I don’t view myself as an inherently rule driven person, rather quite the opposite, but I have found the need to establish principles by which I live and die. I think when we are honest with ourselves, the hard truth is that it’s easy to live as a machine. I wake up, go to work, workout, eat dinner, go to bed and then wake up again. This routine of brainless living can manufacture critical problems which, chances are, aren’t valid issues that deserve our stress. Instead, our problems seem to be merely distractions that simply break the routine and help us feel alive again.
Now maybe this is a bit extreme, but I have to believe that mindless living and mundane routines is a universal feeling of modern man. We have been conditioned by our convenience-driven society to be afraid of real risk and real problems. If you are like me working in a 9-5, when is the last time you really had something to fear?
And thus we consistently remain in this position. I’m old enough to know what I don’t know, but young enough to change. It’s not too late, and the goal of living life like there really is no tomorrow is not out of reach. But again, in human nature it’s easy to reach back to what feels comfortable and remain on the obvious path. So I’ve tried to brainstorm principles for my life as a way to remain proactive and push myself past mediocrity. This is my best shot, so here goes:
- Do not ever waste time, ever.
- Never quit but know when to walk away.
- Situations are neutral, perspective dictates whether they are positive or negative.
- Contain comfort but don’t suppress it.
- Life is both precious and beautiful.
- Never work for extrinsic motivators.
- Above all else, love to your fullest ability.
Now that I look at it seven seems like a lot, but I’ll stick with these for now.
