I'm Creating a Set of Principles

For the past week, I have been working on a “life document.”

I had a session with my business coach on Monday and we thought it would be a good idea to take all of the ideas, options, and stressors I have in my life and get them on paper.

It’s almost 10 pages.

It turns out, when you put your thoughts on paper, you discover that the solutions for the problems are all basically the same. Every problem feels unique, but in reality, most of what causes us discomfort in life is the same thing over and over again.

• fear

• pride

• doubt

• what other people think of us

Therefore, the solutions are repetitive as well.

This document is turning into is a guide for decision making. I’m creating a set of principles so that I have predetermined solutions set in place for the challenges I face.

This idea is not my own. This is a concept brought into the limelight by Ray Dalio and written about in his book called Principles.

When you create a set of principles that you can base your decision making off of, you don’t have to spend much time thinking about what to do.

That’s ultimately what I am trying to solve for. I find that the burden of choice can be very crippling. What do you do when you can do anything? How do you know you made the right decision? When do you know to pivot or keep going? When you do grind it out and when do you make adjustments?

This “wishy- washyness” is a real problem for people, especially young people, as young people are given infinite options in their lives and in self identity. The burden of choice leads to depression and difficulty focusing.

I’ve struggled with this racing mind disorder, and it is my hope that my principles document will create a long term solution for me.