Live Longer By Getting Busier: 5 Steps On How To Live Longer and Be Happier By Being Goal Oriented

A study shows that people who retire at the age of 65 tend to outlive those who retire at the age of 55. Yet you don’t have to be retired to be a retiree.  Regardless of your age, if you have too much time at hand with very little or no purpose for that time,  you might very well be in this group.   

Here are 5 simple steps you can take to make sure you live a long and happy life:

1-Overfill Your Calendar: Worrying about stuff you have no control over, criticizing yourself, or replaying past mistakes again and again in your mind are all bad habits. Do not allow them in your calendar...fill every single open slot of your schedule with goals.

2-Goals Direct Your Thoughts:  Einstein once said “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal.”   Happy people have goals.  Sad and depressed people do not. A goal will populate your mind with ideas, strategies, and plans pertaining to its realization.  It is this concentration of mental energy towards a specific direction that will keep you from steering into the dark alleys of life.   

3-Being Busy is Good:   Someone once said “Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.” That can be your secret to happiness.  Become so busy acting on your goals that you have no time to think about your problems and very little energy, if any, to entertain negative thoughts that want to visit with you at night.

4-Make The Process Exciting:  The real reward of a goal is not so much in its attainment, as it is on the daily excitement evoked by that goal.   It’s this excitement that fills your life with purpose. It’s this excitement that keeps you alive.  Have you ever accomplished a goal and asked yourself “Is this it?” This happens when you focus too much on attaining the goal and forget to enjoy the process. So make every step an exciting one.  

5-Find Soulmate Friends: Find people who have the same or similar goals.  Share your ideas with them and listen to theirs. This will keep you socially engaged which is key to living a long fulfilling life.  Many people go out and make friends just for the sake of having friends.  Don’t just make friends. Make soulmate friends...friends who will look forward to listen to your goals and work side by side with you on your dreams just because your dreams are also theirs.