10 rules of life…

… for a peaceful, chosen and happy life.

Almost eleven years ago, I started this blog. Nearly 800 posts later, while in the early morning I was teasing the muse, I thought it was time to revisit a series of posts I had written about the 10 rules to get through the crisis. 2008 was the year of the subprime crisis, which had swept the finance world with violent repercussions on the economy and everyone lives. Since then, the world has changed, little it would seem in appearance, yet a number of currents of the depths emerge: artificial intelligence that cajoles, threatens and fascinates, uberization that created more precarity while offering new opportunities, dominance of the digital giants, GAFAM in the U.S., BAT in Asia, monitoring our actions in the digital and real worlds, the rise of terrorism and of course the climate emergency with the proven warming of our planet.

We can therefore say, without a doubt, that our world is in crisis, not a financial one like in 2000 or 2008, but in a global crisis. We can get into the alarmist camp and cry wolf. We can get into the optimist’s and think that everything is going to get better. One can put ourselves in that of the realist’s who acts at his/her level for the better- of his environment, the common good and his/her own happiness. It is to this last camp that I try to belong, applying some precepts of life, that are the 10 rules that I had laid out in 2008 and that I repeat here, because they have evolved a little, but not that much.

Living your life

I subtitled this post, for a peaceful, chosen and happy life. I have long weighed these three adjectives:

  • Peaceful, because the world is violent. Of course, and lots of things are getting better, armed conflicts are diminishing, murders too, but there is a constant tension that you feel immediately when you read the news. Tension between Iran and the USA, tension between Shiites and Sunnis, tension between Muslims and Islamophobes, tension between pro and anti global warming, etc. However, with a zest of benevolence, active listening and an awareness of one’s own cognitive biases, we arrive at a much more harmonious and peaceful life.
  • Chosen, because the influences have increased exponentially. The piece of plastic and glass that forms our mobile phone has become the compass of our lives. Like anything else in life, you can rejoice or throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is essential, in my opinion, to recognize the influence that technology has in our lives and to decide, in full conscience, to limit it in order to regain the essence of our being and our short lives in this universe.
  • Happy, because it is happiness that we all aspire to. Whether through our frantic race for material possessions, more or less esoteric experiences or positions of power, our quest for happiness is universal and timeless.

Unfortunately, I think that the world that is presented and exposed through the media is tense, constrained and unhappy. Without adhering to the conspiracy theory, a large number of opposing forces push us to be permanently dissatisfied and to seek the object or experience that will, temporarily, appease us and give us the illusion of happiness, until the next point of influence injects us with the venom of dissatisfaction and desire.

Living, simply

Eleven years ago, I gave rules of « good conduct » to pass between the drops of the crisis and even use it for, I quote:

  • getting rich
  • changing your life
  • doing business
  • partying
  • taking back control of time…

Eleven years later, the objectives are, after all, the same. These goals are defined by each of us, according to our desires, our needs, our culture, our environment, etc. But in the end, they should be congruent with our vital need to live, to the best of our ability, and to offer our family, friends and community the best possible life, without our freedom encroaching on that of others and allowing everyone to live his/her life. So, over the next few weeks, I’m going to go back to those ten rules.

As I said, they can only vary. On the other hand, they have become even more necessary and the discipline behind them is more pervasive. You can always go back (there are 784 posts on this blog) in search of these rules or wait wisely each week to discover the new ones, for the next two and a half months. This is what I propose: to find slowness, surprise and time for reflection. It is also a way for me to pause, to reflect on the inflection of our lives over time and to measure how far we have come, consciously and with pleasure.

In the meantime, I wish you a good future reading and wonderful weeks, peaceful, chosen and happy!

Photo George Pagan III on Unsplash

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