and make the best out of your situation. In the end, it depends on you, if you decide to continue to whine about the past, or to make the best of it now so that you can look back one day with a smile on your face and recognize that everything has come to a good end.

Part III: The Reflective Mind

Dare to be conscious.

Living your life to the fullest consists out of three elements that complete each other – the active part (= taking action ), the responsibility part (= taking responsibility for the past ) and finally, the reflective part – the Ying and the Yang of living your life to the fullest, if you so want and the sphere that surrounds it. Living your life to the fullest does not only consist of taking action or accepting the past but also to live your life in a conscious state of mind, where you invest some time for yourself, to reflect and to think about your life in general . It doesn’t necessarily have to be a restriction, you do not need to stop watching TV or to reduce your internet usage drastically , but it includes your willingness to spend some time with yourself (without distractions), every day.

Pure honesty towards yourself and your life

Whenever you have taken yourself some time to reflect on your life, it is essential that you are completely honest towards yourself. Ask yourself the question, if you are living – in this moment – the life you have always dreamt of, the life you envisioned as a little child, the dream that has evolved throughout your whole life and became more and more detailed with every day you were alive. Ask yourself if you are happy with your personality, your job and the way you live in general. Are you the creator of your life, do you take control over your life, are responsible for your actions or have you switched to your role as a victim and the one who only reacts towards other people’s actions? Are you living your life with excitement and amazement, curious to discover the deepest depths of life, or do you rely on television to stimulate and entertain you for a given period? Is your life a routine or a daily changing adventure?

All day long, we’re in a rush after all the things we believe are important for us. But, let’s face it… nothing is really important other than this very moment if we make use of it and enjoy it or not.

We spend too much time living in the “what if” and need to learn to live in the “what is.” ~ Rev. Leroy Allison

Live your Life to the Fullest was brought to you by our Conscious Living Blog. What are your tricks for living life to the fullest?

About Author

Steve is the founder of Planet of Success , the #1 choice when it comes to motivation, self-growth and empowerment. This world does not need followers. What it needs is people who stand in their own sovereignty. Join us in the quest to live life to the fullest!

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Great post! Everything you’ve said is so very true. Too many of us unfortunately do not know what it means to live life to the fullest. We go about our lives thinking we’re happy, when deep down inside, we know that isn’t the truth.

As you say, it takes courage to live life to the fullest and proclaim that you are going to be truly happy. Hopefully more people begin to realize that a happy life is within reach of us all.

Thanks for the inspiration!

You’re welcome! I’m glad you like it!

your article about the live life to the fullest is really nice and your all points about The Active Mind, The Importance of Responsibility and The Reflective Mind is very informative,, thanks for it…

live to the fullest

live in the fullest life,it;s a hard thing to reach, but we really need to do more meaningful things,we spend so many time on TV,computer,games,etc. Life is short.

You’re so right, Wendy! And exactly those three things make us waste a lot of time, instead of really making something out of it!

Hello Steve,I can feel the energy you bring along in this book.I just read the first chapter morning and thought,I don’t need to rush through it …. Let me enjoy this easy to read and energetic script.

hi sir i am student i have a problem, oh! sorry when i reed your articles i should not have negative thoughts ,so let me say not a problem but i would like to call it as ….. I my self have a desire to study at night . so please i need your guidance for making it work for me : if you can sagest me something in what i wanted mail me THANK YOU

Hi Gayathri,

first of all, if you do not want to call something a problem, just call it a challenge instead! That changes your perspective by 360 degree.

Now to your problem. If you want to study at night then by all means do it! Study as long as you want in the night. If you have this desire than pursue it. However, there will be a point where you notice how imbalanced you get when studying at night, i.e. sleepiness during school, fatigue and a lack of concentration. Once you notice these “side-effects” the desire of studying at night might alleviate so that you will become more open to traditional approaches towards studying: during the day and in the evening.

360 degrees? Steve,I sure hope that you were very tired when you wrote this….

You got me.

Thanks for this article – so glad there are likeminded people out there who want to live their lives but sadly only a few have the courage to do so or realise that there is no “comfort zone” and yes the world is an ever changing place. life just has so much to give but only a spare few see it. Thanks for this awesome article again makes my heart smile

Hi Helen, you’re welcome! I’m glad that the article inspired you and made your heart smile!

Hi Steve! A very useful article. From my personal experience i have found out that i spend my whole day making money and i m so much involved in it that i hardly find any time to spend with myself. Your article really enlightened me how i can live life to the maximum. I personally liked your view on active mind. I am sure this article will prove an life changer to my life.

I also watched a video recently that cleared lots of doubts in my mind regarding life and i would like to share it with you.

Thank you once again for such a beautiful article.

