Are you living your best life?
Be honest. Remember, self awareness is key for change.
So if you can’t be honest with yourself, you can’t expect to change.
Now, back to the question… are you living your best life?
Like playing full out, living on purpose, really going after it.
Can you truthfully give an emphatic “HELL YEAH!” to that question?
I’ll answer for me – NO, no I’m not.
But, I’m moving more and more in that direction every single day.
That brings up another question though, how do I know that I’m moving in that direction?
How does anyone truly know if they’re actually living their best life? That’s an answer you must come up with for yourself (this is discussed later in this article).
But, because there are so few people who can honestly answer “yes” to that question, I want to ask a different question.
How do you know you’re NOT living your best life? This is one we can all answer pretty easily.
And that’s what we’re going to chat about. So, if you want to know 5 signs that you’re definitely not living your best life, then keep reading.
5 signs you’re NOT living your best life
You’re envious of others and their success
A telltale sign of not living your best life is envy of others.
Envy is rooted in lack, or limited, thinking. It comes from a place of believing that their success is something you could never achieve for yourself in your life.
Envy kills your self-belief, and blocks you from having a growth mindset – the exact mindset needed to create and live your best life.
The problem is, most of the people you are envious of, are people who have paid their dues and accumulated their success through the investment of time, energy, and effort into their work and dreams.
It didn’t come overnight for them.
So, if you’re struggling with envy, ask yourself this question, “If I went all in on my dreams like they did, and dedicated myself to them for however long it took, could I achieve that same level of success?”
The answer? Yes! Yes you could.
So, the fix is, stop sitting around in envy, and start going to work on your dreams.
You feel like something is missing
Man oh man, can I resonate with this one!
Can you?
For so much of my life, I had this deep feeling like something was missing. Like I was meant to be, do, or have more than I was allowing myself to.
If you’re feeling like something is missing in your life, it’s because it is!
That feeling is God’s way of telling you, “Hey, I made you for more than this!”
So, rather than trying to ignore or run away from it, lean in. That’s your purpose calling out to you.
Now, to be clear, when I say you feel like something is missing, I’m talking about true desires, not little wants.
We all have “things” that we’d love to have more of. But those aren’t what I’m talking about here.
I’m talking about that burning desire that, no matter how much you try to ignore it or replace it with some other goal or distraction, just won’t go away.
It’s like that persistent little kid who’s losing their damn mind in the store because they want everyone to know how badly they want that candy you told them no about.
Your inner GPS is trying to guide you home, and let you know that you’re off course.
So, if you’ve been feeling like something is missing, investigate it. What is missing?
Is it going back to school? Quitting your job to open that dream business? Maybe it’s starting a family.
Don’t stop until you get the answer. Because here’s what I know to be true… until you listen, like that persistent ass kid who will scream until their lungs burst or you cave, that voice inside you won’t go away.
You don’t enjoy your work
I’ve mentioned this before, but did you know that your career will account for 33% of your life?
Behind sleep, it accounts for the most time we spend doing something in our lives.
So what that means is, if you hate what you do, you’re going to spend 33% of your life like that.
Hell, even if you just dislike it, you’re still spending 33% of your lifetime, settling for something you know you’re not meant to be doing.
Let that sink in…
33% of your life!
In the U.S., the average life expectancy is 73 years. That means you’re going to spend roughly 24 years of your life hating, disliking, or settling for doing something.
When you couple that with the fact that roughly 80% of Americans said they essentially don’t like their work, it’s no wonder mental health continues to deteriorate.
The work you do has so much spillover effect on the rest of your life. How could it not, right?
So, if you don’t enjoy the work you do, something I struggled with for so long, you’re certainly NOT living your best life.
Now, I can hear the arguments already… “Well, Justin, that sounds great, but I can’t just up and quit my job.”
You’re right, most people can’t do that.
But, it also doesn’t mean you have to settle.
I’ve side hustled for years as I’ve grown my business. And a big focus of my coaching is helping people do the exact same thing.
