Authentic Living: Living Your Best Life
Posted on April 04, 2022 by Leena Singarajah, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
What does it mean to live your authentic and best life
Many of us have visions of a better tomorrow, a future where we will exercise more, or find a career that we actually love, make more money, have more free time, and so forth.
On a deeper level, pursuing our dreams also means finding purpose and meaning in life.
Part of the journey is to discover what really interests us and makes us feel alive. Discovering what we want in life also means facing what we don’t want, and that process can be turbulent. But learning to live with authenticity leads to rewards that often surpass our expectations. Even simple everyday life can feel amazing when we are living with purpose.
Living your best life is not a one time quick fix. It is a commitment to yourself and what really matters to you. Authentic living means you are always asking yourself what is working and what is not, and acting accordingly.
Living your best life is also about living now and not “when”. We have many “whens” in our life – “I’ll be living my best life when … I get my promotion / buy that big house / make a million dollars / can afford anything I set my eyes on”. There is no magical time in the future when you can finally live your best life. Life is in the present.
Living your best life also means living a balanced life. Balance is a key part of healthy living. By managing time and energy wisely, you nurture all aspects of yourself, your body, your mind, and your spirit.
Being Your Best Self requires:
Strength: Being your best self often means doing things that are difficult and challenging.
It is much easier to sit on a couch than to run a marathon. Breaking bad habits and creating good habits takes discipline and strength of character. It is definitely a challenge but the first time is always the hardest! Doing things that are challenging but ultimately rewarding eventually becomes a habit.
Courage: It takes courage to create the life you desire.
As you explore and honor what you ultimately want for yourself, you’ll find that means breaking some old habits and making life changes. Those changes may include walking away from friendships and other relationships, maybe even jobs, career, country, that no longer support your growth and your goals.
Friends and family may resist some of these changes. Having said that, our biggest enemies are often our own selves!! Oftentimes the people that don’t support you are the same ones that make little effort in their own lives, so they would prefer that others remain stuck along with them. It takes courage and strength of character to create the life you want even if others are judging your actions.
Appreciation: Living your best life begins with appreciating the fact that you are alive and that every single day is a blessing.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says there are two ways to reach contentment. One is to acquire everything you want and desire: an expensive house, sporty car, fashionable wardrobe, gourmet foods, perfect mate, exotic trip. The list is endless. The problem with this approach is that this type of wanting is a bottomless pit and never leads to contentment. Sooner or later there will be something you want but can’t have, no matter how many hours you put in or how hard you work. The second and more reliable approach to contentment is to want and feel grateful for what you already possess. When you have a strong sense of contentment, it doesn’t matter whether you obtain the object of your desire or not. You are content either way.
Appreciation and gratitude is free, yet so powerfully fulfilling. We often reserve appreciation for the big things in life (big job, promotion, the beautiful house) but we have forgotten to appreciate the simplest, yet probably most important, things in life. Start to appreciate things around you – clean water, a comfortable bed, your safe neighbourhood, a good cup of coffee, a roof over your head. Even the smallest acts that nurture appreciation and gratitude brings contentment and happiness, and it also builds confidence, which is vital to achieving your life goals.
Ultimately, creating the life you want requires a commitment to personal growth. You must be willing to change, to grow, and to do what it takes to live your best life. There is no lottery ticket, special tonic or spiritual stone that will suddenly give you that life you want. It comes from WITHIN YOU. Are you willing to invest and commit yourself to live your best life?
