General Rules for Living

• Up by 6am
Get a head start on others. How can you get ahead when others have completed half a day's work before you even get up?
• Work out, preferably with some goal-oriented practical style.
Sculpted body, martial arts, dance, whatever...hampsters running in wheels are healthy but have nothing else to show for it.
• Write: book ideally. If engaged in text discussions, refrain from largely content-free replies, write a meaningful one-pageish text worth publishing on web page.
If you have nothing worth saying, don't say it. If you do, say it fully and record it for posterity.
There's a lot in your head that others want to hear: organize and polish your thoughts into a book.
• Sunday: a holy day of rest.
God put this one ahead of the commandment forbidding murder. Go figure.
• Formal bible study weekly.
Sleeping thru a sermon once a week isn't enough. Get involved with other like-minded studious folk.
• Listen to spouse. Live to fulfill him/her needs and wants.
Live 100% for the other. Takes both to make this work. This - paradoxically - includes letting the other be selfish as needed.
• Don't compromise. Find mutually completely satisfactory solutions.
  Compromise means both giving something up. This is rarely necessary...if you both look for creative solutions.
• Daily reading with spouse.
Share ideas and stories. Get ideas together.
• Put away the TV. Watch only special events. Videos OK. Movies/theater better.
Better yet, shoot your TV.
No-ad paid-admission events exist for the content, while ad-sponsored shows exist only to grab your eyeballs for those ads.
• Counry life: own large self-built house with land.
  Dirt gives life. Concrete supresses it.
  Live spaciously. Have room to think and create in peace.
• Own few things: don't have much, but have best. Get rid of pointless duplicates. Save up and buy excellence.
  If you don't have time to use and enjoy your things on a regular basis, why have them? 
  Excellence is timeless and retains value. The rest belong on eBay.
• Art: own and make.
  Own original artwork, something unique and beautiful. 
  Express yourself.
• Study. Always have at least one degree in progress, even if master's, black belt, or community college associate's.
  Learn constantly. Be able to prove you learned something.
• Be decisive.
  Better to choose wrong than choose nothing or blown by the wind...and end up wrong by default.
• Walk with spouse, at least once a week, preferably 2 miles per day.
  Exercise together. Be together. Experience the world together. Do all three in a single act.
• Camp.
  Problems become very small when you face basic survival head-on.
  Recognize that the world is much, much larger than your cubicle...and that most problems are very, very small.
• Bed by 9pm usually. Read, talk, cuddle, whatever...in bed.
  A good night's sleep begins with not staying up half the night.
• Play or concert at least once per month.
  Experience artistic excellence live.
• Keep house clean. Tidy up before bed, starting with kitchen. 
  If you don't have time for general cleanup (heavy work excluded) today, you've got too much stuff or distractions.
• Keep a few pampered plants.
  Bring the beauty of plant life into your home.
• Get a dog.
  If you don't know why, you desparately need one.
• Raise a child.
  Nothing is greater than creating and raising a human life. Don't let your genes and memes (ideas) die.
  A child brings everything else into better perspective.
• If possible, work at home - preferably own business. Work near spouse. Let child observe or participate.
  The industrial revolution destroyed something wonderful. Recover it.
  How can we expect children to become good workers if they never (or rarely) see parents working?
• Learn an alternate low-tech skill. Use the skill to retain it.
  You are one paycheck away from total self-dependency. Whether faced with basic unemployment or societal collapse, you should have an immediately saleable skill (sewing, blacksmith, armorer, etc.).
• Pay bills immediately upon receipt. Should have enough money on hand to do so.
  Just takes a minute now...or hours and past-due fines later.
  If you can't pay all your bills upon receipt, you're spending too much.
• Invest finances - aggressively.
  Except for predicted near-term needs, your money should be out making money.
• Music purchases: most should be no more than 2 years old. The rest should be bonified classics.
  That's "most", not "all".
  Art is moving forward. Don't get stuck in the past; little is worth repeating. Be aware of what's emerging.
• Model lifestyle after great people. 
  They did something right. Don't reinvent the wheel.
• Brand names: preferred, but with discretion.
  A good brand is based on something well-done. Finding and buying good brands improves chances of owning good things.
  Don't confuse popular brands with good brands.
• Clothing: "one small thing I can do to make the world more beautiful."
  People have to look at you. Make that experience pleasant.
  A Holocaust survivor was asked why he dressed so well all the time. "It's one small thing I can do to make the world more beautiful."
• Create "Brand You".
  Michael Jordan. Oprah Winfrey. Tommy Hilfiger. Martha Stewart. Donald Trump. You?
  Make a name for yourself. Make your name a brand.
• Keep list of what's special/important to spouse.
  You're not going to remember it all...and you're screwed if you don't.
• Love.
  In every sense of the word, as completely as humanly possible.