3 Ways to Create a "Hell Yeah!" Life
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Does that question grab you like it does me? We have only once chance to live this life, and it needs to be a “Hell Yeah!” life! So what does that even mean? Derek Sivers’ coined the term in his video, “No More Yes. It’s Either HELL YEAH! Or No.” The idea is that we must make decisions by design meaning you make decisions based on the life you want.
No more:
Living by other people’s agendas
Feeling guilty when you say, “No”
Pleasing everyone but yourself
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
If you’re tired of a life pressured by other people’s agendas or your own sense of obligation that’s hurting you, read the rest of this blog! I promise, it will help!
Start Here
The first step is designing your perfect day (based on Lewis Howes’ book, “School of Greatness) by answering these seven questions:
How do you want your perfect day to look?
How do you want to feel each day?
What are you creating daily?
What are you doing daily? In work and in personal life?
Who are you spending time with?
What places are you exposing yourself too?
What passions are you fulfilling?
The key is that you can’t let your current education, situation, money or anything else influence your answers. I.e. if money was no object, what would your perfect day look like? If education was no object, what would your perfect work day look like? Don’t put any limitations on yourself during this exercise. Also, be as detailed as possible. What are you wearing? Describe it. What does your house look like? Your office? Describe it in detail.
Zero-Based Budget of Time
I’m sure you heard of a zero-based budget meaning you allocate your money based on needs instead of your spending history. In other words, you reevaluate where your money is budgeted and make changes based on your current financial goals. For example, you might have budgeted $50 a month for coffees in 2019, but for 2020, you want to allocate that money for professional development so you can start your side hustle. Your goal has changed from designer coffee to side hustle; therefore, you direct your money differently. It’s the same budgeting method but with your time and current commitments.
First, let’s assess what’s most important for you at this season in your life. Number each of these from 1-9 with 1 being most important and 9 least important:
Career/professional development
Fun/recreation
Marriage/romance
Health
Family
Personal growth
Friends
Spiritual
Emotional
This is the most important step
Now I want you to examine your current time calendar and clear all existing commitments as if they’re no longer commitments. I.e. start from scratch. I know. You can’t do that. There are some commitments you have to keep. But I want you to act like they aren’t. Don’t worry. You’ll add your commitments back.
Grab a sheet of paper and write down all of your time commitments everything from volunteer projects to your kids’ projects to work projects. Everything including fun stuff. Now, justify each one anew before adding them back to your calendar by filtering them through these questions:
Is this essential? Essential is defined as absolutely necessary.
Does this add or take away from my current priorities and goals?
Do I really want to do this?
Am I willing to give up what’s more important to me to do this?
You can’t do it all. But people’s expectations and pressure can make you feel that you have to do it all. If your goal for the year is more time with your family in the evening then that means that you choose not to volunteer at your church’s youth group on Wednesdays. Remember, whatever you say “yes” to is saying “no” to something else. Is it worth it?
Add These Two Things—Buffers and Routine
Buffers is a scheduling technique where you add 50% to your time estimate. Research shows that we always assume the best-case scenario and chronically underestimate how much time something will take. By adding a buffer, you’ll make sure you have enough time and if you finish on time, you’ve got a nice buffer to do something that energizes you like stretching, reading, or calling a friend for a quick conversation.
Steve Jobs was famous for his routines. Like have you noticed how he always wore the same black top and jeans? He did this because it took away the need to decide what to wear everyday. When I owned my personal training business, I’d encourage my clients to eat the same snacks and meals every day because it saved time trying to figure out what to cook each night.
For some of you, the idea of adding routine is B-O-R-I-N-G. You want adventure! Spontaneity! Ok. That’s fine. Scheule that into your schedule but wherever you can, add routine so you don’t have to waste precious time making decisions that don’t matter.
Schedule These Three Things
Escape. Schedule blank space for you to think, focus, and engage with absolutely no phone, laptop or anything else that can distract you from the full power of your mind. The faster and busier your life gets, the more you need space to escape.
Play. Play improves your personal health, relationships, ability to learn new things and the ability to innovate. It keeps your brain young, reduces stress, and stimulates the logical, reasoning part of your brain as well as the carefree exploring part of your brain. Play can be simple or elaborate. Simple might mean decorating your desk with childhood toys you liked. Elaborate can be scheduling time to explore your city, county or state with your spouse.
Sleep. Sleep is one of the most important ways to keep your body and mind running on all cylinders. When you sleep, your brain gets to work encoding and organizing information while also healing your body. The greatest asset you have is yourself and sleep is crucial to your health.
Summary
Remember, if it’s not a “HELL, YEAH!” don’t do it. Of course, there are times that you have to do things you don't want to do like laundry, sitting in DMV for your new license, and cleaning the cat litter box. But the majority of your life is within your control to design it just like you want!
