Five Rules for Good Clean Livin'

Do good work. That is, do good and work well. Ensure that your daily efforts are more than monotony. It might be business, philanthropy, teaching, building, writing, or farming, but know how you’re contributing to the world outside yourself. And when you do it, make it count.

Strain every day – or at least five times a week. First this was intended for physical exercise, but it applies on the mental front too. Push yourself. Play basketball, run, hike, move large items, walk around your neighborhood, but hit your limits and go beyond them. And do this not only with your body but with your mind too. Read from a new topic area, learn about a new place, pick up an instrument.

Find and maintain a broad, deep set of friend and family relationships. Take time, all the time, to remember and support the relationships that keep you alive and learning. Have lunch, have drinks, have a coffee, or just squeeze in a phone call at the end of the day. Good and deep relationships make all our relationships better, even improving the quality of relationships with our significant others.  

Create. Take time to exercise your creative side, let your mind wander and spark. It could be writing, could be simply improving the systems you work with regularly. Improving anything in a novel way is an act of creation.

Occasionally, be excessive – and throw out the rules. Eat, drink, be merry. Stay out late. Get up early. Go too far. Spend a slothful day. Your body needs a break, your heart needs rejuvenation, your life needs variety. Enjoy. Live. Extend and explore.