Let’s talk about the good life.
Of course, “living the good life” means something different to everyone. But the following lines are not about me explaining to you in a pedantic way how the good life works.
Maybe you’re taking a break, having a quiet moment and you can ask yourself the question:
What does my good life look like?
If you’re short on time or stressed out, skip it. The question is too important to be dealt with only in passing. Reading this article would just be a waste of time.
But if you’re ready and can take 5 minutes to read, let’s get started!
What does a “good life” mean?
In its purest form, the good life is often a series of passionate moments of happiness.
It’s very easy to see that if you jump out of bed every morning to do what you really love to do, looking forward to what the day has in store for you, then you already know the good life.
It often has little to do with material possessions or artificially induced sensations.
Instead, it is more based on selfless acts and personal goals that you are highly motivated to pursue. The prospect of a strong legacy you want to leave to the world can also help.
Yes, yes, I can hear you right now: The famous reality that looks different…
The general struggle in life, the bills, the quarrels in the relationship, children, the health of the parents, necessary purchases, worries, and whatever else there is.
The usual tips for a good life don’t follow, such as “eat healthy”, “get plenty of exercise in the fresh air”, “enough sleep”, don’t smoke and only a cannabis cookie every now and then 🙂
What time has to do with a good life
Coping with life’s tasks often makes you superficial. People get caught up in small things and get lost in the information overload. You become insensitive to the little uplifting and comforting moments that are the fundamental building blocks of our time.
After all, time is our greatest asset.
Time to live life to the fullest, time for attention, time to give space to people and experiences.
Time, controlled by you and you decide what to fill it with.
For many people, time is the key to a good life. In the spirit of: having the freedom to spend time as you wish.
I now ask you, the reader, to be very honest with yourself and thank you for remaining polite even when we have different opinions.
I am deeply convinced that the path to happiness consists of the following fundamental pillars: Time, Freedom, Resources.
Free shaping of time is only possible through freedom. Physical freedom, psychological freedom and freedom in terms of independence.
The prerequisite for this are resources. Physical resources, mental resources and material resources. Today’s world is organized in such a way that unfortunately little is possible without material resources.
If resources are sufficient, I can only congratulate you, because living “the good life” is significantly easier with the resources available (although not self-evident, but that’s another story).
In the opposite case, resources must be created! More on that in a moment.
How you use your time determines your quality of life
From this point onwards, the content of many books, blogs, essays and lectures on the subject differs, indeed separates, from what I would like to tell you now.
How many times have I read somewhere about the good life: “To appreciate the simple pleasures of life”.
Clear. “The best things in life are free”. Agreed.
Sunrise on a mountain peak in the Dolomites, sunset on a sandy beach in Sicily, breathing in a mixed forest after a mild summer rain, liking people, watching children playing or romping dogs or cats, drinking clear spring water, all for free.
For real? It takes time.
You only have that if you have the freedom to do so. And you only have that if you have the resources to do so.
How many times have I read somewhere about the good life: “Avoid stress, cultivate relationships, appreciate partners, friends and family, learn new things, totravel to distant places”. Clear.
“Pamper all your 5 senses regularly. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching are our interfaces to the world and you experience all worthwhile experiences through your senses!” Agreed.
Seeing in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, hearing in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, smelling on the Seiser Alm in South Tyrol, tasting in the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, touching at the Japanese pottery course in Yamadera…
Everything for free? Not really. Time, Freedom, Resources.
Your time, the way you use it, what content you fill it with determines your quality of life.
Your good life is time you consciously fill, time filled with your favorite content. Freedom over your time is of course always a basic requirement.
As in mathematics, we can now try a formula conversion. Time – freedom – resources then becomes: without resources no freedom, without freedom no patronage over one’s own time, without self-determination of time, less good life.
So we come back to this: Resources must be created!
How to create more resources for a good life
Let’s first define resources.
By far the most important resource is our body. Since we only have this one body, we should take good care of it accordingly.
Before I bore you with a standard explanation of Maslow’s pyramid of needs, which has been described a thousand times over, I’ll cheekily say: it’s enough to take care of the first level, because the first level influences all subsequent levels very strongly.
Image source: Wikipedia
The first level is always called the level of basic needs, and these are the most important and crucial elements. I would describe the stage as major needs, elementary needs, all-important needs.
Eating, drinking, sleeping, warmth, light, air, movement.
This is how you take care of your body! The only body you are given at birth and with which to live your whole good life. Taking care of your body takes time.
How do you best take care of your body? There are a whole range of options:
- Eat healthy by cooking yourself
- restful sleep in a pleasant ambience
- scented baths
- Sauna
- sea
- Massage
- Meditation
- Sports and games
Whatever you enjoy!
In a word: energy production to have a full tank for the further levels of the needs pyramid.
More energy, better relationships, more exciting work, more knowledge, more recognition. In the beginning, however, there is an investment in yourself, which requires time, freedom and material resources.
This is not a plea for stupid money making. But it is now an irrefutable fact: the good life needs to be financed.
If you now type “the good life” into a search engine, you will get hundreds of millions of entries. Sometimes it can be very interesting what other people think of the good life or what they write about it.
But in the end, the answer to the question: “What does my good life look like?” is a highly personal one that only you can answer.
My guess is: either you are already living this life or you lack the resources to do so.
Nice that you ended up here. I might have some ideas for you on how to get these resources.
But beware:
On top of the huge side effects, eat the leaflet and slay your pharmacist’s insane doctor.
Greetings from sunny Italy
mountain wolf
Would you like to read more about it? Here are the LINKs to the detailed four-parter:
“The 4 essential pillars of a good life” – Part 1 – Body
“The 4 indispensable Pillars of the good life” – Part 2 – Relationships
“The 4 indispensable Pillars of the good life” – Part 3 – Vocation
“The 4 indispensable Pillars of the good life the 4” – part 4 – culture and meaning