When I was growing up, I subscribed to a belief in Christianity. 

I went to Wednesday night youth group and Sunday morning services.

When I was in college, I continued and dove deeper. I went to Sunday morning services, Monday night bible study, Wednesday night Life Group (a youth group for college students), Thursday night Cell Group (another bible study), and Friday night Intervarsity (a Christian club).

I eventually became the co-leader of one of the bible studies, attended a couple of conferences as a spiritual leader, and assisted in a few different things.

Christianity defined my life at that time in my life.

And as I grew older, I began to question the beliefs I was being taught. Nothing I saw as fundamental, but to others, that’s how it appeared.

I was slowly removed from those leadership positions.

I personally became disillusioned with my beliefs as a Christian.

For a number of years, I wandered trying to find those guiding principles in my life.

Tonight, I want to share my current life tenets with you.

Tenet 1: Honor your body, it’s provided for you no matter what you’ve done. 

You’ve survived 100% of your worst days so far.

And your body has survived 100% of the things you’ve done to it–the good, bad, and ugly.

You’ve probably fed it junk food, alcohol, sugar, highly processed things.

You could have poked it, cut it, pushed it, broken it, and any other number of things.

But on some level, unless you’re dead, it’s still working for you, providing for you, no matter how you’ve treated it–the good, bad, and ugly.

So, honor it. Give it good foods and drinks, push it to become better and stay healthy, and give it time to rest properly.

Honor your body, you only get one.

Tenet 2: You deserve the best this world has to offer.

You deserve the best this world has to offer, no matter what your status–whether skin color, class, ability or not.

You deserve to have an easier life where you can focus on the things that matter.

Where you can build a life that allows you to contribute freely to society.

Where your life is not bound solely to building others’ dreams.

Build a life where you provide equally for everyone and the universe will provide for you.

Tenet 3: You’re going to die. Live accordingly.

Speaking of life continuing no matter what, your physical life will end at some point.

Use that fact to impact how you live your life.

As humans, we focus on such a narrow scale of time. We think that we have such a long time to live–we never notice the passage of time.

We try think in spans of years while existing in spans of days.

There’s a post, available here from years ago on Tumblr, that pulls me back to the ground.

It’s founded on a simple premise: “In the dog world, humans are elves that routinely live to be 500+ years old.”

And as a storyteller, my heart feels every word of the last quote on the chain, told from the perspective of a dog.

You’re going to die one day. 

And you never know when that will be.

Live your life accordingly.

Spend each day doing the things that you want to do.

Don’t let the fact that you’ll die discourage you–let it embolden you to seize the day and live your life.

Tenet 4: Practice progress, not perfection.

My life, for a long time, has been defined by only moving when perfection is guaranteed.

I’ll work out when I have the perfect shoes and clothes.

I’ll start that project when I’ve got the perfect template.

I’ll start investing once I’ve paid off this bill.

Stop waiting for perfection.

Start practicing progress.

You’ll only move forward in life when you move forward.

Do so imperfectly, and you’ll get there a lot faster.

Tenet 5: No one is coming to rescue you.

Likely one of the most difficult to accept, it’s a blunt fact.

No one is coming to rescue you in this life.

Despite what friends or family may say, you are the only person in your life you can truly count on.

You are the only person looking out always for yourself. 

Other’s have themselves on their mind as well.

This is not a fact that should sadden you, but rather drive you.

It should change your mindset to renew your drive and desire to be safe and secure as much as you can.

Let it.

Tenet 6: A sense of urgency.

Borrowing a bit from some stoic philosophy and tied directly to the fact that you’re going to die comes the idea of moving through the world with a sense of urgency.

Moving knowing that your time is limited.

Moving, not with haste for hastes sake, but with a deliberate speed knowing that tomorrow is not a given.

Do not linger in doing that which you want or know you are meant to do, because the next minute in your life is never guaranteed.

Somewhere, and I can’t recall where, I read that there are some who are grateful that they woke in the morning, surviving the night’s sleep to face another day. And in the same breath, they are grateful they found their bed again that night having survived the day to enjoy another night’s sleep.

Move through your life with intention for you and I are not immortal.

Tenet 7: I wish you enough.

There’s a story I came across some years ago where I first heard the phrase “I wish you enough” and it has stuck with me.

You can find it with a quick search, but the synopsis is that a parent and child are parting in an airport and they share some final words in which the parent says to the child: “I love you and I wish you enough.”

A nearby observer overhears this moment and later asks the parent what they mean by “I wish you enough.”

The parent replies with a poem that seems to be attributed to Bob Perks shown below.

In short, I wish you enough in this life to appreciate what you have.

Tenet 8: Life will out.

I wondered, for years, where this particular phrase came from.

Then I heard it again from an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and it’s shared below.

Life will out. Life will always find a way to continue. The good, the bad, the pretty, the ugly.

All of life is just a struggle for survival.

As much as you are struggling to eat healthy and lose weight, lose fat, that fat is struggling against you and the work you do to stay alive too.

Life will out. 

No matter what comes your way–whether pain, heartbreak, joy, exaltation, a crescendo of tears, happy or sad–life will continue.

That is the way of the world.

When you accept that, you can live in it.

Life tenets, whether something of your own or carried from a religious belief, are critical lampposts in your life.

No matter who you are, where you are, you have core beliefs that guide every aspect of your life.

For me, these are the current 8 tenets I live my life by:

• Honor your body, it’s provided for you no matter what you’ve done.

• You deserve the best this world has to offer.

• You’re going to die, live accordingly.

• Practice progress, not perfection.

• No one is coming to rescue you.

• A sense of urgency.

• I wish you enough.

• Life will out.

–

With love and a sense of urgency.

Jeff