Six Steps to a More Fulfilling Life

Retiring at the end of my life having worked a 9-5, day in-day out, for "the man" is my definition of the pits! I know it works for some, but not me. In the scheme of the universe, life is not long. I want to make every moment count. I want to experience everything that this life can possibly offer me before I move on to what’s next — whatever that is!

Back in 2014, I resigned from my 9-5 and took on the challenge of self-employment — probably the biggest personal development challenge you can possibly undertake. My experience has been rife with ups and downs, trying to find the right balance. But to get to the place where I am now makes it so worth it! This is how I did it.

"What do you want from life? If you were able to write your own story as the author of your own novel, what would you write?"

What do you want from life? If you were able to write your own story as the author of your own novel, what would you write? Would it include what you are doing right now? Sometimes we get so caught up with the day-to-day routines of everything we need to do, have to do and should do, that we forget to look up and take in exactly where we are.

Six Steps for a More Fulfilling Life

1. Establish your most important values to have
   Make a list of all the “ends” values that are important to you. Don’t worry about the order, just write. Ask yourself what’s most important to you in your life. Pay particular attention to the emotions you want to experience. If you come up with “means" values, like money, ask yourself what that would ultimately give you and list all these things.
2. Order your most important values
   With all your values listed, put an asterisk next to all the important ones. Repeat this process, adding an asterisk, until you only have a few values listed. These are your most important values.
3. Establish your most important values to avoid 
   Just like the values to have, make a list of all the values you want to avoid. List everything, focussing on the emotions you most want to limit your experience of.
4. Order your most important values to avoid
   Again, just as in the important values to have, make a list of your away-from values in order of importance.
5. Understand the rules
   You will have certain “rules” for how you experience these emotions. For the most important “moving-toward” and “moving-away-from” values, make a list of all the things that need to happen for you to experience those emotions.
6. Decide what you’re willing to change to lead a more fulfilling life forever
   You don’t need to change anything. But you very simply can change the rules you place on yourself in order to experience those away-from values less often or intensely, and experience those toward-values more easily and more often.

Those are the six steps to live a more fulfilling life. I’ve gone through this process twice now. Once when I was 19 and most recently this year. This process actually comes from Anthony Robbins’ Personal Power 2 program, which I’ve just started going through again. It’s amazing that it can still be so relevant 16 years later. I can say from experience that, although the process is quite time-consuming and requires a bit of effort, it is seriously worth the investment.

Off the top of your head right now, what are your top 3 towards-values?

Leave your answer to that question in the comments section below.

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[Image source: Tiny Buddha]