The Five Aspects of Optimizing Life

culled from:lifeoptimizer.org

In my previous post, I wrote that appreciating life is the starting point to optimizing it. If you appreciate your life, you will want to optimize it. You will want to make the most out of it.

But how do we optimize our lives? What are the aspects that we need to optimize?

Well, there are different ways to look at it, but my preferred way is to look at life as it consists of five aspects:

    Work: your career and finance.
    Health: your physical health.
    Learning: your personal development.
    Social: your relationships with others.
    Spiritual: your relationship with the greater power.

If you want to live your life to the fullest, you need to balance all of them. But that’s not enough; you also need to grow in them.

If you lack even one aspect, your life will be crippled. Let’s see what would happen if you were to lack one of them:

    Work: your career would be mediocre; you would fall short of your potential. You might even live with financial problems.
    Health: you couldn’t live with energy and vitality. You might also become sick.
    Learning: you would miss many opportunities in life for one simple reason: you don’t know about them.
    Social: you wouldn’t feel the happiness of friendships and family life. You might also feel lonely or depressed.
    Spiritual: you would feel empty inside, no matter how successful you seem on the outside. It’s as if everything you have achieved is meaningless.

As you can see, you need all of them to live fully. You can’t afford to neglect even one.

Now, how can we grow in each aspect?

There are many ways, of course, but here are some ideas:

    Work
        Use a productivity system like Getting Things Done.
        Track your expenses to make sure that you spend less than you earn, and then invest the difference.
        Dream big and start working on it.
    Health
        Build a habit of working out.
        Make sure that you have enough sleep every day.
        Eat healthy and nutritious food.
    Learning
        Bring a book wherever you go and read it in your spare time.
        Follow some blogs in your field.
        Create a side project to explore a new area of interest.
    Social
        Spend a lot of time with your family.
        Join a local community.
        Help someone without keeping score.
    Spiritual
        Make time every day to pray and read spiritual text.
        Follow your heart in everything you do.
        Find and follow your life purpose.

If you do these, you will grow in a balanced way. You will become a better person day by day.

Unfortunately, many people obsess over one aspect of their lives at the expense of the others. They might be so obsessed with their work, for instance, that they neglect their family, health, or spirituality. Sadly, the realization often comes too late and becomes a lifetime regret.

Don’t let that happen to you. Your life is too precious to be spent that way. Aim to live your life with balance and growth instead.

You will then live a full and happy life.In my previous post, I wrote that appreciating life is the starting point to optimizing it. If you appreciate your life, you will want to optimize it. You will want to make the most out of it.

But how do we optimize our lives? What are the aspects that we need to optimize?

Well, there are different ways to look at it, but my preferred way is to look at life as it consists of five aspects:

    Work: your career and finance.
    Health: your physical health.
    Learning: your personal development.
    Social: your relationships with others.
    Spiritual: your relationship with the greater power.

If you want to live your life to the fullest, you need to balance all of them. But that’s not enough; you also need to grow in them.

If you lack even one aspect, your life will be crippled. Let’s see what would happen if you were to lack one of them:

    Work: your career would be mediocre; you would fall short of your potential. You might even live with financial problems.
    Health: you couldn’t live with energy and vitality. You might also become sick.
    Learning: you would miss many opportunities in life for one simple reason: you don’t know about them.
    Social: you wouldn’t feel the happiness of friendships and family life. You might also feel lonely or depressed.
    Spiritual: you would feel empty inside, no matter how successful you seem on the outside. It’s as if everything you have achieved is meaningless.

As you can see, you need all of them to live fully. You can’t afford to neglect even one.

Now, how can we grow in each aspect?

There are many ways, of course, but here are some ideas:

    Work
        Use a productivity system like Getting Things Done.
        Track your expenses to make sure that you spend less than you earn, and then invest the difference.
        Dream big and start working on it.
    Health
        Build a habit of working out.
        Make sure that you have enough sleep every day.
        Eat healthy and nutritious food.
    Learning
        Bring a book wherever you go and read it in your spare time.
        Follow some blogs in your field.
        Create a side project to explore a new area of interest.
    Social
        Spend a lot of time with your family.
        Join a local community.
        Help someone without keeping score.
    Spiritual
        Make time every day to pray and read spiritual text.
        Follow your heart in everything you do.
        Find and follow your life purpose.

If you do these, you will grow in a balanced way. You will become a better person day by day.

Unfortunately, many people obsess over one aspect of their lives at the expense of the others. They might be so obsessed with their work, for instance, that they neglect their family, health, or spirituality. Sadly, the realization often comes too late and becomes a lifetime regret.

Don’t let that happen to you. Your life is too precious to be spent that way. Aim to live your life with balance and growth instead.

You will then live a full and happy life.