A Great Life Guide

Warning: This guide will make you happy and productive every day for the rest of your life! Share it via http://agreatlife.guide

Life is great when you can fully understand, do, and enjoy everything that it has to offer. This lists the steps to achieve that in a meaningful and sustainable way, so everyone can be powerful, happy, productive, and prosperous.

The greatness of your life is based on the choices and actions that you take and nothing more -- your background and circumstances, while they might cause some resistance, don't matter at the end (e.g., if there is a will, there is a way. Anything is possible if you put in the right effort and want it bad enough.). If you want to change your life, simply take different choices and actions (e.g., choose to feel good for doing what is necessary and right instead of doing wrong things that feel good). This guide provides some of that and if used consistently, a great life is guaranteed. One more thing, greatness isn't about achievement, but the mastery of life, which means you can choose to do nothing and can still be great. 😉 The key to mastery is everything becomes your choice and responsibility and no one else's -- the way you feel about anything, the actions you take, the dreams that you want to achieve, etc.

Power

Before we can do anything, we must have power -- the energy that fuels everything we do. To attain unlimited power, start each day and action powerfully.

1. Breathe deeply to fully oxygenate your cells and remove toxins. Most of the time, we breathe too shallow due to the changing nature of our activities. Your body and brain won't function optimally when there isn't enough oxygen. Try to do it at least a few times a day for a few minutes, or whenever you need an extra boost.
2. Eat intelligently to efficiently get nutrients from food. In today's fast-paced society, we often eat quickly and haphazardly, which causes many digestion-related health issues, such as indigestion. The quality of your fuel translates to the quality of your power. Eat natural, organic, less processed, and balanced food as much as possible as they contain more nutrients with fewer toxins. Apply food combining techniques to improve digestion whenever possible.
3. Empower yourself with positive emotions, motions, and states. Negative emotions disempower you as they drain your power or control. When you feel a negative emotion, immediately replace it with a positive one by generating the feeling so you are always empowered to make changes for the better in any situation. When you move, do so positively -- powerful, intentional, and in good form. Complete your movements in positive physical states (good posture, happy facial expression, etc.). Your motions and states can change how you feel, and vice versa, as emotion is energy in motion. Negative thoughts can drain your mental energy, so maintain a positive mental state at all times by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones that empower you. Fear can easily inhibit your thinking brain without your knowledge and drastically reduce your energy, so replace that with calmness or excitement. Focus on what you can do and how they can make things better.
4. Sleep well to rejuvenate your energy and more. When you don't sleep well, you are much more susceptible to accidents, illnesses, and negativities (e.g., sadness, anger, hate). To sleep well, exercise to exhaust your body during the day, meditate before/after bed to calm your mind and emotion, comfort yourself in a nice bed, and consistently do it at the same time to create a rhythm -- that's Emc² from the first letters. Don't get out of bed until you finish sleeping!

Happiness

To maximize your happiness, just do what kids do best:

1. Let go of everything to reduce the burden and make space for happiness. Negativity will rot the core of your body and mind and affect everything you do, so let it go. External things (e.g., work projects, family issues) will prevent you from being fully happy, so let them go. Relax, breathe, and then just let them all go. You will feel lighter and ready to be happy. It doesn't mean that you don't care or ignore everything, but simply not letting them affect you negatively enables you to make changes wisely and move forward. If it's hard to let go or you feel sad without knowing why, then go back to the previous step or move onto the next.
2. Overflow with positivity to boost your happiness. Identify the things that make you happy, do and express them openly, and then encourage positively (e.g., praise, be thankful and loving, celebrate) and explicitly as assuming the obvious is often wrong and easily misinterpreted as otherwise. Be thankful for what you have each day. Give to others whenever possible, especially wisdom and compassion. Tell your loved ones that you love them as much as possible. Celebrate every win -- big or small! Focus on the positive side, the solutions, and the actions that you can take to become happier rather than the problem. Kids' love for their family, friends, and things is pure, sincere, and overflowing. ❤️
3. Vary your perception for lasting happiness. What makes you happy is based on how and what you perceive, such as your perceived progress, state, meaning, and bond. When there is a gap between what you have vs expect, then unhappiness grows. Change how you perceive by changing the meaning of what you perceive. If you create a belief that you are happy with what you have no matter what, then you are. Change your belief system to enable you to be happy every day, and then you will. If you don't want to change how you perceive, then you need to change what you perceive -- ensure it is 100% under your control, otherwise you are setting yourself up for a roller coaster ride that you might not enjoy. Think happy and therefore you are.
4. Enjoy the present to live your life. Too often we get stuck thinking about the past or the future and forget about the present, which is when life happens and happiness can be created. Don't think about what you don't have or could have, but appreciate and enjoy what you do have. Whatever you do, simply be present and enjoy it. Kids are naturally gifted in this and it is why they are so happy all the time.