Hi Steve. Most of the stuff that you write about deeply resonate within me, as I can see lots of parallels with my own path, but I don’t see why anybody should force themselves to live their lives ‘to the full’ as if there was some sort of Shangri-la they never realized it was there. While I totally agree that we have to strive to go beyond our present limitations, that, in my opinion, is a constructed belief, because the reality of most people’s lives can’t be in other mode than that of auto-pilot. Consider the 9 to 5 worker, the single man or woman, or the mum or dad, who rushes throughout the day to accomplish the things they need in order to simply get things done. The only satisfaction that they expect at the end of the day is that they did it the best they could. There are 24 hours in a day, and we hardly have more than 8 or 10 (more if you deprive your need of sleep) to accomplish the things that are necessary to sustain our lives. So, how much time we have left to live our lives to the full?

In my experience, happiness is not to be found only in some dreamed world where we have transcended the quotidian and became somehow enlightened, but also in contentment and the acceptance of our quotidian limitations. If that implies that we have barely the time to play a video game in our free time, or watch TV, I’d say screw the after-life screenshots, because life is made also of those nondescript moments, and loving them is our job.

You’re absolutely correct. I wrote this article 3 or four years ago. And when reflecting what you have said I see that the article addresses one aspect, but leaves open many others. In the end, I believe that we all have to define for ourselves what it means to us to live a happy life. And for some a happy life is list to the fullest, which can also mean a life full of extremes, positive and negative experiences. To others a simple and modest life is sufficient enough.

Your last sentence is pure genius. I totally agree.

This was a very inspiring parahgh, it made me cri

Thanks for your heartwarming feedback.

Today I have learnt something new or I could say what I once learnt now is instilled in my mind to live in the moment.I will not stop blaming my family, friends for my misfortunes in life I rather live for the moment.I just wish that I will have the courage to accept my past not worry about the future but live for the moment.

Hi Steve! I read your article “Live your Life to the Fullest” thank-you very much it inspired me a lot . I really don’t want to see myself sitting in front of a TV or a computer when “watching the movie of my life” and I used to be “the one who live life to the fullest” but when and how , I was lost and finding happiness in this so called source of entertainment but actually even these stuffs (T.V, computer etc ) are just helping me to pass my days not helping me to enjoy the days ,enjoy the life which I wan to . After reading your article I realised what actually I want , what is dream. I want to live life as bird not lured by any cage and probably I guess for that I have work toward my goal , think positive, accept all challenges and enjoy present. Moreover really happiness is not watching T.V or chatting its accepting challenges ,struggling and then achieving . Thank-you for such a inspiring article.

You’re very welcome Neha! I absolutely agree with everything you’ve said in your comment. And I’m glad that you have the courage to live life as a bird and without being lured away by any cage.

what a great inspiration! thanks.

What is this emptiness within us that our lives are spent searching to fill? Is it created purely by our constant thoughts of comparison and measurement and nothing else? Is there a summit that is reached where it is obvious that our life is finally good. Or is this simply another game of thoughts.

Steve, I love that the article points out the lack of courage in our lives and that being stuck and comfortable works for many. This is so true. Yet, all these positive ways to live that are mentioned that are extraordinary, I have tried. These practices still leave thinking about our life all day long securely in place. Thinking about the “me” is the crux of suffering.

What is thinking? Why is thinking about ourselves at the center of everyone’s life? To transform the identity that we have accumulated in our thoughts to a new and improved version, still leaves the identity of what we are as thoughts. Instead of working to improve our identity through thought, why not see what the symbol that thoughts have created as the “me”, really is.

Personally, surrendering to God has helped filling the emptiness inside. It can have quite a wonderful impact upon your life.

This is an incredibly great article. You are right that we always live in the past or in the future. We usually think too much and can not relax in the here and now. Thanks for the nice post – which reminds you once again to be mindful and to enjoy the present moment. Best regards!

This is awesome information! Very enlightening!

This is great and awesome inspiring parahgh. Thanks

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“YOLO” is a term often used by today's youth.

You can hear people say it everywhere, or even see it as a hashtag on Twitter (#YOLO). It is an abbreviation which stands for "You Only Live Once. " This expression roots from “Carpe Diem,” which is Latin for "seize the day. " It emphasizes how precious life is and how we should seize every extraordinary moment and opportunity that comes our way.

It encourages people to bring out the best in them in order to enjoy life and make the most out of each day. Several adults say that YOLO is simply Carpe Diem for “stupid people.This is because some teenagers interpret it in a different and objectifying way. For them, YOLO is an appropriate excuse for partying all night, getting drunk, getting into non-committed relationships, doing drugs, ditching school, mixing up their priorities - basically, doing whatever they want whenever they desire. They do these things because their understanding is that we will all die someday, anyway, so might as well live in the best and most fun way possible, even if it’s not always correct or safe.

