HOW TO LIVE A RICH, INTERESTING AND MEMORABLE LIFE

BY JOY ONOVO

“Mistakes are a price of an interesting life” – Sophia Loren

Its so easy to get caught up in the routines of our daily life, to get so absorbed in the day to day activities of life, which in most cases can be for survival rather than actually living life.

In our quest to seek and find comfort, we get so carried away that our dreams get far away from becoming reality. We get so drowned by the mundanities of life that we forget what life is actually ment to be…to be enjoyed!

It is easy to let them drift away when there isn’t a need for progress. That’s how most people get trapped in an existence that doesn’t excite them. There is more to life than a day-to-day activity.

In this discussion, I’ll be taking you through 16 life guiding activities that will guarantee you an interesting and exciting life filled with memories that will stay with you throughout your life time.

Before we delve right in, understand that there is a huge difference between living recklessly and living an exciting life.

Reckless living are usually for immediate gain, and with no thoughts of what the future consequences may be. While living an exciting life can have both immediate and future benefits, and that is what we will base our discussion on.

Here are 16 should know activities and life style that will guarantee you a memorable life.

1. SCHEDULE IN INTERESTING ACTIVITIES

Just as we schedule in activities for work and other important aspects of our life, we should consciously schedule in fun activities that is good for our mental health and aims to help us ease through life.

The keyword is intentionality. Put in a deliberate efforts to make the memories that will last. There are a million and one ways to make lasting memories and most of them shouldn’t even cost so much. I made a comprehensive list of activities you can schedule in for an exciting life. You can get ideas from there.

2. MASTER SELF-DISCIPLINE

One of the greatest gift you can gift yourself is that of self discipline.

Self discipline in itself is an admirable quality of people who want to live life to the fullest.

Without the zeal and the motivation to do work, we will just sit down and watch our lives pass us by.

Lazy people tend to just watch life pass them by without doing much to get involved as a result of their laziness.

I did an extensive post on how to overcome laziness and build your self discipline. Do well to check that out.

3. BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT PEOPLE AND THEIR STORIES

One of the things that makes life exciting are people, their individual quirks and their stories. Aside the grave importance of networking in today’s society, we need people to add colour and spice to our lives.

It is therefore important to make conscious effort to build quality and lasting relationship with people and their stories.

Start by making an effort to remember people’s names. People who are bad with names almost never have their lives together.

They are not observant and just floating through life barely aware of their environments and people around them.

Another way to achieve this is to build our communication skills as well as our emotional intelligence. This is how we can successfully thrive, network and function in a community.

4. NEVER STOP LEARNING

Knowledge is one of the tools that makes our lives interesting and even makes you interesting as a person.

Sign up for a course and learn something new.

Have you ever met someone who is so uninteresting and it is quite difficult to hold a reasonable conversation simply because the flow was not there?

I’m sure you couldn’t wait to leave such company as this person might not have any value to offer.

Being knowledgeable and knowing a thing or two in a given topic is one attributes that adds spice to our lives.

There are a whole lot of ways to build your knowledge base, and books are of course the readily available ones with the help of numerous resources on the internet.

Every information you need regarding a certain topic is on the other side of research. When you seek for knowledge, the universe will find a way to present you with information that will satisfy your curiosity.

For example, you are here reading this blog post because of your quest for knowledge. I on the other hand will end up reading your comments which I will also learn a thing or two if you are willing to share.

Knowledge quest is relational, and this is one way to meet people and build a community of like minds. Such an exciting trait for having an interesting life!

5. LEARN TO OBSERVE INTENTLY

One of the reasons why you are sad is because you are bored! One of the best ways I’ve found to kill boredom is to observe things with intent and an aim to learn.

I specifically enjoy watching people, observing their body language and just seeing how they do things and react to situations. This is something I find mesmerizing, and it has helped me in thinking critically.

A whole lot can be learned just from observation alone. It is also from observation that salient things are discovered. No wonder body language is such an important aspect of human relations and communications.

Asides observing humans, you can also observe your environment, nature, animals and plants.

Observation will help you think critically and ask relevant questions that can lead to amazing discoveries.

6. TRAVEL WIDELY

In order to experience different areas of life, culture and perspective, you need to move out of your comfort zone.

One quality you will often find in people who travel a lot is their open mindedness.

This is because they have through their travel experiences come in contact with people, values, beliefs and their culture.

Living within your bubble and refusing to experience other culture can somewhat make you myopic to what life is really is.

If an opportunity to travel doesn’t present itself, intentionally create one yourself. Travelling is also a form of education.

The interesting thing is that even within your country, you can experience a lot of culture, people and their values and beliefs that you never thought existed.

Further more, it can be quite therapeutic and liberating to go out there and see the world on all its glory.

7. FACE YOUR FEARS HEAD ON

As much as we hate to admit it, fear is one of the major factor that hinders us from actually experiencing the life we want to live.

Especially the fear of “what ifs”.

To be as courageous as we need to live an interesting life, one of the things we need to overcome is our fear.

Fear of the unknown has stifled so much talent and ability within us. In our quest for a fulfilling life, we should learn to build our courageous self.

This is a great strategy for personal growth, and making yourself more interesting.

8. UPGRADE YOUR LOOK

The saying ‘you don’t judge a book by its cover’ is half true because in some cases, you only have one chance to make a first impression. In the impatient world we live today, people still ‘judge a book’ by its cover, and you can see it all over social media.

