Many people don’t know that they’re doing well in life even if they are doing so. It’s a part of the imposter syndrome that is prevalent in society today. If you have the basics of life down like having a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in, that’s still doing better than the majority.
There are people who don’t even have the basic necessities in life to move forward with. Too many people get in the comparison game and think that they should be millionaires and billionaires like their friend counterparts. Imagine how Elon Musk’s roommate feels.
He has to watch his former college roommate have the same start as him but will never be able to surpass Elon Musk, let alone catch up to him. Comparison is a dangerous game and a dangerous slippery slope to be in. Some people are just better than you and you will have to accept that.
The great news is that that’s not the metric from which we decide whether we are doing well in life or not. There are other, better metrics to see whether we are actually doing well in life. It’s not by comparing ourselves to impossible standards.
It’s by making sure our needs and our family’s needs are taken care of.
9 Signs You are Doing Well in Life
Below are the nine signs that you are already doing well in life.
1) You have People Who Love You
There are people who are wealthy and rich beyond their wildest dreams. But when their friends speak of them, they don’t speak highly of them at all. All they know them for are their money but not for their kindness, empathy, or any of the things that matter in life.
During Steve Jobs’ funeral, no one ever talked of his wealth. Everyone talked of Steve Jobs’ impact to society and the world. About what kind of person Steve Jobs was. The ones who loved him spoke very highly of him. That’s what matters in the end.
You are doing well in life if you have people who are genuinely in your corner. People who you can count on without fearing whether they’ll stab you in the back or not. Money is one thing but having a group of loyal friends who has your back and supports you through tough times is another.
It’s much better.
2) You have a Bed and Running Water
There are many people in the world who don’t even have a bed and running water or basic utilities. In August 2022, Europe’s electricity prices reached a whopping 1,000/euro. People couldn’t even turn the AC on while Europeans were suffering. Imagine not being able to turn on the AC.
You are doing well in life if you have the basic necessities in life such as electricity and water taken care of. We take utilities for granted until we don’t have them any more. Having a comfortable bed you can sleep in and having running water you can take a shower with feels amazing.
You don’t need the mansions and 5,000 sq. ft. houses in order to show everyone you’re doing well in life. Whether we live in a 5,000 sq. ft. mansion or whether we live in a 800 sq. ft. house, we’ll still be alive and ready to take on challenges the world throws at us.
The bed that I have now is great. It’s what helps me sleep and get through the day.
3) You Work Every Day to Progress Forward
Life is not easy. Life is hard. The good news is, there’s an infinite number of possibilities for you to move forward. Men are happiest when they are making progress. If every day, you work and put in your best effort in order to move forward and towards your goals, you are doing well in life.
Just look at MrBeast. Arguably, the most successful YouTuber of all time took four and a half years to start to become successful. Not even become successful, but start to become successful. He worked every single day to work on his dream and to make it a reality.
And just look at him now! He’s achieving heights no one ever expected him to achieve. As long as you work every single day to bring you closer to your goals, you are doing well. It’s not something that happens overnight. You wake up one day and realize that you made it.
Hard work pays off. Compound effort is amazing.
4) You Have a Job
There are many people who don’t even have a job to put food on the table with. People who can’t even pay rent. When you have a job, you are doing well in life. There are many people who lost their jobs in the great financial crisis of 2007 – 2009 and never got back to the top.
No matter how much we dislike our jobs, they provide stable living for us. They allow us to buy the things that we want to buy. The salary actually funds our dreams. Kevin O’Leary says a salary is a drug they give you to forget about your dreams. That’s wrong.
A salary is money they give you to fund your dreams. It doesn’t feel so good when you don’t have a job. Jobs provide a sense of purpose in our lives. We want to be useful and productive members to society. We want to feel like we have a sense of purpose.
If you have a job, it’s a good thing, because getting a job in the first place is not the easiest thing in the world. The more you stay in your career, the more you experience career luck to move up in life.
5) You Don’t go to Bed Hungry
There are many people in the world who can’t even put food on the table. You are doing well in life if you don’t have to starve yourself to save money or to live life. Starvation does not feel good. I’ve been there. When I was a college student, I didn’t feel like I had enough money.
Therefore, I would take shortcuts when it comes to meals. I would attend as many free events as I possibly can to university clubs and the like. Doing well in life is if you are well fed and you have food on the table. Food that you actually enjoy eating.
