Unbreakable Rules I have created for myself:
Rule no. 1 — Be of clear mind. Don't let your mind become a slave to fantasies, emotions, impulses, illnesses, intoxicants, ideas, and the like. This will ground you in reality.
Rule no. 2 — Never run from the truth. You have a tendency to engage in escapism when you are under pressure or facing life's obstacles or challenges. You must resist escapism. Escapism will only lead you to ruin. Face your truth and do what you must do based on that truth. If you are stupid, admit it and educate yourself. If you are scared, admit it and learn to act with courage. If you are anxious, work on your controlling your emotions and behavior. And so on and so forth. Never let the dark sides of your humanity win. This rule is the most important of them all.
Rule no. 3 — You are solely responsible for doing everything that you do not want to do in order to be what you want to be and have what you want to have. Get off your ass and do it. Maximum effort only. It doesn't matter who is at fault. If it is your responsibility, take care of it.
Rule no. 4 — Your opinion has more value than all other opinions. Only facts supersede your opinions. But be wary. To avoid costly mistakes, do not opine without critical thought, humility, and a willingness to accept truth, logic, or reason. Take your opinions and the process of forming them extremely seriously.
Rule no. 5 — You have everything you need inside you. Starve your distractions and your insecurities. Pain and fear and shame and coveting and the like are distractions and insecurities. Make sure they die every day.
Rule no. 6 — Stay motivated and focused on the plan. It's easy to lose sight, especially after a huge success or a damaging loss. You must do whatever is necessary to keep yourself motivated and focused on achieving the goals you set. This rule is very important.
Rule no. 7 — Fuck everyone that is not you. Their opinions do not count in your life mission. People are people. What they think about your life is not your concern and should never factor into your life's mission. The higher you go, the harder this will become. Stay the course.
Rule no. 8 — Always pay attention to what you are thinking, doing, saying, and the like. You pay attention by never allowing your mind to fully relax. There is no finish line, and every success can just as easily become a failure. Celebrations, indulgences, luxuries, excessive food, sloth, vacations, rewards, and leisure are distractions. Starve them.
Rule no. 9 — Emotions are just messengers. Sometimes they tell the truth, sometimes they distort it, and other times they flat-out lie to you. Never put too much stock in them.
Rule No. 10 — No one is your enemy, but no one is your friend either. Every relationship is temporary and transactional, no matter what they say.
Rule no. 11 — Your goals should be more internally motivated than externally motivated. In other words, cultivate internal values as much as possible, and reframe external values into internal ones as much as possible.
A good way to test if a goal is internally motivated is that no one can answer the question of whether it has been achieved but you, even if they are watching you. So, for example—Do you want a clean home for others to admire? vs. Do you want a clean home because you want a clean home. The first can be answered by others, but the latter cannot.
Another test is that the rewards for internally motivated goals are almost instantaneous, while the rewards for externally motivated goals are delayed. This is not always true, but it is a good indicator. Using the previous “clean home” example, the admiration from others never happens immediately, but the personal desire for a clean home is fulfilled as soon as the home is clean.
Finally, internal values are not inherently good, and external values are not inherently bad. The two are simply different, each with its own rewards and obstacles. Like everything else in life, there are pros and cons to both. External values can lead to suffering because they depend on external circumstances and/or people, while internal values can aim too low, leading to stagnation and, at times, dysfunction.
