When you think about making it, do you think about money? Would it feel like you “made it” if you made six figures, or perhaps seven?
Or do you care more about relationships? Maybe making it for you is finding the right life partner, getting married, and still being happy together sixty years later.
Then there are your abs to consider and getting yourself generally as healthy as possible.
Many people dream about retiring early, so they can do something they want to do. Still, others claim that you should never retire, but instead, find a job that feels meaningful and live out your purpose.
The list goes on and on.
But I would like to make the case that it is all important—every bit of it. I want you to know that the best way to have any of those things is to have all of them.
I want you to make it with your health, so you can have the energy to make it in your workplace, so that you can have the money to make it in your family life, affording the home and resources you need to enjoy life with the people you love.
You need to build the character qualities that cross all the essential areas of your life. You need to be integrated. For example, rather than being a person who gets by at work, but is passionate and disciplined in the gym, become the kind of person who is passionate and disciplined about everything you do.
Why?
Because everything you do affects everything else, you do. Everything is important. Show me something in your life that is unimportant, and I’ll show you something you should not be doing. If it is important, then you should be doing it. If you should be doing it, you should be doing it well.
Making it is about the art of life management. You are a powerful person. Your Creator has endowed you with agency and the ability to reason. You are capable of making decisions about where to focus your attention. He has given you the capacity to discover what is most important in life, and then he has given you the responsibility to live accordingly.
We’ve talked about health, work, finances, and relationships. Which one of those is unimportant? Let’s consider them separately and then integrate them again to conclude.
Health
You are the proud owner of a body. The body is a miraculous set of systems and subsystems. You must attend to caring for and feeding yourself well. You can learn what foods provide the most significant energy and the best-looking body.
You have a respiratory system. Understanding this, you can plan to exercise your lungs by stressing them every day.
Your cardiovascular system can tag along as well, as you can stress and strengthen it simultaneously.
Muscles, bones, and joints are all essential systems to manage, and so is sleep. While it all comes down to food, exercise, and rest, knowledge and good intention will go a long way in a balanced plan for optimal overall health. So attend to it, because you have no choice.
Work
Now that you have your health in order use all that strength and energy to do something with your time that other people will value. Work is vital for the obvious reason that you need resources to live. Most people think that they have to have meaningful work to be happy. What if you understood that all work is meaningful? If you earn an honest living, then what you are doing is significant. If it were not substantial, someone would not pay you to do it.
To make it in your career, you need only do your best. If you are currently working in a field that doesn’t excite you, focus on the fact that what you are doing is providing for your needs. If you put your heart into what you are doing, the next opportunity will appear at the right time. The better you provide your service, the more comprehensive your future options will be. I am convinced that most people today don’t get this, so they languish. Take the good kind of pride in what you do, and opportunities will come as you “make it” at work.
Relationships
I would argue that work trumps relationships only in a certain way. If you were alone on an island, you could live without connections, especially if you have a relationship with God. But you could not live without working. But now that you are working and working well, the next high priority is relationships. You need friends. You need close friends, and the vast majority of us need a “special friend.” Most of us will look to get married and start a family. The secret to great relationships is to first value yourself enough to look for the best people, that is, people with great character.
The book of Proverbs says that “iron sharpens iron.” This means that two good people make each other better through their friendship. Aristotle thought the same. He said that the true goal of a friendship should be self-improvement. Additionally, good friends who are there for each other when times are hard can be a real difference-maker.
If you are approaching your friendships this way, choosing people whose values are yours and who you admire, then eventually, this is how you will find your spouse. One of these people will come along and attract you in a whole new way. You will want to share yourself and your life with this person. Again, a healthy romance starts with healthy self-esteem and a willingness to give to another. Approach your romantic relationship like anything else that is highly valuable to you. Spend time on it, and carry it out with character according to your values, and you will succeed.
There are plenty of areas where this thinking can be applied, but health, work, and relationships are three of the highest priorities for human existence. Seek to be the type of person who gives their best in all these areas. Don’t sacrifice one for the other, or the imbalance will have compounding effects that are disastrous down the road. Have the courage to put effort into an integrated life well lived.
Simply put, to have it all, you need to get all of this stuff right. By being a member of Xpirient, you’re showing that you already know that. With focused coaching and resources around health, career, money, and finances, you’re on your way to being a well-rounded life master. In the rest of this series, we’re going to help you take your relationships to the “Power of X”! We intend to download everything we know about dating, marriage, finding the right partner, resolving conflicts, and having fulfilling friendships and more. We are so glad you are here for this journey, and we’re pumped to take it together!