Every one of us has needs that has to be fulfilled in order to be happy. Sleep is one and food is definitely another. We get cranky when we don’t have food in our stomach. It’s one thing to not have food because we couldn’t find a good restaurant to go to.
It’s another to not have food because we literally can’t afford to put food on the table.
6) You Have Happiness
There are rich people who are downright miserable. Some people got rich because they had to do some morally questionable things. They can’t sleep as well at night because they know what they’re doing at work is wrong. Some other rich people are miserable because they have no free time.
There are high powered executives in the world who can’t step away from work. Otherwise their boss would harp them and ask why they didn’t answer their phone. There are 24 year olds working for Blackstone making $400k+ per year. However, they can’t step away from work.
During Fourth of July weekend, one friend actually had to go back to work while watching fireworks because his boss called him. That is unhappiness. You are doing well in life if you have happiness. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the biggest house.
As long as you feel good about your life and what you do, it’s a good life.
7) You’re Doing Well in Life If You Have a Plan
Some people aimlessly walk through life without a plan on how they’re going to progress forward. They’re just existing, working one day from the next, in hopes that something good happens. If you have a plan on how to move forward in life, you are doing well in life.
As long as you are executing and working every single day to make your dreams come true. It’s a hard life out there. You just never know if what you’re doing is making you closer to your goals. You’ll never know the results until the final end, either.
There’s a 1-year plan, 2-year plan, and 5-year plan. You may miss the mark exactly on what happens each and every single year. However, as long as you’re generally going in the right direction, you are doing the right things. Your plans will never play out the way you want to.
However, you don’t need them to. That’s the beautiful thing about plans.
8) You Feel Emotions
When I’m depressed, I don’t feel anything. It’s not even that I feel bad. I feel nothing. It’s emptiness. As long as you’re feeling anger, sadness, happiness and every other range of emotions, it means you are human. You are not just existing and going through life, you feel something.
You feel alive. There’s a time in 2022 when I just literally felt nothing. I just felt like I was going through the motions and hoping something happens. I wasn’t moving up I wasn’t moving down. It felt like I was stuck. You’re doing well in life if you don’t feel stuck.
You’re never going to continuously go upwards in your entire life. We’re going to go through downward spirals at some point. When this happens, if, at the very least, you feel something, then that’s a beautiful thing. You’re human and you need to feel emotions.
Otherwise, it’s an existence that’s not really an existence.
9) You’re Learning Every Day
I’m not talking about learning world events. I’m talking about learning things and skills that add value to your life. Whether it makes you feel something or whether it helps you with your business. If you’re learning every day, you’re doing well in life.
It’s fun to learn new things that will give you an edge against somebody else in the world. I learn new things every day with my blog, Twitter, or just by even talking with friends. There are people who refuse to learn new things every day. They’re fine just being where they are and have no interest in moving up.
That’s all well and good for them. However, that’s a very monotonous life. You’re doing the same things over and over again, punching the same clock. That’s even worse than moving downwards in life. At least when you move downwards, it motivates you to get back up again.
However, when you’re not learning anything new, you’re just doing the same things over and over again. That’s not exciting nor is it what life is all about. You want to continuously improve yourself.
You May be Doing Well in Life Without Knowing It
There are many people who think they need to be millionaires and billionaires to be doing well in life. That’s just not true. Many people are doing well in life without knowing it or giving themselves credit for everything that they’ve done. They’re being too hard on themselves.
For every person who has a roof on their head, there are people who don’t. There are people who go hungry and don’t even have access to clean water. We can’t compare ourselves to superstars and then feel bad when we’re not at their level.
We have to let time catch up. There’s no point in comparing yourself to the 35 year old if you’re not even 25 yet. Comparison is the thief of joy. There are years when you are going to do nothing but invest in yourself to learn new things. It’ll be no wonder that your friends surpass you in those years.
However, what matters is the end results. Is your investment going to pay off in the long run? The long term is what matters. The short term is almost meaningless. There’s no need to feel bad if your friends surpass you for a year or two or five years. What matters is at the end of 10 years.
Or 20 years. Or any number of years that counts as long term. That’s when you find out who’s truly doing well in life. Just as life will never be a straight line upwards for you, it’s not going to be a straight line upwards for others as well.
Patience is a virtue that will be rewarded. You just have to let time catch up.
9 Signs You are Doing in Life: Shortlist
- You have people who love you
- You have a bed and running water
- You work every day to progress forward
- You have a job
- You didn’t go to bed hungry
- You have happiness
- You’re doing well in life if you have a plan
- You feel emotions
- You’re learning every day
