One of Tom’s 12 Laws that stuck a chord with me was Number 4:  You make your habits, and then your habits make you.  How true, especially when it comes to balanced health.

Although you might not agree with all of Tom’s 12 Laws and admittedly, some of them are pretty harsh (see Number 9 about Happily Ever Afters), the main point is that Tom has put some thought into figuring out his outlook on life, his idea of how life works, his rules to live by.

Here’s why that’s critically important to you and me:  these ideas or “rules” that we all have of how life works essentially dictate how you view everything, and everyone, in your life.

If your “life’s rules” include the belief that all strangers are not to be trusted, you’ll never be open to meeting new people.  If you believe the world is a dark, hostile place, filled with horrible people, that’s exactly what you’ll find.  Why?  Because that’s all you’ll be looking for.

On the other hand, if you believe that there’s always some good in everyone and that it’s your job to find it, you’ll find a world filled with goodness.

Someone once said that when you’re born, Life hands you a coloring book and a set of crayons.  You get to choose which colors to use.  You decide whether your world is a mixture of blacks and grays or whether it’s filled with a rainbow of bright colors.

Your “Rules to Live By” are like a set of filters that only allow you to see what you believe the world is really like.

So here’s the million dollar question:  what are your “Rules to Live By?”

What “filters” do you view the world with?  Are they positive and uplifting?  Do they support your goals?  Do they bring you joy, peace, and balanced health?  If they don’t, you really need to ask yourself whether or not they’re worth keeping.

How do you do that?  The first step is to write them down.  Your journal is the perfect place for this (you do have one, right?).

Find a quiet place and ask yourself, what rules do I live by?  What beliefs shape my view of the people and events in my life?  What crayons am I using to color my world?

Give these questions some thought and write down whatever immediately comes to mind.  Don’t worry about trying to come up with a perfectly formed list at first.  Your first step is to write down as many thoughts and ideas as you can.

After a little time has passed, review what you’ve written.  Ask yourself, “is that what I really believe?”  Ask yourself this several times in order to strip away the things that you think you “should” believe and get down to the things you really believe.  Feel free to revise, reword, add, and delete at this stage.

Continue reworking your list until you’re confident that each item describes what you really believe about how life is set up.

Now for the difficult part.  Once your list is fairly complete, go through each item and ask yourself, “what is this belief giving me, or costing me?”  For some items, you’ll find that the belief brings you a lot of joy, or happiness, or some other benefit.  For others, you might find that a particular belief costs you quite a bit in potential relationships and opportunities.

Lastly, ask yourself which of these rules to live by are still valid and worth keeping, and which are no longer consistent with the person you want to become or the world you want to live in.   Put stars by, or underline, the “rules” worth keeping or those that provide some sort of positive benefit.  Mark through or “x” out the ones that don’t support the life you want to live.  Then think of new, better ones to replace the ones you just marked out.

You have no idea how powerful this is. The simple act of asking yourself “what rules do I really live by,” writing them down, and then thinking about the consequences of having those beliefs is nothing less than life changing.

The neat part of doing this is that it doesn’t matter how young or how old you are.  As Tom Hoobyar notes in his Rule Number 12, “it’s never too late to change.”  Amen to that.

So what are your “Rules to Live By?”

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

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