Summary

The article outlines 11 personal development laws based on the author's experiences over three years of self-improvement and content creation.

Abstract

The author shares insights gained from a transformative period of personal growth, encapsulated in 11 life "laws." These laws emphasize the importance of embracing the unknown without feeling inadequate, reserving opinions for well-understood topics, treating personal endeavors seriously, accepting failure as a part of growth, challenging initial thoughts, prioritizing focus over a multitude of tasks, understanding emotions for better productivity, equating ambition with action rather than planning, acknowledging that worthwhile achievements are not easily attained, preparing for projects to take longer and cost more than expected, and recognizing that life is a continuous series of challenges. The author encourages readers to reflect on these laws and invites them to join a community of like-minded individuals through a newsletter.

Opinions

The author believes that it's acceptable, even necessary, to not have an opinion on everything due to the vastness of knowledge and the dynamic nature of information.
They advocate for treating one's own projects and dreams as legitimate and significant, suggesting that this mindset is crucial for their realization.
The author posits that failure is not as catastrophic as it is often perceived and that the fear of failure is largely unfounded.
Questioning one's initial thoughts is presented as a valuable practice, implying that many thoughts are influenced by external sources and may not be entirely original or accurate.
The article suggests that true productivity stems from mastery of one's emotions, rather than relying on external tools or systems like Notion templates.
Ambition is defined by the author as the tangible actions one takes, not merely the desire or planning phase.
The author expresses that the difficulty of challenges is what makes overcoming them rewarding, and that this struggle is an inherent part of life.
Acknowledging the tendency for projects to exceed initial time and cost estimates, the author advises readers to plan accordingly.
The author concludes that life will always present problems, and learning to adapt to this constant stream of challenges is key to maintaining progress and resilience.

11 Eye-Opening Laws for Living (And Becoming the Highest Version of Yourself)

The ideas that have shaped my life over the last 3 years

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

You can transform your life in 12 months.

You can, you can, you can. I have. You just need to make the tiny (but significant) switch in your mind that basically is this:

You’ll work harder than you ever imagined and you won’t see any reward for 12 months.

On paper, you might look near on identical to where you started but beneath the surface, you’ve planted the seeds (and they’ve taken root) to build something incredible in your future.

Three years ago I started writing on the internet, it’s only now I’m seeing those saplings break the surface and stretch in the sun.

Here are 11 laws that I now live by.

Law 1: Don’t dwell on what you don’t know (but appreciate it)

The world is a complicated, unique, intricate place. People spend their entire lives relentlessly pursuing and mapping out the desperate details of one tiny rabbit hole.

People who dedicate their lives to understanding how synapses fire or how neurons interlink or the exact equation of special relativity.

There are not enough lifetimes to discover the vastness of the knowledge in the world and that’s okay. It’s okay to screw your face up when pondering the detail of the world and all the things you don’t know.

The lens is one of deep appreciation but not, I repeat, not inadequacy. You are not less for not knowing 99% of the knowledge in the world.

You’re human.

Law 2: Don’t have an opinion on everything

On the topic of knowledge comes opinion. The way I see it, an opinion is formed from consuming knowledge and making an assessment.

To nod to point one, there is an incomprehensible amount of knowledge to acquire on a single topic alone, it’s near on impossible to hold all the knowledge on a subject in your brain and make an accurate assessment.

Added to the fact that knowledge doesn’t sit still for long. For those things you have less than 0.01% of the knowledge on, it’s okay to simply say: I don’t have an opinion.

Law 3: Make your thing, ‘a’ thing

For most of my life, I’ve shied away from making things real. I played elite-level football level as a kid, I was good. The trouble was, female football (soccer) wasn’t the beast it is today and I told myself it wasn’t a real thing.

The same can be said for every business endeavour I’ve ever dared to dream about. Over and over again, in my head, I told myself this wasn’t a real thing. It was a pipe dream.

If you do one thing, make whatever your thing is, make it a real thing. At the very least, to you.

Law 4: Make peace with failure

I don’t actually know why we’re all so scared of failure.

It’s a concept I sort of just agreed to. Then, a few years ago I kept failing, over and over.

And guess what? Nothing happened.

The lights don’t go out, you don’t get booed off stage… literally, nothing happens.

Once you grasp the fact that everybody (I mean everybody) is too busy thinking about themselves to worry about you, you realize that failure is a ‘you’ thing, not a them thing. It’s just you that needs to be okay with it.

Law 5: Question your first thought

The first thought that comes to mind is often (not always) the result of something else you’ve read, seen or heard.

The best thing you can do is question that thought. It doesn’t mean you need to dismiss it but it does warrant at least (at the very least) a question.

Law 6: Less is more

Time is a finite resource.

When you take on more things, you have less time to allocate to this long list of to-dos. I knew that. But for a long time, I didn’t really know that. It was one of those things I agreed to but never considered fully.

You can only go far if you have a few (ideally one) destination.

Law 7: Productivity is emotion mastery

If you want to be more productive, get to know your emotions.

Learn what makes you sad, happy and indifferent. Figure out what compels you to go into a tailspin of Instagram-fuelled rage and what gets you fired up to work hard.

Learn those things, you’ll never need a Notion template again in your life.

Law 8: Ambition is procrastination

Your actions calculate your ambition.

Journalling your dreams isn’t ambition. Tapping out your plan. Leaning back on your chair eyes closed, caffeinated, envisioning your life, is not ambition.

Ambition is the physical act of doing the work. Ambition goes after the equals sign, not before. It’s a result, not a function.

Law 9: It’s not meant to be easy

There is a desperation for easy.

A longing for things to be a breeze, a walk in the park, a stroll if you will. But life, fortunately (and that’s not meant to say, unfortunately) is not like that. It’s full of jaw-tensing, fist-clenching frustrations.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought everything was going to come crashing down…

It’s banging your head on the table, head-in-your-hands type days, often. It’s not meant to be easy. Of course, it isn’t, would highs feel so good if it was?

If you look, there’s a real beauty in that.

Law 10: It takes longer (and costs more) than you think

I’m renovating a house, maybe I’ve told you…

In the beginning, you’re full of excitement, visions and naivety — ‘It’ll take six months and cost $30k’. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Now, 7 months later and definitely more than $30k in, I’ve realised that there is a general rule of renovation that can be applied to life:

It takes twice as long (and costs twice as much) as you think.

Law 11: There’s always something

I used to be in the habit of thinking ‘once this problem is out of the way, things will be fine’. Promptly I’d solve said problem and then another one would come bumbling along.

I’d sit feeling short-changed. I’d just solved one gaping problem and now I was staring down the barrel at another, how was this fair?

The reality is, or at least I’ve found, that life is a series of problems. One after another. After another. After another. I can think of very few times in my life that I can remember zero problems — there’s always something.

The trick is learning to roll with the punches.

You read to the end. You’ve earned the invitation to join well over 17,000+ on my free newsletter — The Part-Time Creator Club.