Living the best version of my life

I created this phrase some years ago- Living the best version of my life.

It comes from two things.

1. Living the best

I read a book called 'Why french women don't get fat'. It's about different eating and lifestyle habits, and relationships with food. The general idea is that the authors experience with French women and French culture is that they invest time and effort in their experience with food, regardless what it is. They source the best ingredients, they treat food like an every day luxury and they give it their full attention. This is as opposed to Americans (again, the authors personal experience) who eat processed food that isn't actually that nice, on the go or not paying attention to it at all. The end result is the French gain way more satisfaction from their experience with food, compared to the Americans who experience less satisfaction in overall quality therefore over compensate with quantity.

I then considered how this theory could be applied to life and started paying more attention to the quality and joy in my every day. I started focussing on the quality of how I spent the 70% of my time rather than the 30%.

An example is when I was going for coffee, thinking about exactly what I wanted. Did I want a really nice coffee, and if so, exactly which coffee shop would give me the experience I wanted. Or actually was I in the mood to just go to a non-descript place because it was more about getting out of the house. In which case, where exactly could I go that I would enjoy the most.

It's conscious living really. Breaking out of autopilot and giving ourselves the opportunity to experience joy in our every day lives.

What a unique privilege it is to experience a deep satisfaction and overall joy in our every day lives.

Try this:

Start with 1 day.

As much as possible, before doing something/anything, think what the best possible version of it is for you and make the effort to do it. Remember that it's relative, it's got to be a version that is realistic to you in that moment, otherwise it's not any version at all.

For example: When making yourself a cup of tea/coffee, decide what is your favourite mug, decide exactly where you want to sit, and focus on it when you drink it, savour the taste. If you've decided you want it, make it the best possible experience of it that you can.

2. Version of my life.

   
   

So much of our disatisfaction in life comes from comparing ourselves to others because we are constantly and relentlessly under pressure to be more, or less, or something else. Whether this is in a bold or subtle way. Whether it's friends or family implying judgement or social media bombarding you with snippets of peoples fake lives.

This drives two outcomes.

We experience greater unhappiness with what we have and what we are, because we aren't meeting these expectations that are imposed on us.

We become disconnected with who we actually are as individuals and therefore go down a route of chasing something that doesn't actually align with what is right for us, the end result being dissatisfaction.

For example. We live in a capitalist society, we're led to believe that we should want X, Y, Z, to own a house, to earn a certain amount of money, to be able to afford to do certain things. We may be fortunate enough to have access to large sums of money that mean we can attain the existence that society tells us what we should want to achieve. But if the things that we are told should bring us joy and therefore we focus everything on getting it, doesn't actually bring us joy, then we end up in a very confusing and sad state.

So this part of the phrase is all about working on gaining clarity as to what it actually is that brings us joy and what actually is important to us. Drowning out the noise and being bold enough to own who we are.

It's about staying in our own lane, being true to ourselves and living my our own standards, not someone elses as it's our life and we are the only ones living it.

Try this:

Get a piece of paper and write down things that are important to you. Write down why, and keep going until you're able to actually explain why something is important to you, not just why something is generally considered important.

This is easier said than done because we are so conditioned by society and those round us.

I do have another little exercise for this but that's for another day!

Living the best version of my life

Bring them both together and what you have is a conscious mindset that encourages you to experience the best possible life that you can.

Romanticise your life. Live like you're in a movie, be the main character, there is literally no-one stopping you.