 So there's an addiction in our culture, especially with social media to think that the juxtaposition of the ordinary, boring life is to go out and try to do as much cool stuff as possible and ideally post it on Instagram, right? Well, I did that for a couple of years in my life, and I want to share why it wasn't as fulfilling as you think, and what I think is the real path to fulfillment and meaning in life. What's up you guys? Alex Hine. Now, before we jump into this video here today, I have a free journaling worksheet right below this video. If you want to plan out how to get your life together and want some free journaling exercises that can help you plan strategically how to move forward in life, there's a free worksheet right below this video. So I think the bucket list life is very appealing, right? Because you juxtapose the average human life, which is like the Walter midi, like sitting at your desk 40 hours a week, doing the TPS reports from office space, the movie, and you're just like thinking you'd rather be doing anything else that makes you feel alive. And so the temptation is to think, well, if I just do the opposite, and I do the most outlandish experiences I've always wanted to do, then that must be fulfilling, right? Well, I had that same thought. And so that's why I booked a one way ticket to China when I was 23, and I lived there for over a year. And I've lived in Switzerland, and I've gone bungee jumping multiple times and skydiving. And I'm definitely the de facto thrill seeker. But after doing that, all over the world a couple times going dog sledding and bungee jumping and skydiving and shark diving and Fiji, anything that made me feel alive via adrenaline, I realized that it wasn't really making me feel fulfilled or happy in the way that I thought. And I thought that if I just did the opposite of what the normal human life was, which was boring, the same repetition, that maybe I would feel more alive and fulfilled. Well, I felt more alive, but I didn't really feel fulfilled. Because at the end of those experiences, after the shark dive, after the bungee jump, after the skydive, I still had to go back to a regular day to day life, and I still had to work. So I went back to the drawing board, and I got a few more ideas, and I tested out a new theory that was pretty interesting. So when we talk about the bucket list life, really, what we're talking about is your regular life, and then a checklist of experiences you want to have, right? At least that's how I thought about it. I had my day to day job. It wasn't horrible. But I didn't really feel that excited or alive on a daily basis. And I just had an Evernote list with all these experiences that I wanted to do every day. And I just started doing once per season. But I realized that a human lifetime is not a checklist, right? A human life, really, your life is what you do on a daily basis. Because your life is comprised literally of days. And so if your days are enjoyable, your life will be enjoyable. If your days are meaningful, your life will be meaningful. If your days suck, your life will suck. And so really, what fulfillment to me is, is optimizing for the day. So obviously, shameless plug, I wrote a book called Master the Day, based on that premise, that if you, whatever it is you want, if you focus on making each day perfect, whether it's by rituals or the way you arrange your life, that's what produces fulfillment, not by bungee jumping in Africa, somewhere crazy, you know, or wherever you're going, New Zealand, the Nevis Highwire, the super high bungee jump that I did, that doesn't produce really happiness. It's a thrill, but it doesn't produce long term meaning. Now it was around this time that I stumbled upon a quote from Seth Godin. And he was talking about, generally speaking, he said, how can you build a life that you don't need a vacation from? And it made me think because very often, that's exactly what I was doing. I mean, I was living a good regular life. I wasn't miserable. I just wanted to feel more alive and have more thrills in my life. And so really, I was living vacation to vacation, right, living for the Fiji trip, living for the New Zealand trip, living for the whatever trip. And I was basically had built a life that was the opposite. I was building a life that I required a vacation to come back to and be happy. So the focusing question for me became, how do I build a life I don't need a vacation from? And that became my focus for how to build meaning and how to engineer a more fulfilling life going forward. So I want to give you a few ideas here that helped me because just that prompt, how do I build a life where I never need a vacation? That became my focus. And it makes you live your life a lot differently. So here's some ideas here. Maybe it means working 40 hours a week instead of 60. And then maybe you take bachata or salsa classes at night, or maybe you go paint at night. Maybe you take up judo or Muay Thai classes at night. Maybe you just go and watch movies every night. Or maybe you meet up with a new friend every night at a nice Italian restaurant, drink a glass of wine, and just talk till 10 p.m. Maybe that is how you engineer more of that vacation feeling into your daily life. Maybe it means you go for a hike a weekend. And then, you know, on Saturday and Sunday nights, you spend it with your family or you spend it with friends again, having a nice meal, potluck, drink good wine, and just reminisce and have fun about life. And maybe that is one of those experiences you've craved that you only really get a vacation when you're fully relaxed and you're not working, but you can engineer it more on a daily basis. Or maybe it's just quitting your job honestly or ending that relationship. Because if it is your job, which I think it is for most people, for me, certainly that was true. And that was the singular focus of the decade of my 20s. How do I build a work life that I do not ever need to escape from? Where I never ever feel or notice when it's Monday or feel or notice when it's Friday, where every day feels the same. Now that I am there after about seven years, it's clear that work is often the area of the most dissatisfaction and the most pain for people purely because just based on numbers, it occupies the most amount of time in your day there for your life. You have to leave it eight for work and you get back at six, that is your whole day basically. And so if that is something that is painful or unenjoyable, or there's no growth, there's no upward potential, it's not fulfilling, then that's going to be a ball and chain every single day. So I think for a lot of people, how do you build a life you don't need a vacation from becomes the most powerful prompt for a fulfilling and a meaningful life rather than having to chase every bucketless thrill all the time. Life becomes a lot more smooth, where instead of the hard Monday and Friday, where you feel certain emotions on Sunday, they all feel roughly the same, because life day to day is fulfilling enough that you don't really feel like you need a break. So I'm going to leave this prompt with you. How would you change your life in a way that you would not need a vacation from it? Tell me right below this video because I want to hear and I'll respond. All right guys, before you go, check out that goal setting worksheet right below this video and I'll catch you in the next videos here.