Before Living a Beautiful Life, You Need to Know What It Looks Like: Tools For Figuring it Out

Marvin Liao
2 min readFeb 8, 2024

--

I learned this term from Radigan Carter who is an ex-soldier, war vet, writer, investor and world traveler. I joined his online community called the Fortress and it’s been very rewarding and educational. He used this term “A beautiful Life” a lot and it’s been really helpful as I try to craft my own. Radigan says: “Having a mission, enjoying these hobbies with friends & family, and living overseas is my idea of a beautiful life”

One way to start figuring this out is to do the “Perfect Day” exercise which I described here: https://hardfork.substack.com/p/the-perfect-day-exercise. This helps you know what kind of day you aspire to, what brings you joy and are necessary for you to be at your best,

Another tool is the “Hobbies Matrix”, one Radigan credits to @MikeDMedicis. The Hobbies Matrix identifies the things you enjoy solo or in group, split by Indoor Activities and Outdoor ones in Spring/ Summer vs Autumn/Winter. I’ve put one together for myself as an example.

Once you have done these two exercises your goals become clearer. How you prioritize things in your life between career and family. What you say YES to. Or maybe more importantly the ones you say NO to. These include business and work opportunities, activities or hobbies or things you do as well as who you spend time with.

And no surprise it will be different for everyone, my beautiful life will be very different from yours. Add your vision board https://hardfork.substack.com/p/the-vision-board-exercise-a-tool

which gives you a clear direction on where you want to go, it’s all the end goal of what you are building towards.

These are invaluable tools as you embark on your journey to your own personalized “Beautiful Life”. Just think about how amazing the world would be if everyone were able to discover this for themselves.

The sooner you start, the better life becomes. You will have to work pretty hard and overcome many challenges but having a clear direction makes things much easier.

--

--

Marvin Liao

Ever curious: Tsundoku, Reader, Aspiring Shokunin, World traveller, Investor & Tech/Media exec interested in almost everything! www.marvinliao.com