Author: Michele Foster

What does living an extraordinary life really look like?

Well, in order to see the “extra,” let’s look at an ordinary life first. When I say ordinary, I mean you’re in a job you don’t particularly love, you’re plodding along day to day, and you’re just kind of existing.

An extraordinary life, on the other hand, is one you design. You live a life that you want to live, a life that’s exciting and invigorating. You don’t have to live a life of extraordinary wealth, though there’s nothing wrong with that. But you are in charge of your life. You’re doing what you want to do, you’re being paid for doing something you’d be doing anyway, and you’re genuinely happy. To me, the best definition of an extraordinary life is a happy life.

Here are seven specific ways to transform your life from ordinary to extraordinary.

1. Understand yourself.

You need to figure out what motivates you. What excites you? What are you passionate about? What is it that you love to do?

If you’re not sure, spend some time understanding yourself. Observe what makes you happy, what makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning and what makes you feel fulfilled. Focus on doing the things in life that you’re dramatically excited about.

2. Get paid for what you love to do.

Once you figure out what motivates you, try to design your life where you are maximizing the amount of time you’re doing that activity. Maybe that means setting aside time in the morning or on the weekends at first. Then try to design a life where you’re actually being paid to do what you love. The goal is to earn your living doing something that you’re passionate about and would do for free.

3. Invest in lifelong learning.

If you want to live an extraordinary life, you have to focus on improving yourself every day. At the end of the year, you should understand and know something that you didn’t know at the beginning of the year. The only way you can coast in life is downhill. Stay green and growing. Challenge your brain with mastering something that you didn’t know before.

4. Have high expectations.

This is critical to leading an extraordinary life. Don’t become cynical and think, Good things don’t happen to me. Things always go wrong for me. Have high expectations for yourself and your life. Dream big. Let yourself get excited about a big goal or a big idea. Stay inspired to move forward and continue growing. A big dream can help you do that.

5. Be financially independent.

There’s a difference between financially independent and rich. Financially independent is where you live within your means. You don’t have massive amounts of debt. Out in the world, you might look at some people and think, Wow, they must be rich: Look at that car, look at that house. But in reality, they might owe everybody known to man. To me, that is not extraordinary. Extraordinary is where nobody—no institution, no bank—has their thumb on you. Dream big, but prepare for adversity. Expect and plan to succeed, but realize life doesn’t always go great.

Being financially independent means you’re never in a position where you’d be ruined if the world around you went downhill. When the financial collapse happened in 2008, my kids were going to private school. I remember so many other people pulled their kids out of school. I knew friends who had planes and then suddenly didn’t have planes anymore because so much of their life was built on debt.

Whatever level I’ve been at in life, I’ve always believed in the idea that a paid-for car is a good car. A car you owe a gazillion dollars on so you can drive a Maserati is not a good car. Become financially independent.

6. Deal equally well with success and failure.

If you try many things, if you live a life of adventure, you’re going to have a lot of success, and a lot of failures. Hanging in my office is a framed copy of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If.” At one point, it says, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same…”

Things are never as good as you think they are when everything’s going good, and on the other side, things are never as bad as you think they are when things are going crappy. What sets you apart is the ability to go through life, grow through life and weather the storm. There are going to be sunny days and stormy days. That’s just fact. Put yourself in a position where you can financially, physically, emotionally and mentally make it through.

7. Work harder.

The founder of Primerica, Art Williams, used to give a speech on “A Little Bit More.” He talked about the difference between the super successful person and the average person. He said the winner does what it takes… and a little bit more. You can’t go through life just doing what’s necessary. You have to do what’s beyond necessary. If one level of effort will get you ahead, then the next level of effort will get you to an extraordinary life.

Succeeding in life is not easy. It takes hard work. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. Work hard. Pay the price. But make sure that you’re working hard and paying a price toward a goal that you want to achieve. Do that, and an extraordinary life is within your reach.

Source:   ~ By John Addison ~ Image: Canva Pro

“Your life sounds like so much fun. You’re so lucky that you get to live an extraordinary life.”

That is something I’ve gotten pretty used to hearing as I travel full-time and get to be a digital nomad.

However, it’s not just luck.

Just a few years ago, I never thought that I would be living this life. I never thought I’d be my own boss or that I’d be traveling full-time. It’s funny how much can change in just a few short years!

For me, this is extraordinary, but everyone has a different version of what living an extraordinary life means.

And, no matter what your definition is, if you want to live an extraordinary life, you can do it!

Perhaps you want to travel, retire early, start your own business, have a homestead, volunteer more, or something else.

Having an extraordinary life can be whatever you want it to be.

All you have to do is aim for it!

If you want to live your best life, here’s how you can start. Remember:

We have one precious life: do something extraordinary today, even if it’s tiny. A pebble starts the avalanche. ~K.A. Laity

How to live an extraordinary life:

Stop making excuses.

If you want to live an extraordinary life, then you need to stop making excuses.

These might be excuses for why things may not be going your way, excuses for why you think something isn’t possible, and so on.

Everyone is guilty of making excuses, and I know that people will continue to make them until they realize that excuses are just that- excuses.

Just think about the last time you said “That won’t work for me because (insert your excuse here).”

