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10 Golden Rules for a Life

Life… The education I received from living in both destitution and extreme wealth has left me with a profound sense of gratitude for the things I have picked up along the way.

The trials that I had to go through educated me in ways that I could never have learned in a book or in a classroom. Freedom is something that cannot be purchased, and I discovered this after achieving financial success.

Happiness is not something that can be purchased with things like money, a big house, fashionable clothes, or an expensive car. This is something that I’ve come to realize over the course of my life. The most important things in life are love, family, and friends, as well as hope, gratitude, exploration, and dreams.

Therefore, without further ado, I will get right to it and list my top ten guidelines for leading a happy and fulfilled life:

Adopt a mentality of gratitude

When I was having trouble paying my bills, I learned how important it is to be thankful. When I started to feel down about things, I would remind myself that there was always the possibility that things could be worse.

Even when things weren’t going as planned, I made an effort to think positively (instead of focusing on everything that was going wrong).

I have learned to combat the natural inclination I have to focus on the negative by forcing myself, instead, to take an inventory of all the positive things that are occurring in my life.

It never failed to bring me back to earth and make me appreciate how blessed I am, regardless of how low I allowed myself to get. Even though I was in the midst of difficulty, I was able to experience joy in the here and now.

Despite the fact that my family did not have a lot of money, I was blessed in many ways: my health, my acceptance to Bilkent and Başkent Universities, my work ethic, my family, my friends, my training in martial arts, etc.

When things are difficult, people’s thoughts tend to automatically turn to the negative (instead of how lucky you are that things are not even worse). My own personal source of happiness has turned out to be the practice of expressing gratitude.

Make room in your heart for love

A single day is comprised of a total of 24 hours. In my opinion, one of the most important things you can do to lead a happy life is to make sure that you spend as much time as you can doing things that you take pleasure in, whether those things involve other people, hobbies, or animals.

being unafraid when it comes to love. I try to fill each day with as many hours as I can spend engaging in activities that bring me pleasure. Taking charge and launching my own company has proven to be an extremely rewarding endeavor.

Training in martial arts is a hobby that gives me a lot of pleasure. My family is the group of people in the world that I care about the most.

The importance of my friendships cannot be overstated. My friends dogs are the center of my universe. One of my other favorite things to do is go to the movies. One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is read.

One of my absolute favorite things to do is to travel to a new location. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise if you saw me spending any given year engaging in all of those activities with the people who are important to me.

There are some aspects of life that are beyond our control, but the amount of love that we allow into our lives is completely within our sphere of influence.

Determine your mission

When I was 37 years old, I quit my job as a manager of global hedge funds and began searching for the purpose that my life was meant to serve.

When I announced that I was going to pursue a career in martial arts, my friends and family looked at me like I had lost my mind. When you finally understand why you are in this world, everything makes more sense.

Weekends are no longer needed. During the day, you give up trying to plan what you’ll do in the evening. You will no longer have to suffer from the Sunday night blues.

If you take a look at the people who are the happiest on the planet, you’ll notice that they don’t create artificial barriers between their personal lives and the lives they lead in the workplace. That’s it; there’s nothing more to it than that. That’s life. There are no bounds to this. Infinite potential exists.

Since I can remember, business and martial arts have been my two true great loves, and I’ve always tried to combine the two. Having said that, throughout the course of my life, I have found meaning in a variety of settings at different stages.

My life’s goal is now very clear to me, and working toward it gives me energy and makes me feel good. My goal in life is to use the transformative power of martial arts and personal development tools to help reduce socioeconomic, racial, and educational differences around the world. I am convinced, to the depths of my being, that this is the purpose for which God brought me into this world.

Don’t judge your own abilities by those of other people

When I was younger, it was natural for me to evaluate the level of my accomplishments in comparison to those of my contemporaries, acquaintances, and even the successes of people whose work I admired.

It is true, and although it causes me a great deal of pain to admit it at this time, it is nonetheless the truth. Every part of my life, from how much money I made to how happy I was at my job to how much respect my position brought me to how quickly I moved up, was compared to something else.

I can tell you that it has caused me nothing but trouble. I’ve come to the conclusion that the actions and experiences of other people have no bearing on the degree to which one is happy with their own life.

