10 Ways to Enjoy Life More for Less (That You Can Start Right Now)
How about your career or business interests – are you doing what you want to be doing?
Do you know where you’re heading? Focusing on what’s really important to you?
Do you have the time to focus on what’s really important to you?
For those of you who have read Life’s Too Good for a wee while, you’ll know that what we really believe in is enjoying life and specifically how to enjoy life more for less (and therefore getting a better return in our lives and our business), by simplifying life and making room for the things that are really important.
In our case that’s things like family, flexibility and freedom – freedom to live life on our own terms.
10 Ways to Enjoy Life More for Less
On the subject of enjoying life more for less, here are 10 ways that you can do just that:
1. Experiment
This is my absolute favorite, so it has to be #1.
Experiment.
Recently, my good friend Annie Andre invited me to try a new experiment with her: Let’s just eat raw vegan food.
This sounded easy enough to me.
I’ve recently been considering whether I could go super-simple and eat one type of food only – something similar to the kinds of complete food that dogs eat. That might be an interesting experiment because if you could just eat ‘kibble’ you would no longer need a cooker, a fridge, crockery, a kitchen… no more need to cook etc etc. I found this guy: Monkey Chow Diaries – and I have to admit that did put me off just a little.
I digress.
Back to Annie’s idea…
Raw. Vegan. Sounds easy enough, though as a meat-eater I know already that would be a big challenge for me.
We’re not sure how easily we can sync up – it’s summer after all, Annie’s off to Germany, I’m off to France… but we’ll see and I’ll keep you posted.
I suggested a more interesting challenge might be only being able to eat what we could grow (though I don’t really have a vegetable garden at the moment so may have to wait a while before starting that one) – I still think that might be an interesting challenge for the future aka become a good gardener or starve.
As you probably know with my recent slow-carb diet experiment and my interest in Annie’s 30 day water fast, I’m really enjoying not only experimenting, but learning more about my health and dieting in general which, as I said in that post, to be honest, isn’t something I’ve really spent too much time thinking about in the past.
Just goes to show – when you start to explore something new, how interesting things can become.
In fact my life these days seems to be one long series of experiments (health, exercise, business things, investments… mostly little things, nothing too extreme, but experiments all the same) – and it’s lots of fun.
2. Live Within Your Means
As I talked about in this post: It’s Not About The Money, Money, Money, I’m a great believer in living within your means, or at least as far as possible.
It’s crazy how much we spend on stuff we don’t need.
Don’t get me started…
Being wealthy is not_the_same as being rich -> in fact it’s much better.
Read that post for more details or just take it from me right here, right now – live within your means and you’re gunna start enjoying life much, much more.
3. Read All About It
For more tips (52 of them), you could always read our e-book on the subject (‘Enjoy Life More For Less’). The book is organized in a similar way to the website with four sections: Life, Health, Money and Business.
You can use the book to try and take action on every one of the tips (yes, they’re actionable) or pick and choose only the ones that really resonate with you.
We’ve had great feedback on this book – I’ve even had people on more than one occasion mail me with a blow-by-blow account telling me how they’re doing against each and every tip and how the book has changed their lives.
Dounia, who found the book to be very inspirational, took a beautiful picture of her reading the book on the beach and posted this on Facebook. I love the photo so asked her if she would mind me using it in this article (yep, that’s it above).
Oh, and did I mention that the ‘Enjoy Life More For Less’ e-book is completely free?
Join our rapidly growing community (which is also free) and you’ll get a free copy plus weekly updates and other treats reserved only for our subscribers.
We also recently published this on Kindle (search for ‘Enjoy Life More For Less’ in Amazon – I’m not putting a link here because there are different Amazon links for every country: UK
Or you can just get it free below.
4. Go Crazy
As another friend of mine, Steve Bloom wrote in a recent article of his, which I loved, challenge yourself, challenge your perceptions and go crazy – because, as Steve puts it, “some crazy things are great opportunities in disguise”.
In fact it’s not just that post, it seems to be pretty much what Steve stands for. Check out his site (http://dosomethingcool.net), he has several posts which tell you how to enjoy life, how to get more out of life and how to, well, do something cool.
On the subject of doing crazy, fun stuff, something else that springs to mind is when another friend of mine, Allie from Ramblings of a WAHM tweeted about going to a ‘Survivor Mud Run’ that weekend. It sounded fantastic and she later told me she had a lot of fun. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
What can you do that’s crazy (whether crazy big or crazy small)?
5. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously
Business doesn’t have to be serious and life certainly doesn’t have to be serious.
Let’s take a look at the business side of things for a moment.
OK, so there are some business people who are quite serious. But a lot of the most successful business people in the world got there by having fun, by being themselves and more importantly by not taking themselves too seriously.
One obvious example that springs to mind is Richard Branson – did you know that he has never worked a day in an office in his life? I heard that from the man himself in a recent interview.
An example a little closer to home (I wrote an article: Why You Need To Lead, for her site quite recently) is the wonderful Ana Hofman. Ana was offline for a while and rather than get all business-like about it, she came back more open than ever, she actually made fun of herself and shared that with her readers to some success (171 comments and counting).
Ana is really well respected online, she knows her stuff and is certainly what I’d consider an expert in her field, yet she still finds the time to show humility, to have fun and to be really open – which her readers love her for.
6. Live in The Present
Don’t spend your time worrying about what might never happen.
Remember the past with fond memories, but don’t spend too much time there either.
Enjoy the present.
The present is the only time we truly have and it is also the only thing we really have control over.
If you’re worried about tomorrow, realize that what you do now can change tomorrow.
If you’re worried about yesterday, realize that the only chance you have to fix yesterday is with what you do now.
We have lots of articles on this website about living in the present and if you can do this, you will find your time is much more well spent.
If you want to get started learning more about being mindful and living in the present you could start with this article (or use our search function and search for the term ‘Mindful’): How To Practice The Art Of Mindfulness
7. Collaborate
There are some great examples of collaboration online.
A couple of good examples of really impressive collaborative projects are Corbett Barr’s Million Dollar Blog Project and Danny Iny’s wildly successful collaborative e-book ‘Engagement from Scratch!
Collaborating, whether in a social or business sense keeps things fresh and interesting and opens up new possibilities and opportunities as well as enabling you to enjoy life (and business) more in the process.
Spend time with people who you like to be around, who you learn from, who give you new perspectives on things other than your own and who challenge you.
Working with others (assuming they are the right others) can give us leverage and enable more to happen than working alone.
8. Move More
Move. More.
Mentally, physically and socially.
Move more.
Particularly physically – movement is really important and more of a benefit than you can possibly imagine (check out Isabelle’s superb article on Shinrin Yoku).
Get up.
Get Out.
Shake it all about.
If you’re feeling down, get out and move around. Out as in outdoors.
Fresh air + exercise is one of the best boosts you can get.
Awesome for mind, body and spirit.
9. Do Something You’re Really Passionate About
This doesn’t have to be your main business – but you may find out that it ends up being that way.
You don’t have to drop everything and follow your passion – though you may end up doing so when your passion becomes more lucrative than your day-job.
You don’t have to become a starving artist – do the thing you’re passionate about just because you’re passionate about it – it should be quality time doing something you love, not like work at all. Put pressure on that one thing you love and it becomes work – don’t ‘punish’ it in that way.
Even if it’s just for a few hours a week instead of wasting time watching crappy TV programs – choose a few programs to skip and spend time doing something you’re really passionate about instead.
Do this without putting any expectation on what you’re doing, but allow your focus to shape, refine and build that thing you’re working on to the quality and completeness that you feel is right.
Your focus and passion will be enough of a driver, you don’t need anything else.
A great example of someone who has tremendous passion is Marcus Sheridan over at The Sales Lion (http://thesaleslion.com).
Marcus was already successful with his swimming pool business and wanted to learn how to advertise through content marketing.
Through training himself to understand more about this, he started getting really interested, really passionate about it and ultimately built another business, a content marketing business (The Sales Lion) where he helps others do the same.
Now Marcus has one of the strongest communities out there online, eagerly following his every word. That would never be possible without passion. Now I have no idea if Marcus makes more money from his content marketing business than his swimming pool business, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that was the case.
10. Fail Fast
It’s OK To Fail – failure is not actually about failing.
Sound weird?
Well, go ahead and read that post if you want more details.
In short failure is more about giving up than it is about failing. Successful people fail all of the time, it’s something that is really worth doing on your way to success – well, if you want bigger success that is.
If you don’t fail a few times on your way to whatever success you’re gunning for, then you’re hardly pushing your boundaries are you?