For them, doing the all these wrong things is fine and acceptable because we only have one life to live and some opportunities (to get drunk, skip school, etc. ) might not come again, so they just grab it while they can. They use the term YOLO as an excuse to take risks and be too carefree. They only want to have a good time, not realizing the gravity of the consequences of their actions, and that someday they will regret making that decision. The expression in itself is not stupid, rather, the people who justify their questionable behavior by the ‘YOLO’ are.

Do you think that because you only live once, you can do many things that will risk your future? Or even your own life? Instead of gambling your life away, just enjoy the present moment by making wise and memorable decisions. Positivity and satisfaction are the keys to living a good and enjoyable life. Happiness is a choice; it shouldn’t be the product of foolishness. Do not let others control or influence what your heart truly desires. You, yourself, can decide on how to live your life wisely.

Live it to the fullest by choosing to do things and make memories that will turn you into the best possible version of yourself, not the worst.

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Live Life to the Fullest

By: Top   •  Essay  •  469 Words  •  November 29, 2009  •  3,151 Views

Essay title: Live Life to the Fullest

Living life to the Fullest

When I herd we were going to write a paper on how we could live life to the fullest, I was very excited. I feel that if you waste your life by only doing enough to get by should be a crime. We were put on this earth to do something special with our lives and we should never take that for granted. People that do not do everything to the best of their abilities aren’t only cheating themselves but also the others around them. Throughout this paper I will be explaining why I feel that living my life to the fullest is so important.

One of the first reasons everyone should live their lives to the fullest is because if you don’t you will have missed out on so many great opportunities. If you don’t do the best you can in everything than you’ll never know how far you could have gotten. Take a sport for instance, if you don’t practice than you’ll never get any better. Yet if you do put everything you have into that sport you will become one of the best athletes on that field. You can apply that same determination to school work, your job, your marriage, pretty much anything you do in life you should do your best. Not only will you succeed in life if you do your best you will be happy with yourself.

You should live your life to the fullest in your community by helping people when they need it. I mean if you see one of your neighbors bringing in their groceries you should go and help them. Also

Scars remind 17-year-old to live life to the fullest

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When Ashwini Thirupathi woke up with a fever one morning last July, in the midst of her preparations for the GCE O’ Levels, she thought nothing of it and duly took a few rounds of aspirin.

But days went by and the fever still persisted, peaking at 45 deg C. The 16-year-old’s parents then took her to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where they received some shocking news.

The diagnosis was infective endocarditis, a rare bacterial infection that causes abscesses and vegetations around the heart valves.

Ashwini soon found herself in the hospital’s operating theatre, where she underwent a 12-hour open-heart surgery.

The experience, she said, left her with both physical and emotional scars, including one that stretches from her chest to her collarbone.

She told tabla: “I don’t worry about what others think. People accept tattoos; they should view my scar the same way.”

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Ashwini was not fully aware of her condition before her surgery. Her parents, worried about the risks involved, as outlined by the doctors, chose not to inform her – “they wanted to protect me from the dread”.

Dr Charmaine Chan, a global data consultant in cardiology with KK hospital, explained: “When a person is affected by infective endocarditis, bacteria enter the bloodstream and attach to a damaged part of the heart lining or valves, forming vegetations.

“In Ashwini’s case, a large vegetation on her mitral valve caused significant damage and holes in her valve, as well as abscess around the valve.”

Dr Chan added that infective endocarditis is not a common condition among children, especially those without a history of congenital heart disease. Cases of infective endocarditis that require surgery are rarer, she said, with just three cases over the last 10 years.

Ashwini recalled waking from the surgery with tubes in her nose, mouth and urinary tract.

“I was unable to talk for two days, I had to type out words to speak to my parents,” she said. “I had to have a glucose drip for three weeks before I could finally drink something.”

It was only while recovering from surgery that Ashwini learnt of her situation, when the surgeon explained it to her.

“Until then, I thought that I had undergone only a stomach procedure. I was just blank with shock when I heard the news,” she said.

After weeks of post-surgery rehab and a significant loss of study time, Ashwini was determined not to delay her O’Level examinations. “I didn’t want my situation to hold me back. Regardless of my exam results, I was eager to move forward,” she said.

Though she did not secure a place in a mass communications course at a polytechnic as she had hoped, Ashwini enrolled in a criminology diploma programme at Kaplan University.

Now almost a year since the surgery, Ashwini is determined to move on. While she can’t partake in vigorous physical activities, she goes for regular walks to ease herself into normal life. Engaging in community service also helps her relax.

Doctors have informed her that, despite surviving the surgery, there remained ongoing risks. Her situation has been described to her as a “ticking time bomb,” suggesting a likelihood of future complications or the need for additional medical interventions.

“Recently, I was admitted to the hospital again – for just a slight pain in the chest. This is what I have to live with – anticipation and caution,” she said.

“But the aftermath of the surgery has made me stronger and weaker in different ways. I remind myself that it’s okay to feel scared or insecure and that the feeling will pass.”

