5 ancient laws for creating a happier life

1. Keep your word. 2. Don’t lie. 3. Don’t complain. 4. . . .  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Hey there, Confucius once said that life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Come again? What’s simple about the myriad demands, dilemmas, and dealings of everyday life that push and pull on our body, mind, and soul? What’s simple about love, success, health, wisdom, satisfaction, spirituality, and everything else we strive for? Many times, life appears overwhelmingly complex, like trying to build an airplane while in flight, or even bitterly abusive, like licking a car battery. And understandably so. In this age of liberty and abundance, where we’re free to be and do whatever we want, we must choose tasks and responsibilities from a dizzying number of possibilities. And then, as efforts evaporate, wins elude, and penalties encroach, we realize we’re not spinning an elegant web but cobbling up a clumsy knot. Many people try to escape this existential strike zone by heaving more lumpy stones into the rock tumbler of life. This only makes more noise. What they need to do instead is, as Confucius counseled, strive for simplicity by jettisoning everything that’s unclear, unsound, and unworkable and seeking the opposite—simplicity, sanity, and practicality. Often, this means doing less, but better—focusing on what’s essential and saying no to everything else. And in this email, I want to share with you five simple and essential laws of successful living that go back thousands of years. These principles have remained in currency because they help you make better decisions and, just as importantly, avoid awful ones. Remember—most of the major wins in life come from remembering the obvious and ignoring the esoteric and being consistently not stupid rather than sporadically brilliant. Anyway, let’s get to the laws . . . Law #1 If you say you’ll do something, do it. If you say you won’t, don’t. Without your word, you’re of little value to yourself and others. The fastest way to lose a friend is to show you can’t be relied on. That applies to the most important friend you can have, too—yourself. What’s more, when you know you must keep your word, even when it’s tough, it forces you to weigh your commitments. How many times have you said yes to something and then flaked because it should’ve been a no? Get into the habit of keeping your word once given, no matter what, and you will not only earn the respect of others, but more importantly, you will earn your own respect. Law #2 Don’t lie, exaggerate, withhold vital information, or mislead others. Lies beget more lies and must be protected from collisions with reality. Statements of fact, however, require no further work on our part. As Mark Twain once quipped, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” By lying, we’re not only building a false world that must be guarded from inspection or introspection, we’re showing how little we trust and respect others. This disengages us from life, darkens our opinion of others, and can even warp our sense of what’s real. People aren’t as easily fooled as we might think, either. How many times have you been suspicious of someone but chose not to confront them on it? And how did this color your perception of them? Law #3 Don’t complain. It’s Monday morning. A guy is curling in the squat rack. You don’t make enough money. The free coffee shop wifi is too slow. It’s cold outside in January. Your friend’s Facebook status updates always have typos. Someone left the toilet seat up. Every one of us can find an endless number of things to bellyache over, but why dig the hole deeper? “Everything that happens is either endurable or not,” wrote the Roman emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. “If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable, then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well. Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so. In your interest, or in your nature.” So don’t go looking for sympathy. Most people don’t care about your problems and many are secretly glad that you have them. Don’t compromise your standards. No matter what you want to do, moderation won’t get you very far. Nothing succeeds like excess. Don’t shirk your duties. Remember that the more you suffer voluntarily, the less you’ll suffer involuntarily. Whatever you do, don’t whinge. Law #4 Out-work everyone you know until you’ve made it. If you haven’t accomplished your career or financial goals yet and you’re not working more than everyone you know to achieve them, you’re trying your luck. It takes far too much toil and trouble to realize our ambitions to dillydally. Nothing in the world worth having comes without significant effort, pain, and difficulty, and often far more than we anticipate when we begin. This won’t change, either. The physical, intellectual, and social comforts of modernity fall like soft snow upon the harsh fact that life is a game of competition and selection, blurring the outlines and covering up the details. The terrain is still treacherous, though, and turmoil is unavoidable. Only the toughest conquer the rigors of existence and even they have a time of it. Remember—our forebears had to chase, fight, and kill to survive. They expected hardship. They were willing to face the worst. They embraced the fact that the universe, in all its apparent tranquility, is a carefully balanced chaos of forces we barely understand. If we’re to bear upon its journey, we too must be a force of nature. The romantic notion that greatness can be shortcut by honeyed thoughts, candied smiles, and cloying words is nonsense. Law #5 Do the right thing even when it costs you something. You don’t need a degree in philosophy to know what’s right and wrong. We all come hardwired with a sensitive moral compass that points toward signposts like treating others the way we want to be treated and not doing things to them we wouldn’t want done to us. Thus, in most situations in life, we instinctively know what’s good, just, correct, etc. And if we do our best to aim our actions toward what’s right, we can rightfully expect to be repaid in kind. That is, acting with integrity ripples out into the world and back into our lives in more ways than we can imagine. And especially when the stakes are high. This is an old idea. In the Bible (Matthew 6:33), we’re enjoined to seek God and live righteously to receive everything we need. Indian religion calls it karma. We know it as “what goes around comes around.” Like gravity, there’s no escaping this force, and like the Northern Star, its light is always visible to those who will look. Those are my takes, at least. What do you think? Is there anything you’d add to the list? Reply to this email and let me know! Mike P.S. Want some help building your best body ever? Here are 4 ways I can assist whenever you’re ready: ⇒ 1) Want to be your own coach? Read one of my bestselling books for [men]( and [women](. (And want to get one of my audiobooks for free? [Click here to learn how]( ⇒ 2) Want personalized help? 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