So fail, fail fast, then get up, dust yourself down, take a look over your shoulder to see what you learned from that little stumble and move on.
Then, if you stumble again, take another look, write a few notes if you want, check your hair, then move on again.
… and keep going relentlessly and you will reach your target, precisely because you failed… but you kept going.
Don’t be afraid to fail. It will hold you back.
Try celebrating it instead.
A Starter For 10…
So there’s your ‘Starter for 10…’
I don’t know where that expression came from (perhaps I should look it up) – but I quite like it. A colleague of mine used to say it all the time.
So this is hopefully a useful list to whet your appetite.
Final Thought
The most valuable thing we have is our time.
The good news is that we all get paid the same amount.
We all get the same 24 hours every day, the question is, what are you doing with yours?
You should be able to do any of these right away. You will also find lots more examples of how to enjoy life more for less dotted all over the place on this little website, because as I said above, that’s what we’re all about.
So what are you waiting for?
Image Credit: Dounia Touil
Hey Allan,
What a great list you have here. I’m definitely the kind of person who likes to go crazy, but I love what you said about experimenting. I’m always looking for new ways to experiment and try new things. It’s the new things you try in life that make it so interesting and enjoyable. I want to see if you can do that experiment where you only eat what you can grow. That seems like it would be so hard, but if you could make it work, it would be really impressive.
I like what you said about living within your means too. I’ve detached myself a lot from needing too much stuff and I feel as if my life has become so much more enjoyable. I find that the more I realize how little of stuff I need and the more I can live within my means, the better.
Hey Steve,
sorry I didn’t spot this comment earlier. I was too busy experimenting 😉
I LOVE the idea of the just eating what I grow experiment but I think that may be a little extreme, even for me. Not least because I am a terrible gardener.
There is something to say about getting as close to that as possible – i.e. being as self-sufficient as possible. I also love the idea of being ‘off-grid’ – though again, I’ll probably settle for consuming just what I need, and that’s mostly just the internet these days.
Find out how little stuff you need and you’ll find that boundary shifting – the second time you ask you’ll find it’s less than the first time – and so on… and so on. Eventually you’ll be left with some really cool stuff, but stuff that you’ve decided is important to you and that you really appreciate…
Hey Alan,
I agree that time is the most precious commodity that we have in our lives. And we need to spend in, in a good way, in a positive way, in a way we enjoy. I agree with you about experimenting with your life – I haven’t done much experimentation with my life, but I have done experimentation with my blog (I love those blog experiments, some time, they require me to do something in my own life). Also agree with you that being wealthy is not about being rich.
Lot of people in this world think that having more money (Richer) means happiness. Absolutely not. Of course, you need money to an extent. But, we don’t need to be rich, we don’t need to have those luxuries in life to enjoy our life.
Life is much more interesting than that (we can make it more interesting by doing things out of ordinary – like you said, Go crazy!).
Anyways, thank you for the inspiring post, Alan!
Jeevan Jacob John
It sure is Jeevan, and then some.
The really good news is that we are all given the same amount 😉
alas, as we get older we would all give the money back if we could buy more time…
… so make the most of every moment you have.
Hi Alan,
I both like and don’t like this post, but don’t worry, the “don’t like” part isn’t anything overly bad.
First, the like. I like how you’ve given ways for people to enjoy life and explained what you mean by it. Man, who doesn’t want to enjoy life, right? I go up and down as to whether or not I enjoy life, but I certainly want to stick around because one, I only know “life”, and two, even when things are bad there’s always another chance to make things better.
Second, the don’t like. There’s always this assumption that the only way people can enjoy life is to, well, do something. There’s a lot of enjoying life that has to do with relaxation, something I’m not good at. I don’t sleep well, even with a CPAP,and I don’t really just take time to relax. Therefore, even if I get a lot of good stuff done, I’m not sure how well I enjoy life because I’m often tired and pushing myself more. So, my opinion is that probably a big part of enjoying one’s life is learning how to relax, take a few moments for oneself, or even a few days here and there.
See, that wasn’t so bad, right? 🙂
Hey Mitch,
First, don’t worry about upsetting me, I welcome all feedback, in fact you had me intrigued about what the “don’t” was going to be.
Second, you’re don’t isn’t only a ‘not overly bad “don’t”‘ – it’s actually not a “don’t at all” or at least it shouldn’t be.
Why?
