I have just received a great little e-book by my friend and entrepreneur Kit Copper called “Greater Quality of Life”.
Kit interviews inspirational people from around the world – people who are successful in life, those who are accomplished yet humble, passionate yet grounded, socially conscious yet not too serious.
Having studied what his guests have said, Kit has summarised their 10 keys for a greater quality of life:-
- Write things down
- Be grateful
- Seek quite time
- Exercise
- Be humble
- Be yourself
- Don’t impose your will on others
- Take advantage of your emotive intelligence
- Be aware of your mind
- Take risks
These are great insights which you can start applying in your own life from today.
This reminded me of my own list of 10 keys which I first articulated 6 years ago in my first ever book “Get a Life”. It was interesting for me to revisit my list and to learn that actually very little had changed for me in that time!
So in no particular order, here are my own ten keys, which I strive to live my life by:-
- Integrity — always be your word and be authentic.
- Gratitude — adopt an attitude of appreciation and acknowledgement
- Self love — accept and love yourself just the way you are
- Abundance — there is more than enough goodness for everyone
- Contribution — give, give and give to receive
- Total self care — look after yourself in the best way possible
- Strive for excellence — always do your best and grow
- Positive attitude — look on the bright side of everything
- Forgiveness — make all relationships loving
- Live with joy — laugh a lot, be light hearted and be happy
As Kit says, knowing how to live is an art worth learning. There is of course no one approach universally correct – but I what find is that there are always some common threads such as gratitude, humility, self-care and being authentic.
Apply some or all of the above in your own life and see what happens.
At the same time, what are YOUR top 10 tips for a great quality of life?
Please do share…
@Arvind: All of those qualities mentioned are those that have empowered people for centuries to express more of their own good abilities lying dormant inside them. And these principles will continue to do it forever. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Patrick for your input.
What I have learnt is that there is very little new – the ancient wisdom is just as relevant today and is actually needed more than ever before.
Arvind, i totally resonate with your top 10 keys; they’re a bit more values based rather than practical ‘to do’s. both of these lists are very helpful though and i’d also like to add to the first list ‘to listen’, you know really listen to what people have to share.
thanks for this, a nice reminder of several of my values
Tania
Thanks Tania for adding your suggestion about listening.
To me if one is coming from a place of contribution and wanting to serve, then this begins with powerful listening.
It is all about being truly present to the other person, and knowing where they are coming from will help us to serve them better.
Hi Arvind,
In my humble opinion, I think that it is important to jot down things for one’s self. One should have a check list. I need to do this more often.
Exercise is very important – this I’ve learned recently. It is not always easy to not impose your will on others, moreso, when you are certain of being right, it is the way you convey your message that counts.
In my life time I certainly think it is well worth taking small risks from time to time.
Integrity is very important in a person.
On self love, I’m not good on that so maybe I need to work on it.
On contribution, I agree to give but not with the intention of expecting to receive.
Striving for excellence is something that has been rooted in me since a child.
Being positive is good but not always easy under certain circumstances. And I must find a class where they teach you to laugh. I guess that is something I’m going to have to work on.
It was good to see side by side the ten points and focus on the ones I need to improve on.
Thank you for that.