Living Your Life to the Fullest

Welcome to the Inner Edge, where I explore insights on wealth, fulfillment, growth, and mastery.

What Do I Most Want Out of Life?

I've been on a relentless quest to find true joy, bliss, happiness—whatever you choose to call it.

After all, what am I really optimizing for?

Is money my end goal? It couldn't be.

Money has always felt like just a means to something else.

So maybe it’s possessions? That sounds cool, but no, not really.

Deep down I know that possessions don’t create lasting happiness.

I've felt that emptiness before.

As happy as I was opening those Christmas gifts in 2014, today I can’t even remember what those gifts were.

So then, experiences?

I’ve definitely felt happier during experiences than when acquiring possessions.

Some of my best memories involve traveling and exploring new places.

But even that feeling eventually fades away.

What's left then?

Maybe it’s people?

No, even the happiest moments with people eventually fades.

Even after the best conversations, I return back to my old self once I’m home.

So then, where can I find real happiness?

What if…

• It’s not found in any of those things?

• It isn’t something I have to chase?

• It’s available immediately within me?

• It’s not in striving for something external, but rather in allowing something internal?

Let's explore how to experience that genuine, lasting joy…every single day.

A Fascinating Study on Happiness

Harvard researchers wanted to figure out the key to happiness.

So they conducted a study where they tracked over 2,200 people’s daily activities, moods, and thoughts.

What they discovered was remarkable.

People spent almost half of their life (around 47%) thinking about something other than what they were currently doing.

This is known as "mind-wandering."

And here's the crazy part.

There was a direct correlation between mind-wandering and unhappiness.

It doesn't matter if they thought of pleasant or unpleasant topics.

Participants consistently reported feeling less happy whenever they were not in the present moment (aka mind-wandering).

And this is what the Harvard study concluded:

“A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.”

In other words, not being in the moment is the key to becoming unhappy.

So How Exactly Do You Find Joy?

If you look back to your happiest moments as a kid, you might notice that you were fully in the moment.

You weren’t thinking about the past or projecting into the future.

You were just running around enjoying whatever it was that you were doing.

And that’s the simple answer.

It’s to just be living in the moment.

But with work, and stresses and responsibilities, it’s not as easy when you’re an adult.

So how do you bring yourself to the moment?

1. You can lean into what energizes you more - by focusing on where you find energy, you will naturally be more present in the tasks at hand

2. You can appreciate what you do have - gratitude and an awe for life goes a long way to anchor you into presence

3. You can stop thinking as much and just being - thinking can harm us more than we know, it puts us in the past or in the future rather than keeping us in the present

A Framework to Get Into the Present Moment

Breathing anchors you into the present moment.

Your breath is gateway to your life.

You just may not notice it.

But every moment, you are breathing.

The moment you cease to breathe, is the moment you cease to exist.

By breathing in, you anchor yourself into the present.

Then, notice a small detail around you.

Something that you haven't noticed before.

Something so beautiful that you are so fortunate to have.

It could be your parents, your friend, your possessions, your health, your body, and even yourself!

Just sit with it.

Then, feel gratitude for it.

You are so lucky to be able to have this thing.

Then let out a big smile.

A Beautiful Story on Presence

One of the most beautiful things you can do is appreciate everything around you.

Because it’s not going to last forever.

That’s what makes it so beautiful.

Look around you.

What small things can you truly appreciate?

Life is beautiful because it is finite.

A Page from a Beautiful Book I Was Reading

1) Live like there is no tomorrow

Do the things that light you up—the ones that make your heart beat faster.

Work relentlessly toward your ideal life, not just the life that feels safe.

Find out what truly excites you and pursue it with everything you have.

Tell the people you love that you love them. Stop assuming they already know.

2) Behave like you’ll live forever

Create work that will outlive you.

Build relationships that deepen over decades.

Train your body and mind so that you get/maintain strength every year.

Ask yourself daily: How can I be better?

Keep getting better one day at a time—consistency over intensity wins in the long run.

Play the long game—make decisions that will serve you 10, 20, 50 years from now.

Detach from external validation and live by your own standards.

3) Live at the Highest Level

Stop living for "one day" and make it “day one”.

Dream as big as you possibly can and make an action plan (break years into months and months into days and days into hourly tasks to get there).

Be ruthlessly honest with yourself. What do you truly want? What sets your soul on fire?

Go all in. Time is passing whether you act or not. The only question is: Will you look back with pride or regret?

Expand your vision. You’re capable of more than you think.

Live with urgency and build with patience.

Success doesn’t happen overnight, but every action compounds over time.

Reflection

1) If your life was a blank canvas, what masterpiece would you paint? How can you chase after that life?

2) What simple joys surround you that you often overlook?

3) Who has shaped you, even in the smallest ways, and have you ever truly acknowledged them?

4) If this was the last time you could appreciate something or someone—how deeply would you feel it?

5) Where are you currently not present in your life?