This article is at no point saying don’t relax. In fact one of the points is very much about relaxing, enjoying the moment and mindfulness. Everybody Enjoys life differently and there are different things for different people and also different moments. Check out our site and you’ll see that relaxing, enjoying every moment, learning to breathe properly (because most of us are so busy that believe it or not we’ve actually forgotten how to do that simple thing properly), simplifying life, being more mindful etc etc etc is just what we’re all about!
by the way, what’s CPAP?
CPAP stands for “Continuous Positive Air Pressure”. It’s a machine that helps me breathe when I sleep because I have sleep apnea, which means that at times during the night I stop breathing, and without the machine my body wakes me up and thus I wake up extremely tired all the time. Actually, I need to remember that I actually have a BiPAP instead, which means it automatically adjusts itself based on how I’m sleeping, while the other one is at a preset level.
Which item above specifically addresses rest? I guess one could interpret in #3 or #5, but I didn’t quite see either in that way.
Hey Mitch,
sorry, I didn’t know that. The BiPAP sounds a lot better – does it mean that the machine actually helps the sleep apnea more?
you’re right about the article actually – I thought I’d made point 6 more about meditation and mindfulness (often the two go together) but the point was more about enjoying the moment.
That being said just because I listed 10 things to enjoy life more for less, there are about a hundred others on our site (and 52 in the book I mention) many of which are to do with relaxation.
so I’m still not giving up though I do admit you’re right – the article wasn’t meant to imply that you always have to be ‘soing stuff’ to enjoy life more – in fact I’d advocate spend less time doing stuff and more time focusing on the stuff that you are doing (to get the most out of it).
so maybe we’re back to a ‘not too bad don’t’ after all…
😉
take care my friend,
Alan
Hi Alan,
Nice write-ups here. This is so heartwarming.
and this is so nice, “Being wealthy is not_the_same as being rich”.
My own words of explaining a wealthy man is having everything that makes your life worth living while being rich is simply having the bucks on your hand.
Hi Ashleen,
thanks, I’m glad you liked the article and thank you so much for commenting.
I like your way of putting it too,
to add to what you said, a lot of rich people have the bucks … but are miserable.
is this your first time commenting here?
thanks & best wishes,
Alan
Alan,
Loved this post and the examples you gave. I’m not just saying that either because you gave me a mention either.
There are so many things that resonate with me in this post especially living within your means. It’s how we are able to have money now when our neighbors back in California are struggling. I told them all not to buy that porsche.
But my favorite part is experimenting. I’ve been doing it all my life. I’ve never called it experimenting though. I simply look at it as trying or doing something new. It helps me evolve and change and keeps life so much more interesting. Sometimes i regret it but most of the time i’m so grateful and glad i experimented.
ps
I’m shooting for one week from today to begin my raw vegan 7 day challenge. But i’m going to do the “Raw Paleolithic Diet”. I’m actually really looking forward to it because it means less cooking. I hope that i’ll experience an increase in energy and cognition..
Looks like we’re going to miss doing it together then, but thanks for the thought – there’s no way I could do that whilst with my in-laws, they’d be offended if I didn’t let them cook anything for me at all for a whole week!
I’m actually due to be interviewing someone about the Paleo diet soon – currently scheduled for September when I’m back from France, so I may even try a Paleo style diet myself after that interview.
I love experimenting too – and challenges – shame we can’t do the raw food one together but perhaps there’ll be others … I suspect there might be 😉
really glad you liked the post – when are you off to Germany then? Is that next week too?
Leaving tomorrow 1st of august. fly from Marseille to Frankfurt i think then to Berlin.
When do you return to Marseilles?
We return to France on September first but not to Marseille. Moving to a smaller town. Better for the kids and more what we are used to . Family oriented area, good neighbors, dinner party’s LOL. we moved our stuff yesterday and got invited to a bunch of the neighbors homes already..
Ah yes – I love village life! Great that you’re already meeting the neighbors, sounds cool. Best thing about that part of France is that when you get invited to people’s homes to eat, the food is usually delicious!
Would be good to catch up when we’re both back, it feels like it’s been ages…
in the meantime, enjoy Germany… viel spass!!
Thanks, lets skype when i get back.
Sure – maybe we could even ‘Hangout’ 😉 … I still haven’t tried that yet
Hey Alan,
Great post as always packed full of goodies.
