Orientation
Remember that life is finite; choose deliberately
“A man lives two lives. The second starts when he realizes he has just one.”
Be authentic, not performative
“Esse quam videri”
To be rather than to seem.
Let money serve freedom, family, and room to build
“Money is a good servant, but a bad master.”
Guide your behavior with gratitude
“Honor your father and your mother.”
Be a net positive to the world
“Try and leave this world a little better than you found it.”
Agency
Blame is the source of agency
“Power follows the blame finger.”
Identity is chosen in the response, not dictated by the stimulus
“The last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
Hope is an active choice from within
“That's the funny thing about hope, nobody else gets to decide if you feel it - that choice belongs to you.”
Do your part fully; release the outcome
“盡人事待天命”
Do your utmost; await Heaven's will.
If you're smart, you can be happy
“The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.”
Courage
Uncertainty is the price of a life with upside
“The presence of true profit, therefore, depends on an absolute uncertainty.”
Mistakes of omission trade current pain for future pain
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.”
Build the circle deliberately; your companions shape your trajectory
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Stay agile; reality gets a vote
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
A decline isn't failure — it can be the path from a local peak to a higher one
“Negative gradients necessarily separate local and global maxima.”
Craft
Act on creative energy before it decays
“Inspiration is perishable.”
Do not just know the lesson; act on it
“知行合一”
Knowing and acting are one.
Rush the inputs; be patient with the outcomes
“Be impatient with actions, but patient with results.”
Build the systems you want to fall to under pressure
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Move with urgency, but make the pace sustainable
“Festina lente”
Make haste slowly.
The body is part of the operating system
“Mens sana in corpore sano”
A sound mind in a sound body.
Treat constraints as part of the design, not evidence that life is broken
“It's a feature, not a bug.”
Assume ignorance before malice
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance.”
Presence
Play the present game well; do not live multiple chapters at once
“Age quod agis”
Do what you are doing.
Do not postpone the good life
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
Learn to sit with yourself without escaping
“All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.”
Remember how many prayers your ordinary life already answers
“More than a billion people would consider their prayers answered if they could trade places with you.”
Temperance
Zoom out until the drama returns to scale
“If you zoom out far enough you can't see the Earth.”
Do not over-judge fortune while the story is still unfolding
It's your decision to add suffering to pain
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
Welcome every emotion, or joy won't follow
“Joy is the matriarch of a family of emotions. She won't come into your house until her children are welcome.”
The mood you're in is up to you
“If you can be in a bad mood for no reason, you might as well be in a good mood for no reason.”
Best not to constantly compare with others
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Be your own best friend; care for yourself as a responsibility
“Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.”
Use pleasure deliberately; do not use it to escape
“Μηδὲν ἄγαν”
Nothing in excess.