Are you madly in love with your life? Do you want to be? Being madly in love with your life will mean something different to everyone, of course, but I’ve discovered that there are a few common threads and universal through lines that can help us think about it for ourselves. And I wanted to share them with you this week.   Learn more about Kristen Manieri and coaching: Kristen@kristenmanieri.com KristenManieri.com   Host Bio Kristen Manieri is a coach who works with teams to increase both productivity and wellbeing. She also helps individuals navigate transition with clarity and confidence. Her areas of focus are: stress reduction, energy management, mindset, resilience, habit formation, rest rituals, and self-care. As the host of the weekly 60 Mindful Minutes podcast, an Apple top 100 social science podcast, Kristen has interviewed over 200 authors about what it means to live a more conscious, connected, intentional and joyful life. Learn more at kristenmanieri.com/work-with-me.    Full Transcript I was recently sitting across the table from a new friend when she asked me what exactly I do as a coach. “I help people fall madly in love with their lives,” I said. I had never described my work this way, and I was surprised when she welled-up. She was not, I came to discover, madly in love with her life, but she wanted to be.     Falling madly in love with our lives requires first and foremost proclaiming that our lives are of great consequence. This applies to everyone, not just “important people” doing important things. We all start with the same anthem: we matter. This precedes anything we accomplish or produce with our lives. It merely just sits as a basic truth of our existence. We were born therefore we matter. And as someone who matters we each deserve a life we can fall madly in life with.   Being madly in love with your life will mean something different to everyone, of course, as individuals’ life experiences are unique to them. But I’ve discovered that there are a few common threads, some universal through lines, that can help us think about it for ourselves.       And I wanted to share them with you today.   People who are madly in love with their lives…   Live their lives by design   Life is like a bonsai tree, a precious living work of art that can be shaped and cultivated with precision. People who are madly in love with their lives have carefully shaped and cultivated their decisions and behaviors so that they align precisely with what matters to them. They are intentional and deliberate.   Manage their mindset   Life doesn’t always go as planned, people disappoint us, sometimes it rains when we really wanted it to be sunny. People who are madly in love with their lives know the difference between making things happen in the world and believing that the world should be exactly as they want it. They’re extraordinarily realistic about what they can control (which is very little) and the things they can’t control (which is mostly everything).   Consciously work to be positive   People who are madly in love with their lives deliberately work against their negativity bias. They do it by focusing on what’s good on purpose. They consciously cultivate positive memories, and form healthy, helpful perspectives on negative ones.   Live in the present moment   Developing the capacity to fully inhabit the present moment—to notice life exquisitely unfolding in real time—allows us to appreciate and relish every ordinary experience life grants us. People who are madly in love with their lives turn off autopilot and instead develop their ability to be here now.     Have clarified their values and priorities   People who are madly in love with their lives know what they say “yes” to and what they say “no” to. They are rarely overwhelmed or overcommitted because they have devoted the necessary time to discover and articulate their values and priorities, and have aligned their inner and outer resources effectively and re