In this life where each of us has so much going on, it can be overwhelming to figure out the best way to navigate through it all so you can have the best life possible.  My solution has been to devise an on-going program to make sure you are doing what you want and getting the most out of it.  So far this program has included discovering what it is you value in life, making sure those values are objectively serving your life as opposed to hindering it, determining which values are the most important to you and finally organizing the many activities you engage in to make sure you use your time as efficiently as possible.

For the most part, all of the activities described above are ‘thinking’ or ‘planning’ activities.  Now thinking and planning are just as much work as any kind of physical activity, probably more, but life, if it is to be well-lived, must be about doing.  Thinking is a hugely important activity (as this whole series of posts implies), but the real benefits of life come from achieving, producing, accomplishing, creating and any other verb you can come up with for doing something productive.

The next step in this process of living your life to the best of your ability is to take action, and this may be the most difficult thing to do of all.  Thinking and planning are internal activities that don’t affect anyone else, but taking action is irreversible.  When you are doing something, be it applying for a job, going to an audition, writing a blog or starting a business, you are putting yourself out there.  You are opening yourself up to the possibility of failure.  But I can’t emphasize enough that if you have put in the time and the thought that this process of valuing requires, then you are doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t have the ‘courage of your convictions’ to take the actions necessary to achieve your chosen values.

With this you might think my series has come to an end, but you would be wrong.  If you have done all this valuing, thinking, planning, organizing and finally taking action to achieve your values, you are still not done yet.  There is one more step to take, and I will reveal that in the next and last installment of this series.