There are loud answers to 'what makes a good life' — success, achievement, family, freedom — and quieter ones that are more honest if you let yourself say them. This prompt invites your own definition, written for you, not for the version of you that performs.
A good life is much more livable when you've actually decided what it means for you.
Writing your own definition of a good life makes it possible to live one. Otherwise you tend to live by inherited definitions — your parents', your culture's, your industry's — and feel obscurely dissatisfied no matter how 'well' you're doing by their standards.
Useful at year-end, on birthdays, when you've reached a goal that didn't feel as good as expected, or when you're considering big choices (move, leave, change). Also useful when you're comparing yourself to other people's versions of 'good'.
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Forget what 'good life' is supposed to mean.
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Write 3–5 ingredients of yours.
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For each, give a concrete daily example.
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Notice which are present, and which are missing.
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Choose one small move toward a missing one.
Other ways to ask the same thing
“What does a good life look like for you, specifically?”
“What would make a life worth living, by your standards?”
“What ingredients does your good life need?”
Don't borrow stock answers. 'Travel, freedom, impact' might be someone's truth and not yours. Yours might be 'long mornings, deep friendships, work I respect, time outside, a quiet body'. The point isn't to sound impressive; it's to write something you could actually live by.
A good life for me is: enough money to not panic, work I respect, two or three deep relationships, mornings I'm not rushed through, a body I treat kindly, and contact with nature at least weekly. Concrete examples: no Monday meetings before 10; phone calls with my brother every two weeks; running on Saturdays; cooking dinner most nights. Present: money, work, brother calls. Missing: unrushed mornings (I let work creep in) and weekly nature. Small move: walk in the park before opening my laptop one morning this week.