Principles That Help Me The Most In Life
Principles That Help Me The Most In Life
What Are Principles?
A principle is defined as a fundamental truth that serves as the foundation for a system, behaviour, or chain of reasoning. For me, the system I refer to is my self-system. The system that organises my entire life.
I’m aware this sounds quite intense. It almost sounds like principles could end up limiting your behaviour in a tunnel-vision-like behaviour. This can be solved through collaboration with others. And it doesn't have to be a task. Reflect on your life as you normally would. Mistakes, or flaws in your character. Specifically, gaps in your knowledge for which you need the opinions of others or biases. We all develop biases based on our environment. They are actions of supporting or opposing a particular thing due to personal opinions influencing judgement. This further enforces the need for collaborating with others, in all aspects of life, especially major decisions in life. Over time, principles could come naturally. That is how it happened to me.
Principles can be presented in many different ways. Your values. Your non-negotiables. My favourite is Ray Dalio’s Principles due to how much information exists in the practice. He has three books. The first introduces Principles. The second one explores Principles in the debt crises. And the most recent explores the cycle of empires and relevant principles to deal with this. Very geopolitics based. So it ties together my strongest interests.
How Can I Construct My Own Principles?
In short, principles collect our values in one place to consult when we make mistakes or problems arise in our lives. If you ever encounter a mistake or problem, reflect on it using the five-step framework (watch in video form at this link):
1) Define your goals.
2) Identify any problems in reaching this goal.
3) Look deeper. Diagnose these problems down to their cause. It is a bias you have or a gap in your knowledge. Is it your ego?
4) Design a plan to address this cause of the problem, to then approach the problem and aim to achieve your goal.
5) Push through to the completion of your goal.
From this comes the two possible scenarios.
A) If we find ourselves in a situation we have been in before, open up your principles. Consult your created principle the last time you had this problem.
B) If we find ourselves in a new situation, use the five-step framework to create a new principle for this problem.
The five-step framework is a key principle as it sets the groundwork upon which we build all other principles. After the five-step framework, here are my 15 key principles:
My 15 Key Principles:
1) Antifragility – Antifragility is a property of our systems. It details how our systems can increase their potential when it encounters stress, mistakes, or faults. So, don’t run from these experiences. Seek them out, to improve your systems. It could be a predetermined bias stopping you from doing a certain thing that turns out to be your purpose in life. Something to devote your career to.
2) Automation – Once an area or property of a system is established and functioning as intended, look for ways to automate it. Free up your own time for more innovation and creativity.
3) Beliefs – Consider which beliefs are human imagination, even though they don’t seem like it. Borders between nations, although key aspects of life on Earth, have been adopted by humans over the years to become what they are today, as an example. And they will adapt again. Also, seek different viewpoints and evidence for this. Then we don’t stick to false beliefs.
Finally, refer to the Steel-Manning mental model. When we have a belief, seek out the opposing argument to strengthen or challenge our belief. Once you have a complete understanding of the entire situation, you’ll have a more informed view. Hence, you will make better decisions.
4) Certainty – Assign probabilities to events in your life based on the chance of them occurring. Take risks on events with a higher probability of happening. Take the most risk on events that are certain – win-win events. Be aware of biases and knowledge gaps clouding your judgement on what is certain. Consult with others and find mentors who have experienced this before.
5) Learning – Experience is the best method of learning. The second is studying historical cycles to identify reoccurring patterns. The final way is through reflection and journaling. History never unfolds the same way, but it often has similar trends. This links to complexity bias and the Feynman Technique. When learning, we often learn best through teaching. Complexity bias describes the idea that those who use complex language to explain a topic often don’t understand it well themselves. Simplify things, even outside of learning. Pretend you are teaching a five-year-old to understand. This is the Feynman technique. In short, to become a better learner, teach. Finally, don’t learn for the sake of learning. Try to find a productive use of this knowledge.
6) Collaboration – On an individual level, we have biases, blind spots, and egos. When we work and communicate with others to address problems, we reduce the impact of our own individual elements. So, always seek other people’s opinions on topics that interest you, or your own theories and ideas.