At the end of the day, you’ve got to make the decision for yourself and your life.
You’re the one who is going to have to stare down that barrel of regret at the end of your days for having not gone for it.
Will it require sacrifice? Yup! Will it be hard at times? You know it. Scary even? Hell yes!
But, if you’re asking me, some short term discomfort is worth the long term gain of creating a life you truly love.
You can’t define success for yourself
This one transformed my life.
Part of the reason most people can’t answer “yes” to whether or not they’re living their best lives, is because they don’t even know what that means.
I mean, intuitively they know what it means, but they can’t actually answer the question of “what does your best life look like?”
How the hell can you expect to possibly live your best life if you don’t even know what it looks like?
That’d be like trying to take a road trip to a specific destination, but not actually picking a place.
Sounds pretty stupid, right?
Well… that’s how most people are living their lives.
They’re living everyday hoping to get to a destination they haven’t even chosen.
If you don’t have an answer when someone asks you to describe your “best life,” you can’t possibly be living it.
To give you a visual, most people are living life knowing that they hate the destination they’re in, wishing they could go somewhere else, having a vehicle to get them there, but refusing to figure out exactly where “there” is.
I’ve got news for you though… where your attention goes, your energy flows.
Meaning that, what you focus on, you create more of.
So if you constantly focus on how much you hate your life, congrats, you’ll get more of what you hate.
That’s the reason the first thing I do with a prospective client is ask them, “how will you know when you’re successful?”
If they can’t, or more accurately won’t, answer that question, then I won’t work with them, because I know they’ll never produce the result they desire.
So, if you know that you’re not living your best life, ask yourself the question, “what does my best life look like?”
Get super freakin’ clear on that answer. Just by doing that, you put yourself in the 1% of people who are even capable of achieving it.
Plus, it gives your mind something new to focus on – something you actually want to manifest more of.
Once you do that, go to work on making it a reality.
You feel like a failure
One thing I’ve come to believe over the years, is that failure is not a singular result, it’s a way of being.
It’s an identity of sorts.
It’s who you are at your core.
I don’t mean that to be harsh, but as a matter of truth.
But, here’s an even bigger truth – you weren’t created to be a failure. In fact, you were created to be the exact opposite. You were created to thrive.
So, by feeling that way, you’re actually going against your nature.
Do I believe everyone is supposed to be a multimillionaire, jet setting around the world, and living in beach front houses? No!
Everyone’s definition of success should be different – hence point number 4 above.
Therefore, not living that way, shouldn’t make everyone feel like a failure.
But, do I believe everyone is SUPPOSED to wake up with a sense of passion, purpose, and fulfillment in their lives?
Yes! I truly do believe that.
And that’s exactly what does happen when you create your definition of success and spend your time pursuing that.
The people who are living their best lives, don’t register failure the same way as people who aren’t.
Rather than seeing it as a stopping point, they see it as a learning experience. They see it as a First Attempt In Learning, or any of the other great, positive acronyms people have come up with for the word FAIL.
They reframe failure and see it as a necessary part of the journey.
If you’re struggling with feeling like a failure, ask yourself, “how can I reframe this feeling, and use it as a learning opportunity, rather than allowing it to be an identity statement about me?”
Putting it all together
Living your best life, or what I call an UNCOMMON Life, is subjective.
Like I mentioned above, it’s supposed to be on your terms, according to your definition of what success means to you.
But, the sad reality is, because most people haven’t done the work to define their best life, they have no way of knowing if they are, in fact, living it.
That said, those of us who aren’t yet living ours, we feel it. We know it in our bones.
If you’re questioning whether or not you’re living your best life, hopefully these 5 signs above helped to clear things up for you a bit.
Drop a comment below and let me know which one stuck out the most to you.
Be UNCOMMON!
If you’re ready to go ALL IN and start living your best life, I want to help! Click here to book a consultation call where we can chat about your goals and vision for your life, and how I may be able to help you create it.