Guiding Principles
These are a few of the guiding principles that I've come to try my best to follow.
I’m writing these guiding principles as if some higher being is talking to me and telling me exactly what to do. I’ve learned them over the past 1-2 years—since early 2023. I wish I had used them more because it would have saved me some headache. Now, upon re-reading them, I decided that I’ll write them down in this form of a blog.
1. Time is Ticking
Time is not waiting for you. Each passing day brings you closer to your imminent death. Is what you’re doing right now bringing you closer to your mission?
2. Death is the Ultimate Reality
From 50 Cent and Robert Greene’s 50th Law.
If anything is real about life, it’s that you will cease to exist—your death is inevitable. To not accept this fact is to not accept reality. To not be in constant awareness of this fact is to live a risky life in which you fail to take full advantage of the little time that you have left.
3. You See You
At the end of the day, the judgement of others is meaningless to your own judgement of yourself. You see exactly what you do and what you think, and you know full well whether you’re doing right by you. If you don’t see yourself in high regard, then what’s the point?
4. The Answer to Everything is Patience
Whatever you are waiting or longing for, it will come as long as you do your part. Just wait. Do something else in the meantime. Be patient.
5. Consistency is Everything
Results come from the compounded effect of consistent, small acts towards a goal. Keep pushing. Keep showing up every day. Do this part. Do your part. Be consistent, and results will come.
6. Real Life Happens in Real Life
Stop following to random Youtubers or podcasters. They don’t live your life, and they may as well have an agenda. Be intentional about the information you consume online, but otherwise, internalize the fact that real life happens in real life. There’s 8 billion people, and there’s no amount of study on humans that can have a large enough sample size (without being prohibitively expensive) to make any reasonable conclusion on the essence of human behaviors.
Here’s an alternative. Live your experience. Find the connections between the different localities that you explore, but be careful about drawing any conclusion that is too general. Trust your reality, but be open to being wrong.
7. Choose People that Choose You
This is the simplest way to have self-respect: choose people that choose you. People will tell you that they choose you in their own original and unique ways, but here’s the thing: if you pay careful attention, it will be obvious who is choosing you and who isn’t. You can’t find your people if you don’t take the first step (or a few first steps even). However, if these aren’t reciprocated (again, in their own original and unique ways), just walk away and look for others (or perhaps, stick to those who have already chosen you).
All of that to say, respect yourself and choose those that choose you. It’ll save you a lot of headache.
