Would you like to know the five rules for the game of life? By the end of today’s episode, you’ll know the five top rules that in my research and experience lead to a better life.
KEY POINTS
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others – Instead compare yourself to who you were yesterday. Keep track of the days you have wins and the days you can learn from.
Decide Who it is That You Want to be Right Now – Whether its health, work or fitness related, find an identity for all three and work at being the best possible version of yourself.
Take Action! – Plan ahead, everyday write three things to accomplish the next day and schedule them into your diary.
Level Up Your Network – Are the people you’re spending time with giving you energy? Are they helping you in the game of life or are they taking energy away?
Smile, Laugh, and Have a Good Time! – Allow the space for our favourite moments to happen when we are not in pursuit of our goals.
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TRANSCRIPT
Would you like to know the five rules for the game of life? Well, by the end of today’s episode, you’ll know the five top rules that I’ve found in my research and experience to lead to a better life.
Here are my top five rules that you can employ to make sure that you’re leading a better life. Number one, don’t compare yourself to someone today, rather compare yourself to who you were yesterday. And one of the things that I do on a daily basis is I have a calendar in my office. And I simply, when I get to the end of the day, I put an either a W or an L in that calendar box for the day. The W stands for win, the L stands for learn. And this relates to an intention that I start at the beginning of each and every day.
At the beginning of each and every day, I set an intention to do my best in the context of that day. And when I get to the end of the day, I give myself a W, a win, I’ve done my best in the context of that day, or I give myself an L for learn, and then I know, well, what is it that I learned? What didn’t I do that indicated that I wasn’t showing up at my best in the context of that day.
And my simple game that I play is to make sure that I don’t have anything more than six Ls in a month. So I want to have 80% of my days feeling like I’ve operated at my best in the context of that day. And I don’t want more than two Ls in a row. So if I have a bad day, for whatever reason, I want to make sure that I rebound quickly the next day.
So in summary, number one, make sure that you’re not comparing yourself to other people today, but to who you were yesterday. And one of the simple ways that I do that is by playing that win or learn game on a daily basis.
The number two rule for leading a better life is to decide who is it that you want to be? Don’t wait until three, five, 10 years in the future to become the person that you dream of becoming. Decide who is it that you want to be right now and step into being that. This is the whole principle or one of the key principles in my book, the three alarms, which I mentioned earlier. We get the freedom to choose who do we want to be? For example, on the health front, who do we want to be? On the work front, who do we want to be in the home front? Choose that super superhero version of you. Decide what that version of you is. Give it a name, a phrase, and then step into being it right now. Don’t wait until some point in the future to become all that you’re capable of becoming.
When you were a kid, you used to pick a superhero costume, you would put that on and you could immediately start acting as if you were that character. You still have that ability. On a daily basis, choose who you want to be. The superhero version of you. And step into that identity.
Number three rule to do better in the game of life is to take action. They used to say, when I was growing up, knowledge is power. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. You can Google just about anything and become full of knowledge within seconds. It’s about taking action. So how do you get better at taking action? Well, one is by making sure that you take some time to plan. One of the most powerful things you can do when you end your day is to choose what are the top three things that you’re going to be working on in the next day, and then to schedule whatever those things are, as appointments with yourself in your calendar. And then very, very importantly, show up for those appointments just as you would if they were someone else, because you’re able to show that respect to someone else, so show yourself that same respect.
And when you show up for that appointment to take action on something which you have predetermined is important for you, make sure you just do that thing. Once again, if you were to show up in an appointment with someone else, you wouldn’t just suddenly start doing other things or start talking to someone else, you would be focused on them. And it’s the same thing with an appointment with yourself. Make sure that you pay yourself that same respect. Show up on time for the work that you deemed to be important for yourself and make sure that you devote your attention just to whatever that task is during that block of time that you scheduled with yourself.
Number four rule to do better in the game of life is to make sure that you level up your network. And I’ll ask you to take a quick inventory of all of your relationships. Are the people you’re spending time with, are they giving you energy? Are they helping you in the game of life or are they taking energy away? And if it’s the latter, if they’re taking energy away, then you should really think about, well, who are you spending time with? Who can you be spending more time with? Are there relationships perhaps that you need to discontinue or kind of get out of your life? Because you are, as Jim Rohn said, “You are the sum or the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So level up your network, start playing a bigger game, start hanging out with those people who support your dreams, who support you, who bring you joy, who don’t take energy away from you, who don’t drain you, who don’t bring you down. Level up your network so that you feel supported and encouraged in your journey ahead.
And the number five rule for doing better or winning in the game of life is to smile, laugh, and have a good time. Too often in the pursuit of the things that we want to do in life. We forget that some of our favorite moments happen when we’re not in pursuit of all of those things.
One of my favorite moments, perhaps my favorite thing in the world is when we’re all sat around the table, me and my family, and somebody tells a joke and you get in one of those moments where you’re laughing so hard that your stomach hurts and that you have like tears in your eyes. There’s nothing better than that. I wish I could say that you could plan that, but you can’t right. You just need to allow the space for it to happen. So make sure that you’re taking time to smile, that you’re taking time to laugh because those precious moments give life so much flavor and color and make it all the worthwhile.
And I’d love to hear from you so don’t forget to leave a comment and a rating as well. And, if you’d like to get a copy of my new book, The 3 Alarms, please head over to my website at ericpartaker.com. That’s E-R-I-C Eric, partaker.com, where you could pick up a free digital copy of my new best-selling book, The 3 Alarms.
