I presume "better quality of life", not "better quality of lift"? Somebody else would have to address body-building in the 18th c.

There would be a lot of immigration in the century, so there would be a much different set of options if you were arriving in 1740, as opposed to 1790.

Let's assume it's 1740. But first, what do you do? Are you a farmer? Then you need land, good land, like a river bottom, or a valley. The choices for that by 1740 have actually narrowed a bit. The Hudson River Valley is already occupied: you could become a tenant farmer on one of the big estates, there, but it would be hard to buy something. Likewise with the Chesapeake Bay, Tidewater Virginia, eastern North Carolina. So, you might well head for western Pennsylvania, like Lancaster County. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, piedmont North Carolina. You might also push up into the Vermont territory, mostly controlled by New Hampshire but claimed also by New York, Massachusetts. Some of these regions would be also still contested by Native Nations. Upstate New York had the Iroquois Confederacy, western North Carolina the Cherokee, Pennsylvania much west of Lancaster would have both Native and French claims, which would eventually lead to the Seven Year's War. There would already be someone, usually a land speculator, who had bought it off the King, via the Royal Governor (except for a few holders of direct grants, like Lord Fairfax in Virginia). You'd strike a deal with them. Or, you might have signed up for a parcel beforehand, as a part of a group of immigrants- very common in Germany.

Or are you a tradesman? Then you're in luck: your wages are going to be better in the colonies than they were at home, because there's less competition. Building-tradesmen like housewrights, carpenters, masons, could do well, and craftsmen like blacksmiths, tailors, joiners, wheelwrights and wagon makers. But your question is, where to set up your shop? Some areas, like Tidewater Virginia, were very rural, with very large plantations or farms. Roads were few, and there might not be many people coming along who needed some work done. Also, large farms and plantations often had, quite sensibly, their own tools and workers for making barrels, firing bricks, sawing timber. So, there were complaints in Virginia about the lack of skilled tradesmen. The more-settled northeast would be much more welcoming. By 1740, your best bet would be to try for a town. A cooper would do well in the port of Norfolk, making and repairing barrels for shipping. A blacksmith could do well in Williamsburg, in some ways designed to be a market town ( which is why the current museum there maintains a lot of crafts). But for fine crafts, someone like a silversmith could have some problems- the colonies were supposed to supply Britain with raw commodities, and buy finished goods from Britain with the money. So, there were prohibitions against some crafts. Like hat makers: beaver pelts were supposed to go to England, get made into felt for hats, and come back as hats. Obviously, it would have been simple to make hats in the colonies, so there was a law against anyone setting up as a hatter. In practice, however, there was no way England could supply all the colonies, and , eventually, such rules were often disregarded, especially for mundane items.