10 Pillars of Lifestyle Design: Evolving into a Life of Happiness

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My stepdad died last month. My mom’s been in and out of the hospital since then (broken heart?).

As a former engineer, I have a mindset to observe and then improve things. It’s just how my brain works.

I’ve been observing all the decisions they’ve made over the decades (good and bad). I’ve also been studying how other folks have been living their lives and the results that follow. It’s something I’ve been curious about for several years now.

It’s not because I want to judge other people for what they’ve done that might be right or wrong – it’s not my place to decide that. Rather, it’s because I want to live my own life in the best way possible. I want a lifestyle design that will help me to make the most out of my existence.

I have no desire to be miserable or scared later in life just because I put myself into a bad position as a result of not preparing or changing earlier in life. That’s just not a situation I want to be in.

I’m being picky about the goal, however. Not only do I want to live a very long life, but it needs to be one where I’m healthy and not struggling because of pain I’m in or fighting chronic diseases that could have been prevented with some care in earlier years. And I want it to be a happy life. Why aim for a long life if it’s going to be one where you’re sad or angry all the time? 

I tell my wife and daughter that I’m aiming to live to 104… if I fall a little short and hit 100, I’ll still consider that a win. My hope is that diseases like Alzheimer’s will be cured or controllable as I continue to age. With everything I read, it sounds like the smarter people working on these things are on the right track.

I turned 51 this year, so I’m not even to my half-life if I’m fortunate enough to pull off my goal. That means I’ve still got a lot of years to go.

Will it happen? For better or worse, no one knows.

Since discovering early retirement around 2014, I realized that following the “norms” isn’t what gets you far in reaching a long, happy, healthy, fulfilling life. In fact, it seems like you’re usually better off doing the opposite of what most folks do. 

Ever since that realization, I’ve continued to work on myself. And because I made early retirement a reality at 43 at the end of 2018, I’ve had more time and freedom to focus on improving myself even more. 

What I want to share are what I consider to be 10 lifestyle design pillars for building your life into one that’s happy, healthy, and fulfilling. Whether or not you live to 104 is something I can’t promise, but being happy and healthy in the time you do have is what really matters.

The Core of Lifestyle Design: Choosing Health, Joy, and Intentionality

We spend so much of our early lives reacting. We follow standard career tracks, absorb societal expectations, and accept the defaults in life just because everyone else seems to be doing that. But if recent life events have taught me anything, it’s that time is finite, and the script we’re handed isn’t guaranteed to give us what we actually want.

Designing your life doesn’t mean you control every curveball or guarantee a specific finish line. You can’t engineer away grief, and you certainly can’t control what biology or luck throws your way. What you can control are the structural choices you make every single day.

For me, that meant stepping away from the traditional path and hitting early retirement at 43 to buy back my time. But early retirement is just a tool; what matters most is what you actually do with that freedom. It requires building a framework where health, mental clarity, and genuine happiness aren’t just accidental byproducts… they’re the deliberate goals of the system.

Whether you’re looking at your health, your mindset, or your daily routines, it all comes down to a handful of foundational components. Here are the 10 lifestyle design pillars I’ve found essential for building a life that is long, healthy, and genuinely fulfilling.

Pillar #1: Improving Your Physical Health

Everything starts with this one. There’s not a single one of us who doesn’t know that a good diet and regular exercise are probably the most important things to do in life… so why do most of us either not care or struggle so much with them?

In my opinion, I think it comes down to four things:

1. The marketing machine – Let’s face it, food scientists have perfected making horribly bad-for-you junk food taste delicious and make you want more.
2. Price – Trying to afford the healthy choices can be a struggle for a good percentage of folks. Garbage food is almost always cheaper at the store.
3. Time/Priorities – We only get so much time in a day, and it’s much easier to prioritize doing things that are usually more fun or relaxing.
4. Blame the neighbors… and everyone else – Most of us are like sheep (yeah, I said it!). We know we shouldn’t be eating unhealthy, drinking, smoking, whatever you want to add in here. But we tend to justify it in our heads because “everyone else” is doing the wrong things, too.

I’m not your mom (you wouldn’t want that anyway). I’m not going to tell you what you need to do, especially because we all already know what needs to be done.

The idea is simple. Essentially, we should be focusing on a healthy diet, regular exercise or physical activity, and aiming to get a good, full night’s sleep every night.

It’s up to you to decide to actually make it happen.

