Don Miguel Ruiz – The Four Agreements

Creator

Don Miguel Ruis is the author of The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. This book has sold more than 8 million copies in the US and has been translated into 46 languages worldwide.

Purpose

Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offers a code of conduct to help you transform your life and bring happiness and love. These agreements are the ones we make with ourselves, with others, with God and with life itself.

Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements book cover

Manifesto

1 Be impeccable with your word
The most important and most difficult agreement to honor – Choose your words carefully and be responsible for what you say.

2 Don’t take anything personally
This agreement helps to limit the impact of hurtful treatment by others in life.

3 Don’t make assumptions
Instead of assuming what you belief, ask questions to avoid suffering.

4 Always do your best
Bring the first three agreements together to live to your full potential.

Source

https://www.miguelruiz.com/the-four-agreements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Agreements

Comment

I love the simplicity of this – four agreements – four simple things to do each and every moment of each and every day.

The great challenge with simplicity is that it takes time and effort to distill your idea down to its core principles.

As Mark Twain once said: ”If you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready today. If you want me to speak for just a few minutes, it will take me a few weeks to prepare.”

Worth the effort!

Also, notice the word ‘agreement’. These are not laws, rules, guides, commandments, principles or pillars.

What you call your manifesto is crucial – it sets the tone and flavour for how to relate to it.

In this case, ‘agreements’ is totally consistent with a manifesto with the intent of promoting ‘personal freedom’.

It says, ‘you are free to agree to this, or not’. It just wouldn’t work or have the same meaning if they were commandments.

More

Yvonne Collier – Manifesto for Life

Chris Guillebeau – The Art of Non-Conformity

Todd Henry – Die Empty

Todd Henry – Die Empty

Creator

Todd Henry - Die EmptyTodd Henry, Author of multiple books including:

  • The Accidental Creative
  • Louder than Words
  • Herding Tigers, and
  • Die Empty

Purpose

The clue is in the sub-title of the book: Unleash your best work every day

Manifesto – Die Empty

  1. Value your contribution
  2. Avoid mediocrity
  3. Define your battles
  4. Be fiercely curious
  5. Step out of your comfort zone
  6. Know yourself
  7. Be confidently adaptable
  8. Find your voice
  9. Stay connected
  10. Live EMPTY!

Source

Todd Henry, Die Empty

Comment

What a great book title! Die Empty is a powerful call to arms in only two words.

It’s a powerful declaration of your intent to live life in a particular way. I love this manifesto and it’s direct call to action.

I’ve written the chapter headings of Todd Henry’s book Die Empty as a 10-point list manifesto.

More

Book Review of Todd Henry’s Die Empty

And Todd Henry and Three Types of Work

Related

Die Empty is a Rules for Life manifesto. Here are some other manifesto’s that share rules for life:

Jordan B Peterson – 12 Rules for Life

Lori Deschene – Five Rules for Life

Brian Johnson – Five Rules for Life

Got Funny – The 36 Rules of Life

Dr Jordan B Peterson – 12 Rules for Life

Creator

Dr Jordan B Peterson, a Canadian clinical psychologist, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.

Purpose

The 12 Rules for Life are derived from his best selling book of the same name.

Manifesto

  1. Stand up straight with your shoulders back
  2. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
  3. Make friends with people who want the best for you
  4. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today
  5. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
  6. Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
  7. Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
  8. Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie
  9. Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t
  10. Be precise in your speech
  11. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
  12. Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

Source

Peterson’s Wikipedia page

Comment

For me, there is a wonderful mismatch here. These are the 12 rules from a world-wide best selling book. And yet, they don’t seem that special. I expected they’d be miracle insights and instead they almost seem home-grown, down-to-earth and even folksy. This might be their charm and the reason they have cut through all of the noise out there.

More

The Most Valuable Things Everyone Should Know – a posting of 42 Life Rules on Quora by Peterson that preceded this book.

Related

Lori Deschene – Five Rules for Life

Brian Johnson – Five Rules for Life

Got Funny – The 36 Rules of Life

Charlie Sheen’s Manifesto for Life

Miyamoto Musahi – 21 Rules to Live Your Life – the great Samurai Warrior

 

The most valuable things everyone should know

Creator

Dr Jordan B Peterson, a Canadian clinical psychologist, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He is also the best-selling author of 12 Rules for Life, which is based on a dozen of these rules.

Peterson’s Wikipedia page

Purpose

Published on Quora in response to the question: What are the most valuable things everyone should know?

Note: This is often spoken of as ‘42 Rules’ even though there are only 40 rules.

