The Importance of Defining Your "Good Life"

For most of my life, I’ve set yearly goals. They help me cast a vision for what I want the year to look like. But in the grand scheme of things, a year is not that long, and yearly goals, though helpful, can be short-sighted. At some point, we must ask ourselves bigger questions: Where do I want my life to be headed, not just this year, but overall? What state of human-being am I striving to achieve during my time here on earth?

Answering existential questions of this magnitude might seem overwhelming, but there’s a simple writing exercise that makes it more fun and easy than you’d expect.

Here’s what you do: Imagine what just one day in the “good life” would look like for you and write about that day in as much detail as possible. We’re talking just 24 hours from the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow at night. Get creative, have fun, and dream big!

What should you write about? Here are some ideas:

• What time do you wake up? How many times do you hit snooze? Or is something else waking you up?
• Who, if anyone, are you waking up next to? Do you say anything to each other when you wake up?
• What is your morning routine like? Do you have kids running around? Do you have a cat, dog, or other pets begging to be fed? Do you have to water the plants?
• What are you eating or drinking for breakfast and the rest of your meals? Where are your coffee beans sourced from? Did your eggs come from your own chickens? 
• Do you take a morning walk? What do you do on that morning walk? Do you stop in at the local bakery to say ‘hello’ to whoever has the morning shift?
• What kind of clothes are you putting on as you get dressed? Does the brand matter to you? Are you bundling up in winter gear, living in the mountains, or slipping into sandals to eventually stroll to the beach?
• Do you have to shovel the snow or sweep the sand from your front entry?
• What sort of work do you do during this day? Where is work located? Who are you working with? Describe a project you might be working on.
• What sort of hobbies do you partake in during the day? What is your skill level with them? Are you doing them with other people? Maybe you’re in a foreign country just trying to learn the language.
• Where are you living? Describe your house, the street you live on, the community in general. Do you have neighbors? What are they like? Does one of them bring over fresh-baked bread during this day?
• How do you get around during the day? Are you traveling by foot, car, bike, public transportation, or boat? Perhaps you’re being pulled by a dog sled or maybe going to a meeting by sea plane?
• What is your health like? Do you exercise? How fast can you run a mile? How much can you bench?
• What are your relationships like? Do you have immediate family or friends that come over for dinner? Do you go out in the evening to grab a drink somewhere? What’s the bar like?
• How do you wind down in the evening? Are you reading before bed? If so, what book?
• What time does your head hit the pillow?
• What are you thinking about right before falling asleep?

Hopefully you get the point. Write as much as you can and get as detailed as possible.

When I did this exercise, it helped me realize a few things:

1. Certain aspects of my "good life" are achievable today. 
• For example, in my narrative, I wrote about friends coming over for dinner. This made me realize, Wait, I can do this now! So last year I learned how to cook for larger groups and started hosting weekly dinners with some friends.
2. I got a better sense of the financial resources I need to live my "good life".
• You can go through your dream day and actually budget out how much everything costs. You can do this for the things you spend money on during that day, and the other regular payments for things like transportation, housing, child/pet care, maybe a cleaning service? Overall I realized I don’t need that much money to live the “good life”. This helps me clearly define what current actions I need to take in my career and financial planning.
3. I saw how much of my “good life” money can’t buy.
• In my dream day, I’m married and a father and I have healthy relationships with those in my extended family, community, workplace, etc. You can’t buy these sorts of relationships and they also don’t develop overnight. I realized I need to start prioritizing my relationships more in the present. For example, this year I’m trying to put myself out there more to maybe find my future wife.

I hope this writing exercise helps you as much as it’s helped me. By dreaming about what one day in your "good life" could look like, you’ll be able to better define the goals you want to accomplish this year to help you get there.