And if you don’t know “how” to do these things, you could hire a professional. Or honestly, just spend some time talking to an AI about it. I’ve become big on Google Gemini, but ChatGPT and Claude are both excellent as well. You’ll be surprised at how good these are at helping you create the right lifestyle design in this regard.

In my case, I made excuses on the exercise front. I kept saying that I didn’t have enough time for it. But looking back, everyone has enough time – it’s really just about what you’re prioritizing. If you look at what your days consist of, you almost certainly can find something that could be done less or not at all (i.e., watching TV) to make more time for some physical activity.

I didn’t see this until later, but once I did retire more than 7 years ago, I made exercise a priority. Now, I do resistance training 4 days a week, and I’m currently training to bike ride from Cincinnati to Cleveland in the fall (the Ohio to Erie Trail). Here’s a recent bike ride I took that I would have thought impossible at the beginning of this year…

In the meantime, I quit drinking alcohol almost 4 years ago, and somehow I’m still having fun and enjoying life without it. The beautiful part about this was that it also fixed something I wasn’t planning on – my sleeping immediately improved tremendously. For the most part, I fall asleep more easily and generally get a solid 8 hours every night… sometimes with a pee break in the middle of the night, of course (I’m no spring chicken anymore!).

Diet is my hardest one. I think I do very well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We eat a lot of chicken, fish, fruits, and veggies over here. I also drink water exclusively, though sometimes I’ll get a lemonade at a restaurant or have a Gatorade during my longer bike rides.

Snacks and what I like to call “sweet treats” are my downfall… mmm, sweet treats! I’m doing much better at it by eating less of my treats (maybe just a piece of chocolate or a cookie or two after dinner), but that’s a tough one for me. Pretzels, chips, etc. are another hard one for me to fill in between meals. I’ve been replacing some (not all) of my snacking with healthier alternatives (apples, pistachios, etc.). Slowly, but surely!

Pillar #2: Achieving (or Working Toward) Financial Independence

Money doesn’t buy happiness. That’s true… to a point. If you don’t have enough money to make ends meet, money can make a tremendous difference in your happiness level. On the flip side, if you’re not a happy person in life, nothing’s going to fix that.

That said, research has determined that happiness does increase with more income, but then levels off. Here’s one example:

“The happiness of the least happy 15% rises quickly in the lower range of income, leveling off abruptly at $100,000 to a near-zero, statistically nonsignificant slope in the higher range of incomes.”

— PNAS – Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved

Financial independence takes this a step further in that we’re talking about money that enables you to maintain that level of happiness without the need to work again. That doesn’t mean you don’t get to work anymore if you love what you do. It just means that if you leave your job, whether willingly or otherwise, money doesn’t need to be a concern to cover your normal expenses.

I truly believe that a solid lifestyle design framework needs to incorporate either reaching financial independence or actively working toward it.

The goal should be to have enough financial security that your choices can be driven by what you want to do rather than what you need to do.

I know not everyone is going to reach financial independence. Heck, most folks don’t even start thinking about retirement itself until it becomes a real burden:

“Surprisingly, 26% of Gen X’ers say they have not started saving for retirement yet.”

— Northwestern Mutual – The 2026 Planning & Progress Study

Ironically, being $30k in credit card debt in my twenties (that’s $60k in today’s dollars!) is what really kicked off my saving habits and set us on the right course. That was a blessing in disguise and really what enabled us to retire so early.

Money’s not everything, but being able to choose what you want to do on most days makes it something indescribable. It also means that you won’t be a financial burden on any kids you might have.

Pillar #3: Building and Maintaining Valuable Relationships

This is a downfall I’ve observed in others’ lives. People tend to have a lot of close relationships when they’re younger. Then careers and families start to get in the way of maintaining those relationships. Plus, many people move to other places for work or just because they want what might be a better location.

Over time, all those close relationships fade away to become fewer and fewer. By the time you’re in your 50’s or 60’s, you might have dramatically fewer close friends. Before you know it, you’re at an age where @#$% happens to folks your age. If someone close to you passes away and you only have a few friends, your close friend count is even lower.

It’s tough. It’s even a little scary. And it can be truly lonely.

And the research proves it:

“Many Americans do not have a large number of close friends. Close to half (49 percent) of Americans report having three or fewer. More than one-third (36 percent) of Americans report having several close friends—between four and nine. Thirteen percent of Americans say they have 10 or more close friends, which is roughly the same proportion of the public that has no close friends (12 percent).”