Manifesto

  1. Tell the truth.
  2. Do not do things that you hate.
  3. Act so that you can tell the truth about how you act.
  4. Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.
  5. If you have to choose, be the one who does things, instead of the one who is seen to do things.
  6. Pay attention.
  7. Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you need to know. Listen to them hard enough so that they will share it with you.
  8. Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationships.
  9. Be careful who you share good news with.
  10. Be careful who you share bad news with.
  11. Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
  12. Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.
  13. Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or resentful.
  14. Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.
  15. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
  16. Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
  17. If old memories still make you cry, write them down carefully and completely.
  18. Maintain your connections with people.
  19. Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or artistic achievement.
  20. Treat yourself as if you were someone that you are responsible for helping.
  21. Ask someone to do you a small favour, so that he or she can ask you to do one in the future.
  22. Make friends with people who want the best for you.
  23. Do not try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does.
  24. Nothing well done is insignificant.
  25. Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
  26. Dress like the person you want to be.
  27. Be precise in your speech.
  28. Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
  29. Don’t avoid something frightening if it stands in your way — and don’t do unnecessarily dangerous things.
  30. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
  31. Do not transform your wife into a maid.
  32. Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
  33. Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
  34. Read something written by someone great.
  35. Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.
  36. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.
  37. Don’t let bullies get away with it.
  38. Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing — and propose a solution.
  39. Remember that what you do not yet know is more important than what you already know.
  40. Be grateful in spite of your suffering.

Sources

Quora article: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-valuable-things-everyone-should-know

Reddit background comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/JordanPeterson/comments/75akn0/dr_jordan_petersons_42_rules_for_life_the_origins/

Comment

That’s a relatively long list. My opinion is that if you write too many on a list then you water down your focus. I think there is power in fewer.

Neuroscience tells us that we can only remember a handful of things in our short-term memory – it used to be 7 plus or minus 2 things. Now, it’s believed to be 5 plus or minus 2 things. That may or may not be a good basis for a powerful list.

Also, the secret to writing a short list is to first write a long one – then prune it back until you are left with the ones that strike a chord, fire your joy and make you dance.

More

12 Rules for Life

 

Lori Deschene – Five Rules For Life

Lori Deschene - Tiny BuddhaCreator

Lori Deschene, author of the blog and book Tiny Buddha.

Purpose

It’s a personal manifesto – some guidelines for living life.

Manifesto

  1. Be honest with yourself
  2. Let yourself be vulnerable
  3. Live in accordance with your values
  4. See as much as you can of what’s right in front of you
  5. Treat yourself like you want others to treat you

PS: Lori tells a beautiful story that when she first wrote her rules for life she wrote ‘Live without rules’ five times. LOL!

Source

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/5-rules-for-life/

Comment

A simple rule based manifesto. What I love about this is that a mere five rules can cover a lot of territory. The key is not to be too specific as in ‘Always eat blueberries on Thursday’. Instead, it pitches at the level of values or general principles.

Contrast this to the Yes Manifesto which has over 50 rules for life (dance and movement). Both strategies can work – choose your best way.

Number 5 stands out for me personally. It’s a wonderful reverse spin on the classic religious moral ‘treat others as you would like them to treat you.’

More

I loved reading Lori’s book, Tiny Buddha. I reviewed it here.

 

Yes Manifesto

Creator

Nadia in her own world – Dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, writer, and general public nuisance.

Purpose

“This is partially based on Yvonne Rainer’s 1965 “No Manifesto” which rejected traditions of theatricality to redefine dance. While I appreciate the value of rejecting the normative/cliche in the process of finding new possibilities, I think this “Yes Manifesto” better represents a current generation of artists who define innovation through what they include rather than what they exclude.”

Manifesto

Yes to spectacle.

Yes to plainness.

Yes to virtuosity.

Yes to full-out and fabulous.

Yes to pedestrian.

Yes to moving.

Yes to stillness.

Yes to breaking though physical limitations.

Yes to accepting physical limitations.

Yes to exploring and celebrating limitations.

Yes to magic.

Yes to realism.

Yes to narrative.

Yes to abstract.

Yes to movement for movement’s sake.

Yes to music.

Yes to Beethoven.

Yes to Beyonce.

Yes to banging and screaming.

Yes to silence.

Yes to style.

Yes to simplicity.

Yes to complex.

Yes to complicated.

Yes to star-power.

Yes to anonymity.

Yes to powerlessness.

Yes to stage faces.

Yes to actual faces.

Yes to deadpan.

Yes to being moved.

Yes to feeling.

Yes to cold intellectualism.

Yes to hot intellectualism.

Yes to eye candy.

Yes to eye vegetables.

Yes to high art.

Yes to low art.

Yes to medium art.

Yes to dancing on the proscenium stage.

Yes to dancing in the streets.

Yes to dancing on screens.

Yes to dancing in clubs.

Yes to dancing in your bedroom.

Yes to out-of-the-box.

Yes to inside-the-box.

Yes to jumping off the box.

Yes to crushing the box.

Yes to wearing the box on your head.

Yes to beauty.

Yes to ugly.

Yes to almost-beautiful and almost-ugly, and everything in-between and outside.

Yes, and . . .

Or at least maybe . . .

Source

https://nadiainherownworld.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/yes-manifesto/

Comment

This is a great example of an update and counterpoint to a previous idea or manifesto. In this case Yvonne Rainer said ‘No’ and Nadia says ‘Yes’.

