Here are 15 rules for life that can serve as guiding principles:
Be True to Yourself: Embrace your authenticity. Understand your values, passions, and beliefs, and live in accordance with them. Authenticity fosters a sense of fulfilment and genuine connections with others. Everyone is brilliant, so find that brilliance.
Practice Gratitude: Cultivate a mindset of gratitude. Acknowledge and appreciate the positive aspects of your life. Gratitude can enhance your well-being and shift your focus from what’s lacking to what you have.
Learn Continuously: Never stop learning. Seek knowledge and experiences that challenge and expand your understanding. Embrace curiosity as a lifelong companion.
Embrace Failure as a Learning Opportunity: Failure is a natural part of life. Instead of fearing it, view failure as a valuable teacher. Learn from your mistakes, adapt, and use setbacks as stepping stones to success. Sometimes purposefully suffer loss or failure knowing that much greater success awaits the other side from it.
Prioritise Mental and Physical Well-being: Take care of your mind and body. Regular exercise, proper nutrition, and sufficient sleep contribute to overall well-being. Mental health is as important as physical health, they operate in symbiosis.
Cultivate Positive Relationships: Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who uplift and inspire you. Foster meaningful connections and invest time in nurturing relationships that contribute positively to your life. Cut out negative relationships and do not hold onto relationships that were once important or positive which have since become moribund.
Take Risks: Step out of your comfort zone and embrace calculated risks. Growth often comes from challenging yourself and facing the unknown. Don’t let fear or haters hold you back from pursuing your dreams.
Be Mindful: Practice mindfulness by staying present in the moment. Be aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. Mindfulness enhances self-awareness and helps manage stress. Work near a big clock knowing that every tick is a tick well spent or forfeited.
Live with Purpose: Identify your life’s purpose or overarching goals. Living with purpose provides direction, motivation, and a sense of fulfilment. Align your actions with your larger sense of meaning. Get up at 5 and go to bed no later than 10 except for dinner parties and other social events that are important to augment life.
Be Kind and Compassionate: Practice kindness and compassion towards yourself and others but focus on those who will benefit. Small acts of kindness can have a significant impact on your well-being and contribute to a more positive and compassionate world. Do not be a do-gooder unless the target is precise and renders them value.
Practice Resilience: Life is full of challenges. Develop resilience by adapting to adversity, bouncing back from setbacks, and learning from difficult experiences. Resilience helps you navigate life’s ups and downs with grace. If you have managed the previous ten points you are as strong as an ox already so become as strong as an African buffalo.
Foster Empathy: Cultivate empathy by seeking to understand and share the feelings of others. Empathy builds meaningful connections, promotes compassion, and contributes to a more compassionate and understanding world. But never brownnose, name-drop or creep.
Set Boundaries: Establish healthy boundaries in your personal and professional life. Clearly communicate your limits and priorities to maintain a balance that supports your well-being and prevents burnout. Never be unfaithful.
Celebrate Successes, Big and Small: Take time to acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Recognising successes boosts confidence, motivation, and a positive mindset.
Value Time: Recognise the significance of time. Prioritise tasks, set goals, and manage your time effectively. Time is a finite resource, so use it wisely to pursue what truly matters to you. Focus on those closest to you rather than spreading time thin.
Dominic has edited Country Squire Magazine in the UK since 2016, overseeing the opening of an Indian edition in Bangalore in 2021 – he occasionally writes for other publications including India’s Sunday Guardian. In the course of his travels, Dom met his wife, Widdie, a Venezuelan beauty queen and TV presenter, with whom he has two children. Dom’s a small c conservative of moderate views and backs up his conservative stance by chairing a heritage trust and actively supporting groups opposing hardliner socialists in Venezuela. He enjoys nothing more than exposing hypocrisy and wrongdoing on Britain’s Far Left, however long it takes and however much flak he gets while the Truth surfaces. After hanging up his rugby boots, Dom became a keen fly fisherman and – if not on a plane – can be found on a riverbank somewhere beside his trusty chocolate labs or frantically digging his terrier out of a hole. For more on Dom look here.
Foootsoldier Says… 