The 30 Sages were written for my son Sage and are a set of philosophies, ideas and beliefs to live by.

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Sage is someone or something who is wise or exhibits signs of wisdom or intelligence. I have accumulated and tweaked what I think are my top philosophies.  Humans have about 60,000+ thoughts a day, most are negative... This doesn't help when your training your subconscious to believe negative thoughts, as the subconscious is 1000 times more powerful than the conscious mind.

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I hope that learning some of the 30 Sages will help fast track you on some of life's fun and hardest adventures to better adapt to the world and own your day and life. Understand them, be them, be you.

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1. Always be a student, listening is learning 

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Talking to much can come from wanting your ego stroked or feeling like you’re not listened to enough and in turn, try to gain power in that situation. More to the point, it is you that can learn something from everyone, knowledge is power to think for yourself, have your own answers, make your own money. 

 

2. Don’t take yourself so seriously. (Life is serious enough without you freaking out)

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Most of the time other people don’t care that much about what you do or have done, try to think about how much you care about someone else action’s then you will see how easy it is to take yourself so seriously. We are all on the same life journey, if you get too serious to much, it can end up creating a cloudy mind that can end up leading to slow or bad decisions. Another way to think about it is think, what people say about you, is none of your business..

 

3. What gets in your way, is what takes you out of the game

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Awareness of what’s holding you back, why are you being lazy, why do you give up, anytime you procrastinate, that’s you out of the game, no one wants to be last, doing nothing will get you there the fastest. Be aware of what you make decisions, and at times you can have a laugh when you make a bad one, just try not to make it again.

 

4. Be authentic and have integrity in anything you do, without integrity, nothing works

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If you say something mean it, often we say things just for the sake of shutting someone up, but then you look like the dick for not being the man and actually doing it..

 

5. You don’t compare yourself to others and you don’t need to copy them too

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This again is about being self-aware about your movements, actions, when you say yes or no, the moments of doing something you feel guilty about after… You feel like you need to do what they want so you don’t feel left out or want to be cool, 

 

6. Quality of life is the quality of your contribution 

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This can take people 80 years to work out, but think of a day you got home at night and had put a smile on someone’s face or helped someone else, how did it make you feel? This should answer this questions.

 

7. Don’t lie about it, you made a mistake, maybe did something selfish. Admit it. Move on. Don’t do it again.

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Pretty simple, being honest is a cousin of being authentic. You lie to someone, you actually lie to yourself, some people go through life not knowing they lie all the time, everything from the smallest possible thing,  If you think about it, you will know some of these people who do that now.

 

8. Be more like water

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This simply means, flow, go with the ripples, straits, rapids, corners, and flow through them like water. If things are tough, then bear with it, the rapids will die away, the water will still be there after all that. Time heals, things change.

 

9. Stress is a biological sign you’re trying to be someone you are no

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Ok, thats bit of a throwaway statement, but have a think about what it means for a bit. You know what they say if you try to force something.. Stress is a sign, some say its good for you sometimes, others say its never good for you, for why is it there in the first place..? Maybe its something thats out of your control, stress wont fix that, and the stress is meaning that your scared about something, what is that something? Ask, Why, why, why… and then consider what the worst possible scenero can come from it, you will see its never that bad. 

 

10. You can't prevent a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest. 

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Take action.

 

11. My life has been filled with terrible tragedies most of which never happened. 

What story are you telling yourself? We tend to create exaggerated meaning's to most things in our life.. Even how good we think 'we' are.. :)

 

What I mean here, is, when something happened to you yesterday, or 10 years ago that impacted you, what meaning did you give that situation, how have you decided to be because of that? This is where the gold is, uncover the hidden story! Observe them daily… These core beliefs are a good thing to look at to execute yourself to a higher level. The wiser you grow the more you realise we attach meaning to everything we see and hear, this is our perception. What story did you give about the person that pushed past you on the bus?

 

12. You can learn a lot about someone when you share a meal with them

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Not texting, not email, sometimes phone calls.. But always a couple of in-person catch-ups is where you really know someone. They say a picture says 1000 words, so what does someone in person say? Don’t be too quick to judge. 

 

13. When you get angry, ask yourself why? Self-reflection can break down your imperfection

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Anger is the cousin of hate. hate is the birthplace of sadness. It might be you hate the reason you got angry (most probably not because of the trigger (reason) you reacted or got angry in the first place. When you get angry, it’s usually about you, or something in your past, anger affects not just you but also the person you use it against, so where does that get you. 1 second of anger robs you of 60 seconds of happiness. Anger can be a powerful healthy motivator when not projected on others. Mostly, if we hate another - it’s only ourselves we are hating on. 

