Start Thriving: 3 Tips for Living a Well-Rounded Life

When all is said and done, everyone wants to live a happy, interesting, and memorable life. I think we have social media to thank for that. We want to have experience because we see others enjoying experiences. A major part of achieving that happy life will inevitably have to do with having a variety of experiences and interests to explore, from day-to-day.

As the old saying goes; “variety is the spice of life.”

Often, we pay a lot of attention to things like getting the right home builder to create the house of our dreams or climbing as high as we can on the professional ladder at work, or fiddling around with the natural steps of life and making sure we don’t miss one. Those things are all well and good, however, a well-rounded life is arguably even more important than a life with major accomplishments in one or two areas.

So, in my 25 years of experience, here are my few tips for living a well-rounded life.

Regularly take the time to reflect on your deeper values in life, and whether you are living in alignment with those

It’s often really easy to get distracted, day by day, as situations develop, workplace obligations arise, and “life gets in the way.”

At the start of every year, most people have some idea of the goals or “resolutions” they want to stick to and accomplish by year’s end. Frequently, though, those fine intentions and ambitions have been sidetracked within only a few short months.

In order to make sure that you are living a well-rounded life, it’s important to regularly take the time to reflect on your deeper values, and to consider whether you are living in line with those or not. If you notice that you are drifting from things that you find really meaningful, that’s a sign that you need to make a change to get back on the right track.

Force yourself to step out of your comfort zone on a regular basis and explore new things 

We all end up forming “comfort zones” for ourselves.– which is pretty much just a way of saying that we become relaxed with the things that are familiar to us, and become reluctant to explore things that are unfamiliar to us.

When it comes to living a well-rounded life, though, your comfort zone is often a “rut” that you get stuck in. If you only do what you are comfortable and familiar with, that can often mean that you spend all your evenings watching TV, and all your days in the office.

Admittedly, I am a creature of habit with some things, like my schedule and my spot in yoga (weird, but I need the same spot because of how much it helps me practice better haha) and that is okay because I put myself out of my comfort zone in other areas of life like with joining a company I wasn’t sure I was ready for, or even starting this blog, exposing everything try and do.

Force yourself to step out of your comfort on a regular basis, and explore new things that you find interesting and worthwhile.

Audit and manage the amount of time you spend on passive activities, versus active ones

In order to live a well-rounded life, you’ve got to be in control of your time and you have to spend it actively and actually getting things done in a variety of different areas.

I did an exercise recently where I printed out a blank schedule, time blocked out all of the things I had to do. I time block my work, sleeping, gym time, typical errand time, etc and then highlighted all of the extra free time I had. Let me tell you, there was a lot more there than I expected.

I realized I wasn’t getting the things done I wanted to get done not because I didn’t have time for them, but because I was allowing myself to get distracted by TV, the computer, or social media.

If you find that a major chunk of your time is spent on “passive” activities – things like watching music videos online – then you need to make sure to balance things out, so that you can actually dedicate an appropriate number of hours to worthwhile “active” pastimes.

Simple things like going for a walk or taking an unplanned last-minute trip, or even meal prepping for a week when you don’t usually do that can really allow you to start living your best life. Really challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone, find your values and align with them, and make sure the time you have isn’t always spent on passive activities.

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