Some life-driving principles
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Life could be sometimes too short. Without a purpose that drives you to do something useful and meaningful, then life could be very boring. I’ve been analyzing people and myself all over the years, realizing that boredom itself is kind of a not realizing your mission in life, and, in consequence, not doing what you are supposed to be doing right now.
This is what I try to do every day I wake up:
Focus, use your time wisely 🕐
There are a lot of distractions: I don’t have to tell you that without discipline, we spend the day watching TV, browsing social networks, YouTube, and doing unproductive stuff. Of course, we can and need to have some relax-time, but, when life itself is completely an act of leisure then, in fact, we’re wasting our time. So, what to do? Simple and hard at the same time: focus on materializing your purpose in life, one step at a time. Avoid unproductive activities or -at least- reduce their occurrences.
Do what you love ❤️
I have a story about this: Once I finished college, the first job I got was painful and stressful, a very toxic place, full of envy and bad wishes, doing unproductive stuff and wasting my time, even when I didn’t want to because I was supposed to be there -let’s say- “forced” for almost two years (kind of a mandatory social service). The first day I saw myself there and thought “I won’t make it, I won’t hold on here not for even a year”, I realized that -indeed- it was not the right place for me. Well, it took me three months to radicalize myself and take the proper decision (with its consequences), so I left that place once and for all. Once I’ve done it, immediately I got a hundred “new doors” opened, new professional and personal opportunities, then I began working from home, being my own boss, with an open schedule and having time for everything. Now, I’m founding a startup with another partner. Isn’t wonderful?
So, again, life is too short. Tired of your current job? Not in the right place? You know what to do: be brave and take the necessary decisions, do all you can to be doing what you love, and to be in the right place. Do what you love, fight for it!
Observe yourself and your thoughts 🔭
Be aware of what you’re thinking, every time you can. Practice the ability to discern what comes from your heart and what comes from your mind, they are different living things: the mind is just a little puppet distracting you all day, while the heart really represents your deepest wishes. Whenever you are in a dilemma, don’t follow your mind, follow your heart.
Create cool stuff 🎁
People need things, people need services, and in my case: people need software. Find something new and create it, fill in the gap with your creativity, create cool stuff and give it to others.
Keep a “To Do” list 📋
Don’t trust your own memory, whenever you have to do something, write it on a piece of paper, it could be an agenda, a calendar, an application, or whatever you want. Just write it and check it. This is the habit of highly successful people. Use due dates and plan your time. Are you leading a project or simply want to plan a trip? I recommend using Trello, it has changed my life.
Keep a “To Be” list 📋
Transforming and improving ourselves takes our entire life. We need to know where do we want to go and who do we want to become. So, keeping a “To Be” list is a great idea.
Be radical 💪
This is just a piece of advice: People say “you cannot be with God and the devil at the same time”. Have trouble deciding something? Be radical, assume the consequences and learn from them. Sometimes avoiding a decision could lead us to the worst scenarios. Being radical also allows us to focus on what does really matters.
Be grateful & stay positive 👍
I once heard that “pain is just weakness leaving your body”, sometimes life can be very hard and painful, even though, be grateful and positive. Be grateful for good and bad things in your life, you can learn from both. Be grateful for what you have, for being alive, for your own life story. Not being grateful puts you in a bad-feelings frequency that reduces your growth potential. Being grateful and positive multiplies and attracts good experiences, persons, and things. So, stay in the right frequency or -at least- try it every day.
Practice love and respect 🤗
Don’t waste your time and energy hating others, or trying to harm, or competing. Instead, practice love in all its aspects: love yourself, love your family, love your partner, love your friends -(love what you do)-. Also, respect and consider others’ opinions, positions and beliefs, respect yourself and others. Practicing love and respect will put you in the right creative frequency that will also stimulate your growth.
Forgive yourself and others, stop holding grudges 🤝
Another important point is to recognize that we are not perfect, no one is. You’ve made a mistake? That’s OK, forgive yourself and go on. Does someone harm you? Forgive it also, and leave it to God, or Tao, or karma or whatever, but just skip over it and continue your life. Don’t fight, forgive and go on.
Read every day, learn continuously 📚
We have to accept a fact: no one knows everything, we’re more ignorant than we think. Always doubt, be curious, question your own knowledge, evolve, and learn. Reading everyday materials related to your interests is a very crucial habit to success in life. Never stop questioning, never stop learning.
Embrace change ✨
Most companies that survive across the years are changing and evolving continuously. Personally, I have some friends that criticize me because of my thought-changes and my sudden and unexpected decision revoking, to embrace other decisions; that happens because I discover a personal mistake and correct it immediately. In the case of a developer, like myself, technologies like frameworks or programming languages could sometimes get addictive, I always try to move to cutting-edge technologies, embracing new proposals, evolving, and growing. Those who do not change continuously remain irremediably in the past. Never fear change because change is the only eternal thing in the universe. Everything changes, continuously, you should too.
A final consideration 🔽
These are some of the principles that I apply in my life and I thought it’s a good idea to share them with you. There are a lot of others, but these are the ones that I consider most important. Also, writing this article has been a good introspection exercise of remembering them and putting them together.
Want a challenge? Write your life-driving principles, put them in a frame in your room or office and check yourself on them, it always helps.
Thanks for reading. ❤️
