Ever feel like you’re just trying to get through the day? You wake up, you work, you take care of the kids, you go to sleep, and you repeat it all again the next day? And the next, and the next…
Lindsay Teague Moreno was 30 when she realized she wasn’t happy, citing career-related ennui and the demands of raising three kids. “I was one of those people that was just ‘living-to-survive’ kind of thing,” she says. And then suddenly, her mother passed away.
She believed there was a better way to live this life, one that would allow her to feel fulfilled in all the parts of her life—not just one or two, and now, not someday.
Today, Teague Moreno is a successful serial entrepreneur and the author of Wake Up: The Powerful Guide to Changing Your Mind About What It Means to Really Live. In her Achievers Exclusive interview, she talks about the six key areas of her life in which she believed she could, and we all can, find fulfillment:
- Business or work
- Financial stability
- Health
- Relationship with self
- Relationships with others
- Spirituality
If this seems like a lot, Teague Moreno agrees—which is why she says it’s much easier to hone your focus on one of these areas at a time before jumping to another too quickly.
“In each of those areas, I found that if I can break those down into individual pieces and work on one at a time, I can actually find fulfillment, level up my habits and then add something on top of it.”
Now, she’s focused on helping others get the things they really want out of life.
Here are five key ideas from Lindsay Teague’s interview you can use to make the leap in your personal and professional life.
1. Focus on one thing.
While society implores us to “find balance,” Teague Moreno says we should focus on getting better at one needle-moving goal at a time.
“I think that balance is complete and utter BS,” she says.
Knowing how to get what you want out of life is the key to avoiding regret. If you have too many balls in the air at once, you run the risk of accomplishing nothing—something the author says we can avoid by putting one foot in front of the other.
2. Don’t sacrifice larger goals for quick satisfaction.
According to Teague Moreno, the type of fulfillment you get from achieving your goals is true happiness—long-term happiness.
“I think we have our definition of happiness completely jacked up,” she says. “We’ve confused thrills with true happiness, or fulfillment. To be fulfilled doesn’t mean you feel happy 24 hours a day.”
The best way to start focusing on long-term happiness? Take ownership of your problems now. Avoid putting them off until some indeterminate future and understanding that you can’t wait any longer to start building your better self. This means if your current goal is getting healthy, you must consistently choose the gym over binge-watching Netflix.
3. Money isn’t an end in itself, but a tool for accomplishing goals.
Money for money’s sake is an empty pursuit. Instead, Teague Moreno encourages us to reframe our thought process on making money.
“Money is not the root of all evil,” she says. “Good money in the hands of good people can do amazing things in this world.”
Teague Moreno told her husband she felt she could build a successful business. But the ultimate goal wasn’t simply to get richer—it was to retire by 40 and be able to live anywhere in the world, thereby maximizing their freedom and happiness.
By focusing on building a successful business, Teague Moreno has been able to achieve what she wants in the other important areas of her life—something that money makes much easier.
4. Living without regret involves a mindset shift.
Most people dread their work. Teague Moreno says an act as simple as viewing our challenges with new eyes can make a huge difference.
“What if being in your office was actually relaxing for you and fulfilling, and you saw it as something that was needed in your life?” she says.
Going off her theory of the six areas of fulfillment, Teague Moreno says work is a fundamental part of anyone’s self. She urges us to challenge ourselves to change our minds about the way we perceive these areas of fulfillment in order to avoid feeling regret later.
“I want my kids to see me living right now—no matter how much work I have to do; no matter how busy I am. They know that I’m fulfilled and I love my life.
5. Building good habits might take longer than you think
“I talk a lot on my Instagram about ‘100-day challenges,’ because that’s how I believe habits are built—100 days at a time,” Teague Moreno says.
She pushes back on conventional wisdom, saying habits can be built in far less time. She agrees new habits are formed one day at a time but feels 100 days is the best launch point for people looking to effect lasting change in their lives.
“I have not been able to keep up a habit after 21 days,” she says. “But I started working out… I started doing things 100 days at a time, and I’m telling you, those habits have stuck with me.”
Photo by @criene / Twenty20
