Struggle to Live a Fulfilling and Purposeful Life by Yourself? — 8 Ways I do it
Want to know how to live a fulfilling life?
Living a fulfilling and purposeful life is not easy.
Especially if you live a busy life.
It’s even harder if you are someone who struggles with depression, staying happy, positive, and optimistic.
You may also be someone who is struggling to find fulfilment by yourself and wants to know how to live a fulfilling life alone.
Here’s 8 things I do to try and lead a fulfilling life by myself.
1. I make sure I am always working on something
When I am not working I try and spend my time productively as possible.
If you want to know how to live a fulfilling life you have to start by doing productive things.
There is nothing worse than wasting away the time you do have.
Time is precious after all and finite.
We can’t get it back when it’s wasted.
In the past, I have wasted hours on Netflix re-watching stuff I’ve seen a thousand times before.
When the end credits would roll and I would see my reflection on the screen and I would think what a colossal amount of time I have just wasted.
I’d go far to say I’d feel disgusted with myself for spending my time so unproductively.
I would feel useless, bored as hell, pathetic, a waste of space, and would begin to put myself down.
One of the reasons why I had so little motivation to do anything productive was because I was going through the more depressive stages of my life.
When you are depressed the desire to do anything other than what is necessary for you to get by in life can be overwhelming.
However, by not doing anything productive I was making things worse.
Don’t be idle
Human beings are not meant to be idle.
Research shows we would actually rather do boring tasks than do nothing at all.
The pandemic has caused a huge mental health crisis being stuck at home, isolated, and having little to do.
Now more than ever people have realised the importance of having things to do.
This is particularly important for those of you who want to know how to live a fulfilling life alone.
Build healthy habits and routines and keep yourself busy.
If you start by spending your time productively, working on projects, learning new skills, gaining new knowledge, and helping others you will begin to feel yourself living a fulfilling and purposeful life.
Now I spend my free time writing, working on my blog, reading, making my health a priority, and learning new cooking recipes.
There is nothing wrong with some Netflix and Chill.
However, you will never be able to justify spending almost all your spare time on it.
Whenever you feel like you have nothing to do create a project for yourself.
Could be a DIY project, rearranging your wardrobe, decluttering the garage, learning a new language, finally learning to play a new instrument, or perhaps just spending more time with your kids and family.
Think about that thing you have always wanted to do or things that you continually neglect to do.
Then get started on doing them.
2. I Make sure I start the morning on a strong and positive note
Mornings can be the worst.
When I was at my most depressed and at my lowest waking up in the mornings was the time where I would feel most miserable.
‘Another pointless day, nothing changes’ I would think to myself.
I had yet to realise nothing changes because I don’t make any changes.
As a result, it pretty much set the tone for the rest of my day.
This is why I am such a great believer in starting the day on a strong note.
Living a fulfilling and purposeful life involves adopting a healthy and productive morning routine.
When do you feel more fulfilled?
When you wake up early to do that workout or when you slump in front of the tv while eating some sugary cereal for the umpteenth time.
I now wake up early in the mornings spend 30 minutes stretching and exercising my core then I go for a 1 hr walk.
Compared to in the past where I would roll out of bed an hour before work and dread the day ahead I now start the day on a strong and positive note which carries through the rest of the day.
Build a healthy morning routine
I’m not saying because of this I now feel fulfilled every time I wake up in the morning.
However, it definitely goes a long way to helping me feel fulfilled with my life overall.
If you want to know how to live a fulfilling and purposeful life do things that will make you feel fulfilled, positive, happy, gives you purpose, and do it as soon as you wake up in the morning.
The moment you wake up in the mornings is the time where you are most vulnerable and susceptible to negative thoughts.
This is especially important for those of you who want to know how to live a fulfilling life alone.
If you are by yourself don’t dwell on the loneliness and let it consume you.
Do things from the get-go to counteract these lonely, depressing and negative thoughts.
3. I make sure I have something to look forward to during the day
I look forward to having a satisfying lunch every day.
I intermittent fast.
So, come lunchtime I’ve built up an appetite and look forward to having a satisfying and healthy lunch.
It may not seem like a big deal but if you want to know how to live a fulfilling life looking forward to the small things in life can go a long way to helping you do that.
It doesn’t have to be food-related.
It could be looking forward to meeting up with your friend, getting to spend time with your partner, playing some video games for a couple of hours, or just having a long bath after a hard day’s work.
Living a fulfilling and purposeful life requires consistent joy.
They don’t have to be big joys just small ones will do but make sure you experience them daily and not just once in a while.
4. I remind myself what the point is
I have days where I just can’t be bothered.
It could be because; to quote Bruno Mars ‘Today I just don’t feel like doing anything.’
When this happens I go back to why I am doing what I am doing.
Why I am working hard instead of watching some Netflix and Chill?
My goal is to one day be financially secure and buy my own house.
So, whenever I want to just throw in the towel and give up on my goals and dreams and ask myself ‘what’s the point’ I remind myself what the point is.
The thing about living a fulfilling and purposeful life is that you need to do things.
After a long and exhausting day, the temptation to just kick back and relax and not do anything at all is overwhelming.
In moments like this remind yourself of why you want to live a fulfilling life.
Why do I need to bother to have new experiences, gain new skills and knowledge?
Why do I have to work towards my goals and dreams?
Why not just settle for how things are?
When you ask yourself this you remind yourself that it’s because you want more out of life.
Remind yourself of what the point is.
Remind yourself if you give up on living a fulfilling and purposeful life then when it comes to the end of your life you will be full of regret.
You will think about all you didn’t do and it’ll be too late to do anything about it.
This blog article was originally posted on my blog. To continue reading click here.
