So many of us, live lives of quiet desperation, of dissatisfaction, of hurt, as well as of emptiness, in which the things that we most deeply desire, don't seem to occur or to happen in the way that we have envisioned them occurring -- and even when those events do happen, they often don't seem to bring the lasting happiness so desired, but instead appear to be fleeting and hence become just a temporary way-stop, so that, in short, we are often dissatisfied in many aspects and respects in our lives so lived.
It must be recognized therefore that the very first thing that is needed in order to lead a quality life is to take control of one's own life, to the degree that such can be done. This means, that those that are not of age, are going to live within a construct in which they often are order takers, as opposed to being self-determinative; yet, even at this stage, the motivated person is already contemplating what they will or will not accomplish, when they do eventually obtain their own sovereignty within their own person, rather than simply allowing themselves to always go with the flow. So too, those that are of age, need to at some point, remove themselves from all others, except perhaps those that are of the highest wisdom, or are their mentors, so as to look carefully at their life, and where that life is and where that life is heading, so as to examine such, as thoroughly as can be done; because if one does not know who they are, and what their objectives are, and why they have these objectives in the first place, then their life is far too much on auto-pilot, rather than be demonstrative of true strength of character and self-determination, by having carefully considered who and what they are currently, and who and what they wish to be in the future, and thereby how they are going to get there.
In western nations, far too many people, get caught up in the rat race of life, and are competitive in all sorts of things, in which that winner-take-all mentality, consumes them to the degree that they become someone that buys into the material aspects of living; and then benignly, at best, abandon their spiritual aspects to the wayside. This decision is the type of decision, that needs to be carefully considered, for while that is a way of living, it may not be the best way to live, and further to the point, often leads to the compromise and the endurance of those things, in which the character of the person, so suffers, in order to achieve that which is temporal, at the ultimate sacrifice of that which is right.
Rather, see life as a proving ground, and of a place in which the test of such, is the test of one's character to stand up for that which is right, and to turn away from that which is wrong; as opposed to seeing life as a game of obtaining as many toys as possible, or even as the escaping of such through drugs and drink. See life as an opportunity, and whatever may be your given circumstances, do what can be done, to focus and to concentrate your mind, your actions and your deeds upon that which is good and true, and forsake that which is evil and false, and your life will have been thereby lived well.