In this solo presentation Dr. Margaret Chaika defines "life on your own terms" as a meaningful, fulfilling existence that aligns with one’s personal dreams rather than societal expectations. She introduces a practical 7‑step model to help listeners design and achieve such a life. The steps begin with unrestricted imagination of an ideal life (ignoring money and time constraints), followed by a realistic assessment of the current situation, a free‑form brainstorming of options, learning from role models, crafting a concrete plan, taking action with accountability partners, and finally monetizing one’s passions or hobbies into a business. Throughout, she stresses intentional purpose, leveraging past experiences and natural talents, and staying true to oneself. The talk is motivational, offering concrete exercises (e.g., blank‑sheet idea dump) and an illustrative example of turning a love of fishing into a fisheries business, underscoring that when work aligns with personal passion, execution feels effortless and success becomes inevitable.
Chapters
Welcome to this particular session where I'm going to be speaking on life on your own terms. Basically, I'm going to take you through the definition or my understanding of what life on your own terms is, and then I'm going to go through some models of living a model for living life on your terms. I'm going to go through a case study so that, you know, you can see that it's actually something that's real, it's something that's doable, and then put together a summary or conclusion, and then we will get to ask some questions and get into some question and answer. I would like to start by giving you a definition of my understanding of what life on your own terms is, because different people have got different definitions. But basically, in a nutshell, it is about being more, doing more, and living more. Most of us are actually feeling stuck about where we are. Our lives are not as meaningful. There's so much else that we want to do, but we actually are not doing it. So life on your own terms is actually the ability to live a life that's meaningful and fulfilling to you. I'm going to share with you a model for living your life on your own terms, and it is got— basically, it's got 7 steps. I'm going to start by taking you through point number 1, which is— oh, before I do that, I actually just want to share with you a quote that I found extremely meaningful for me. And the quote goes, life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually. So what it is basically telling us is life on your own terms you can actually make it happen. You don't have to wait for life to make it happen. Okay, so what is it? What exactly does it mean to live, to do, to live your best life? What is it that it means? What does it mean to live life to your fullest, to live life on your own terms? So you have a dream of how you want your life to live. It may look like the life of somebody else, but you don't necessarily have to to envy the life that somebody else is living. You can actually define the life that you want to live. If you want to be traveling once every month, that is you. That is what you want your life to be, and that's how you should define it. So the first place, the first tip that you need to do in terms of defining what exactly life on your own terms is for you is to think, if money and time were not an issue for you, What would you really be doing? The second step for you to take is to consider where you are. So you've got your dream on the one side and what you really feel is the best life ever that you have defined without even restricting yourself because you've said, I've got the time, I've got the money, I've got everything I need. This is the life that I want to live. When you've defined that, then you need to consider what are your options. Is what you are doing taking you closer and closer to your dreams every day, or are you moving in a different direction? You need to look at yourself and say, these dreams that I have that I want to achieve, what I'm doing at the moment, does my past experience enable me to go to the place where I want to go? So think of what you've done in the past. Did it help you to get closer to what you want? Is it taking you closer to what you want? And when you've thought about that, that's when you can actually harness all the various experiences. And these experiences could have been how you grew up, where you grew up, what you did as a child, bad experiences that you've, you've gone through as an individual, good experiences that you've gone through as an individual, work experience, hobbies, whatever it is, whatever you've done with your life, it all comes in because it all adds up because it becomes the essence of who you really are at the end of the day. And then what are my options? At this particular point, what you need to do is to just take a blank sheet of paper and start writing. Don't even analyse or assess or think about whether what you've thought about is practical or not. At this point, it is you putting just a dump of all the various things that you'd want to do. You need to assess what your options are and what are those things that would get you closer and closer to living life on your own terms. The next point is a very important point because it is a point where now you're looking at your role models and you're thinking, what are the various— who are the people who are living a life that is very similar to where I would want to be? You need to talk to these people, understand what it feels like to be in their shoes, understand what their challenges are, understand what their high moments are, understand what inspires them, and then from there you'll be able to actually get a better understanding of what could be practical for you to do. Which takes me to the next step, which is make a plan. Look at all the insights that you've gathered from point 4, which is around, you know, this blank sheet, this canvas that you've drawn, and looking at what your options are, and then looking at point 5, which is around looking at the role models that you have. You then use this information that you've gathered to inform your plan. That is living your life on your own terms, but you need to make a plan about it. Do you have the necessary resources for it? What have you learned from the people who are actually living such a life? And then you can then go on and do that. then obviously the next step is taking action. You need to team up with other people because you can't always do it on your own. For example, the role models that you've identified are the people who you might want to turn into your accountability partners, and they keep you real against your actions. Because sometimes we all have these big, nice, fluffy dreams, and half the time we never execute them. But if you really are serious and intentional about living the life that you want to live, then you'll be able to actually take— write down the necessary plan and pursue that plan vigorously. And sometimes, because it is coming born out of what you really want your life to be about, it comes easy. It is not something that is difficult because it is what you really want. It resonates. with who you are, it resonates with what you really want to do. So as a summary, I would like to say you don't need to remain stuck where you are. You actually can take charge and define the life that you want to live and start going closer and closer to that life that you want to live. You can find purpose and be very intentional about it. So you need to find your purpose intentionally. Some of us had to be to be pushed and dragged and so on to begin to realize that, oh, this is where my purpose is in life. But you can actually— you don't have to wait for that moment. You can actually sit back and think about what is it that would define what is my purpose? Why was I created on this earth? Because not all— nobody was created just to roam around the world and not touch lives and not make a difference. And then when hobby becomes a business, you actually become unstoppable. So you need to build your enterprises, you need to build whatever it is that you intend to build in your life, and you need to base it on who you are, your natural talents, your past experiences, your hobbies. And when you do that, you actually start to live life on your terms. Because if you live— if you enjoy If you enjoy fishing, for example, and then you decide to start a business in fisheries, it's your hobby that you are monetizing. And then that means that no one can stop you because when you wake up in the morning, you're thinking about it. You love doing it. No one is forcing you into doing it. And then you become successful and you commercialize it and you grow and you become bigger and you become better and you inspire others. And remember to stay true to yourself because you can never live the goal or the life of somebody else. We all have our different paths in life, and if we all stick to our lanes and do what we need to do purposefully, intentionally, you'll find that we are all successful. We are all created to prosper. Our businesses are created to prosper, and we all can get to, um, to, to those levels of life that we really need to get.
