12 rules to change your life in 12 months

My life philosophy, condensed

Life is so much better when you have a code to operate by.

Because most people have been tricked into thinking they want "freedom." Absolute freedom is synonymous with absolute chaos. The only reason you think you want freedom is because you're living by a set of rules you didn't create.

So when you feel like you need to escape your life, you take time off from work and go on vacation. But after a week or so, the simulated honeymoon phase ends and the tourist novelty wears off, and you find yourself unfulfilled wanting to go back to structure.

Long term, and for the majority of people who hate their jobs, you can't wait to retire - a promise marketed to you since you were a child like a Clickfunnels landing page with a 40 year countdown timer. Little do you realize that's just another vacation you'll get bored of, because that's how the mind works.

The core mechanism of our brains is that they are "pattern-making machines" evolved to solve specific problems with limited resources, not to handle unlimited possibilities. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the godfather of flow psychology, argued that happiness comes from "taking control over the contents of our consciousness," creating what we know as the flow state: periods of complete absorption where people experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life.

Again, you don't want freedom.

You want the freedom to create your own rules of the game.

You don't want to be assigned goals from parents, teachers, or employers, but you mistake that for not wanting structure as a whole, so you crave the one thing - freedom - that will make your life substantially worse. Double edged sword.

If you want to increase the enjoyment, creativity, and lack of distractions in your life, the solution is to do what all successful people do: discover and create a set of personal principles to operate by.

You need to create your own little world and become immersed in it.

Most people will give you the destination.

Some will give you the steps in the journey.

But nobody gives you the navigation system to set your own destination and create the steps.

Below you will not find another guru's "proven system," but a meta framework to discover what your unique rules can be.

These are 12 rules to change your life.

Give yourself 12 months.

I - Reject the average life

Life is a series of decisions.

The single decision that determines all other decisions is to vehemently reject the trajectory you are set on at birth.

[Full body continues with all 12 rules: I-Reject the average life, II-Commit to excellence, III-Standards create identity, IV-Project based learning, V-Daily levers, VI-Become a deep generalist, VII-Entrepreneurship is spiritual, VIII-Become a "creator", IX-Uncertainty is signal not noise, X-Engineer enthusiasm, XI-Self experimentation, XII-How to live a unique life — full text in source]

– Dan