Are you feeling like your life is passing by and you’re not making the most of it? Do you wonder if there is something more? Have you asked yourself, “Is this really all there is to life?” Those are totally normal thoughts.
What Does It Mean to Live Life to the Fullest? (A Definition)
If you asked a million people, you might get a million different answers about what it means to live life to the fullest. For some, it might involve traveling. For others, it could mean raising a family. Still others may be on a mission to solve some important social problem. What’s common among these definitions is that each one involves finding meaning or purpose in what one is doing or how one is spending their time—the life is one that is exciting or fulfilling for the individual.
The opposite of living life to the fullest
If we are not living our life to the fullest then we’re generally feeling dissatisfied with the lack of meaning or purpose that we are getting from our daily life. Maybe we don’t find satisfaction in our job. Maybe we’re bored with the town we’ve been living in. Maybe we haven’t found any hobbies or activities that we’re passionate about or excited about. Maybe we even watch TV most days just to pass the time. Whatever our particular situation is, our life may feel dull, unsatisfying, or uninspiring.
Words that describe living life to the fullest
If you’re living a ‘full’ life, you may be described as:
· Thriving
· Prospering
· Fulfilled
· Happy
· Satisfied
· Content
· Enjoying yourself
· Having fun
· Savoring life
· Relishing life
· Delighting in life
· Blooming or blossoming
Why Should You Try to Live Life to the Fullest?
Numerous studies have shown that meaning in life, contentment, and satisfaction in life all contribute to greater well-being. Meaning in life is also related to greater feelings of love and joy and lower fear, anger, shame, and sadness. This suggests that living life to the fullest may be crucial for our happiness.
How to Live Life to the Fullest
As we mentioned earlier, your definition of a full life might differ from the next person. That being said, science suggests we can take some specific actions if we’re looking to live a more full, fulfilling, and meaningful life. Below we talk about these strategies and offer some additional tips that can help you start exploring potential ways to live your life to the fullest.
1. Fill up your life with things that make you happy
According to the research, positive emotions may have a big influence on how full and meaningful our life feels. For example, in a series of studies, King and colleagues (2006) showed that boosting people’s positive emotions resulted in subsequent increases in their sense of meaning in life. More specifically, it seems that positive emotions experienced in a given day contribute to a greater sense of meaning that day.
2. Write a ‘live life to the fullest’ essay
Writing or journaling can be good ways to explore what really matters to you. So you might consider writing a ‘live life to the fullest’ essay. Start by visualizing what your life would look like if you were living it to the fullest. How would you be spending your time? Who would you be with? Where would you be?
Then, use this visualization to create a list of things that contribute to you living your life to the fullest. In this essay, you might elaborate on each list item (similar to what we are doing here in this article) to more fully explore what each item involves. For example, if ‘love’ is one of the items that you think would help you live your life more fully, ask yourself, “what does love mean to you?” Is it romantic love, family love, friendship love? And how would you go about bringing more love into your life, even if only in small ways at first? This essay can serve as somewhat of a personal mission statement to help you create the life you want.
3. Help others make their lives full by practicing kindness
A systematic review of the research offers compelling evidence that practicing random acts of kindness—that is, being kind to other people for no specific reason—increases our satisfaction with our lives. I know the idea that making others’ lives better also makes our lives better is counterintuitive, but it really works. This may be in part because doing good for others can help us feel more socially connected and feel like our lives have more meaning.
4. Fill your life with gratitude
Gratitude may just be one of the easiest ways to make more of your life. It uses the good things we already have in our lives and focuses our attention on them. As a result, we realize that our lives are more full than we thought. Maybe we realize that we actually do have a lot of important people in our lives, and that knowledge makes us feel a sense of meaning. Or, we start to appreciate the successes we’ve had instead of focusing so much on the failures.
To start filling your life with gratitude, you can use techniques like making a gratitude list or gratitude journal. These can help you get more familiar with using gratitude. Once it becomes second nature, it’ll be easier to use gratitude more often in your day-to-day life.
