Too many people die at 20 and are buried at 80" says Robin S. Sharma, the best-selling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (Harper San Francisco). "When we were kids, we had such great hopes for our futures. But with the pressures of daily life, many of these dreams have been forgotten as we struggle to cope with the daily grind." But creating a more fulfilling life is not as hard as one might think, believes Sharma.

Here are 7 of his tips on living more enthusiastically:

All too often in the crush of daily life, we fail to notice all the good things in our lives. We focus on the less than ideal job or the endless commutes or on the mountain of bills. By taking a few minutes out of your busy day to count your blessings, you will bring a sense of perspective to your life that might be missing.

In this hectic day and age, we seem to be too busy to think. When was the last time you sat down quietly and reflected on how you are living your life? Saying that you are too busy to stop and think about the way you are living is like saying you are too busy driving to stop for gas-eventually it will catch up with you.

My mother used to say, "you will never reach third base with one foot on second." To bring a greater sense of adventure and passion into your life, you must move out of your comfort zone and take greater risks. At the end of our lives, it is the things we haven’t done, rather than the things we have done that we regret the most. As the philosopher Seneca noted so wisely: "It’s not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It’s because we do not dare that they are difficult."

All people who have built richly rewarding lives are people of action. Contrary to popular opinion, knowledge is not power. It is only potential power. Knowledge has value only when it is acted upon. Truly fulfilled people act on what they know and they act on their dreams rather than spending their lives waiting for something great to happen to them.

The average 4-year old laughs 300 times a day while the average adult laughs 15 times a day. Too many of us have lost the "laughter habit" as our lives have grown more complex and hectic. As William James said: "We don’t laugh because we are happy. We are happy because we laugh."

Management guru Peter Druker once noted that, "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which shouldn’t be done at all." The wisest and most dynamic people of our world have cultivated the habit of spending their time only on those activities that are important. Take an inventory of what you do in your days, and get rid of anything that is wasting your time.

Life is a gift. Yet too many of us spend our lives chasing that pot of gold on the horizon, rather than enjoying the rose garden that lies in our backyards. To jump-start your life, begin to savor life’s simpler pleasures. Every day offers up gifts of nature to those who have the wisdom to notice them. If you don’t act on life, life will act on you. Now is the time to act on your hopes and desires. Otherwise, the days slip into weeks and the weeks slip into months and the months slip into years. By then it will be too late and your opportunity will be gone.

A good financial advisor should want to be your consultant for life; to feel not only a responsibility to help you get ahead in life both financially and emotionally, but to also remind you to relax occasionally. Have you ever noticed how some of your best ideas have popped into your head while you have been sitting in a boat fishing, playing a round of golf, or sitting on the beach watching the waves roll in?

Vacations are valuable investments. We should take little vacations every day. Many times we will get more ideas and better ideas in two hours of creative loafing than in eight hours at the desk.

(Taken from Robin S. Sharma, the best-selling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Harper San Francisco)