7) Compounding – All benefits in life come from compound interest. Locate areas in your life where you have leverage, an advantage over others due to your personality and skills. Make use of these advantages over time. Don’t seek instant gratification. Delayed gratification allows compounding to build up and contributes to a larger success.
8) Goals – Set the bar so high for your purpose (main long-term goal) in life that it doesn’t ever seem achievable. Explore your area of expertise where you have an advantage. What is the current limit? Is there an obvious way to raise the bar and improve this limit? Look at the system as a whole to consider all elements where the limit could be raised.
For short-term goals, focus on the A-B-Z framework. The A is where you are now. The Z is your purpose. What can you set as your B to make progress towards Z?
9) Habits – Habits make up our days. Consider if a habit is good or bad. Is this increasing my productivity towards my purpose? If it’s not, and it’s a bad habit, cut it out. Your morning routine is also key. What makes you get out of bed in the morning and shapes the structure of your day? If you don’t have a morning routine that energizes you, search for small ways to adapt your morning routine to provide motivation. Routine won’t be boring if you incorporate things you love into it. It pairs with productivity and happiness.
A side note for habits, if you have tasks you don’t love and are causing discomfort, try them first in your daily routine. If not, we will come up with excuses not to. After the task, reflect on the discomfort. Assess if it was caused by bias or knowledge gaps and if it was actually enjoyable. Over time, after seeking out the discomfort many times, it will become easier.
Finally, always set aside downtime. I never have anything scheduled on Sundays, or after 6 pm on weekdays (when I’m not working).
10) Minimalism – Live a simple life. Those with many desires stress about wanting more. Focus on your individual values and not physical possessions. Less is more. More time to think. Fewer distractions. The concept of via negative describes sometimes we can improve a system by subtraction rather than addition. This supports the idea of less is better. Consider any aspects of your system that aren’t productive, and so subtraction from your system would improve your productivity and free up more time.
11) News – Look deeper. Ask yourself the following questions:
A) Is anything being hidden?
B) What does this news imply?
C) Is this a reliable, trustworthy source?
Trust originates from transparency. So seek out the truth in any form of media.
12) Questions – Ask good questions. In situations where you are interested, be curious. Question what you want to know after reading a piece of media. A good piece of writing will give you more questions. More areas for learning and exploration.
13) Regret Minimisation Framework – When making a decision, project yourself into the future at an old age. Visualise what you will regret more:
A) Not taking the opportunity.
B) Taking the opportunity and failing.
14) Second-Order Thinking – Don’t think one step ahead. Think two, or even three. Plan future potential scenarios for preparation purposes. Then fewer things will surprise you. Second-order thinkers ask, “and then what?”. Assess the consequences of different choices. Split these consequences into positive and negative to decide if a decision is a good one or a bad one.
Also, consider different viewpoints of situations. Think more than one step ahead. But then think how others would think more than one step ahead. Consider whose viewpoint is more believable. Could you be wrong?
15) Self-Care and Wellbeing – I define well-being as long-term self-care through consistency. Self-care to me is finding things that contribute to your life positively. Getting enough sleep, eating well, drinking water, getting some form of exercise, socialising, reflecting, and mental stimulation. Another strategy that can help is having deep connections with those you care about, and a deep connection with yourself. Principles can help us better understand ourselves. And using your free time to do things you love, whether alone or with others.
Concluding Remarks
I know this level of system in life isn’t for everyone. For some, it would bring limits and feel controlling. I find it brings freedom and structure. As I build more principles, I have a collection of strategies I can use to handle unknown situations I find myself in. Fewer things are unexpected.
For those who principles aren’t for, I hope you can find some aspects of this that you still feel you could apply to your life. And check out Ray Dalio’s books and work. He is passing on some fantastic information he has spent his entire life collecting and there is so much to be learnt from him.
Thanks for reading! If you want more like this then follow me on Twitter or subscribe on Substack for these posts directly to your email inbox. I write and research geopolitics and financial markets to organise my own thoughts and prepare myself for anything I can control. If any of this helps you be more prepared and ease your mind, that’s great. If you like what you read please share it with others.