Finding one’s life’s calling and working toward that calling while being supported by one’s family and friends is the secret to leading a fulfilled existence. Becoming an idealized version of oneself is part of the process of developing oneself.

Every one of us is going to take a different road in the future. Every one of us is voyaging along a path that is one of a kind. Every one of us enjoys the benefit of a unique set of capabilities and opportunities.

On the other hand, in our separate investigations of the truth, we are wholly isolated from one another. The secret to a happy life is leading a life that is honest to who you are and that deeply motivates and excites you. In light of this, nothing else is significant.

You can’t buy happiness with money, and you can’t buy it with a big house or a fast car either. True joy is found within oneself and cannot be found in external sources. Make an effort to accomplish great things. Make the most of the time you have available to you.

 Always be on the lookout for opportunities to forgive.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that finding peace within yourself is one of the best things you can do in life. In my view, forgiveness is the spiritual analog of a magic elixir that can transform a person’s life for the better.

Take some time off for yourself. Let yourself be forgiven. To put it more succinctly, nobody is perfect. The fact of the matter is that every once in a while, all of us are to blame for committing errors.

That is something that happens to even the best of us. There are times when each and every one of us falls short. Forgive. Forgiving someone requires courage.

A person who lacks strength cannot forgive others. It is a cruel irony that as long as we hold resentment toward other people, we will never be able to experience the genuine joy that life has to offer.

Set all of those free who have wronged you in any way. Put an end to everything that has been making your life a living hell. Put an end to clinging to those miserable sensations. Acknowledge the new information and proceed with self-assurance.

Surround yourself with people who have a positive outlook on life.

It’s possible that this will come across as harsh, but I don’t waste my time with people who bring me down. Everyone has had the experience of coming across someone who constantly complains about how awful life is, how they’ve been treated unfairly, how the world is unfair, and other similar topics.

But no matter how hard I try; I just can’t muster any compassion for people who are perpetually pessimistic. Negative people always seem to find someone else to place the blame on, and they don’t seem to learn from their mistakes.

And in almost every instance, they are the cause of the problems that they are having with themselves. Those people who never stop speaking negatively about me and my companies have no place in my life.

Spending your valuable time on the people who bring you down is a waste of your life and should be avoided at all costs. Because of this, I believe in the principle known as the Law of Attraction.

If you let a negative person into your life, you will end up taking on their negativity and drawing even more negative people to you as a result. The opposite argument holds water as well.

If you put yourself in the company of happy, grateful people, you will quickly discover that you are happier, too. When you exude joy, others are more drawn to you. Optimism breeds optimism. When one person is happy, it spreads to make others happy as well.

Don’t ever lose touch with your inner child.

When we were children, our hearts were filled to the brim with all of the most wonderful things: love, wonder, innocence, hope, goodness, and the possibility of a better world.

Nothing is impossible, and there is no such thing as a bad person, when you’re a kid. However, as we get older, we don’t appear to retain any of that childlike wonder.

People who know me best, including my friends and family, will be the ones to tell you that, at heart, I’m just a child. I made the decision a long time ago that I would never allow the pressures and responsibilities of adulthood to change the carefree person that I still consider myself to be at my core.

Having fun with pranks and practical jokes is one of my favorite things to do. I’m at my best when the stakes are high. One of my absolute favorites is the world of dreams.

To put it another way, I believe the majority of people have good intentions in their hearts. In my opinion, there are no objectives that are impossible to achieve.

Without a doubt, I have had more than my fair share of unfortunate circumstances, awful people, misery, and unsuccessful endeavors.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way to protect my inner child is to live each day to its fullest potential. It would be a terrible thing if each of us allowed the challenges and pessimism that life presents to chip away at our sense of wonder and faith in fellow human beings. Existence is a beautiful thing.

Don’t let your belongings make you a slave to them

Some people might find it odd, but I don’t keep very much stuff around the house. Simple G-Shocks have been the only watches I’ve ever bought in the ten years or so since I started wearing watches.

Even though I only have one car, I am confident that it will be sufficient to get me from A to B. Buying ten luxury sports cars, such as Ferraris or Lamborghinis, tomorrow would not be a problem for me financially.

