Life Coaching Guide: 7 Ingredients for an Extraordinary Life

Life is like a recipe. I would like to share with you these 7 ingredients. Hopefully, you can start integrating some or all of them in your life.

Try the fun exercise at the end of the post.

Body

Having a healthy body and good health will allow you to enjoy life to its maximum potential. This is one of the most important ingredients.

Try to incorporate in your life: 

Good Nutrition – Exercise – Good Rest – Relaxation – Good Health

“When you begin to empower your body to feel stronger and healthier you will begin to feel more empowered in all areas of your life.” David Patchell-Evans.

Mind

Your mind is your power center. You can’t control what happens but you can choose how you react to what happens. 

Attitude is everything!

Stress, anxiety, depression, happiness, motivation… these are some examples of how we can feel in different situations.

You need to be conscious of how you deal with these experiences. Watch yourself, reflect and understand why you are feeling a certain way. Maybe you can try to do something to change the situation. If you can’t, accept it and move forward. Learn from it. Having a negative attitude won’t help you!

Try to incorporate activities in your life that nurture your MIND. Here are a few ideas of meaningful activities you can do to find balance and feel better: 

• Self Care
• Fun & Recreation
• Spirituality
• Meditation
• Hobbies (Art, Music, Cooking, Reading, Drawing)
• Adventure & Travel

You are creating your own life! You can be as original as you like, find what makes you happy! And start doing it!

“It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to, has power over you, if you allow it.” Leon Brown.

Family

Some are fortunate to enjoy a good relationship with their families. Others stopped their relationship with their families a long time ago.

I want to believe that everybody does the best they can. It’s our job to try to understand why they do what they do. Being respectful and loving will have a HUGE impact on relationships.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou.

We all see people reacting to bad comments, disrespectful actions, screaming, judging…

Have you seen anyone reacting poorly to LOVE? Acceptance? Forgiveness? Respect?

I have had many personal experiences where just changing my attitude and really loving, accepting, forgiving and respecting the other person completely changed the situation. Our world really needs more LOVE and RESPECT. 

I will share some of those stories with you in future posts.

“Family, our refuge from the storm, our link from the past, our bridge to the future”

Social

Creating a healthy social environment that includes trust, compassion, respect and reciprocity is a very important ingredient of an extraordinary life.

“Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean.” Ryunosuke Saturo.

You want to include good friends and family members in your social support system.

Once you have decided what’s meaningful for you, you will then decide what kind of social relationships you want to have in your life.

The choice is yours.

“You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you” The Minimalists.

Work

Having an extraordinary life should include being able to do what you love and get paid for it.

The hard part is finding the what and the why. What do you love doing? Why do you love it? Is this something you would do for free in your spare time? Is this something that makes you feel fulfilled? Is this your passion?

“Career”, “Job”, “Business”, “Your calling”, “Your Dream”, “Your Contribution to the world”, “Your legacy”. These are some labels that we use when defining what we do for a living to earn money to sustain our lifestyle. Most times we arrange our lifestyle around our way of earning a paycheque. This is the easiest way. But is it the most meaningful way? 

Ideally, you will design the life that you would like to have, then you will try to find a way to earning a paycheque doing something that aligns with your values and your lifestyle.

“Your work should sustain the lifestyle that you want, not the other way around.”

This won’t happen overnight. You will still need to take care of the day-to-day of doing your actual “job”. Bills need to be paid. We all agree on that. It will take a lot of effort, patience, and dedication to make it happen. But if it’s truly what you want, you will find a way or you will create a way if you don’t see one. It’s just takes a matter of time to succeed.

“WORKING HARD FOR SOMETHING WE DON’T CARE ABOUT IS CALLED STRESS., WORKING HARD FOR SOMETHING WE LOVE IS CALLED PASSION.“ Simon Sinek.

Stuff

Stuff includes every material possession that should create value in your life and help you live a meaningful life.

Every possession you own should have a purpose. 

Having too much Stuff can cause clutter. Clutter overloads your senses, creating stress and making you feel overwhelmed and frustrated.

Physical clutter could be a reflection of a cluttered mind. If you are a victim of clutter you may benefit from reading “Emotional Impact of Clutter in your Life”

I would include “money” and “finances” in this category. Bad financial planning and debt could be a big source of Stress. It will affect negatively other areas of your life.  

An Extraordinary Life should include only stuff that serves a purpose and a healthy financial plan that supports your lifestyle.

Your home and workplace should be inviting and functional spaces. They should be designed to help you succeed! If they are not maybe you can benefit from reading “Organizing: Bringing Functionality and Joy into your Life.”

Less is more, it’s time to create balance in your life by removing what’s not important and relevant anymore.

“Organization isn’t about perfection; it’s about efficiency, reducing stress and clutter, saving time and money, and improving your overall quality of life.” Christina Scalise.

Giving Back

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso.

Giving help, support, advice, your time, love… to someone who is in need is the most rewarding action you can do!    Try to do it and see how you feel after.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted” Aesop.

Cultivating every ingredient in this recipe will help you find balance in your life. Every person will need different doses of each ingredient in order to feel balanced and happy.  

Example: You can decide to go to the gym and cultivate your “Body”. You can bring your media player and listen to an interesting podcast while exercising. Now you are cultivating your “Mind” too. If you invite a couple of friends after the gym to catch up and have a coffee and you are cultivating your “Social”. Stop by to say hi to a family member on the way home and then you are cultivating your “Family” too.

You can decide to make intentional decisions and incorporate a good dose of each ingredient in your day/week/month. Try different doses of each element to see how you feel. Over time you will figure out what feels good to you. Make it fun and share it with your loved ones.

Ready to give it a try? Let’s create the life that you always wanted.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together” Vincent Van Gogh.