This also highlights my point in my book Manifesto where I outline nine principles for creating your manifesto. One principle is focusing on what you are saying ‘yes’ – we want more of this! And another principles says ‘no’ – we want to stop this. Both work depending upon your situation and your intention.

Miyamoto Musahi : 21 Rules To Live Your Life

Miyamoto Musahi: 21 Rules For Life

Creator: Miyamoto Musahi is widely regarded as one of the greatest warriors of all time. He lived from 1584 to 1645 and is the author of The Book of Five Rings.

Purpose: Musahi’s rules for life as he prepared for his own death.

Manifesto: 21 Rules to Live Your Life

1. Accept everything just the way it is

2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake

3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling

4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world

5. Be detached from desire your whole life long

6. Do not regret what you have done

7. Never be jealous

8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation

9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others

10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love

11. In all things have no preferences

12. Be indifferent to where you live

13. Do not pursue the taste of good food

14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need

15. Do not act following customary beliefs

16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful

17. Do not fear death

18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age

19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help

20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour

21. Never stray from the Way

 

Source

The Full 21 Rules with commentary by blogger Brett Hagberg

Miyamoto Musashi on Wikipedia

Image from Wikipedia

 

Brian Johnson: Five Rules For Life

Five Rules of Life

Creator: Brian Johnson, marketing consultant who lives in New York City.

Purpose: Five Rules For Life invites people from all walks of life to share what they believe are the most important rules to follow for a happy, successful and fulfilling life.

Here are Brian’s “Five Rules For Life”:

 1.) Challenge yourself.

Set goals that make you s-t-r-e-t-c-h. It is a cop-out to make things too easy – always take it to the next level and don’t be afraid to fail. I would rather fail trying to do something that made me expand my abilities and work harder than I ever thought I could rather than succeed at doing something I knew I could accomplish with my eyes closed.

2.) Make yourself a brand.

Sit down and decide what you want to be, and what you want people to associate with you. Map it out and then work hard to make it a reality. When people think of me they think of three things: someone that helps organizations with their image and messaging; a captivating and entertaining speaker; a loving husband and father. That is my brand. Who are you?

3.) Realize that happiness isn’t something you “obtain”.

The sooner you realize that happiness is not something you obtain like a piece of furniture or a job, the more likely you are to achieve it. Most people think they will be happy if they get a promotion, make a sale, start a relationship with someone, or buy a certain kind of car. But happiness is created, not acquired. Have you ever wondered why – as a general rule – people with less are happier than people with more?

4.) Live responsibly.

This has many meanings to me – but basically it means don’t ignore injustices, treat others with respect, do what is right for the world and environment, and quit thinking it is “someone else’s” job.

5.) Get a dog.

A dog loves you unconditionally. A dog thinks you are the greatest, coolest, smartest, most successful person in the world. Get a dog and work hard to live up to its expectations.

 

Source

For 10 more Rules from Life from featured Authors

 

 

Got Funny: The 36 Rules of Life

36 Rules of Life

Creator: Got Funny on Leroy’s Jokes.com

Purpose: Rule 7: Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

Manifesto: The 36 Rules of Life

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. Don’t worry about what people think, they don’t do it very often.

3. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

1 4. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a muffin in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides nice contrast to the real world.

25. It ain’t the jeans that make your butt look fat.

26. If you had to identify in one word the reason why the human race has not achieved it’s full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.

27. There is a very fine line between ‘hobby’ and ‘mental illness.’

28. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

29. You should not confuse your career with your life.

30. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

31. Never lick a steak knife.

32. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

33. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

34. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

35. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe we are good drivers.

36. Your friends love you anyway.

Source

Got Funny page on LeroyJokes.com, published: Aug.18, 2008 in Random Jokes

Related

Jordan B Peterson – 12 Rules for Life

Lori Deschene – Five Rules for Life

Brian Johnson – Five Rules for Life

Charlie Sheen’s Manifesto for Life

Miyamoto Musahi – 21 Rules to Live Your Life – the great Samurai Warrior

 

Charlie Sheen’s Life Manifesto

Charlie Sheen's Life Manifesto

Creator: Charlie Sheen
Purpose: You choose…To create a new future, to make a public spectacle of yourself or just a public rant.

Manifesto

11 Point Life Manifesto

1. No panic. No judgement.
2. Leave marriage to the amateurs and the Bible grippers.
3. Don’t stress the fools and trolls who lay down with their ugly wives in front of their ugly children and look at their ugly lives.
4. You have the right to kill, but you do not have the right to judge.
5. Don’t give interviews. Leave warnings.
6. Either love, or hate. But you must do so violently.
7. Hate everybody that’s not in your family because they are there to destroy you and they will come at you in all forms and shapes.
8. Don’t live in the middle. That’s where you get slaughtered. Where you get embarrassed in front of the prom queen.
9. Hang on to your resentments. They fuel your attack. They fuel the battle cry of your deadly and dangerous and quiet battle soldiers.
10. Look fear right down the barrel.
11. The only thing you should be addicted to is winning.

Sources

http://www.pajiba.com/miscellaneous/charlie-sheens-11-point-life-manifesto.php