Principles: Life and Work Principles in life and work What principles should we use? Or what should we do? To be able to be successful in both life and work, this book should have the answer that can be a guideline for us.
If a storm were to hit a tree that has no strong roots that can penetrate deep into the ground, what do we think would be the result? Yes, the tree would be blown away from the thin ground it was attached to, and blown away so far that it would be impossible to predict where it would eventually end up. That tree is no different from people like us. Where do we think we are going to be blown away now? Sometimes we still lack principles in life and work.
Ray Dalio, whom CIO magazine has dubbed the “Steve Jobs of the investment world,” founded Bridgewater, the fifth most important private company in the United States, starting from his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Today, the admin will take everyone to try to understand the principles and reasons behind the success of his life and work from the book Principles: Life and Work .
“Principles are what connect our actions to our values.”
Over the years, we have experimented with a variety of principles and identified some universally effective ones. The logic behind these principles lies in confronting reality, so Ray Dalio, another man who has confronted reality in almost every way, suggests that we use his principles to build a solid foundation for finding our own personal guiding principles in life and work.
“99% of our beliefs become our thoughts, our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions, our actions become our habits, our habits become our values, and our values become our destiny.”
Principles connect our actions to our values. Once we have defined the life we want to live, our principles help us capture the value of the actions we choose to take every day. These principles inform decision-making when we are faced with difficult choices. It is important to re-establish our principles around the goals we are pursuing.
“The most important thing about principles is the evidence of success in life.”
Athletes set their goals to win in a competition. Principles help them stay focused on their daily training and eating routines. On the other hand, people who go through life without clear principles on what they should do to achieve their desired goals, they will react to obstacles that come their way randomly and not know how to deal with them properly, which will lead them further and further away from their goals.
“Ray Dalio’s strategy has become a successful principle and has helped avoid the mistakes that people often avoid.”
Ray Dalio grew up in a middle-class family, an only child living with his mother and jazz music. He didn’t really care about his daily routine, except for his schoolwork, which he really cared about. As a result, he didn’t do well in school. He was later drawn to the booming stock market after working part-time for a while. He made his first purchase in 1960, and he reached a point where his results weren’t so good after he had been in the stock market for a while.
These investment failures motivated him to learn how to beat the market. Here are the lessons he learned:
- He realized that he could still end up on the wrong side of the market, even if he put all his effort into it, regardless of the amount of work he had to do.
- He discovered that when it comes to the stock market, making wrong decisions is costly.
- Market consensus may end up being wrong, so he must learn to have his own ideas without following anyone.
These conclusions led him to create a strategy that would help him avoid common mistakes that people make. Ray Dalio has developed an approach that will help him increase his chances of winning, and here is the strategy he discovered.
- Work for your own goals, not for goals set by others.
- Decision making is the best way to develop the ability to express independent opinions.
- A commitment to try your best will help reduce overconfidence.
“We can increase our chances of sustainable success if we focus on our ability to build meaningful relationships with meaningful work.”
Living a meaningful life depends on the quality of life we want and our ability to manage our daily lives. It depends on how effectively we can accept and deal with reality. Although life principles come from experience and reality, it is difficult to tell people to separate their desires from the reality in front of them.
“Belief is a choice. First, we must choose our beliefs, and then our beliefs will help us choose our own path in life.”
We should see everything as it is, because the truth of the process will help us achieve the results we set. Take the knowledge in your head and use it to understand what is happening in front of you. The people who find a way to overcome obstacles are the ones who let others assess their weaknesses and choose the right response to criticism. Importantly, these people are often the most successful people. Therefore, we must base our dreams on reality, find the right motivation and create motivation or drive for ourselves, because in this world, there is no universal tool to measure success or happiness.
“The quality of life tomorrow depends on the decisions we make today.”
Every decision has an impact. Choices are a crucial factor in reaching a goal. Goal chasers will find themselves faced with countless decisions, whether they want to or not. Decisions can help us reach the word “success”, but at the same time, they can also reduce the chances of reaching that word.
Consider these 5 facts about good decisions. The most important decisions out of the millions of choices we make throughout our lives are the only 5 we want to make.
1. We must decide not to let our limits stand between us and our true goals of success. When we feel pain, we must not stop creating new possibilities. Even though it may have once seemed impossible to us, reflecting on the pain can propel us to the next level of excellence.
“In many decision-making moments, the best thing is that we can do the right thing, and the worst thing is that we can do nothing.”
2. We tend to face harsh realities, but on the contrary, it helps us to make good decisions.
3. People who are obsessed with how others perceive them will try their best to hide their weaknesses. This habit leads to wrong decisions in life. On the contrary, successful people are not shy when they cannot find the right answer. They need to get more information.
4. People who focus on the consequences of their first actions often make mistakes in their second and third decisions. For example, people who over-analyze the pain and aches of their first exercise will not get the second result of good health and attractive appearance.
5. People who are intolerant of suffering cannot live with reality. These people would rather blame external factors than reflect on their mistakes, overlooking the foundations of success.
“Our goals will help define the right strategy and the right people to help us achieve our goals.”
5 steps to getting what you want in life
When it comes to getting the right results and making the most of your life, here are 5 steps that will help us succeed in pursuing our goals:
- Set goals. This process helps us discover what we really want and helps us stick to our goals. We weigh our needs and select the one that we feel is most important or that we want the most. People who are good at seeing the big picture are the ones who are good at setting goals.
- Identify unbearable challenges. The key to success is our resilience in dealing with our own challenges and finding the hidden ones, which is the key to sustainable success.
- Diagnose the problem based on the facts. Instead of jumping straight to a solution, we need to assess the root cause of the problem and try to find out our past experiences with similar problems. We will get a better picture of the obstacles we are facing and will be able to find ways to deal with them once we have properly diagnosed our own problems.
- Drawing a map will help solve the problem. People who skip this step often find themselves relying on luck or random ineffective solutions. To solve a problem well, we must first visualize the situation in order to get the right direction and choice of the right answer.
- Integrate all processes to lead to the result. The final step is to analyze and plan all previous processes that must be done to lead to the implementation. Most successful people use the available information to plan and make important processes happen because they know that these processes will lead them to the goal.
“When people learn to fail, they learn not to blame others, because blaming others will make them lose their self-confidence.”
In selecting people, we must select, train, test, evaluate and sort the people we have around us. We should consider candidates or people who are not afraid to judge themselves objectively, are not ashamed of their weaknesses, and whose values will reflect their true thinking. People can learn new skills easily, but values of thinking are almost impossible to change.
“The biggest mistake people make is they think they know everything.”
We need to deal with our own ignorance. We often fall into our own self-created traps, because we may always think we know more than others. We need to realize that there is no harm in not knowing. It is helpful to acknowledge our own limitations. We can decide who and when to ask for help. We should look for people who can honestly criticize our opinions and show us where we have gone wrong in our decision-making process. Because every decision has its own risks and rewards, it is our duty to stand up for it no matter how much we win or lose.
Conclusion
Our lives are governed by principles, and they make sense when we think about them enough. There will always be chaos and predictions in our lives if we do not have principles to adhere to in our lives and work.
Ray Dalio’s principles for managing life and work are important. We can use his suggested process as a foundation for creating our own principles. We have to apply what we have learned to our lives, do it consistently, and follow up on the results. Changes for the better can definitely happen.
If we want the results we want, we have to learn to be observant and dare to question what we are facing. Don’t say we are too busy. Live with an open mind, ready to notice the regularities in our life and see what meaning we are getting from them. Because in the digital age, the search for truth from untruth is so much.
“Developing the ability to discern truth will help you greatly in life.”
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