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The word “fulfilled” is defined by Merriam Webster as “a feeling of happiness and satisfaction” as well as a “feeling that one’s abilities and talents are being fully used”. Living a fulfilled life means that you are a living life in a way that makes you feel satisfied and one where your individual talents can thrive and shine. Life does have ups and downs and there is a lot of navigation and trial and error when building a fulfilling life because a fulfilling life looks different to everyone. There are however some personal habits that can help you on your journey to building a more fulfilling life.

Personal habits are the behaviours that you personally choose to engage in regularly. Personal habits really impact what kind of life that you live, they can really direct your life in a particular direction. For example engaging in healthy personal habits like regular exercise, meditation, and healthy eating is more likely to lead to a healthier, longer life, than someone whose personal habits are things like smoking, sitting around all day, and eating junk. If you are wanting to live a fulfilling life you need to start adopting personal habits that are going to help you get there. In this post we go through personal habits list filled with personal habits we think will lead to a more fulfilling life (these are generalised so make sure you tailor them to your individual journey). 

15 Fulfilling Personal Habits

Making Meaningful Goals

Goals are great! They give you direction, purpose, and a place to work towards. Make sure that direction means something to you! Pursuing goals is a big investment of time and energy, but it is so worth it if it is something that is going to bring you personal satisfaction, happiness and what you consider to be success.

Making meaningful goals is also key for motivating you to achieve your goals. You shouldn’t be setting goals to please others, your goals should exist for your benefit and help you achieve things that you desire for yourself. If you are inspired by your goals and you truly want to achieve them, then there is your drive. So start setting goals that align with your values and aspirations provides you with a sense of purpose and direction in life. 

Taking Time For Regular Self-Reflection 

You are going to change over time, your goals, feelings, beliefs and opinions will change. Taking time to check in with yourself regularly can make sure you stay in tune with your true self. This is important because it helps keep your thoughts, behaviour, actions and decisions aligned with your beliefs, values, and the lifestyle you want to lead. 

Doing regular self-reflection can also help you have a moment to assess what a fulfilling life means to you. It can also help you undertake the necessary personal development that will help you achieve that life. 

Embracing Failure and Learning

As soon as you start embracing failure and using it as a chance to learn, you start removing a barrier that holds a lot of people back from trying anything new in life: fear of failure. Improving your outlook on failure gives you more opportunities for growth and developing greater resilience. It also helps you have the courage to take on new experiences and makes you feel okay about learning new skills (it takes a hot second to become really good at something). Feeling comfortable in yourself and testing your abilities can lead you in so many directions and can really drive personal fulfillment.  

Practice Mindfulness

 Life is happening now! The past has already happened and the future is not guaranteed so being able to live more presently helps you lead a more fulfilling life. Engaging in mindfulness activities helps you learn to be fully present in each moment and not get lost in the distracting thoughts of the past or future. It helps you foster a deeper appreciation for life’s experiences by helping you to allow yourself to be absorbed by the present moment and really feel it. Finding a sense of satisfaction and appreciation for the present can really help you lead a more fulfilling life. 

Seeking New Experiences

Stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things can lead to personal growth and discovery. It helps you learn more about your abilities, your interests and it can really open yourself up to new opportunities. If you are the kind of person that sees a fulfilling life as being rich in learning, exciting new challenges and self discovery. If you are not content living life that has a consistent routine, filled with comfortable and familiar experiences (no judgement to people who like to live like this by the way), then you need to make seeking new experiences one of your personal goals!

Building Meaningful Relationships

Relationships are such an important factor in living a fulfilling life. People are so naturally inclined to want to connect and share experiences with others. So much so that we are seriously negatively impacted when we experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. In a metanalytic review comprising 148 studies and 308,849 participants, Holt-Lunstad et al. found that participants that had stronger social relationships increased their likelihood of survival by 50%. Therefore, making it a personal habit to invest in and nurture deep, authentic connections with others is the key to creating a longer more fulfilling life and enhancing your sense of belonging.

Practicing Mindful Relationships

Okay, so you now know how important meaningful relationships are to life. If relationships are important to you then working on the personal habit of engaging in more mindful relationships you are going to develop these deeper connections. 