Productivity

To maximize your productivity:

1. Activate your body, passion, and mind to maximize potential. Start the day with nutritious food. Exercise regularly to strengthen your body. Do what you love and be your true self to let your passion flow abundantly as it amplifies results in multitudes. Always keep learning and thinking to push the boundary of your mind. There's an enormous synergy between the potentials of your body, passion, and mind. Most of your capabilities are dormant until you push their limits, so try to push yourself a little bit each day to reach new heights. There's nothing that you can't do if you believe in and apply yourself. Finally, don't forget to take breaks whenever you are not in an optimal state and rest well to rejuvenate so everything can function at 100% at all times.
2. Be mindful with acceptance to maximize understanding and awareness of what's going on without judgment or expectations. Always be calm -- understand, learn, and then let go of anything that disturbs it (e.g., scan your body and mind often for any tension and loosen them). Stay focused while being aware of the surrounding (e.g., understand your emotions and enjoy them but don't let them take over). No matter what others say or do to you, retain the calmness and clarity to make decisions wisely.
3. Concentrate on one thing at a time to maximize efficiency. Prioritize things based on value to get the most out of limited time, and then focus on only one at a time to avoid overloading and context switching. If we do just that, everything actually gets done faster with higher quality.
4. Do the right thing in the right way to maximize performance. The fastest way to get things done is by doing the right thing as doing the wrong thing requires redo and some things can not be undone. Sometimes it's tempting to do the wrong thing for a short-term gain, but there are always consequences. In the long run, doing the right thing wins as it builds momentum from previous accomplishments. Always understand why you do something before how in order to do your best. Once you know what to do, then do it with everything that you got and don't let anything hold you back. Knowledge is only half of the story, action completes it, so don't be lazy; do as much as you can and persevere. What is right for you might not be right for others as each person has different information, so it's important to respect other people's decisions and properly exchange information to reach alignment. When you don't get the results you expect, then iterate or pivot -- learn from it and find a better way. Embrace failure as it is one of the best ways to learn and the doorstep to success. The shortest path to success is learning from and leveraging others.

Prosperity

To maximize prosperity:

1. Begin with big and meaningful dreams. To ensure that you don't get lost in the details and to gain more meaning in your life, you should have big dreams and a personal mission, which is something that you are passionate about and want to do in your lifetime, gets you out of bed early every morning, you would gladly do for free, and is very personal to you. It's exciting to figure out and work towards your dreams. Your personal mission and dreams will provide you with a direction to focus your energy and become more fulfilled. The more people that will be helped translate to more meaning and fulfillment. Dreams are supposed to be inspiring, so don't be afraid to dream big! Then do whatever it takes to ensure your reality allows you to make good progress towards your dreams. Once you have realized your dream, it's time to dream bigger!
2. Embed good values in your heart to ensure you do what's most important to you. At the minimum, start with these values to build long-lasting relationships: pleasure, unity, curiosity, and truth. Write down your values with priority and ensure all your dreams and actions align with them. The congruence will give you more power and the lack of it will cause internal conflict.
3. Start with intentions and end with reflection. Many things can happen in a day, so you won't know what you will get at the end of the day unless your intentions are set. Once you have set your intentions for the day, then your energy will naturally be focused on achieving them. Use intentions that work for you, but here is a generic one -- say it with lots of feeling for each word: I am going to be powerful, happy, productive, and prosperous today! At the end of the day, take some time to reflect and appreciate what you have learned and accomplished today so you can better retain what you have done to make tomorrow even better. Do the same for each action you take (e.g., meeting).
4. Take massive actions. At the end of the day, nothing happens without action. And big dreams require massive actions. Prioritize what you need to work on each day and get as many of them done as possible. The more that you do, the closer you are to your dreams and prosperity. Don't be afraid to take the wrong actions as it will happen -- just learn from it to minimize future recurrence. Give each action more meaning by remembering how it helps to achieve your dream. Enjoy and appreciate each action completed. And never ever stop!!

