The 8 Commandements

Just like the 10 commandments form the central pillars of Christianity, I believe every person on the face of this earth has certain values/commandments that they hold close to their hearts. These values drive their actions, their initiatives and their choices.

For example a 10 year old that spends an entire day/days playing video games without worrying about food or showers, is only doing so because at that stage in his life, he values the joy he gets out of video games over anything else. Similarly a man that spends most of his time at work values financial security a bit more than family time.

At the beginning of this year, I did a  quick evaluation of what things I value more than others....and the list I came up with was pretty interesting. Whilst I will not go into the details of what things i hold more close than others (perhaps on another post), I would like to share with you the 8 commandments that I have created for myself: 

1. Love what you do  - I think this one is very very important. We spend the major part of our days at work and unless we learn to love what we do, or do what we love...we turn into mindless zombies that worship inefficiency and sitting at the desk idly. 
2. Trust your Intuition - Intuition is a hard one to define. Its that nudge/voice from the inside that often guides you. Many of us drown out the voice and listen to what people around us have to say. We get caught up in other people's opinions and projections that we often don't hear our inner guidance systems.
3. If an opportunity scares you, you need to take it. - This is one commandment I hold very very dear. I think very often when an opportunity lies outside our comfort zone it scares us. What we fail to realise is that these opportunities are the ones that help us grow and reach our potential. We often try to side step them by letting ourselves worry about what other people will think/ say about us if we pursue the opportunity. My solution is to tell my self, in a month's time anything silly i do will only be an interesting dinner table story. In a years time, there is no way they will still remember the incident. 
4. Don't be a complainer, either make things better or let them go - If something annoys you, don't sit there and complain about it, be proactive and do something about the problem. Like someone once said the best way to complain about something is to make it better. If you can't fix a given problem or make the situation any better, let it go. No amount of complaining is going to change it.
5. Make time for side projects and treat it with as much importance as your full time job - I saw this talk of a guy who landed the job as Google's creative head because he was involved in a creative side project that google heard off. They were impressed with his work and hired him. This didn't stop him from pursuing small projects on the side. During his tenure at Google, he started another side project that garnered a lot of interest from Facebook. In a years time, they head hunted him to be their creative head. I guess moral of the story is to pursue project that you enjoy because you never know where they will lead you
6. Surround yourself with like minded people - I strongly believe that people are a reflection of their environments. Think about it, no matter how happy an old person, if you stick them in an old people's home with people constantly dying around them - their health will deteriorate rapidly. No matter how hard we try, characteristics of our environment stick to us and become part of our character. So make it a conscious effort to surround yourself with like minded folks.
7. Ignore haters -No matter how hard you try, there will always be someone you cannot please. Ignore them, there is nothing you can do to change their minds/opinions and there is no point wasting your energy on a situation your can't change. 
8. Seek to Inspire others  - I recently checked my sister's Facebook page, and on her list of role models, she had my name. As flat erring as it was to know that she looked up to me so much, I also felt the responsibility and the need to be someone worth emulating. If you constantly strive to work towards inspiring people around you, you are working towards building a better version of yourself.

I would love to hear what your commandments are.