Most people go through their daily lives living on autopilot. They do the minimum necessary to just get by and then finish the day vegging out in front of the TV or surfing the Internet. I have been there and still catch myself scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed and watching YouTube videos too often sometimes when I have other things that I should be doing. It leaves me feeling like I just wasted my time.

There are so many distractions in our world today that make it hard for us to focus on making good decisions and forming better habits. Living a fulfilling life requires us to become productive. Being a productive person takes some work, but after we form good habits it becomes much easier. Life is a journey and we should always strive to improve ourselves. We don’t have to be perfect, but we do need to put forth our best effort. Here are 7 habits to living life to the fullest. They can change your life, but you have to put them into action or else they will simply remain ideas.

1.Devote time to your self-improvement

You could say this is the most important habit to form. Without devoting the time it will take to become a better version of yourself, it’s just not going to happen. Reading this eBook is a great step in the right direction! Changing our lives takes effort and that brings me to my next point.

Related: These 2 Simple Things Are Stealing Your Dreams

2.Be self-aware

Pay more attention to your decisions and the motivations behind them. I used to be very impulsive and didn’t give much thought to my actions. I wasn’t very happy and productive than either. Just simply being aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it will help us to start forming the rest of these habits. These first two tips are the building blocks for self-improvement and you need to be mindful of them or else you won’t be able to master the rest.

3.Mindful meditation

There are many forms of mindful meditation. You could lie or sit down and focus on your breath or just simply focus on living in the present for a while. Even cleaning or gardening is a great form of mindful meditation. How often do we focus on the past or future? More than we should, right? We need to live more in the present to live our lives to the fullest.

There is nothing we can do about the past and the future is always going to be the future. We need to get better about living in the present with the future in mind, but not have it at the front. Practicing mindfulness, even just five minutes a day can help you to get better at being mindful more often. The more you do it, the better you will get at it.

4.Acknowledge and learn from your mistakes

We all make mistakes and that’s normal. The problem is when we make the same mistakes over and over rather than learning from it. For example, how many bad relationships have you been in? For most people, it’s a lot. What did those relationships all have in common? You. Take responsibility for it. Yes, maybe they were bad people but you chose them. You need to fix you. Then you will be able to choose better in the future. This goes for everything in our lives. How can we improve if we don’t learn from our mistakes?

5.Don’t be a victim

We have all had bad things happen to us and bad things will happen in the future. This is life. A lot of times we can feel like we are victims of circumstance and let it run our lives. Even if it’s something major, like a death in the family, we can’t let that be an excuse to hold us back forever. People we love are going to die at some point, unfortunately. Many people that grow up in dysfunctional or poor homes will subconsciously use this as an excuse to keep living the same way.

I grew up poor and with a lot of dysfunction in my home. For a while, I felt that somehow I deserved more than someone that grew up having it easier because of it. That held me back from reaching my full potential. I had a victim mentality. It wasn’t until I embraced the bad things that had happened to me and took responsibility for my life that I saw my life start to change for the better. Our mentality shapes our reality. If something bad happened to you in your past, come to terms with it and then move on. It will probably take some time and that’s okay, but it’s better to start sooner rather than later.

6.Listen to others

Learn to listen, rather than waiting for your turn to speak. I have worked very hard at becoming a better listener. I have struggled with everything on this list at some point and know first-hand that improvement in all of these areas is possible.

When I was a teenager I had a friend that was just like me. We both had to be talking. Looking back I see our conversations were very dumb. She would talk for a bit about something and then I would cut in and talk about something completely different. Then she would interrupt me and so on. I wasn’t even listening to her. I was just anxious to say what I wanted! She wasn’t listening to me either so we were really just talking to ourselves!

Try listening more the next time you talk with someone. Just be mindful of it. It will take some practice, but you will get better at it. You might also quit talking to certain people because of it. I dislike talking to someone that only wants to talk about their self and I avoid it. It’s annoying, so don’t be that person. If you want to be listened to, listen to others first.

7.Make time for your passions

There is not enough emphasis taught on doing what we love once we reach adulthood. All work and no play will burn us out extremely quickly. Taking time off is very rejuvenating and it is wise to make time for it. Do you love to paint, sing, play sports, or dance? I used to love writing stories when I was a child and just picked it back up a couple years ago. I guarantee there is something that you love so why not do more of it?

Related: These 2 Simple Things Are Stealing Your Dreams 

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