In my forthcoming book, “Do Great Things and Live the Good Life,” I will showcase several people who have done what everyone wants to do with their lives. They are entrepreneurs, visionaries, and one-of-a-kind personalities who are making the most of their time on Earth, but it’s important to understand that the good life isn’t relegated to the jet set millionaires or the regal class. Everyday people can live the good life and so can you. Here are three ways to do just that, starting today.

1. Vacation Every Day

When my company made a blanket homage to the 1950s by declaring that no one could work from home anymore, I was crushed. I had been working from home and loving it. Along with being productive, I was able to work in shorts and a T-shirt and go for a run on the lake at lunch. It was a very good life but when I was made to work in the office, I had to put on business casual attire and I skipped lunch in order to avoid horrid Austin traffic.

That was a mistake. Just because I was forced to commute and work an office like a corporate dinosaur, that doesn’t mean I had to succumb to the typical way of doing things. I checked out Google Maps for a nearby running trail and found a nice park about a mile away from my office. I started bringing my bike to work and biking to the park every day for lunch. There was also an apartment complex nearby where a coworker lived. He invited me to use his pool, which tended to be necessary after running in 100-degree Austin heat. If I wasn’t such a glutton for intense heat, I could just lay by the pool and still get in a vacation-style break.

Most of my coworkers spend their lunch hour eating fried food, cooped up in a dingy office break room. I would go crazy if I was forced to do that. Instead, I take a mini-vacation every day. I get outside, exercise, and lay by the pool after cooling off. I still have to work in a corporate office setting, but for at least an hour a day, I’m living the good life.

2. Capitalize on Your Brilliant Content

It’s inevitable that you recommend certain products or web content to your friends. You may make lengthy comments on a political post, or you may have a lot to say about a movie you just watched. Well, you can certainly voice your opinion on the traditional outlets like Facebook or Tumblr, but when you do so, you work for those companies.

The alternative if for you to start your own blog and monetize it. Websites are extremely easy to get started (if you need help, see Code Interactive) and content management systems make them even easier to manage. And once you have your content up, you can start directing your friends and social network to your blog in order to access your brilliant content.

The monetization process takes a little more effort, but you could be making money from Google Adsense or a sub-par alternative within minutes from all the happy clickers that want to see what you have to say. Additionally, when you see a movie or buy a product that blows your mind, you can be a part of its success by making royalties on sales for the product. Amazon offers a fantastic affiliate program that will earn you up to 10% from sales. So, if you get 100 of your friends to by the latest teen melodrama, you could bring home over $100.

It’s true that you need some decent traffic to make a living off of affiliate marketing, but if you’re putting effort in creating content anyway, you might as well get something out of it. You’ll be able to treat yourself to a nice dinner every month on Google and start living the good life.

3. Spend Time With Loved Ones

Whenever I’m on vacation in some beautiful, exotic locale like St. Lucia or Hawai’i, I inevitably run into people who are having a miserable time. The cab smelled, there’s too much cantaloupe in the fruit plate, the weather is too unpredictable. Let me say that if someone can’t have a good time while they’re on vacation in Hawai’i, there is a serious problem. It could be that these people are striving for the wrong things.

The goal in life for most people is to be happy, but most people think the wrong things make them happy. For instance, a recent study showed that most people think that more money will make them happier but that money only correlates with happiness up to an annual household income of about $75,000. After that, money doesn’t increase happiness. Just like someone can be on a beach in Maui and hate life, someone can make $641,007 a year as an anesthesiologist but be miserable.

Well, what does make people happy? One of the authors of the study, Dr. Daniel Kahneman said, “The very best thing that can happen to people is to spend time with other people they like.” It sounds simple, but it’s true. I’m not quite a millionaire, but I absolutely love my life because I get to spend time with my lovely wife and great friends daily.

So, pick up the phone, send out a group text, and get your favorite people together for a happy hour or a spontaneous sand volleyball game. Live the good life today.