As a personal finance expert, I hear a lot of reasons why a person can’t save money, pay off debt, reach retirement, and so on.

But, I also hear people making excuses for why they can’t live an extraordinary life, but this is just a disaster because you’re giving up before you’ve even begun!

There are plenty of legitimate reasons for setbacks, and sometimes the road to your dream life isn’t easy. However, before you say that something isn’t possible, you should stop and think about whether or not you are just making excuses.

Once you understand the excuses you are making, you should begin to take the steps needed in order to live an extraordinary life.

Go for your extraordinary life.

What makes you happy, excited, joyful, and motivated? That’s what you should be doing with your life! Well, as long as it’s legal.

Stop thinking about what other people want you to do and start listening to your heart. Who cares about what others think? If you spend all your time thinking about others, you will be wasting a ton of time!

• If you want to live a life of adventure – Go for it.
• If you want to start a family – Start planning one.
• If you want a better job – Get one.
• If you want to change the world – Do it.

Find what it is that you want from life and announce that dream to yourself. Making this step towards reaching your extraordinary life will help you stay focused and move that much closer to reaching your dream.

Forget about what people think.

I hear from a lot of people who think they can’t go for their dreams, such as traveling full-time, starting their own business, and more. Often, their biggest fear is that other people will judge them. Most of the time the judgments are just in the person’s head, and if they’re not, who cares what others think anyway?

I used to really care about what other people thought of me. Now that I’ve learned to let go of that, I couldn’t be happier.

Listening to the opinions and negativity of others can drag you down, control you, and affect your ability to reach your extraordinary life. Letting go and saying “Who cares!?” will help you learn to live a great life.

Just remember, everyone is different, all that should matter is what is right for you.

Welcome the unknown.

The path to your extraordinary life will probably have quite a few brand-new experiences.

Some people try to avoid or ignore these experiences because they are afraid of change or fear the unknown. However, these unknowns and new experiences are usually the keys to your future.

They may help shape your ideals, teach you valuable lessons, and strengthen your self-confidence.

Even though these unknowns can bring about positive change, it’s important to prepare for them. This begins by making a realistic plan for what may happen once you start taking steps to reach your goal. Being prepared can take a lot of the stress out of confronting the unknown.

For example, if you are afraid of what might happen when you leave your job to try something else, you should first plan on having a well-funded emergency fund. This way, if it takes you a little longer to find your dream job or dream life, your emergency fund will be there to help ease some of the stress.

Step outside your comfort zone.

When was the last time you did something new? Living an extraordinary life means that you’ll probably have to step outside of your box and do new things.

So many people live inside their comfort zone when they actually need to branch out every now and then.

Yes, stepping outside of your box can be tough, but what if it completely opened your eyes and changed your whole outlook on life?

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

If you want to learn how to live an extraordinary life, this is something you need to do every now and then. You could even set a goal to try something new each day, each week, or each month.

Improve your confidence.

To live your extraordinary life, you will have to be more confident.

A lack of confidence may:

• Prevent you from believing in yourself.
• You may be too shy to do what you want or need.
• Force yourself to do things you hate.
• Cause you to ruin a meeting, job possibility, and so on.
• Lead to unhappiness.

On the flip side, confidence can open many doors for you.

It can lead to getting the job you want, making more money, reaching your dreams, meeting new people, networking, traveling the world, and more.

Success isn’t easy. If it were easy, then everyone would be extremely successful, meaning that word wouldn’t even exist.

To take control of your life and live it to the fullest, you need to start believing in yourself and stop making excuses.

Next time you think “That’s not possible for me because of (your excuse),” you should think about how you can make your goal a reality.

You need to admit that you are making excuses, and believe that you can accomplish your goals.

Yes, it may be a little difficult to change your mindset in the beginning, but as time passes, you’ll realize that your excuses were just a waste of time and thought. Because, if you really want something, you can find ways to make it a reality.

Failure is a part of life.

Okay, that may sound extremely negative, but it’s true. Instead of thinking of failure as an end, you should think of failure as a learning experience.

If you’re taking risks or trying new things, there is a chance that you may fail at the task you are attempting.

But, that’s completely okay!

You won’t know if something will work or not unless you try it, and sometimes failure is just a part of the learning process.

Part of living a great life is failing every now and then. Accept that fate now, and you’ll be better prepared when it happens again.

Don’t let life pass you by.

It can be really easy to let life pass you by. Before you know it, years or even decades may be gone.

Too many people have the mindset of “Oh, in 10 years life will be so much better because of such and such.” And then, they just let their lives go by without ever thinking about the present.

Well, what about now?!

10 years is a long time!

Reaching a goal is great, but you should always make sure you are living life to the fullest (on a realistic budget, of course).

Realize that you’ll have to make sacrifices.

To live an extraordinary life, you may have to make sacrifices. In fact, sacrifices are definitely something you will have to make.

You may have to work long hours, pay off debt, skip an expensive purchase, and more. However, if it’s truly a dream of yours, just keep your eye on the end goal! If your idea of an extraordinary life is worthwhile to you, then the sacrifices will be worthwhile as well.

Source: makingsenseofcents.com ~ BY: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner ~ Image: Canva Pro