10 Tips for Living a Fulfilling and Productive Life

We live in the Age of Information, but maybe not the Age of Common Sense. 

Many people out there are ready to give you all sorts of advice on every detail of your life, but they often miss the big picture. They concentrate on things like apps and lifehacks instead of values like love and community. I think we can have all those things and more.

With that in mind, I wrote 10 things I think you can do today that will help your life feel more full and productive than ever. 

1.) Love Yourself 

You have to start here. If you don’t love yourself, no amount of love from anybody else will ever fill the hole inside you. Just can’t be done. So go look in that mirror and decide that who you see is a good person. After you can say that to yourself and believe it, then we can start to work on your goals as a person and an athlete. And if you can’t love yourself yet? You’ve got some work to do – and that’s okay, too. The first step is here, now get to the work.

2.) Live, Love, Learn, and Laugh with Others, Especially Family and Friends 

The internet is fun. I love the internet! But no number of Facebook friends or followers or time in cyberspace can ever compare with the time you spend in person with friends and family. One is good, the other is golden. Carve out time in your schedule to bust a gut with your buddies, play catch with your kids, or take a walk with your family. The simple things mean a lot. Go do them in person with the people you love.

3.) Eat and Sleep Well 

Got to have the basics. If you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll be no good for anyone else. Get your 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night, eat clean (order yourself some healthy goodness from Steve’s Paleogoods, of course!) and place a priority on you.

4.) Move, Lift, and Stretch 

Humans are meant to move, and that includes you. Get out on the trail or the road. Get to the gym. Lift heavy loads if you can, light loads if you have to. But lift. It’s really important for your bones and your heart and all of you. And when you’re doing all that running or riding or lifting, make sure you take time to stretch and keep yourself mobile. Do the upkeep your body needs so it can do the work you want it to.

5.) Read Books and Solve Problems 

You know what the greatest leaders do? They read books. You know what chumps do? They say, “I don’t have time to read.” Read any way you want to: paper, e-book, or audiobook. Whatever way you want to do it is okay. Just do it. Read books and find great information so you can solve problems in your business, your family, and your community.

6.) Socialize 

What’s the greatest thing you can do to live longer? (Besides stop eating junk and start exercising.) 

Socialize. Have friends. Do things with other people. Recently, an 80-year-long Harvard study confirmed that community was key to living a longer and happier life. Joy isn’t just nice to have: it keeps us alive.

7.) Help Others 

No man is an island … and that would suck anyhow. Who wants to be on an island by themselves? Boring. Instead, get out there and help other people. Helping others will take your mind off your own problems as well as make you feel better. Helping gives you a natural high. Go get high.

8.) Travel 

Your backyard might be great (mine is!) but it helps to go and see where other people live. If you want to understand yourself and your family and your town better, get outside those walls and really see, up close, how beautiful this world is. And how heartbreaking. Both will serve you well. There are good people everywhere. Go travel among them and meet them.

9.) Think Positive Thoughts 

Ever read “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl? If Frankl could think positively in a Nazi concentration camp, then I think we all can think positively. And it really helps, because what you think, you definitely become. Like Frankl wrote about man: “His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.” 

Bear your burden well. Your positive attitude can help you and everyone around you.

10.) Do What Is Right 

What’s right is not always what’s easy. In fact, most of the time doing what is right is the hard way. But that’s okay. Doing the right thing is worth it. Doing the right thing is satisfying in a long-lasting way that doing the wrong thing never is and never can be. 

So do what is right. Be the person you always hoped you could be. Make your mom and dad proud. Make your kids proud. Make yourself proud.

These aren’t the answers to all of life but they’re a start. If you start living these 10 tips today, I’m betting you’re a different person – a better person – in 30 days. Try it and tell me how it goes! And do you have tips for living a more fulfilling and productive life? Email me at [email protected] and tell me! I’m always interested in learning more. Thanks!

-Steve