Tips to Living an Exceptional Life!!!

By  John Assaraf
“I was told that if you work hard, bust your butt, go to school, and get great grades, you’d do well in life. That’s a bunch of crap. Today we have better information about how the universe operates and how we operate.”
― John Assaraf, Having It All: Achieving Your Life’s Goals and Dreams

Isn’t life amazing?
When you are living your purpose in life, every day is a journey of discovery, both of the world and of the soul. The same, of course, can be true when you’re not living your purpose, minus that happiness. I certainly can say I have lived, with passion, humor, intensity and, of course, regret. I wonder if this is true for everyone.

We all have our deep inner structures of how we see the world, and I suspect that most people carry vastly differing perceptions of what it means to lead an extraordinary life.

I have recently been asking myself what it means to me, and these are some of the ideas I came up with.
Please comment below with your own ideas of what it means to lead an extraordinary life; I’m very curious about whether other have the same ideas in this direction!

Live Your Core Values

What are your core values? When I served in the military, our code was “Honor, Courage, and Commitment.” Now, I would add to that solid parenting, self-improvement, self-education, fitness and volunteerism. I feel happiest and proudest of myself when I am living these core values, when I am healthy, fit, putting forth my best efforts at work, volunteering my time to give back to my community, and providing education, opportunity and a happy life for my children. I fall short of these values in one way or another every day; the purpose of failure is refinement of the self in order to achieve success.

One of the people I know who most truly lives her core values is a beautiful woman, beautifully named Maria Amore. She is very pretty, with sparkling blue eyes and a fit body, but her true beauty lies within. Maria gave up her job as a corporate attorney in Montreal to move to Cabo San Lucas and become a vegan chef.

Talk about changing your life. The meals she creates are absolutely exquisite—and absolutely free of animal products of any kind. Maria told me “I did it for the animals. I want to spread the ideals of veganism around the world to reduce the suffering of animals on this planet and improve people’s health.”
Maria’s commitment to her deepest core values is an excellent example of a person who is leading an extraordinary life.

Live with Intention and Purpose

Do you set and achieve your goals with ambition and positive action, or do you go with the flow of life, being pulled whichever way the current is flowing? For me, feeling that I have some control over my life may be a total illusion, but an absolutely necessary one. I won’t have the life of my dreams if I don’t set goals and go after them like a blitzkrieg.

Believe in Yourself

If you don’t, no one else will. It’s none of your business what other people think about you. Rid yourself of the toxic hater types and surround yourself with positive, interesting, creative and intelligent people who will support you through your journey of life, career, and relationships—and be supportive of them, too.

Never, Ever Give up

For me, the game just plain ain’t over till I’m dead. There are certain goals I have in life that I will pursue with dogged ambition until I achieve them or die trying. Real talk. When I’m not actively pursuing these goals, I am not living my life’s purpose and become very unhappy.

I know that my life’s purpose is to work at NeuroGym with my absolutely extraordinary colleagues, to constantly pursue self-improvement, to write, and to raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted children. What is your purpose? Do you know what it is? Do your live it?