Do You Have A Code In Life? (2024)

🅳🅾 🆈🅾🆄 🅷🅰🆅🅴 🅰 🅲🅾🅳🅴 🅸🅽 🅻🅸🅵🅴?

The short answer is Yes! Every person lives by a code. The real question is what is your code? How would you sum up in a few words your philosophy about life, how you define and hold yourself, and how you treat others?

Your life code is much greater than just having a moral code, and yet your life code does include having a moral and ethical set of principles, not just because of your culture or religion, but moreover for the larger purpose of humanity and nature.

A life code is about life and the way you want to live it. It determines what defines you, the values you want to work toward and what you will base your decisions on. The other day I was driving past and I saw this person with a young boy. He was standing outside a cigarette shop and was offering the boy some pan masala (a mixture of betel leaves, tobacco, and lime, which is very injurious to health.) While he may be just fooling around, he has inadvertently spiked the curiosity in the child to have that mixture. Why, because a close member of his family is having it and is actually offering it to him.

There is another reason why defining and owning your life code is so important over having a default life code that's eventually enforced on you (by your culture, society, and upbringing.) It's got to do with how you set and achieve your #goals in life. “There are only two options regarding commitment. You are either in or out. There is no such thing as life in-between.” This quote by Pat Riley, an American professional basketball player is so relevant when it comes to our goals. To get into a self-sustaining mode to achieve your goals it is crucial to define and nurture a strong and well-rounded #lifecode.

For me, my life code has 4 components. It can be easily understood through the metaphor of a wheel. A wheel has a hub, which is the central part of the wheel, and a series of spokes. These spokes support and strengthen the center and the overall wheel. They help transmit the torque from the hub out to the wheel. Without the hub and the spokes, the wheel cannot function. The wheel is your life, and the hub is your life code. The four components of my life code are:

1. Having a system of #ethics: Is your system of ethics based on convenience? For some people, a system of ethics may be derived from their religion, for others, it could be from their education system. For someone, it could be purely experiential. Whatever your source is, it is time to develop your personal system of ethics, if you don’t have one already.

2. Creating a habit-oriented #mindset: When you are thinking about goals, start developing a habit-oriented mindset. Without habits, our goals are easy to miss. It's those tiny daily actions that we commit to doing each day that eventually takes us closer to our goals.

3. Developing circles of #influence: We are creatures of reciprocity. How we associate ourselves with people determines how they influence our lives. If you are surrounded by negative people, you tend to play victim too. If you spend time with average people, you become an average person too. An important aspect of developing your life code is to develop clear and concentric circles of relationships that help you in the long run. These relationships are the very people you need (vs the people you currently choose to be with). It’s about having them around to support and empower you as you accomplish your goals and move to your glory. There are 3 concentric circles of influence that you need to create and nurture. The first one is your relationship with yourself. You are your biggest influencer. You have all that it takes inside of you. Developing a strong relationship with yourself makes you internally driven and accept where you are in life. The next circle is your family circle – your spouse, your kids, your siblings, and your parents. They have a strong influencing power on you and you need to acknowledge that. Your family is your most influential supporter after yourself. The third and the last concentric circle is your relationship with your network, your mentors, and your coaches. Real friends and mentors are never apart, and you need them to keep you growing.

4. Taking 100% #responsibility for your life: Imagine you start taking action towards your goals and everything is smooth sailing. But, suddenly, something goes wrong. Do you immediately start blaming and complaining about just about everything? Do you externalize the blame? We are all conditioned to point outwards. It’s easy to blame everything external to us for the situations we are in. Developing a life code takes more than just taking action. It’s about personal responsibility. It’s about taking ownership for all those actions (and inactions too!) and accepting all the decisions taken that led to the situation. It’s not about giving excuses or blaming others for the situations created in your life. When you start taking 100% responsibility, you start looking inward. And, that’s where most of your answers lie.

So, what's your life code?