Rules

Rules create awareness.

Structure creates space.

Discipline creates freedom.

It’s a new year. It’s the passing of a section of measured time into a new one. It might offer nothing for you or be a pause of significance. We are almost two weeks into the new year, but the dust is still settling, and perhaps cobwebs are still being swept.

You can call it resolutions, intentions, or rule-setting. Whatever works best for you. I like to think of each new year, and every so often, as a time to re-visit the guidelines I have written for myself that govern my life. The ‘rules’ to my existence, if you will.

The word ‘rules’ often makes us squirm or eye roll, taken back to childhood school days when we saw rules as the edge of temptation, boundaries to be pushed, and seeing how far we could go before getting caught.

But as we age, we can start to write our own rules. These might come in the form of vows, beliefs, or a mission statement.

Rules create awareness. They help us structure and understand where we are placing our actions. They are guidelines to abide by and hold ourselves to. We can only strive to do our best, but we must hold them of high value and use them to write our lives. By creating awareness, we can see our life's shape and path and mould it in the direction we want from the rules we have written.

As we merge with them, we may shift and change to better represent what it is we want to share and who we want to be. And they may change over time, just as we do, and they are allowed to. We can always rewrite the rules of our lives to serve us better.

These rules create a passage forward. The structure they bring, in turn, creates space to live fully in our lives. Following them is then an act of discipline, and discipline creates freedom. The freedom to be and live fully in our richest experience.

For me, I have the ten principles I live by as my written mission statement and my five pillars that guide my decisions and behaviour. I simply aim to do my best by them. Sometimes, I need more reminding, but I read them often, having placed them next to my bed and desk. They are what serve me now. They might change soon or never.

But these are my rules. What are yours?

- Miles

Mission Statement

1. To have control over my time, generate freedom of choice, and cultivate a life of autonomy

2. You can always turn the page and start again

3. A present mind is a happy mind

4. Give more than what you receive

5. Immerse yourself in the experience of being alive

6. Live in a way in which you look forward to looking back on

7. Let the majority of your choices be a vote towards who or where you want to be

8. Live your version of success - don’t follow somebody else’s vision

9. Remember the value of compounding interest - it’s the little things each day that make the big difference

10. Leave enough room in your life for the magic of the unknown to unfold - trust and love the divine

Five Pillars

1. Health - keep the body strong and the mind clear, eat whole foods and listen to your deeper guidance

2. Wealth - don’t follow the diamonds; cultivate true wealth in your definition

3. Connection and community - remain true to your deepest self, surround yourself with those who inspire and support you and call you on your shit, love deeply

4. Freedom - embody the very definition in all areas of your life: choices, time, finances

5. Integrity - live firm and with honesty but remain compassionate and humble, be open and vulnerable

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