Dubai Weekly: The 4 Keys to a Life of Happiness and Fulfillment

By Aleisha Malcolm

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“You only live once”, a saying we hear everywhere, and often.
A question I have been asked many times in my life is this; if you were told you only had a short amount of time left in the world, what would you do? Is there anything you would look back on and wish you had done?




Which brings us to this; life is short, very short. Every day that we wake up is a gift, an opportunity to thrive and spread love. How you live your life comes down to 2 things: How you want to live it, and if you are willing to work hard to get there.




We are all faced with challenges throughout our lifetimes, but every decision, every mistake and every risk that you choose to take, determines what you will make of yourself.




Here is what I have learnt so far in my own journey, things I have learned the hard way, and knowledge that I have gathered.

Be grateful for what you have.

This is a very important one, something I have learnt throughout the years is that life can be taken in a matter of seconds, what we consider “normal” life can be taken from us within a matter of days, and the most unexpected things can happen at any point.




Hug your loved ones tight, tell everyone that you love - how much you appreciate them, and don’t take any moment for granted.

Learn from your mistakes, but move forward.

I have made many mistakes in my life, as we all have. I have learnt that no matter how much you dwell on something, or how much you wish you could change it, you can’t. Learn from what you’ve done, put it behind you and move forward, as someone who is a true over thinker myself, I know how hard this can be! But it will change your life, the more we focus on where we are now and what lies ahead, the more at peace we will feel.

Take risks.

Tony Collins once said, “Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited of what could go right”. We all need to remember this, without taking risks, without taking chances, we will never know our full potential. There are no limits, the only limit that we have is our minds, train your mind to believe that anything is possible, that you can do anything that you set your mind to. The last thing any of us want is to look back when we are older, and wish we could change our paths. Take the risk you are afraid of, you will surprise yourself, trust me.

Go the extra mile.

Being kind for no reason at all is not as common as what it used to be, something I have been raised to do is to go out of my way to be kind, to smile at strangers, to leave sweet notes for people, to go out of my way to brighten someone’s day, just to be as kind as possible in general. The impact that things like this can have on people is phenomenal.




These things that I have learnt are life changing, when you change your perspective and mind set, you can do anything that you dream of. Be kind, be thankful, spread love, take risks, and you will end up exactly where you want to be.