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Verses that heal, poetry as legacy: S’pore man with terminal illness launches book

SINGAPORE - He was on the top of the world when an aggressive, incurable disease turned Mr Yeo Whee Jim’s world upside down overnight.

In February 2023, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and given a prognosis of two to five years.

Motor neurone disease is a rare condition that leads to muscle weakness, often with visible wasting.

The neurons in Mr Yeo’s muscles are breaking down, and he has lost his fine motor skills and the ability to control his limbs.

“I’m stripped bare of everything now,” the 50-year-old told The Straits Times on June 20. “I’ll be lying if I say I have no feelings of resentment, bitterness and fatigue.”

Devastated that life was ebbing away day by day, he decided that he must leave his legacy behind in some form. He settled on poetry.

Mr Yeo launched his first collection of poems titled Itinerary at the Arts House on June 28, a 96-page book containing his reflections on legacy, mortality and leading a full life.

It also includes photographs he had taken with his mobile phone when he was more able-bodied.

Mr Paul Tan, his friend and former colleague, had mooted the idea that he write an essay on legacy for The Straits Times. Mr Yeo’s opinion piece, published in November 2023, was well-received.

Mr Tan, a published poet, then urged him to try poetry, seeing it as a way for him to transcend his physical limitations and express himself in spite of his debilitating condition.

“My first reaction was siao (mad). I’m not even an amateur poet to begin with,” Mr Yeo recalled.

Yet, he went along with the idea, and with Mr Tan’s tireless guidance and constant prodding, he completed 33 poems between November 2023 and January 2024.

The voice-to-text software embedded in his mobile phone helped him overcome the loss of his fine motor skills. 

“I was in a hurry, given the limited time I have. I just did it.”

Before the diagnosis, Mr Yeo was living it up. He was lean, fit and active – practising yoga, lifting heavy weights, climbing mountains and swimming up to 120 laps.

“I was living life to the fullest, and I’d never felt fitter in my life,” he said.

Then, Mr Yeo began losing his abilities one by one. Swimming half a lap became challenging, buttoning a shirt was a monumental struggle, and friends were shocked to see how much weight he had lost.

In January 2023, he went for a check-up. The diagnosis came back a month later, and his world crumbled before his eyes.

After a distinguished career of over 20 years in public service, Mr Yeo left his comfort zone in 2021 to start his own business, Light My Path Consulting, offering corporate, learning and workshop facilitation.

He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Osaka University in Japan, and a master’s in business administration from the BI Norwegian School of Management in Norway.

He was director of the Public Service Commission Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office, institute director of governance and policy at the Civil Service College, and senior director of arts and heritage in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

His business engagements took him across the region, and allowed him to savour both work and life at his own pace. He also helped other Asian countries, such as Bhutan’s Royal Civil Service Commission, to transform its civil service.

A single parent after his wife died of breast cancer in 2013 at age 39, Mr Yeo travelled the globe with his daughter, now 18, visiting places like South Africa, British Columbia, the Galapagos Islands and the Arctic Circle.

He also served actively in his church in various capacities, including as a Sunday school teacher.

His current work, written primarily in English with some poems or lines in Singlish, Mandarin, Malay, Japanese and Cantonese, reflects Singapore’s multicultural tapestry. They are also intercultural, with dialogues between different cultures such as Malay and English in his poem, Ode to Ondeh-Ondeh.

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam wrote in the book that “Whee Jim’s poetry, instructed by life’s transience, is both deeply poignant and liberating. Reading him, on hope, on capsizing on the river of life and flipping things over, on rethinking, and on love, is to know ourselves better”.

Mr Yeo said the book started off narrowly from his own selfish perspective to leave a legacy and help his daughter understand how he is feeling.

“But it’s also my humble wish now that it will help those struggling with illnesses, faith, life, relationships – maybe give them some hope, solace and comfort.”

He acknowledged that he has had a fulfilling life.

Today, he moves around in a wheelchair, and needs help with bathing and eating. He takes medication to slow down the disease’s progression. One pill costs $20, and he has to pop one twice a day.

He shut his company in April, and spends his days reconnecting with friends and renewing relationships. He does not know if he will be physically able to write again, considering his swift degeneration.

“Perhaps my next project is staying alive,” he said. “My muscles ache, my joints are tight, and I get breathless easily. It’s a prolonged sense of discomfort that will only get worse.”

Reflecting on life’s unpredictability, he said: “We tend to think we have tomorrow, next week, next year, but sometimes in life, things can change very quickly. Don’t overthink things, just do it.”

Just like his first poetry collection, which he said could be his last.

Itinerary can be bought at https://bit.ly/43WlfIO and Kinokuniya at $30 (before GST). Hard-cover copies cost $40 before GST (limited copies available). Net proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association Singapore.

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