— Survey Center on American Life – The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss

“The lack of social connection poses a significant risk for individual health and longevity. Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk for premature death by 26% and 29% respectively. More broadly, lacking social connection can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”

— Office of the U.S. Surgeon General – Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation

This was something I had an epiphany about while watching my parents’ friends passing away. It seemed like they were going to a funeral for someone once a month. It also seemed like a lot of them were people they hadn’t talked to in a while.

I know they’re much older than me, but it was a wake-up call to me nonetheless. I’m not at the age where it’s the norm for my friends to start passing away too frequently (hopefully!). But I’m also at the age where it’s not abnormal for this to happen periodically as well.

That’s a little frightening.

So this is another important lifestyle design pillar. Not only should you actively maintain healthy relationships with family and friends, but it’s worth it to yourself to also build out your circle of friends. I know that’s easier said than done, but the ramifications of not trying are too severe not to try.

Financial planner and author Wes Moss spent years surveying thousands of retirees to find what separates the happiest retirees from the rest. His data revealed a clear magic number: the happiest retirees average 3.6 close friends/confidants, while unhappy retirees average just 2.6. He notes in his book, What the Happiest Retirees Know, that retirees with 3 close connections are 2x more likely to be happy retirees. Retirees with 5 close connections are 4x more likely to be happy retirees.

Life tends to get in the way of our relationships, but it’s critical to make time to maintain these friendships as much as you can. This also includes your partner if you have one and any community involvement you might have.

Having several close friends, ideally among different groups, can be even better.

For me, I’ve been trying to make a concerted effort to spend more time with those I care about. Sometimes just a text or phone call is enough to stay in touch. It would be embarrassing to say that I created a spreadsheet to track how often I get together with folks in my life, so let’s pretend that I didn’t. 😉

We made quite a number of friends when we lived in Boquete, Panama and we still talk to several of them. However, I’m sure a lot of that has to do with all expats being in the same boat and most are looking to make new friends. When we move to Asheville, North Carolina later this year, we’re fortunate to actually know one good friend in the area already. That said, we’re pretty outgoing so we’ll continue to meet folks there and hopefully develop some good friendships as well!

Pillar #4: Embracing Curiosity and Adventure

Curiosity is a superpower. It’s the spark that prevents life from feeling stagnant or repetitive, driving you to see new places and try new things.

Try new experiences. Travel. Explore. Ask questions. Keep discovering what you and the world have to offer.

I didn’t realize how important this was until we moved to Panama in 2019. This entire idea of moving abroad was very uncharacteristic for us, but it turned out to be such an eye-opener. It was like the whole world opened up in front of us.

I think a lot of folks who have never traveled internationally might be a little wary about other countries in general just because they only know what’s in their head from the media. If you fall into that camp, I’ll tell you that there’s a lot of beauty in other countries and some amazing people and cultures.

We’re now regular travelers and hope to visit a lot of countries on our wishlist. Last year, we spent 38 nights on an amazing Europe vacation. Next year, we’ll be spending 2-3 weeks in the U.K. In 2028, we plan to do a big Japan trip.

Are these trips cheap? No. But we try to leverage credit card travel rewards to help subsidize a lot of the cost. You can read more about that on my Travel Rewards page. This strategy has easily saved us well over $10k over the years and allowed us to travel to so many places we likely never could have otherwise.

I’ve been loving travel so much that I created the Coloring the Globe travel tracker recently so we can see everywhere we’ve been and where we’re headed. If that sounds interesting to you, jump on my mailing list and I’ll send you a copy of that and a bunch of other cool freebies as a welcome gift:

But this pillar isn’t just about travel.

Trying different things that seem out of your wheelhouse or might be a little adventurous can lead to some tremendous feelings of accomplishment and provide some amazing memories. Here are a handful of those sorts of things that I look back at and just think, “how cool, that we got to do this!”:

• Retired at age 43
• Sold everything and moved to Boquete, Panama, where we lived for almost 3 years
• Starred in a House Hunters International episode
• Spent two nights sleeping in a jungle lodge
• Hiked up Volcán Barú
• Traveled the U S. in an RV for 8 months
• I was a background extra in the 2025 Superman movie

Early retirement became the catalyst for me to understand that trying new things can be a major key to happiness. This needs to be part of your lifestyle design. Whether that be trying new foods, embarking on a new adventure, or even saying “yes” when someone asks you to go out or do something when you’d normally say “no.”

