Learn the rules, then break them. On the path to fully learning the rules, you will encounter their origins and their purpose. You will then acquire an understanding of the importance of following these rules. That being said, by being here, I know that you understand that the invocation of innovation happens when we dare to step over the edge, but your ability to go beyond that which is familiar is diminished if you are not familiar. In order to forget the rules, we must know them and respect them.
Practice Extreme Ownership. I credit the term Extreme Ownership to Jocko. There is an estimated agreed-upon amount of blame one can place on themselves being a flawed human. Anything past is considered extreme self-scrutiny and unnatural. We need to take frequent glimpses into this extreme dimension of reacting to stimuli—essentially, how we make decisions. We are flawed, but ask yourself, what if? What if we practiced constant acknowledgement of our influence within every event that impacts us, no matter how seemingly random or unfair? A meteorite falls on you; your fault, a drunk driver crashes into you; your fault… I understand that these statements resemble paradoxes, but this is the gateway into full self-realization. This mindset is a catalyst for improving our decision-making abilities and optimizing our actions.
Communicate. Very. Clearly. We are usually in a state of automatic assumption that those we are communicating with share our level of understanding, leading us to use minimal words in our conveyance of the intended message. Truth is, we are all at various levels of comprehension within various contexts of our lives. The safest assumption would be that the recipient of our message needs as much relevant information as can be conveyed within a given period, including confirmation of comprehension through concise feedback.
