THE IDEAL LIFESTYLE

An ideal lifestyle is a moving target and it changes as we change therefore, the ideal life for you today may not be the ideal one for you next week or next month and the life you choose to live may come at a cost. Things like health, career, finance, fun and relationships may seem important to you but how often do you take time to prioritize them. 

When growing up, our parents tell us that we can be anything that we want to. Therefore, working towards that goal (becoming anything that we want to), we at times find ourselves bending the rules of reality. We get caught up in the pressures of life, the long sleepless nights of work; wanting to make more money and have a better lifestyle is something many people struggle with. Especially if we have bills to pay and mouths to feed.  Everyday is a struggle on how to achieve the goal of having an ideal lifestyle according to each one’s definition of an ideal lifestyle.

Time

Time plays a key role in achieving an ideal lifestyle.  How well do you allocate time in things that are important? With the hunger for more money we often find ourselves forgetting to allocate some time for our health or even the social part of our life. If you use your time well it will enable you have the happiness and peace that you so much yearn for.

Steps towards achieving an ideal Lifestyle

Ø  Create boundaries:

Life has two parts, the internal (health) and the external (financial, relationships, fun and career/business). Be sure of the extent you can go concerning a particular part of your life. For example how much time do you set for your family, health or even work? Try as much possible not to spend all your time in the office while neglecting your health or family. 

Ø  Protect priorities

One way of protect our priorities is by learning to say “NO’. Remember that you also have to make some hard decisions because we cannot possibly do everything that we want to do and everything that everyone else wants us to do. 

Daily things like time should be allocated well. Priorities change each day in the sense that whatever was at the top of your list of priorities on a Sunday may not be the same one on top on a Monday. For example our family may be at the top of the list on Sunday but when it comes to Monday then work comes first. Cut down on unnecessary tasks because, having an ideal life means being realistic. 

How to balance Key elements in order to achieve ideal lifestyle

The key elements in our life are things to do with the external and internal part of our life.  Often at times, people focus on one more than the other. For example, you may find that you focus on external things, and in turn pay very little attention to what is going on inside.

1.      Health

Why neglect your health while you know very well that you need this body to able to do so many things in your life.  Your body enables you experience so many wonderful things therefore learn to take good care of it. 

Since your body is very important to you, make sure that you make healthy choices in life in order for it to serve you for a long time.  Generally be active, eat a balanced/healthy diet and have enough rest. 

Most of us believe that by making a lot of many we will achieve the goal of having an ideal life but one thing is for sure, that when you tire your body so much looking for money and neglecting your health you will end up using all that money you made in taking care of your health after your health has deteriorated. Therefore it is advisable to put importance to our health as much as we put to looking for finances and other things. 

Our health is made up of three parts; that is the physical, emotional and spiritual.

The physical health: this is all to do with what we see when we look at our bodies or some else’s body.  Don’t engage in habits that may harm your health.  The modern life of being on trend all the time may ruin your health.  We tend to prefer coffee over fresh juice or even fast foods over home made balanced diet.  At times since we give so much time to work, what do we do when we are tired and can’t cook? Most likely we will go for fast food or canned meals. It is not that these foods are bad but if we use them over and over it means that there are nutrients we are denying our bodies or even we might be pumping harmful substances to our bodies and therefore we may start developing complications.

The emotional health: this has to do with our mind.  Allow your mind to rest and always control your emotion thus you will have a healthy mind. A neglected mind comes with health complications too like depression, self esteem issues etc.  Strive to have a positive mindset, know how to handle stressful moments and also look for ways to improve yourself. Be confident with yourself and feel secure among others. 

The spiritual Health: This has to do with your relationship with your creator, how often do you allocate time for him? 

2.      Finance

The financial part of your life enables you meet various needs. In most cases when there is a lot of money flowing in, we forget about the budget and concentrate on spending.  It is important to follow a budget and live within your means. 

Be real to yourself.  Due to peer pressure some of us may try to fit in a clique. It is advisable to live within your means and if you can’t maintain a certain lifestyle then don’t get into it just to fit in a clique as it might end up harming you.   Because your supposed friend has bought a new car, you also want to buy just to be on trend. Not putting in mind where that money will come from. 

We are not sure of tomorrow, whether the job or business we have today will be there and doing well tomorrow.  Therefore let us learn to have a saving schedule and an investment plan. 

3.      Relationships

We all need people around us and these people could be family, friends, colleagues etc.  It is good to create a good relationship with people as well as creating time for people close to us. Be the kind of person that people can reach out to, being too harsh, negative will make people rebel. We can’t push people away even those that want to help us. 

Fulfill your responsibilities as well as creating healthy boundaries.  Each one of us has a role to play in the society.  If you are a parent, sibling, child, friend, colleague, leader etc. please play your role well and be responsible for your actions. 

Understand the people close to you and always create time for them. We all have weakness; therefore let us not concentrate on the negative side of a person rather than the positive side.  If we learn to appreciate the positive side of an individual then we won’t have time to negatively criticize them but instead we will make them improve and become better people.

4.      Career/Business/Education

Whatever field you are in, make sure that put constant effort to improve yourself. Knowledge is key and it always comes in handy.

What plans do you have for your career, education or even business? It reaches a time that monotony becomes boring, therefore try as much as possible to improve in your career, education or business.  These are things that will keep you going for a long time; invest and reinvest in them to make them better; they will in turn motivate you and if you are well motivated then you can do so much more. 

Set clear goals in regard to your career, education or business and work hard to achieve them.  Let your targets be achievable and then be sure to enjoy the ride. 

5.      Fun

Just because you need to provide for your family or your work is so demanding doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a “you” time. Allocate time for yourself and do things that you enjoy doing. It could be away from your family and friends or even with them but what matters the most is that you have fun, relax and be happy. 

Have fun in the right way; fun without limits can be very harmful, remember that everything has a limit therefore, when having fun please do not overdo it. 

An ideal lifestyle is easy to achieve, but the most important thing about it is that it is rewarding as it leaves you accomplished and happy. It is called living life in simplicity that comes with lots of joy and serenity.