Go make some memories!

Pillar #5: Exploring Hobbies and Passions

This pillar can actually play off pillar #4 somewhat. Finding what truly makes you happy in life involves a lot of trial and error. You need to try new things to learn what you enjoy.

It can be so rewarding to try out new hobbies. How do you know what you might like if you don’t do this? Sure, some hobbies will fall flat – in fact, the majority will probably not be something you want to pursue further. But if you find one, two, or possibly more things you try that turn into real passions… it would be crazy not to discover these!

Finding things that get the juices flowing and get you excited about your day can make the difference between happiness and mediocrity.

Wes Moss is widely regarded as an expert in personal finance and retirement planning. He’s a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) with over 20 years of experience as an investment advisor. I enjoy listening to his “Ask an Advisor” segment on the Clark Howard show as well.

He likes to talk a lot about “core pursuits”, which are essentially hobbies, interests, and activities that provide meaning and enjoyment. Here’s what he has to say about these:

“In my research on happy retirees, the relationship between core pursuits and satisfaction has been remarkably consistent. Retirees who can identify five or more substantive core pursuits are far more likely to rate themselves as “thriving” rather than merely “coping” or “unhappy.” Those stuck at four or fewer often use words like “drifting,” “bored,” or “aimless” to describe their days, even when their finances are on solid ground.”

— Forbes – Want A Happy Retirement? Start With Your Top Five Core Pursuits

In other words, finding several things that you really love to do as part of your lifestyle design can make all the difference in your happiness level.

I’ve been a tech guy since the late 90s, and I still enjoy keeping up with this stuff. Last year, I decided to dive into the world of self-hosting, and it was like a shot of adrenaline for me. I did things like replace Google Photos for our family with Immich and Google Drive with Nextcloud, both of which run off a computer I maintain here at our place, and I couldn’t be happier. For most people, this would be horrible, but I really love it.

I decided to list some of my core pursuits for myself. Here’s what I came up with, in no particular order:

• Reading
• Learning Spanish
• Watching movies
• Working out (resistance training)
• Biking
• Traveling
• Hiking / Walking
• Online projects – self-hosting, spreadsheets, etc.
• Travel hacking
• Writing / Blogging

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself! This isn’t meant to be a permanent list. Interests change and I’m sure some of mine will as well.

The goal is to experience “flow” – that magical state where you lose track of time because you’re so immersed in what you’re doing. That’s what you want as part of your lifestyle design!

Pillar #6: Value the Idea of Lifelong Learning / Embrace change

Similar to curiosity, lifelong learning is how you keep your days from becoming stagnant. It’s also how you keep your mind from rotting.

Challenging your brain and learning new skills help the mind resist damage and can significantly delay the onset of age-related cognitive decline.

I just learned recently that the brain continuously creates new neural pathways whenever you pick up a new skill, language, or hobby – even as you become a lot older. It’s called neuroplasticity. In other words, you can retrain your mind at any age.

Your brain thrives on novelty and friction. Every time you embrace being a beginner at something new, you’re literally rewiring your mind for longevity.

The best part of this lifestyle design is that it can keep you adaptable in our ever-changing world: Whether it’s adapting to new technology, changing health strategies, or understanding modern tools, active learners remain self-sufficient rather than feeling overwhelmed by change.

I thrive on learning new things. And the AI tools are fantastic for helping with some of these things. Google Gemini has become a dear and close friend of mine lately.

Some questions are just simple curiosities that I observe and want to know how/why something is the way it is. For example, earlier this year, I had a weird thought cross my mind and I gave it to Gemini:

Is there any information on when bikes were first invented? Did they always have two wheels or were they designed differently originally? When they went to two wheels, is there information on what the sentiment was on the idea? I feel like people might have thought the whole idea was a little crazy to balance on two wheels initially. And then can you give a sort of timeline of changes bikes have taken over the years to get to where they are today in terms of modifications to make them better and faster?

I had it set to the Pro level and it spit out a fascinating reply with the evolution and timeline of how bikes came to be what they are today. That might not interest you, but it was a captivating read for me and it helped me learn something completely new. If that’s something you’re curious about, feel free to copy and paste it into an AI like Google Gemini, or ChatGPT yourself to see what it has to say.

Aside from that, I continue to learn Spanish todos los dios – ¡Es increíble poder hablar con hispanohablantes de todo el mundo!