So do you like the vegan way? Bad time for you to head to France just as Annie is heading to Germany. I have no doubt though that you’ll have an awesome time.
I love all your suggestions here and I’ve been known to do several of these myself. I definitely believe that you shouldn’t spend what you don’t have and I definitely live in the present moment. I enjoy doing crazy things at times and just enjoying life period.
Have a great time Alan and stay safe.
~Adrienne
Thanks Adrienne,
nope, not into vegan at all – I like meat too much, but I do like all things natural and I do love a challenge – vegan for me certainly would be a challenge.
Whydya ask? Are you vegan?
Tofu and soya milk really don’t appeal to me though I do like veggies…
No no no… I’m like you, I like my food too much but I do enjoy a lot of chicken. I wouldn’t do well on that plan Alan.
mmmm, chicken.
… you don’t have to be hungry to eat chicken…
😉
Alan,
Thanks for the mention!! I am doing another mud run in September with one of my best friends and can’t wait!!!
Referring to #1, I recently saw a video called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. The guy in the video drank nothing but fresh veggie/fruit juice for 60 days in order to help him lose weight and get rid of a sickness he had. He accomplished what he needed. This inspired me to drink at least one juiced veggie/fruit drink a day. I have to tell ya, just that one juice drink made me feel so good!!
So, yes, no matter what age, if you can – experiment. Experiment with your food, your daily routine, your life in general. Find what makes you happy and content.
~Allie
Hey Allie,
no probs – I definitely want to try one of those mud run things. I have to check out if they exist here in the UK. To be honest, sometimes where I live, if I pick the right weather, just walking the dog could be a mud run – but at least I’d like to try the official version.
Did the fat sick, nearly dead guy eat anything or just drink juice?
Hey Allie, I actually saw that movie too. It also inspired me to drink more vegetables on a daily basis, but not fruits since I already eat those every day. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who started better eating habits because of that movie.
You definitely should amend the post and put a Tweet button next to it Alan – love that quote.
– Razwana
Nah, that was just a joke, the ‘Click to Tweet’ phenomenon actually really annoys me (for the moment anyway, I reserve the right to change my mind ;-))
Like people need to be told what to tweet? If you like a quote from an article, then tweet it, right?
Maybe I’m completely off on that one, but I actually find it a little offensive, disappointing and maybe even a bit needy if I’m enjoying reading an article and someone says it’s a ‘tweetable’ or ‘click to tweet’ – though lots of the ‘big’ bloggers are starting to do this now.
I say don’t follow the sheep – but you may find me bleating the same tune later (e.g. I’m not the biggest fan of Facebook but I’m still on there)
Have you written a new post yet?
au contraire – I think the ‘click to tweet’ buttons make it easier to tweet. But I do get your point – I hadn’t thought of it like that!
Mate, I’ve written quite a few new posts! It’s making the time to publish them that’s the issue! I’d prefer to finish the design and then add the ‘re-launch’ post if that makes sense? Perhaps it’s psychologically better for me to do it that way…..
Yep – I get that argument too – i.e. making it really convenient for the reader/in service of the reader…
… but I think you can have too much hand-holding and in the end too much becomes a little patronizing … perhaps.
can’t wait to see the new design, when is this re-launch gonna be then?
I shouldn’t build it up too much as it won’t change massively – just a new logo etc – but I’m quite excited by the new video I’m adding to replace the simple ‘sign up for updates’ message on the right of the homepage. I’ll send it to you when it’s done for thoughts if you like?
Currently I’m on track to get the relaunch done for Sunday August 5th. Fingers crossed!
Awesome!
Well, I’ll be in France on hols from 5th August, so I’ll take a look when I’m back (around 26th-28th) – not planning on being online much for those 3 weeks apart from checking emails every now and then…
cant wait to see the new look & I hope the new job continues to go well,
take care & best wishes,
Alan
“Leave within your means”?
How un-American of you, Alan…
Oh, yes, you are not American – that makes sense. 🙂
Thanks for food for thought and the mention; always much appreciated!
Hey Ana,
actually people in the UK don’t generally live within their means either (though I try to) so it’s not so different here.
… apart from the weird spelling of course!
take care,
Alan
“The most valuable thing we have is our time.The good news is that we all get paid the same amount.” – Love it! Great post Alan 🙂
Thanks Tal,
maybe I should have put ‘Click to Tweet’ next to that one …
😉
take care my friend,
Alan