breathe/act-accordingly/index.md
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title: Life: Act Accordingly
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### A practical philosophy book (less intellectual and more framework for decisions) by Colin Wright.
# You Only Live Once
> You have exactly one life in which to do everything you will ever do.
> Act accordingly.
Act accordingly means different things to different people, whether that's jumping out of planes or
reading fiction. The philosophy is meant to guide you to refocus on what's personally important.
#### Freedom as a Focus
Work towards increasing your level of freedom to have more options available to yourself. Then use
the current context to make the best decisions.
The best rules will increase your level of freedom. They'll guide you instead of forcing an option
onto you.
#### It's Not About Being Selfish
Self improvement isn't being selfish or lazy. It's not noble to work 100 hours a week if the same
outcome can be done in 40 hours. So even if your lifestyle is more comfortable than most, it doesn't
mean you're selfish for wanting to improve it further.
Focus on what's important to you. Everyone has different priorities and tastes.
#### Let's Fail Until We Don't
>Failure is just a step along the way to success.
Be willing to pick yourself up after a failure. Keep trying until you win. It's a reliable approach
to achieve most goals.
What distinguishes successful people from others? They didn't stop.
#### On Confidence
Confidence means knowing our value, but being aware of how much you have left to learn too.
Ignorance is a temporary affliction - fix it by asking questions.
Confidence also means sticking with your beliefs - until there's enough evidence provided to the
contrary, after which you'd be confident enough to change your beliefs.
Also means no need to prove yourself, enjoying what you have, but striving for more.
#### Campsite Rule
Leave the world in a better place than how you found it. The Campsite Rule gives a good basic
purpose for everyone's life.
Stop doing the bad stuff and start doing more good stuff.
#### Personal Relativism
Everybody has a different moral compass and value system. It depends on their culture, their family, and their friends. Accept this and keep an open mind to everyone else's point of view.
You can understand other people's viewpoints but still strive to improve yourself according to your
own values.
#### Tetris Theory
Mastery is important.
Many people have one or more crafts that they want to improve it. Tetris is a great example. It's
easy to start, but difficult to master. To improve, you can change the rules. For example, only full
4 line blocks disappearing can score points - otherwise points are subtracted. Playing at a higher difficulty level is the best way to master your craft.
### Challenge yourself and learn.
#### Provide Value
Provide value to yourself and to others.
Providing value is a great way to grow relationships. Often times, relationships are a plus/plus for both parties. Increasing the value you provide to others is a terrific way to help other people and to improve the world.
Value is also a great way to determine how practical your skills are.
#### Sustainability
Sustainability means creating closed loops in everything we do. Aim for a sustainable lifestyle.
You should be able to support yourself: finance, health, happiness, etc...
Being self-sustaining is a great base goal. For example, money is important but shouldn't be your primary pursuit. Instead, aim to make enough money to sustain your lifestyle. Then start pursuing other goals.
#### The Cake
Individual attributes do not make up a person. Instead, we're the sum of our actions and thoughts. Never pass judgement on a person based on just a handful of brief attributes.
This applies to yourself, too. Don't fixate on single attributes. It's the whole cake, not the individual ingredients, that you should look at.
#### Logos
Don't identify yourself with product logos. There's no need to shop at Whole Foods to be healthy. Instead, just make the right decisions for your diet/exercise routines and actually act out those decisions.
Eschew logos and go label-less. You'll be forced to do the hard work to build yourself, instead of identifying yourself with the brands you own.
#### Lifspeki
Lifespeki is Icelandic for "the practical philosophy by which one lives their life".
It's good to have a philosophy - a framework to make decisions by. But don't just blindly follow someone's already established philosophy. Build your own! Continually improve it as time goes on.
### Live by the ideals and concepts that you see fit for yourself.