Nevertheless, my past has taught me that it will not bring me happiness in the long run. (I want to make it perfectly clear that there is nothing inherently wrong with pursuing your passion by investing in a high-performance automobile.)

That these things will not bring me happiness is something I am absolutely certain of. To put it another way, the time I spent in economic hardship enlightened me to the difference between happiness and self-indulgence.

Happiness can be defined as a state of inner contentment and calm serenity. The pursuit of pleasure in the here and now rarely pays off in the long run.

A new toy will keep you entertained for a few days, but after that, you’ll start to wonder what the next cool thing is that you need to get your hands on.

A never-ending quest for fleeting pleasures and satisfactions. Spending it on activities that I can do together with the people I care about is the best use of my money. The events of the past can never be changed.

Conduct yourself in a moral manner.

Giving rather than receiving can help you make a positive impact on the world. It is essential for me to leave a positive mark in every location that I visit.

The better we do for other people, the more joy we bring to ourselves. When I tell people how much of my life, I devote to helping those in need, they frequently ask me why I give so much to so many different charities.

When I explain to them how much time and energy I put into this endeavor, they are often surprised. To put it another way, I do not live in a state of denial about my past.

My memories of growing up in poverty and assisting my family through difficult times after the departure of my father are etched into the very fabric of my being.

I am well aware that if my mother hadn’t been as encouraging as she was, or if I hadn’t been exposed to the transformative power of martial arts, I probably would not have achieved the level of success that I have attained today.

My mother provided me with love, hope, and belief when I had nothing else to hold on to. When I really needed it, martial arts instilled in me a fierce determination to succeed in whatever I set my mind to.

I have high hopes that I will be able to assist those who are less fortunate. To wrap up, I’d like to share a thought from one of the artists whose work I admire the most: “In this great future, you can’t forget your past,” said Bob Marley.

Aim to be fully present in the current moment

I do my best to appreciate the here and now, despite the fact that doing so is not always simple. There is no question that this world contains suffering, but it also contains a great deal of joy and love. I will do everything in my power not to forget those moments.

In my view, happiness is not a state that one arrives at permanently. This is not a goal that should be pursued at all. Don’t just idly wait around and wish for happiness. Happiness is not something that can be purchased with cash

Do not actively seek out happiness. Training oneself to take pleasure in life’s simpler pleasures is one of the most important factors in determining one’s level of happiness.

The only way to experience genuine happiness is to reflect on all of life’s blessings and express gratitude for them. The journey to achieving one’s goals is an exciting adventure.

If you want to “live in the moment,” you have to focus all of your attention on the things going on around you and not let your thoughts wander to the events of the past or the plans for the future.

One strategy for accomplishing this goal is to focus on being in the here and now at all times. Paying attention without passing judgment on what you’re experiencing is what we mean when we talk about being mindful.

Focusing on your breathing, the sensations in your body, and the environment around you are all important parts of the practice. People who do mindfulness training tend to think less about their thoughts and pay more attention to the present moment.

One more method of practicing presence is to go about one’s activities at a more leisurely pace. Because modern life is so busy, we rarely have time to stop and enjoy the beauty around us.

It is dependent on our ability to slow down and take stock of our immediate environment as to whether or not we are able to be fully present and take pleasure in the simple pleasures that life has to offer.

Take a walk through a park, and while you’re there, keep an eye out for all of the different kinds of flora and fauna that live there. Tune your ears and nose in to what’s going on in the area.

And try not to let your worries about the past or the future consume you. If we allow ourselves to ruminate on the events of the past or become anxious about the future, we run the risk of not being fully present in the here and now.

You should focus all of your attention on the here and now, rather than the past or the future. Think about things like, “What am I doing right now?” and “What am I able to appreciate about the present moment?”

The purpose of My Happy List is not to be all-encompassing. There are probably going to be some people who take issue with some of the things that are included on this list.

This list is not intended to be taken as advice from me or any other person; rather, it is a compilation of my own ideas and experiences in the pursuit of happiness.

Even though I can’t promise that anything I say will make you happier, my sincere hope is that you’ll be able to learn something helpful and put it to use in your own life so that you can make it even better. My one and only wish is to experience more happy days than sad ones.

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