Values

To build lasting relationships and ensure the prosperity of humanity, we must embed these values in our hearts for everything that we do:

1. Pleasure: Too often we get stuck in the dramas or necessities of life that we forget to enjoy it. There is no need to choose one or the other, you can do both at the same time. You only live once, so experience everything that life has to offer. Don't be afraid to try everything once, as long as it is safe, because you never know what you will like until you try -- sometimes you might need to try twice. Whatever you like to do, don't hold back and go for it! One of the greatest pleasures is love, so love everyone and everything as much as you can -- that is the secret to lasting happiness and productivity.
2. Unity: If we simply do what we believe is right at the expense of our relationships, then we have won the battle but have lost the war. Both are important and there are ways to solve the problems so that both can be satisfied, but the relationship comes first if you must choose one -- because even if we accomplish the most amazing feats, they are pointless if there is no one for us to share with. While a single person can do amazing things, the greatest things can only be accomplished when we work together as one. That is every single living being, not just humans, as we interdepend (e.g., we need the oxygen from trees and more than half of your body cells are microbes!). Divisions of countries and races are superficial and only cause harm. It's ok to have groups, but not superficial barriers that hinder collaboration, nor thinking other groups are different or inferior. We should help each other, work together, and share the fruits of labor, so everyone becomes better and benefits compound. When we don't work together, great things come to an abrupt end. Together, the possibilities are endless.
3. Curiosity: The old saying "curiosity killed the cat" is better rephrased as "curiosity transformed the cat into a lion." Be curious about people, places, and things, so that we are open to fully understand and improve. Without it, we would stay the same and there would be no improvements, therefore prosperity would stagnant. To maximize prosperity, we must always be curious about everything -- in the past, present, and future.
4. Truth: There is too much misinformation out there, so it's hard to make the right decisions. As intelligent beings, we must seek the truth and use it to our advantage. Don't be afraid of it. There is no need to hide it by making up stories, etc. Never blindly believe what others say -- question everything to better understand. Our universe is vast and eagerly awaits us to explore. Be excited for the opportunity! Only truth can build trust, expand our wisdom, satisfy our curiosity, and build a solid foundation for everything else.

Mastery

To gain mastery in life, there are a few areas that you need to have absolute understanding and command of:

