The Ultimate Simple Guide To Life (That Actually Helps You) | Introduction

Introduction

As someone who felt like a hyperactive ostrich (one of the stupidest animals on the planet) for most of my life, banging my head against all of society’s walls, spending nearly every day in the principal’s office, dropping out of university, trying to figure out what I wanted in life, I wanted to create a guide that would save others the trouble.

The purpose of this guide is to help anyone, including hyperactive ostriches like myself, to discover the kind of life they’d like to live and minimize their regrets related to time, fears, changes, and happiness before they die… Yay 🙂.

I hope to get us there in the simplest way possible by sharing ways to self-reflect and set goals on the kind of life we’d like to live, providing facts about what leads to regrets, and some actionable steps to maximize our chances of success. I will be doing all of this without reinventing the wheel and instead, by pointing you to resources I’ve found very helpful, in an order that I think makes sense; because complexity is the enemy of execution.

We're supposed to get there in 5 steps, and potentially save ourselves around 80 years' worth of possible regrets:

1. First, we’ll explore some straightforward goal-setting frameworks that help us envision our ideal selves across different aspects of life. This exercise will provide us with an initial impression of the kind of life we aspire to lead.
2. Second, we’ll explain how we experience time throughout our lives and the shortness of life, underscoring the urgency of acting sooner rather than later.
3. Third, we’ll delve into the topic of fear, exploring how we perceive and interpret it, and providing actionable steps to help overcome it.
4. Fourth, we will explore change, why it’s difficult, and how to implement it effectively and sustainably.
5. Finally, in the fifth part, we'll provide strategies for achieving lifelong happiness by addressing our most important needs throughout our lives.

By the end of this guide, my goal is to equip you with a simple yet powerful process to clarify your desired lifestyle, overcome your fears, and implement sustainable changes that enable you to live the life you aspire to.

Importantly, this guide assumes you already possess the willingness to try, and the magnitude of this task and the simplicity with which I’m treating it is not lost on me. These are all complex topics that can be tackled in infinite ways. 

My goal is to reduce complexity and share a single example that has worked well for me so far and that some may find useful. I will share personal anecdotes wherever possible in an effort to connect with those of you who can relate. 

Unfortunately, this means it will not be useful for everyone, but helping even a single person would make the writing of this guide worth it to me. 

Lastly, I wrote this in response to the rising rates of depression and anxiety in our youths, and because I wanted to be able to send a single link to all the college dropouts and directionless wombats, like me, that have asked me what to do with their lives ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I appreciate your understanding of my lack of academic rigor and acceptable humor.

If you liked this article, please like, comment with your thoughts, and share with anyone who might benefit. Thank you.

Read the next: Chapter 1 | How I Used Death to Set My Life Goals

In the next part, Goals, we explore some straightforward goal-setting frameworks that help us envision our ideal selves across different aspects of life. This exercise will provide us with an initial impression of the kind of life we aspire to lead.

Table of Contents:

• Read the Introduction to The Ultimate Simple Guide to Life
• Chapter 1 | How I Used Death to Set My Life Goals
• Chapter 2 | Life’s Not That Short: Here’s Why We’re Wasteful of It
• Chapter 3 (Part 1) | How to Defeat the 8 Fears Holding You Back From Your Dream Life
• Chapter 3 (Part 2) | Boogying with the Boogeyman: How I Used Fear-Setting to Tango Through Terror