I am in no way saying you should not be your authentic self, but there are various ways to present yourself for success, particularly paying attention to your looks and grooming.

This is why branding is an important aspect of business, as it helps to build identification and trust.

Just as what you have inside you is important, what you have outside you is also important. To be able to attract opportunities that will present you with a rich and interesting life, you should look the part and present yourself accordingly.

There are also other unspoken parts of your looks like composure, mannerism and etiquette that I believe are also of equal importance.

9. ALWAYS SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE WITH OTHERS

Having been teaching my sewing skills to scores of students for a number of years, I’ve found out that to be deeply rooted in your own skills, you must be willing to share it with others.

This is the best way to pass down legacy and build a continuous string of knowledge that will outlive you even after you are gone.

In many traditional American families, you will always find that one cooking recipe that has been passed down since generations far gone, and it is still being used, valued and cherished, bringing in good memories.

To have a rich life filled with so many good memories and experience. One easy way to do this is to pass rich values, culture and beliefs to your children. You can do this by modeling it out to them or actively teaching them.

Whatever life skill you didn’t learn on time, do well to pass it down to your children and others who are opportune to be under your tutelage.

10. TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN THE USUAL

There are a million and one ways you can do things if only you will be willing to learn.

To let go of the monotony in our life, we should discover other ways we can do things either from learning from people or doing our own research.

For example, there are various ways to cook the popular African delicacy called “Jollof Rice”.

It will be foolhardy to assume that your method of preparing the dish is the best and only way when you haven’t tried other people’s method.

I gave this example just for context, but I hope you get the drift.

It is usually the changes and the variety that you add to your life that makes it more memorable.

11. ENJOY THE SEASONS OF YOUR LIFE

When they say life is short, it is not being said in the sense that you will die suddenly, no. Life being short is in relation to seasons of life.

Just as there are seasons of the year, so are there seasons in life.

For most people, it’s the teenage years, single-hood, married and parenting stage, retirement and so forth.

I will always tell myself that I would love to see what my 50’s will look like. For some (I don’t know) reasons, I just love the age 50.

Currently, I am in my early 30s, and I intend to live in that moment and take in all that the season brings.

I often find myself wishing I had lived a different single life, but this is a bad habit and when I catch myself lost in that thought, I retrace my thoughts and I’m grateful for all the experiences that has brought me to the stage I’m currently in.

Enjoying all the seasons of your life goes beyond living in the moment. It goes as far as using what you have with where you are to carve out the best experience for your life possible.

As teenagers, we often wished to ‘grow up faster’ and become independent adults. But I can tell you of certain that most adults wish to go back to those teenage years, free of bills and adult worries, and just living a care free life of a typical teenager.

If you spend your years wishing you were in a different time and phase of our life, you miss out on the gifts that the present moment brings.

Living a rich, interesting and memorable life is accepting every moment that comes with open hand and relishing of the experiences it brings with it. This is the highest form of showing gratitude.

12. LIVE YOUR LIFE OFFLINE

With the recent craze of seeking for validation from strangers on platforms like social media, one can miss out on the beauty of life by living a life that is pleasing to viewers online, but not necessarily beneficial to us.

One of the things I consciously do is to constantly log off on all social media platforms to live and enjoy life mindfully and in the present.

This is the best way to live authentically. Even for influencers and content creators, make a conscious effort to live your life for yourself and not for others who actually do not care about you.

13. GO OUT OFTEN

I added this point because of introverts like my self.

It is common practice to stay within your space and not want any interference or human interaction. This can be a very addictive trait to have because of the peace and solitude you get to enjoy.

But it won’t be a bad idea to step out of your comfort zone even within your environment to know what is going on out there.

This is a good practice to have and it is also good for your mental health

14. MASTER THE ART AND SCIENCE OF MAKING MONEY

At the heart of everything I have listed out is Money. Money is such an important topic, that it will be foolhardy to avoid it.

 

It is the currency of exchange and as well the oil that services the activities of the world.

 

To understand how money works, you need to master it and not being a servant to it.

Learn basic financial skills like budgeting, savings and investing

Books that will start you off are;

Money – master the game by Tony Robbins

The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ Demarco

The psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Rich Dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki

 

15. CONSTANTLY GET IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

There is so much out there to explore, and we should constantly get out of our bubble to experience all that God has created and all that nature has to offer.

The world is blessed with so many natural scenery that can work to our benefit if only we can just step out and see.

Even within our personal environment, there are a whole lot of fascinating experiences that we can explore.

It is not right that we will walk through the earth without experiencing at least a 1/1000th of all that the nature and universe has got to offer.

16. PRIORITIZE YOUR HEALTH

There is a wise saying that goes…”a healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one”.

Being healthy is the gateway ticket to living a fulfilling life. If you’ve ever gotten I’ll even from the slightest sickness, you would agree with me that it is never the best place to be.

When you are not in the best frame in your mind, body and soul, the only thing you think about is to get well and get out of that state.

Therefore it is of utmost importance to prioritise our health. Incorporate into your daily lifestyle healthy options that will be beneficial to your overall well being.

Some of these lifestyle includes but not limited to exercise, healthy meals, rest, meditation and journaling.

An exciting life is very possible if only you would consider all these things.

In conclusion, having an open mind and a heart filled with gratitude is one of the special traits to living a rich, well rounded and interesting life.

There you have it folks. I hope you learned a thing or two.

It will be a pleasure to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

 

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