1. Life: There are many theories about the origin of life, however that we began is interesting but keep in mind that they are theories and the truth is they are of no consequence in how we live it. Some theories leverage fear, safety, or purpose to turn them into truths. In reality, we don't need any of that. It's ok to begin without purpose so that you can define your own -- that's actually empowering even if it might not feel that way initially. It's ok to die when our time is up, but you are definitely welcome to try to change that. Understand the truth that we are stardust and the materials that we are made of never actually die but changes to different forms in a neverending cycle of life and death. However, that's only where we begin, how it ends is up to you -- completely in your own hands and no one else's. Appreciate the fact that you are conscious, act consciously to realize your dreams without fear or limits, and do good to expand the prosperity of humanity -- that's pretty meaningful. There can be many struggles and sufferings in life, but they are nothing more than obstacles in an obstacle course of life that you can appreciate as they help you become stronger and pave the way to define your unique identity.
2. Identity: Who are you? Why do you do what you do? Most people don't think too much about that until they have a midlife crisis or other traumatic events. Without knowing who you are, what you want out of life, and what everything means to you, it will be hard for you to achieve the outcome that you want as you are likely doing others' biddings. Take some time for yourself to think about those things and explicitly define your identity, beliefs, values, purpose, meaning, personal mission, and dreams. What society or others expect isn't necessarily something that you need to follow. That's where it starts, how it ends is totally up to you so you can achieve the outcome that you want for your life. If you have a hard time defining your identity, then it means you haven't experienced enough pains and pleasures of life -- go out and do more. In order to create your unique identity, you may need to break down your existing primitive and societal identity, which can lead to suffering, such as depression -- understand and appreciate that it is a part of the life journey. Becoming your authentic self is liberating, empowering, and necessary to realize your full potential. Your unique identity will guide the fine-tuning of your control.
3. Control: What separates us from animals is our ability to have absolute and conscious control of ourselves instead of relying on instincts alone. That ability allowed humanity to achieve much of its greatness. The lack of that ability left many atrocities in history and likely more to come. Most people see emotions, thoughts, actions, and events are out of their control and are all tied together in a big messy world of life. That's far from the truth. Each of those things is really distinct but your brain naturally ties them together as that's how it has evolved to work. Just because it is how it works out of the box, it doesn't mean it has to be that way. To gain absolute control, it's critical to separate them. For example, you change yourself to feel excited or sad right now, which has nothing to do with any thoughts, actions, or events. The sadness associated with failure can be changed to appreciation at will regardless of the thought that failure does help you grow. Consciously change your emotions, thoughts, actions, and events and train your brain with associations that support you instead of destroying. You can decide to feel depressed, happy, or not at any moment or for any event -- it's really a choice. You can decide to think negatively, positively, or nothing at all about anything. You can decide to take any action at any time or not. They can be tied together or isolated. All of them are choices and skills that you can master independently so that they can be leveraged more effectively together. Absolute and conscious control will help you take your skills to new heights.
4. Skills: All the steps in this guide are skills. Power steps improve your ability to gain unlimited energy. Happiness steps improve your ability to be happy every day. Productivity steps improve your ability to be productive. Prosperity steps improve your ability to be prosperous. Everything that you do is a skill, such as how you feel, think, and act. That's wonderful as it means everything can be improved with effort and the right approach. Natural talent is where you start, but where it ends is completely up to you. Skills can be pushed to world-class levels using deliberate practice with passion and coaching. Identify the smallest unit of improvement, figure out the best approach, practice, rest, and continuously iterate based on feedback. Life itself is a skill. Learn to live a great life or let life push you around -- the choice is up to you.

You might have noticed that all 4 areas have something in common, and that's how things are today is where you start and where it ends is 100% completely up to you. Your life is in your own hands and no one else's -- no matter what happens in the world or what others do to you. That's the essence of mastery in life.

Being happy and productive sometimes diverge, but both are necessary to sustain and achieve your full potential over a lifetime. Metaphorically, think of happiness as the light from the sun that disperses in all directions from a power core, while productivity is focusing all that light into a single point with high intensity to realize your dreams to create prosperity. With them, like the sun, you are self-sustaining and super powerful, therefore you can accomplish anything you set your mind to and absolutely nothing can stop you.

Easily remember the steps using the acronym BEES LOVE ABCD BEST from the first letter of each step. PUCT for the values pact. And LICS for mastery. Each step should be done in order so the next step is easier to do. It takes time to master each step, but the results are immediate and increasingly substantial. When things are not going as expected, take time to rest and reflect using the steps. Mastery is achieved when all steps are done naturally at all times. And voilà, a great life! 😄

Please like or share this with your family and friends so they can live a great life too!

Additional Resources

Now you know how to live a great life and can gain more knowledge as you go, however to save time, here are some recommended resources:

• Double Your Happiness and Productivity: Skills, techniques, and tips
• Kwik Brain: A fun, fast-paced show designed to help busy people learn and achieve anything in a fraction of the time! 
• Brains On!: An award-winning science podcast for kids and curious adults
• TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading

Note: The latest published version is available at http://agreatlife.guide for easy sharing and liking. This is v10.1 release of https://github.com/maxzheng/great-life-guide.