I also listen to podcasts on personal finance, travel rewards, life hacks, and health throughout the day. It’s crazy how much I learn so much from all of these. Some of my favorites…

• The Clark Howard Show
• Frequent Miler on the Air
• All the Hacks
• Huberman Lab (these can be extremely long, so occasionally, I ask the AIs to summarize them and give me the practical takeaways from an episode)
• Choose FI
• The Stacking Benjamins Show
• Earn & Invest

Notice that none of these are news or politics shows. Those are not ways to learn – those are designed to anger or upset you with areas out of your control. Avoid those at all costs in your lifestyle design to keep your happiness level high.

As a side note, I enjoy listening to fun podcasts like many episodes of Smartless (with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett) and Armchair Expert (with Dax Shepherd and Monica Padman) as well. Remember, laughing is important, too!

Then, of course, I read a lot of articles and books. Sometimes I’ll watch documentaries if the topic interests me.

I’ve also started doing puzzles and other brain games on my phone. It’s all about keeping the mind sharp!

On that note, I don’t have a single social media app installed on my phone and rarely ever even go to the sites anymore. Life is definitely much more pleasant that way. Plus, I don’t waste hours each day scrolling through an algorithmic feed. If you spend a lot of time on social media and you’re struggling with any of these pillars, think about how much time you could prioritize one or more of the pillars instead.

Pillar #7: Changing Your Mindset to That of Gratitude and Optimism

Are you a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person? Hopefully, it’s the former, because negativity is not good for health and happiness.

Chronic pessimism and negative thinking aren’t just mental states – they trigger physiological inflammation, raising the risk of cardiovascular issues.

High levels of cynicism and chronic distrust are associated with significantly higher rates of heart disease, higher mortality, and a higher risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia later in life.

Persistent stress and negative emotional patterns keep cortisol and adrenaline levels elevated. Over time, this undermines the immune response, increases blood pressure, and makes the body physically less capable of fighting off infection or recovering from illness.

Famous psychological research from Dr. Roy Baumeister shows that negative events carry up to five times the psychological weight of positive ones. It’s interesting because really, when you think about your day, you could receive nine compliments and one minor criticism, and what do you lie in bed thinking about at night? That single criticism.

Our brains naturally scan for what’s wrong, broken, or unfair. We tend to dwell on negative outcomes until our brains convince themselves that helplessness is normal.

That’s why gratitude isn’t just some soft, feel-good idea. It’s a required counterweight. If you don’t intentionally force your brain to scan for what’s good, working, and beautiful, then you are likely dragging your happiness level down to match whatever minor inconvenience happened to you that afternoon.

True gratitude is holding two realities at once: acknowledging that life brings hard times, while choosing not to lose sight of what remains good and beautiful.

Life won’t always go your way. A positive outlook, a sense of humor, and gratitude often matter more than circumstances. It’s so important to make the default mindset of your lifestyle design to find the humor, practice gratitude, and bounce back from setbacks.

This pillar is one where I think I do a pretty good job, but could always stand to improve on my own lifestyle design. I definitely have gratitude. I reflect constantly on how fortunate I am on several fronts:

• To be healthy
• To be financially independent
• To be early retired and having the freedom to choose how most days are going to go
• To have been able to spend so much time with our daughter as she grew up
• To have been able to travel and explore new amazing places around the world
• To have a wonderful family

There’s not a doubt in mind about how blessed we are and I think about this all the time.

I’d say that I’m also pretty good about being a glass-half-full kind of guy… though I do seem to be a realist more than anything (this drives my daughter crazy!). My brain likes to examine how things are and figure out why they’re that way first by looking at it from different perspectives (even ones I may not agree with). That’s what usually leads to my range of realist to positive viewpoint.

Of course, that’s not always the case. Sometimes the mind does what the mind does and that’s something I’d like to do better at.

Pillar #8: Balance is the key

We’ve talked about some great pillars to have in your lifestyle design… work out, eat a healthy diet, work on financial independence, etc.

Here’s the problem – you gotta be careful not to go overboard.

That’s a mistake I personally seem to love making. I did that on our financial independence journey. The goal was to be able to retire early so I could spend more time with my daughter growing up. But then I became so fixated on trying to make this happen that I spent almost all my time on the computer trying to optimize every penny I could.

That in turn took time away that I could have been spending with my daughter… the whole goal that I wanted early retirement for! After close to a year, I realized that, tapered back, and found the right balance.

The same goes for working out. When I started on that path, I was religious about my 5-day workout. There’s nothing wrong with that, but all my plans needed to revolve around my workouts as well.

