There are 3 principles by which I live my life. I do this because they're all simple to remember and they are deep enough to be flexible in their meanings. If I can close my day out asking whether I lived up to these 3 principles, it can give me an indicator as to which direction my life is headed in.
The 3 principles are:
- Become 1% better each day.
- Be kind to your future self.
- Always do the next best action.
Each of these can be manipulated, but let me outline why each principle helps me become a better person.
Become 1% better each day.
Each day, you should aim to become marginally better than you were the day before. When you lay down to sleep, you should be just a tiny bit better than when you woke up.
Whatever your goals are for yourself, taking tiny steps toward progress is much better than failed big leaps. Although a big leap now-and-again will really help.
Focus on building habits that incrementally make you healthier, happier, and smarter. Ditch the bullshit SMART goals. Goals suck because they have a fail state. Habits are better because they're bite sized and focus on making you better each day.
Be kind to your future self.
The person most responsible for your current situation is your past self. Your past self is often a jerk who is more pre-occupied with instant gratification. He wants to do what feels good in the moment and not thinking about you. I spent many hours hating past-Leon for what he did to me.
Throughout the day, I always have to question whether what I'm doing now is going to help future-Leon, or it's going to make future-Leon hate past-Leon.
Examples of being kind to your future self:
- When saving a file/note, give yourself the right context to help future-you remember what the intent was behind the note. Give contextual details.
- Take your exercise routine seriously, each past-you decision to workout will make future-you more confident, happy, and healthy.
Aim to treat your future-self kindly. Make your past-self an ally, not an enemy.
Always do the next best action.
Before you start working on the next task, always ask whether it's really the next best step to take. This does not need to be work related. If you have a child standing by your desk, clearly wanting attention - is it better to give your child a hug, or is it better to finalize that TPS report. I can't answer that for you. But do the next best action at those times.
Moments between tasks should always be filled with a level of prioritization. Don't blindly do things, do the next best thing.
If you do this, you'll spend less time playing video games and binging on TV shows - and more time spending time people you love, reading, and becoming a better person overall. Of course, sometimes video games and TV shows are the next best action - that's for you to decide.
BONUS: You lose what you don't pay attention to
Everything in life is about paying attention to certain things over others. When you don't pay attention to something, it'll leave your life. This goes for anything - your fitness, your wife, your family, and your job.
You will lose some things - you can't pay attention to everything. You have to prioritize what are the things you most likely want to pay attention to.