In a year where we experienced one of life’s greatest highs (getting married) and a lot of amazing trips, we ended 2014 exhausted, fat, unfit and feeling a bit directionless. Don’t get us wrong, there were a lot of positive points and awesome things we did last year but in a way they made it worse because we looked back at all these cool things we got to do and thought if we’re unhappy after a year like that, then something must be wrong.

All those amazing trips came at a pretty heavy cost for us as between trips there was a lot of hard work and (ridiculous, painfully) long hours. Looking back and thinking about our 2014, we agreed that sometimes, it’s not worth all the hard work. We needed to make some changes.

Our trip to New Zealand could not have come at a better time. We got to spend it with family and friends while also getting to relax and contemplate where we had gone wrong and what exactly needed to change to make us happy. We chatted through it all quite a bit and broke down what was affecting our happiness.

Happiness Killers

• being fat, unfit and unhealthy
• being constantly tired and drained
• being stressed from work 24/7 (and struggling to sleep)
• spending any spare time we did find in front of TV
• not spending enough time together with no distractions
• not having a goal/plan/direction
• the way we measured our own success

First world problems right?

It seems crazy to live in such a great time and have so many opportunities, but still be finding ways to self sabotage and end up pretty miserable.

So we made a point of finding time to read and watch a lot of different books and documentaries about lifestyle design, what makes people happy, how to avoid stress etc. If you google those terms and come up with a book or movie, chances are at least one of us read it or watched it.

Our time in New Zealand gave us a chance to spend time thinking about how to apply it all to us. What really makes us happy? What type of lifestyle do we really want to have? How do we make the most of each day instead of only looking forward to the future?

Thinking of our Ideal Lifestyle

We’ve both always felt this urge to rebel against a society-dictated ideal life. You know, working hard at school, getting good grades to then get a good job where you can continue to work hard (at a career that you are probably not very passionate about) and maybe get a higher paying job off the back of that. Maybe you’ll save up a deposit and get a mortgage to buy your first home. Maybe you’ll meet someone along the way, get married, settle down and make a home. Maybe you’ll have a few kids and then start working even harder to provide for them and afford to buy a bigger house with a bigger mortgage. One day the kids will leave home and you’ll eventually get to the promised land of retirement where you can finally enjoy the spoils of your hard work. Maybe.

I know that life appeals to many and a lot of people have great fulfilled lives within that mould and that’s awesome for them. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it provided you’re happy and not doing it because you think you have to or because you’ve accidentally fallen in to it because that what people default to.

There are definitely aspects of that life that are still important to us – like marriage, kids etc but the ideal package it comes in looks totally different for us.

We came up with a detailed plan for how to make 2015 our best yet and we’ve already seen a huge difference from the last few dreary months of 2014. Some parts are still a big work in progress, others we’ve come quite far on already. And it is all part of our bigger plans for 2016 on…

It was easier to brainstorm and come up with ideas for our plans when we broke it down and its also easier to split it out to different posts as well.

Our Path to Happiness

• The food we eat
• Exercise
• Learning How to Measure Success in Life
• The way we travel
• Our long term plans

We’ll share what we’ve been up to, what we’ve changed and what we’re planning for these areas over the next few weeks so follow along.