I recently read an interesting book by James Altucher called “Choose Yourself to Wealth”. One of the things he recommends in this book is defining a life theme to live by which serves as a simple guide for how to live your life from one day to the next.

I like his life themes idea, but have expanded it such that it is broader and more encompassing. I embrace living from day to day in accordance with a life theme, on a more micro level as the author suggests, but also recommend doing this on a more macro level by ensuring that what you are doing or working towards, such as the tasks and activities you perform as well as the goals that you pursue in life, will allow you to experience more of your life theme in the future.

For example, my life theme might be to live happy and free. As such, I would remind myself of this theme throughout my days to move more towards living in this fashion on a micro level. However, I would also check to ensure that much of what I was doing and working towards was geared towards living happier and freer off into the future. For instance, I might learn how to invest money or work towards creating a more rewarding career to realize even more of the happiness and freedom I was envisioning via my life theme.

Here’s a list of potential life themes which might be worth considering:
* living happy
* living a balanced life
* being more loving and appreciative
* living stress free
* being creative
* being healthy
* being social
* being more loving
* doing what you love
* being highly successful
* being family oriented
* nurturing friend and/or family relationships
* some combination of the above

Simply use whatever life theme strongly resonates with you at the time and feel free to periodically change it up. For example, you might strongly desire success at one point in your life and want to support a life theme of “being highly successful”. Later in life you might get to the point where you have experienced a good deal of success and are satisfied with the success you have achieved to date. At that point in time you might decide to replace the “success oriented” life theme with something else which strongly resonates with you at the time such as “living a balanced life” or “nurturing friend and family relationships”. You would then proceed with supporting this new life theme. By periodically revisiting and revising your life themes you will continually support your strongest desires over time.

If you live in accordance with your life themes you will do what’s truly important to you whether performing your regular day to day activities or working towards your future. If you do not live in accordance with these then you will begin to lose sight of them. For example, a workaholic might regret not spending more time with family if he or she values family time much more than work or success. By defining and supporting a life theme of “being family oriented” the person might remember and take steps towards not working so much and taking time out during the day to connect with family members and performing activities which are kind, nurturing, and thoughtful towards them on a more regular basis.

By creating and living in accordance with your life themes you will always do what’s important to you no matter what you’re doing. It’s a simple way to ensure that you: 1) define what’s important to you at the time, and 2) live in accordance with this. So give this a try.

This and other happiness and self-improvement related tips are provided throughout my self-help oriented books: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/ 

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness