Faya Sanders 
What does it mean to enjoy a better life? It’s usually a personal question with a unique answer, depending on who you are. But a healthy, balanced lifestyle usually revolves around five principles—health and wellness, personal relationships, wealth and income, happiness, and organization. The people you know who have a great life probably have all five of these areas under control.
You don’t need to run marathons to have good health, you don’t need to be a millionaire to have a wealth… a better lifestyle is achievable with simple steps that are personal to you. Here are some simple ways to improve your life in these five ways.
Health and Wellness
It’s easy to tell someone “eat less and move more” when talking about physical health, but then the real solution is more complicated than that. More than one-third of Americans are obese or overweight, the CDC reports, so there’s clearly more to health and wellness than less food and more cardio. Here are some ways to boost total wellness is your life:
- Focus less on counting calories and more on eating whole foods (not the grocery store)—lean meats, good fats from avocados and olive oils, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Avoid processed foods and refined sugars.
- Use an app like Headspace to practice guided meditation. You don’t need to be a guru, just find five minutes each day to practice being alone with your own thoughts.
- Screens wreck your sleep. Avoid smartphones at least one hour before bedtime.
Personal Relationships
Relationships go beyond your partner or spouse. They include everything from colleagues to close friends, and maintaining healthy relationships (while severing unhealthy relationships) is key to your mental health and happiness:
- Be fearless with honesty. “Keeping everyone happy” is a one-way ticket to stress and misery. This doesn’t mean you should spout off with no concern for others, but fearless honesty can help filter true relationships.
- Manage mobile technology. Don’t let your digital world affect your real relationships negatively. No one like the person who’s on their phone when out with friends or family.
Supplemental Income
Everyone wants to succeed at their career, but many Americans are deviating away from their 9-to-5 job and searching for supplemental income in the gig economy. There’s a lot of ways you can do this for yourself, but some of the common trends show:
- “Learn to code” is more than a meme. Gig economy jobs in the tech sector are some of the highest paying of its kind.
- Jobs that reward people for the amount of work they’re willing to put in are rising in popularity, including companies in the direct sales industry. Paths such as the Amway money plan are showing Americans how they can create a supplemental income outside their careers.
A lifestyle is personal to everyone, and the best ways to improve it will be different to different people, but these are some of the universal areas that can make life better when they improve. Pay more attention to your health and wellness (that includes mental health), take better care of your personal relationships, and get creative to find new paths to supplemental income. Do this and you’ll find your days getting a little bit better.