It was silly. It was also too much. It’s ok to take a day off every now and again.

Now, I do resistance training four days a week. That’s a number I’m content with. If we have plans, I’ll shift a workout to a different day. And, if we’re traveling, I’ll try to work out wherever we’re at. If I can do it (which I really strive to do), great. If not, it’s ok – it’s not the end of the world.

In a nutshell, good habits are important to happiness and a successful lifestyle design, but balance is critical in life.

Put another way, work on improving but have an ice cream cone periodically.

Pillar #9: Focus on You

Listen, this seems easy enough – focus on yourself for each of these pillars, right?

That’s not fully what I’m talking about. I’m also not specifically talking about avoiding “keeping up with the Joneses”, though this is definitely very valuable and may come into play with what I’m about to say.

Specifically, when I say to “focus on you”, I want you to hone in on finding yourself. And this isn’t just some push for meditation or anything. It’s all about understanding who you really are and making that your true focal point.

Some of this may come with age, but the sooner you get this and decide to focus on you, the sooner you can find true happiness in your life.

When we’re younger, we tend to try to assimilate into different environments and social groups. There’s nothing wrong with that – that’s part of the process of learning in life.

But once you’re working on building your own life, it’s time to start figuring out what makes you happy and not what makes other people happy.

For instance, in the U.S., the American dream cliché might be something like getting a good career, buying a nice house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, getting married, having 2.5 kids, and a lovable dog.

That’s all well and good, but for a happy lifestyle design, that might not be the right path for you. Maybe it is, but you need to understand yourself to really know this for sure.

For us, I had a good career, got married to a wonderful woman, bought a beautiful house in a really great suburb, and we had our one and only daughter. Life was good, but something seemed off. I was miserable at work and wanted to be able to spend time with my family and be with my daughter more as she grew up.

Once I stumbled into the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement over a decade ago, something changed. I got that excitement about learning that early retirement was possible and, as you know, we ended up making that a reality by the end of 2018.

But the real magic happened after that. Not only was I a much happier person by bucking the trend and reaching financial independence, but our unorthodox (for us) move to Panama was something that really opened my eyes to a new understanding…

Happiness isn’t about living like others expect you to live. Happiness is finding what truly makes you you and then pursuing that dream.

So, as long as your dream isn’t to do something like rob a bank or harm other people, stop caring about what others think of you and focus on being the person you want to be.

Pillar #10: Don’t take life too seriously

I have a vivid memory of a moment in the 10th grade of high school. I was struggling like most teenagers do with stupid things you realize later don’t matter. But at the time, I was at a low… a really big low.

The memory I have was lying in bed one night contemplating suicide. Bear in mind that I do believe I suffer from bipolar disorder (undiagnosed). My highs and lows can be pretty bad. I can control it much better (without drugs) nowadays, but back then, I didn’t have the experience to realize that a low was just that.

Anyway, I talked myself out of it, but more importantly, I made a decision right then that became the foundation of my life from then on.

I decided that instead of suicide, why not just change what I don’t like about myself and my life? Instead of taking everything so seriously, why not just enjoy life and laugh some more?

Kind of smart for a teenage kid, right?

That’s been my credo ever since. From that day on, I became more sociable, made more jokes, and really just embraced the fun in life so much more than before. It was as if I woke up out of some weird slumber, grew up, and felt tremendously happier about being a happy me.

Don’t take life too seriously. Smile more. Laugh more. Enjoy your time on this planet. Everything else is all minutiae.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t work hard or be responsible – it just means to enjoy your days. Have fun at work while doing your job to the best of your ability. Laugh about things and try not to stress about it. None of this is going to matter when you’re dead, so why let it ruin you now?

Have fun with your friends and family. Smiling and laughing are really the key to life. Make it a solid part of your lifestyle design.

I strongly believe that these pillars are the keys to a happy and successful life.

That said, I also recognize that it’s a lot. I don’t know anyone who’s mastered all of these in their lifestyle design (including myself), and I don’t think you and I should hold ourselves to do that either.

However, becoming as good as we can at these through incremental changes over time is really what it’s about. You don’t need to aim to crush them all at once. It might be best to focus on a few of them and once you’re on track with them, move on to some more. The key is continuous incremental improvements.

How do you fare when it comes to these lifestyle design pillars?

Plan well, take action, and live your best life!

Thanks for reading!!

— Jim