5 Rules I Use To Live a Better Life

I have a large number of rules that I implemented in my life that have been helping me become better than the person I was yesterday. I have never been one to settle for average and love pushing the pace. If you are happy with being average some of what I talk about here might offend or upset you. This is not my intention. I think we can all achieve more than we currently have and these are some of the things I am working on and think will help other people. This is the whole purpose of my blog aside from me wanting to improve my own writing skills. I hope this does help and if you have any feedback I am always happy to hear it, whether I agree with it or not.

1) Be The First One To Do The Dishes

Some people might call me crazy on this one. “Why would he want to be the first one to do the dishes” and to be honest a few years ago I would have said the same thing. 

I have come to realize that taking the easy way out of things no matter how significant is not the way to grow. Doing something as simple as this helps build those discipline muscles. Do I want to do the dishes? No, but I want to be helpful, I want to be of use, and I want to be doing things I don’t necessarily want to do on a daily basis. 

There will always be a little voice in the back of your mind telling you not to do something or why you can’t do something. 

I also think this shows your character. If you are the first one to get going on doing the dishes people notice. This says hey this person is reliable and is willing to put in the work. 

I have had so many people compliment me because of this. I am the type of person who wants to help out. Even if some of them do kick me out of the kitchen.

2) Early is on time and on time is late

Nothing is worse than being known as the person who is always late. To me, that shows a few things about the person. 

• You could care less about where you needed to be
• Disrespect of the time of the person who is waiting on you
• Unreliable
• Incompetent
• Bad at time management
• Excuse maker

Nothing says “I don’t give a fuck about your time” like being late and making the person wait on you. This drives me absolutely nuts. It doesn’t matter if you meant to do it or not. To me, this is a slap in the face. 

Being late will always be followed with excuses like “oh the traffic was bad” or “I slept in” or whatever bullshit you have because you don’t want to admit you could have done better. Stop focusing on why you can’t do something and start focusing on how you can get it done. This alone has been a huge paradigm shift for me and I think it will help you to.

This doesn’t only apply to business meetings, this applies to your friends or any appointment you have. Make a habit of giving a fuck about other people's time and I bet your life will be better for it.

3) Never choose the lazy way out

“If it were easy everyone would do it” and that is exactly what being lazy is, it’s easy. I never understood why people strive for the bare minimum. I mean that was me when I was a child and a kid in my early 20’s. 

Doing things you don’t want to do but doing them anyways is all part of growing up. This all goes back to doing hard things and challenging yourself. If you become better you will improve not only your life but the lives of people around you. There will be a ripple effect. 

The same is true if you are lazy and useless. This may be an unpopular idea but I believe that everyone is capable of better. Stop being a victim and being a sponge of society. I think laziness is a disease. Get up and take action on things that will move you forward!

With that being said, I am not saying you can’t take a break or have those lazy days. The problem I am trying to guide you away from is making those things a habit. Everyone needs some downtime and in fact, it is healthy to do every now and then. There is, however, a fine line between downtime and just being lazy.

If you are wondering why you have gone nowhere in life or perhaps your life isn’t where you want it to be maybe being overindulgent in lazy behavior might be a factor. This is not easy for people to admit but maybe sit down and really think about what kinds of things you are doing on a daily basis and ask yourself “Is this really going to help me get to where I want to be in life”. I know how easy it is to fall into the laziness trap and I was there but it got to a point where I really had to do some self-reflection and get my ass in gear.

This isn’t an overnight process either. Building discipline is a lifelong pursuit. It really depends if you are fine with being average or if you want to be extraordinary. To be more than average you will have to do things the average person won’t. The question now is, who do you want to be?

4) Never complain without a solution

It is ok to complain and vent to get things off your chest. But it is better to be thinking about ways to fix the problem. The more you get into problem-solving mode the better you will get at it and your brain will start to be wired for it. 

A lot of people will disagree with me here but just stop and think of how whining and complaining are helpful or beneficial at all. Does it really solve any of your problems? I have been trying to do this for a while now. Do I still bitch and moan without having anything productive to help the situation? Yeah, I am still human but being conscious of this allows me to take control and re-think the problem. 

Sit down and reflect on what you were bitching about. Ask yourself “is this something I can control”, “How can I fix the problem”, “what can I do to avoid feeling this way in the future”. It may sound crazy to you now but if you start doing this in your life it will make a difference.

Switch out of the cry baby mindset and start thinking like a problem solver.

5) Don't be resentful

In my experience, people seem to think that being resentful is a good thing. Again we come back to “if it were easy everyone would do it”. It is harder to forgive someone. It isn’t easy to let something go but if you live your life resentful of everyone who has ever wronged you it is a losing battle. This is allowing them to win and control your mental and emotional state. Being resentful is being in a state of negativity all the time. Negativity attracts more negativity and you become a sour and bitter person. This is such a drain of energy and a waste of time. It takes more energy to hate than it does to let go.

This is also something they teach in AA. This is for good reason. Resentment is toxic to our inner lives. The big book of alcoholics anonymous even says “Resentment is the number one offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else”. Any recovering alcoholic knows that if you are holding onto resentments you have a much lower chance of recovering. This is simply another form of addiction and if left unchecked it can be fatal.

“Consult your resentment. It’s a revelatory emotion, for all its pathology. It’s part of an evil triad: arrogance, deceit, and resentment. Nothing causes more harm than this underworld Trinity. But resentment always means one of two things. Either the resentful person is immature, in which case he or she should shut up, quit whining, and get on with it, or there is tyranny afoot—in which case the person subjugated has a moral obligation to speak up. Why? Because the consequence of remaining silent is worse. Of course, it’s easier in the moment to stay silent and avoid conflict. But in the long term, that’s deadly. When you have something to say, silence is a lie—and tyranny feeds on lies. When should you push back against oppression, despite the danger? When you start nursing secret fantasies of revenge; when your life is being poisoned and your imagination fills with the wish to devour and destroy.”