If you are reading this post, I know you are interested in hacking your life — but what exactly does that mean?
Every month or so, I get together with a group of like-minded businesspeople in Managua, and we discuss our latest projects, triumphs, failures, and sticky situations. The hours I spend with them are some of the best times of each month. Get a group of go-getters together and the theme of leveling up and achieving/striving/trying will creep in somehow.
Our last meeting, though, was different.
I’ve noticed a shift in my go-getter friends. We all want to do great things and live great lives, but we’re also tired. No longer were we talking about projects and business models. Instead, we discuss running ourselves ragged without creating a worthwhile impact.
The words I heard over and over again were freedom, family, and time. In essence, we all want to level up, and have more freedom, more family, and more time.
How can we hack our lives to get more of those: freedom, family, and time?
1. Seek Out the “Hell yes!”
There are so many decisions we make each day, but few of them inspire us to throw our hands in the air with excitement. What if we were to use that reasoning to guide us?
- A fun new client? Hell yes!
- A useless meeting? No, thanks.
- Dinner with inspiring peers? Hell yes!
- Mind-numbing tasks? No, thanks.
Seeking out the “hell yes!” in every decision injects serious energy into every moment.
Noticing exactly how I feel about each incoming opportunity and task helps me navigate my decisions and stay true to what makes me feel awesome.
2. Do more of the good
Each and every day, I know what I should be adding to my life. I love to write when it feels like nobody else is around, no phones are ringing, and emails are blocked off. If I want to add more of that every day, I can choose to schedule it and stick to a writing schedule that feels great.
Doing more of good stuff will feel like adding extra layers of awesome to your life.
What activities would you do more of if you had the choice? What can you do to achieve that?
3. Do less of the bad
Very similar to what I described above, there are activities that I long to partake in much less. Personally, the administration piece of my startup makes me feel drained and worried (even when we’re doing well). I will always have to oversee that activity, but I learned to significantly diminish my involvement by delegating straining tasks.
Doing less of the bad stuff in your life will feel like avoiding so many traps!
If you could choose to dump parts of your life, what would they be? Can you take some small steps to achieve that tomorrow or the next day?
4. Divide your life in two
Every single action and activity in our lives falls on either side of a line. I use the line to divide my life into two areas: that which feels liberating and that which feels limiting.
- Working from home? Liberating.
- Taking on a picky client due to economic needs? Limiting.
- Waking up early to write in privacy? Liberating.
- Doing weights at the gym when I’d rather be running? Limiting.
Keeping more of my day on the side of “liberating” opens me up to feeling free and joyful.
What do you find liberating in your life? What do you find limiting? You can use that personal information to judo chop your decisions.
5. Focus on the process
I am not going to lie to you. I sit on the fence about goals and striving for better in my life. Setting goals most definitely helps me find direction, but sometimes I stress out way too much about the end result. Lately, I’ve offset that stress by trying to focus more on the actual process of achieving anything. When I’m running, it’s easy for me to start daydreaming about the beach body I want — but why not focus on the actual running instead?
By focusing on the process, I let go of the stress to achieve something and I have a lot more fun with what’s going on in the actual moment.
In the end, improving our lives and living every single day as if it’s a vacation is a long journey of self-development — but it’s incredibly worthwhile.
Featured photo credit: Jef Willemyns via unsplash.com
