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Have you heard of Bryan Johnson? He’s the guy who’s trying to never die, he wants humans to be able to live forever. If you’ve seen his content he takes a crazy amount of pills every day, scrutinises his sleep, and is extremely restrictive with his diet, I think his whole lifestyle is a joke. He’s so focused on being alive in the future that his routine is optimised so that his current life results in him living like a robot, and living like a robot is no life.

Imagine life never drinking a glass of wine, or never enjoying some cheesecake or going to bed late? That is no life, and he’s shortening it because he’s wasting it trying to live longer.

With all the monstrosities going on in the world someone was bound to try and become immortal. That person is Bryan.

I was reading Seneca

The ancient Roman stoic Seneca who was one of the wealthiest men in the Roman Empire wrote many letters on stoicism to his friend Lucilius, in one of his letters he mentions how it doesn’t matter how long we live, compared to how well we live.

As I’m writing this I’m thinking of some people I’ve met or read about who lived short lives but well lived ones, I imagine you can think of a few as well.

For example, Jesus died young in his 30s and he changed the world. On the other hand, some people live long lives in years, but short lives because few of those years were lived well.

It’s tough to live a life well-lived if you don’t look after your health

Someone I look up to is Jack LaLanne, who was coined the godfather of fitness, he lived a long life up until his 90s and he was in tip-top shape until the day he died. He lived well because he looked after himself. I first heard about Jack Lalane when I was in my mid teens and his life inspired me to look after myself, but I ended taking health and fitness too far, it’s good to look after your health but not too much. You can get too much of a good thing.

The lesson what Jack’s life teaches us is that if we look after our bodies we’ll give ourselves the opportunity to live well. Because it’s much harder to live well when you’re unfit, in pain and weak. A fit body is the foundation for a life well-lived.

What I’ve noticed about some Catholic priests

Not all priests are in good shape and that’s okay, what matters most is that they’ve got a good heart, but some of the priests I follow online who take health and fitness seriously all confess how much of a difference it makes in not only improving your physical health but your mental and spiritual health. Because the body doesn’t work in isolation so when you work on your physical health you also improve your mental and spiritual health.

What does it mean to live a life well-lived

A life well-lived means living according to your conscience. For example, some of the worst moments in my life were when I’ve went against my conscience. In my last relationships I knew I was with the wrong women, but I went against myself and it caused a lot of unhappiness.

Now that I listen to myself more, I feel better. Following your conscience is simple you need to avoid anything that your soul doesn’t agree to. If you bypass your conscience, don’t be surprised if mentally and spiritually you feel terrible, because that’s what happened to me.

Don’t live a life that your younger 18 year old self wouldn’t approve of

Sometimes we can get into invidious positions in our lives. Maybe you’ve stayed in that dead end job for too long, or have been neglecting your physical, mental or spiritual health and feel awful. We all get into tricky situations, but it doesn’t mean we need to stay in those situations. If you’re not living a life that your 18 year old self would be proud of then that’s a good sign you’re doing life wrong.

What do you dislike in others?

Whatever we dislike in others we dislike in ourselves. Therefore when we notice patterns of behaviour or lifestyle choices other people make which invoke disgust, we can do well to avoid these same things if we want to make our lives good ones.

What do you envy in others?

When I’m in a rut I like to admire more erudite and successful people than me, which always gives rise to some envy/ jealousy but in a positive way, so I try and learn from them so I can improve my life.

Working BS jobs is not a life well-lived

I’ve worked many jobs and I’ve noticed that some of them can ruin your life because they burn you out mentally, that when you have free time you’re too tired to do anything.

Instead of working BS jobs like many office jobs, try and learn a valuable skill that you can use for the rest of your life. Jobs like plumbers, dentists, dermatologists give you a job for life and you’re free to practice on your own terms.

On the other hand when you work an office job you’re just one merger away from being made redundant.

A life well-lived is a life of freedom

I’m not very interested in fancy cars or marble counter tops, but I am interested in freedom. If you want to live well, you have to aim at freedom.

Many people when they start earning money get greedy and that can lead to being in debt.

So I remember to focus on freedom and I fight the urge to be greedy.

A well lived life is a principled life in line with your ethics

One of the surest ways to unhappiness is working a job and living a life that is not in line with your ethics. For example I’m Catholic so I try to make sure my life is aligned with Catholic values and ethics.

The problem is with many people turning their back on religion they create a vacuum in their lives and they struggle to hone their own value and belief system.

The reason I love the Catholic Church is because I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, I simply need to go to church, pray and follow the guidance of the Catholic Church. Before I was Catholic there was a big gap in my life, you could say it was a god sized gap.