Rules For Living

Posted in .../tyler.uebele on 2011-10-17 23:05:03

I'm working on a set of personal rules; a code for living a better life. I don't always uphold these, but I'm working on it. I want to be a better man today than I was yesterday, tomorrow than I am today.

Being of one mind means avoiding duality, internal conflicts, divisiveness. One should seek completeness. It means saying what one means, and meaning what one says. It means not doing things one fears to admit. It means living one life. Examples of one-mindedness: 1.1. Say what you mean, mean what you say One should not deceive others. One should not deceive self. 1. Be of One Mind One should not have unfinished business. One should not waste, or leave a mess in their wake. One should complete all their works. Examples of finishedness: 2.1. Don't Waste "Don't bite off more than you can chew." Resources are limited, time most of all. Get more out of what you have by minimizing loss. Sometimes scraps are unavoidable and unusable, but don't get 2. Finish What You Start Sometimes things get in our way. Sometimes things are beyond our control. When they are not, we ought not pretend they are. One should be true to their failures; accept them and not hide them behind fake excuses. 3. Don't Fake Excuses For all things having a benefit and a cost, a pleasure and a pain, a high and a low; if the pleasure comes before the pain, the high before the low; if "you're going to pay for it later," it is not worth it. If the benefit comes after the cost, it is. 4. Early Pleasure Is Not Worth Later Pain One should verify what one knows. We all see the world though our own eyes. We all learn what we are taught; by teachers with their own eyes, who were taught by other teachers. Sometimes our trusted sources, or their sources, are wrong. Sometimes we forget. We should check our facts. This isn't always easy. Sometimes it simply isn't practical to verify the Eart 5. Check Your Facts Many times in life we face decisions that make us nervous. Many times, not doing a thing, or repeatedly not doing a thing, will depress us. One should find satisfaction in life doing the things that make them nervous. In so doing we overcome our fears, but in remaining idle in our fears, we do not overcome our depressions. 6. Do What Makes You Nervous, Instead of Depressed If one is offended by the words of another, one has to decide if those words speak truth. If they do, one should take the criticism to heart and live better, so as to make them wrong. If not, one can rest in knowing they were wrong, continuing to live the life that makes them wrong. Either way, the response is the same: Live a life that disproves the insult. 7. Disprove Insults When we compare ourselves to others, we often end up comparing our secret shames to their public victories. There is no winning such comparisons, only feelings of inadequacy. When we openly compare others, at least one of them will feel sadness about the comparison. When we compare our in-group to our out-group, we often end up comparing the out-group's worst examples to our in-group's bes 8. Comparison is the Thief of Joy