What Does the Good Life Look Like?
Open Goals 2025#07
I’m staring at a white page, watching the cursor blink.
For most of June, I didn’t write anything, except the monthly Open Goals issue, and now, writing this in July, I feel a little bit rusty. Not sure where to start from.
However, I do have an excuse for my current affair, which I’m willing to accept.
We had our family summer vacation, and I focused on leaving everything nice and tidy at work so that I wouldn’t have any leftovers to deal with while away.
I also decided that this vacation is the perfect moment to pause everything I’m doing and reflect on where I am and where I want to go next.
So, I guess I could start from here.
There was this one question that guided me through this exercise.
What does the good life look like?
I’m sure the answer is unique to each person, so here are my eight ingredients.
Body and Mind
Healthy body—having sustainable energy and vitality. Have the energy to keep me going through all my endeavors and quests. Have the vitality to play with my kids and grandchildren.
Thus, I want to take care of my body and physical strength so that it can support me now and in the future.
Healthy mind — having an agile mind, being able to think for myself, and adapting to the fast-changing world. Be open-minded and curious about new technology, music, places, books, ideas, you name it.
Like my body, I want to take care of my brain and mind so that they can support me later in life.
Thus, to keep a healthy body and mind, I have to adopt some new healthy habits (and maybe get rid of some of my old ones that don’t serve me anymore):
Sleep enough and of good quality,
Make exercise and healthy diets part of my lifestyle,
Read to discover new ideas,
Write to get clarity,
And continuously learn something new.
Family and Friends
Quality time with my family and friends. Continuously working hard and focusing on earning more and more money for a promised future, where we’ll have all the time in the world to spend it together, starts to look like a hamster wheel.
It will always look so close, but I will never actually be able to grab it.
Postponing quality family time in the moment means I miss a critical opportunity to be together now, in the present, for a promise that we’ll compensate for it later.
Most of the time, later might be too late, or it will never come.
Thus, I must continually balance and rebalance my work, family, and personal time. Take more days off from work, spend more time with my parents, see my sister at least twice a year, and organize a family and friends vacation every year.
Money
Have enough money so that it doesn’t create stress from not having it, but not so much that it creates stress from having it.
Not a stress because of the lack of money, unable to pay for the basics. Not a stress because of having too much, I fear losing it.
But how much money is enough money?
A good start is to have a passive income that covers the monthly expenses, given the current lifestyle. However, lifestyles can be negotiated and evolve as our needs change.
Thus, I aim to sustainably increase my income while decreasing the number of working hours and keep investing in semi-passive income-generating assets. Work on my money mindset, and be more generous with those who have less or haven’t been so fortunate in life.
Break the money paradox and detach work from income as much as possible.
Work and Meaning
Engage in activities that are meaningful or fulfilling. Find work that is aligned with my core values.
Thus, I want to experiment more and discover what I love doing and make it part of my life.
Growth and Contribution
Be grateful for what I have and work towards what I want. Investing in myself will always pay out the best dividends.
Share my journey with the community and inspire them. This way, growth is another way I can give purpose to my life.
Thus, always strive to become better and help others succeed along the way. Invest in skills and abilities that are industry- and time-proof.
They Are All Connected
Exercising helps keep my body healthy and provides clarity to my mind. A clear mind enables me to give meaning to my actions and maintain sharp focus on my work.
As I grow my marketing, AI, and copywriting skills, I can become more productive, expand my community, and diversify my income sources.
By increasing the sources of income, money becomes an enabler for the other areas of my life. It helps me reclaim my time, allowing me to have more for family and friends, and also take better care of my health.
A healthy body gives me the capacity and energy to work towards the goals I have in each pillar of my life.
Spending time with family and friends is one of the best ways to recharge physically and mentally, to celebrate your successes, or recover from failures.
When you write to share what you've learned with your community, your mind also becomes clearer. Writing also helps you grow by becoming more articulate in speech.
They appear to be separate areas, but they are interconnected pillars that support the same structure—me. If one scrumbles, the others might suffer and scrumble as well.
That’s why some prefer the analogy of a wheel (of life). When all spokes are in balance, the ride is smooth and stable. When they are out of balance, the ride is bumpy.
Mixing Everything Together
In a way, this vacation was a preview of the good life.
Wake up in the morning, go for a run, and end the session with a swim in the cold sea—a refreshing way to start my day.
Engage in a journaling session while watching the sunrise and savoring an espresso.
After breakfast, enjoy the play time at the beach, and after lunch, have fun with friends at the water slides.
In the evenings, spend quality time with your family by taking walks on the beach or exploring new seascapes.
But I take this with a grain of salt. It was vacation after all, and I don’t expect every day to be like that.
We didn’t have to cook or clean at all this time. And work was something I did not have to think about.
If every day were like this, I’m sure at some point, vacations would lose their magic. However, I now have a clear idea of where I want to go with my lifestyle, the kind of project I want to engage with, and the small steps I need to take to switch directions.
Monthly Challenges
Post Daily Substack Notes
Read 10 Pages Every Day
My first challenge was to push myself to publish a Substack note every day. Although I published only one issue in June, I did post on 22 out of 30 days in Notes. That’s a staggering 73% completion rate.
I have only one lesson learned from this experience: The only way to come up with more ideas is to dump existing ones and make space for new ones.
When you have an idea, write it down, engage with it, share it, gather feedback, and refine it.
I found myself not posting Notes out of fear that I might run out of ideas, or that it would be better to post them another day.
Regarding my second challenge, I only succeeded in reading 11 out of 30 days. That is a 37% completion rate, which is much better than the month before.
I would have read more, but I finished the book I was reading, Quiet by
, in the first days of my vacation, and didn’t have a backup book with me.Honestly, I did not expect to be so productive while reading during vacation. I was surprised by this.
Growth Objectives
I’ve put everything on hold.
I’m currently focusing on a couple of family and work objectives. One of which is to renovate and set up my son’s bedroom. Another is kicking off a new project at work, and that requires my full attention.
In the upcoming weeks, I’m thinking about dropping my current goals and setting new ones that better match my idea of a good life.
Closing Thoughts
These were my Open Goals updates for July. I look forward to seeing you in the next issue. Cheers!
—Alex