100 Very Short Rules for a Happy Life

We need happier people, not richer people

Photo by Dainis Graveris on Unsplash

September is here. It is a time of new beginnings for millions of students throughout the world; children and young adults often in need of guidance. It should also be a time of introspection for those of us in the workforce. Do we have the right goals? Have we made the right choices? Are we as happy as we’d like to be?

To help the process of introspection, I have written, in no particular order, 100 pieces of advice on how to best get through the year as a happy, well-balanced human being. God knows we need those.

1. Be on time
2. Keep your word
3. Always double-tap
4. Buy the orange properties in Monopoly
5. If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room
6. All dogs are the best dog in the world. Pet that dog. Go on
7. Don’t underestimate the role of luck in life. Not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness.
8. When someone tells you you’ve hurt them, you don’t get to decide that you didn’t
9. Thank the cook before Instagramming the food
10. When it comes to investing, boring is sexy
11. A gun is always loaded
12. You don’t buy beer, you rent it
13. Always sit at the bar. Being on a first name basis with a good bartender is one of life’s rare pleasures
14. Money won’t make you happy. But it’s more fun to cry in a BMW than on bike
15. Return to the mean is the second strongest force in the universe after compounding
16. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Abraham Lincoln said that
17. Never gloat. Pride is not the antidote to shame, but its source
18. Invest in great luggage
19. Confidence is quiet. Insecurities are loud
20. Don’t worry too much about controlling your emotions. Control your actions instead
21. Invest early in love, money, friendship… and trust in compounding. Nothing changes day by day, but when we look back everything is…