Developing mindful relationships means engaging in open and honest communication with the other person, this shows vulnerability and a willingness to connect on a deeper level. It also means being an active listener, so being present in the conversation and not getting distracted by your thoughts or surroundings. This helps the other person feel heard and valued. Finally, mindful relationships means showing empathy towards the other person, as this helps them feel understood and heard. Empathy is a powerful tool to help you connect with others because humans crave to be heard and understood. 

Practicing Self-Compassion

When start seeing yourself as someone who deserves to be accepted and to be shown kindness and start giving yourself this through self-compassion, you can cultivate a healthier self-image. Having a positive self-image will help you see that you are deserving of happiness and that you are worthy of your own kindness and investment of time. It is a great way to cultivate fulfillment in your life. 

Engaging in Acts of Service or Kindness

How good do you feel when you do something nice for someone else? Pretty darn good, right?

Regularly contributing to the well-being of others and positively impacting their well-being through acts of service or random acts of kindness is a complete shortcut to boosting your own well-being and happiness. If you are looking for a bit of extra purpose or happiness in life I would highly recommend making this a personal habit. 

Practicing Gratitude

Gratitude personal habit of regularly expressing appreciation and thankfulness for the things you have and for things in your life. Psychologists Seligman et al. conducted a study looking at the effects of showing gratitude on a person’s happiness. In one of their experiments they got participants to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone whom they felt needed to be thanked for their kindness but had not been thanked yet. The study showed participants engaging in the gratitude task had higher levels of happiness than participants in the control group (who had to right about their early memories nightly for a week), with these effects being seen even 3 months after the activity. 

If you are able to express gratitude for the little blessings, experiences, and people in your life regularly,  it will make you feel more positive toward your life and increase your level of contentment.

Cultivating a Positive Mindset

Thoughts influence so much of the way you live, from your emotions to your actions. They have the power to worsen bad situations or the power to make them better. They have the power to break you down, but equally, the power to enhance your self-confidence by building up a positive self-image for you. Therefore, cultivating a positive outlook and reframing negative thoughts is seriously important for increasing general happiness and feeling better about life.

Engaging in Lifelong Learning

The fastest way to become truly old in life is to stop learning and exploring (don’t believe me, look at how full of life children are). Curiosity is what fuels the mind and feeding that curiosity fuels your soul. 

There is so much knowledge in the world to collect and so many new skills to learn that you’d need multiple lifetimes to capture it all. That’s great because it means you can really engage in life long learning and truly tailor it to you as an individual. Seek knowledge, learn new skills, and explore areas that fuel your child-like curiosity and keep your passions alive. Doing this will help fuel your personal growth, self-discovery and your passion for life. 

As an added bonus learning new things helps you engage in deeper more engaging conversations with others and can expose you to new relationships. 

Prioritizing Health and Well-being

Your health and wellbeing is everything! It is literally the key to being able to live a fulfilling life.  

Taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health through self-care practices gives you the energy to enjoy your life. It also helps you be physically and emotionally able to deal with life’s ups and downs. Furthermore, looking after yourself helps you feel better about yourself and your everyday life. 

Embracing Authenticity

A big driver of unhappiness in life is people living their lives in a way that is not authentic to themselves because people in their lives or society as a whole have told them they have to live this way. You are the one living your life, make it something that you enjoy living. I know this is easier said than done, but if you are able to be true to yourself, embrace your uniqueness, and make decisions that steer life in a direction that aligns with who you are- you will experience a lot more fulfillment and inner harmony. 

Giving Back to the Community

If you want to capitalise on enhancing your sense of belonging as well as engaging in acts of service, then you definitely need to make giving back to the community a personal habit! This can be in any form, whether its volunteering as a coach for a local sports team or helping out with community fundraisers or community events, there are so many options. Doing any positive form of service is a great chance to make a difference in your local area and really start to get to know the people that live nearby. 

There you have it! The personal habits list that will help encourage you to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life! Just a wee reminder though that the meaning of fulfillment is personal. While these habits provide a good foundation for living a more fulfilling life, it is essential to tailor them to your own authentic life that you’re living. Also don’t forget to regularly practice these habits as consistency is how you will fully experience the benefits of these personal habits.  Now go out there and life your best life 🙂