35 rules to live by – at work and home

Adopt these 35 thoughts as rules for your life this year, and you can be assured of a happier, more successful and more fulfilling 2012

1. Remember that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.

2. Keep the promises you make to others - and to yourself.

3. The project that most scares you is the project you need to do first.

4. Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.

5. Stop being busy being busy. This New Year, clean out the distractions from your work and life and devote to a monomaniacal focus on the few things that matter.

6. Read The War of Art.

7. Watch The Fighter.

8. In a world where technology is causing some of us to forget how to act human, become the politest person you know.

9. Remember that all great ideas were first ridiculed.

10. Remember that critics are dreamers gone scared.

11. Be 'Apple-Like' in your obsession with getting the details right.

12. Take 60 minutes every weekend to craft a blueprint for the coming seven days.  As Saul Bellow once said: "A plan relieves you of the torment of choice."

13. Release your need to be liked this New Year. You can't be a visionary if you long to be liked.

14. Disrupt or be disrupted.

15. Hire a personal trainer to get you into the best shape of your life. Superstars focus on the value they receive versus the cost of the service.

16. Give your teammates, customers and family one of the greatest gifts of all: the gift of your attention (and presence).

17. Every morning ask yourself: "How may I best serve the most people?"

18. Every night ask yourself: "What 5 good things happened to me this day?"

19. Don't waste your most valuable hours (the morning) doing low value work.

20. Leave every project you touch at work better than you found it.

21. Your job is not just to work. Your job is to leave a trail of leaders behind you.

22. A job is not 'just a job'. Every job is a gorgeous vehicle to express your gifts and talents -
and to model exceptionalism for all around you.

23. Fears unfaced become your limits.

24. Get up at 5 am and take 60 minutes to prepare your mind, body, emotions and spirit to be remarkable during the hours that follow. Being a superstar is not the domain of the gifted but the
prepared.

25. Write love letters to your family.

26. Smile at strangers.

27. Drink more water.

28. Keep a journal. Your life's story is worth recording.

29. Do more than you're paid to do and do work that leaves your teammates breathless.

30. Leave your ego at the door every morning.

31. Set 5 daily goals every morning. These small wins will lead to nearly 2 000 little victories by
the end of the year.

32. Say 'please' and 'thank you'.

33. Remember the secret to happiness is doing work that matters and being an instrument of service.

34. Don't be the richest person in the graveyard.  Health is wealth.

35. Life's short.  The greatest risk is risk-less living. And settling for average.