The Rules for Your Life

The Most Important ETR Article Ever

The first article we published upon taking over Early to Rise just might be the most important one ever.  And so, just over a year since publishing my rules, I want to share them with you again. If you haven't yet created your own, please do. It could be the most important document you ever create, too. Having your own set of rules could be the "fix" you need in your life.

Craig Ballantyne

"I will write with honesty and feeling." - Ted Nicholas

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By Craig Ballantyne

The one thing I admire about people who have strong nutrition beliefs is their dogmatic behavior.

For example, a vegetarian, under no circumstances, will ever eat meat. There is no, "well, everyone else is having a burger, so just this once, I will too."

That's not how it works.

Not when a vegetarian has a strong personal philosophy that they never, ever, ever eat meat.

And that strong personal philosophy guides them to guilt-free behavior that is congruent with their goals.

I've also taught my fat loss clients to develop their own personal philosophy - essentially a set of rules that dictate decisions, and I've also created my own rules that determine how I live my life so that I reduce guilt, stress, and wasted emotional energy.

Now the purpose of this email is not to say that my personal philosophies are wrong or right.

Instead, they are simply here to encourage you to adopt your own rules for the sake of living a better, more productive stress free life. ?You may have your own rules in your head, but I encourage you to put them in writing. And you can adopt a set of rules for every aspect of your life, from health to financial to family and business.

These are the 12 rules I live by:

1. I go to bed and get up at the same time 7 days per week (9pm and 5am.) I do not deviate from this schedule unless it is due to an important (and this word is not used lightly) work or social function.  I stick to a diet of whole, natural foods, avoid caffeine after 1pm, and avoid alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime.
2. I write for at least 60 minutes first thing every morning. 
3. I do not check email before 9am. 
4. I do not talk on the phone unless it is a scheduled interview or conference call. 
5. I create a to-do list at the end of every workday and I follow that to-do list starting first thing the next morning. I also perform my daily readings at the end of every workday, and I write in a gratitude journal. I am thankful everyday for identifying my mission and what I wanted to do with my life at such a young age. 
6. I do not engage in confrontations with anyone, in-person or online. This is a waste of time and energy. If I have caused harm, I apologize and fix the situation. However, if someone simply doesn't like something I have done or something that I do or disagrees with me, that is fine, but I'm not going to get into an argument about it. For any confrontation-like situation, I simply take a deep breath, relax, breathe out, and re-focus my efforts back on my work and goals. 
7. I am guided by these two phrases: 
• "Nothing matters." - By this, I mean that arguing on the internet changes nothing...I can only work towards the major, massive goals that I have set for my life...that I have a vision of helping others, and there is no time to let petty arguments stand in the way.
• "It will all be over soon." - This servers me in both good times and in bad. In hard times, such as bad days, troubled times, or intense physical effort or discomfort, I know that it will all be over soon. A small amount of suffering now will be forgotten later when I will enjoy the rewards of my work. And in good times, I will remember that life is short, and I must make things count now, and no matter how good things are going I must never let myself become soft and lazy, because I have too much to accomplish in such a short time.
8. Everything that happens to me - good and bad - is my personal responsibility. I blame no one but myself. These are the choices I've made - this is the life I'm living. I will accept the consequences of my actions. 
9. I will not stop until I have helped 1 Million men and women transformed their lives - physically, financially, or emotionally. 
10. I will not be the person I don't want to be. I will not be petty, jealous, or envious, or give in to any other of those lazy emotions. I will not gossip or speak badly of others, no matter who I am with or what environment I am in. I will not be negative when it is easier to be positive. I will not hurt others when it is possible to help. I will know the temptations, situations and environments in life that I must avoid, and I will, in fact, avoid them, even if it means loosening relationships with others who "live" in those environments. It's my life and that matters more than what other people think of me. 
11. "I will always keep the child within me alive." - Frank McKinney. I will laugh everyday. That's not hard when you have the friends - and dog - that I have. And if they don't make me laugh, there's plenty of comedy on Netflix. 
12. "I will write with honesty and feeling." - Ted Nicholas. I've long since giving up caring about how others choose to judge me. What matters more than other's opinions is the number of people that I can help by sharing advice and encouragement in my writing. The most powerful songs are written by songwriters who bare their souls. So screw it, let's do it. Let's put it all out there. I'm not going to help as many people as I could if I keep the "real info" to myself. I also understand now, better than ever, that sometimes you have to "write to repel" in order to strongly attract the readers you desire.

So that's it. These 12 rules allow me to live my life with less guilt, more energy, and more productivity than if I did not have these personal philosophies outlined.

Now I know there will be two types of reactions to this content. First, some will dismiss it - and dismiss me.

But to those people, remember the point of the list is not for you to sit there and think, "Oh, what a total weirdo. I never want to hang around with this guy."

Instead, the point of the list, the idea, the article is to simply stimulate your thinking.

And that's the 2nd type of reaction you can have to this article.

This is the reaction of the people who I'm interested in - the people who will realize what's holding them back is not a lack of knowledge (because the knowledge is out there and freely available), but instead, it is decision making.

Listen, I know that every week you make decisions that leave you full of guilt and remorse, but on the other hand you also make decisions that you
know are correct - even though they are difficult to make.

Wouldn't you be better off if you made MORE correct decisions with less effort?

Of course, and that is where you rules to live by, your personal philosophies, come into play.

With this post, I've given you a model so that you can create your own personal philosophies that will allow you to make the correct decision and fewer decisions that leave you with remorse.

As a result of making more correct decisions, you'll move closer to your goals and suffer less frustration. Life will be simpler once you start adhering to your own personal philosophies - and not worrying about what others think.