 

14. Don’t underestimate the power of daily routine

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Time management, routine, are pathways to success. 

 

15. Have the confidence to listen

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When you overtalk, it can be a sign you’re trying to make up for something else.. I.e trying to prove yourself to someone else (but do we care that much), or it could be triggering our ego i.e, they think I’m stupid and don’t know the answer or could be 100 other things.. But when you talk too much, you don’t learn as much. Don’t listen to answer.

 

16. Once you stop talking to them, they start talking about you

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If you give to much attention to someone (client, girl…) they think you must need them, or are desperate, or.. There is a fine line sometimes, and patients and timing can open doors, not forcing. 

 

17 Not always is life up. Not always down. When you are able to ride the wave in a state of centredness. The rise and fall no longer affect you

 

Be like water, be aware when your not feeling joyful, beware when you realise you’re being snappy, the cooled thing you can do is be calm, who doesn’t like someone who is calm? What did they ever do to piss you off?

 

18. Happiness won't last if it's got expectations. Be a trustee.  (So true!) like finding Joe says, let go of the life you planned)

They say, to be a trustee of items and people in your life.. Don’t hold onto them so tight, as then you lose them, the pain won’t be as strong. Be an owner of your internal and trustee of your external.  

 

19. If the pain or clarity is not great enough you will not change 

This can happen to us almost daily, but the trick is to take action before its forced on us in all meanings.. I.e you get hungry enough you will get food, you feel enough pain, you will seek for guidance.. Act before the pain hits, ( I’m now a believer that we need the pain and to allow it to hit if it’s rising) planning ahead, checking in with yourself can moderate the pain. Pain is there to teach us a lesson. Sit back and work out what that is, then take the action to weaken it.

 

20. Positivity will always beat negativity 

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This can be in person, in the mind, at work, school… having a positive mindset allows to search for answers and meaning, negativity won’t allow creativity as you are on the defence, like your being attacked, what would you rather choose? 

 

21. Don’t say stuff about other people you couldn’t say to that persons face

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Everyone gets caught doing this, but like many things in life, how can we get better at them.. There is usually no need except for personal satisfaction, that we need to talk badly about other people, is it our job to do that, and how would we feel if it was done about us.. Sometimes in life, it’s just about m minimising any bad ‘energy’, and this is one of them. Do you think it serves you in a good way by being negative? When we talk badly about another it is merely a mirror of our own disliking in ourselves.

 

22. Always be upgrading

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Each and every little skill, habit, routine, the last year you is outdated. Try something new, keep busy, don’t watch too much TV. It helps to have some of this down in your phone or a journal so when you come to think of getting off your ass, you can review some ideas.

 

23. Be proactive as opposed to reactive  

This can be a skill learnt over your life, but being on the back foot is never usually a fun place to be. Being wiser. Being reactive is where our work is. 

 

24. The brain can't tell the difference between visualisation and actual experience. Use that to your advantage

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In other words, what you tell yourself, you will believe and intern, feel. This is in essence why most of the content here is all about mindset through action. Its science. Do you believe in science or someone else opinion or what’s in the news that day? The mind is often our enemy toward change.

 

25. Most things are about perception

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(Suggestion: look at Cultural Theory and the Measurement of Deep Core Beliefs Within the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Might come in useful explaining your concept.

Perception can be viewed as the story you are telling yourself? Our minds are designed to think about the hardest or most negative situation or task for that current moment, it's instant, as fast as lighting and our reactions are almost uncontrollable. This is because our minds (‘computers’) in order to use the least amount of energy, think about the easiest outcome or solution, this is normally the lazy way and negative response.. Consider what you are thinking with any decision you make as you have to control your mind, don't let it control you, then eventually you will reprogram it, actually.

 

26. Own your own shit. Responsibility is at the heart of results

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This is another one of life’s trip-ups. Life can hide from you inside open box’s in your brain, this can be learned the hard way or easy way but eventually, everyone can choose to work out what of the box’s in their head need shutting. We grew up being cared for and looked after, but after that’s done, you are the only one in charge of your life (within reason), this is with work, school, friends, making money, starting a fight.. It’s on you, other people don’t really care as much as you think, most people want what’s best for them, don’t hate them for this, its human nature. But own your shit, and you can own your life. Consider something that happened (or didn’t happen in the last week and will make this theory clearer) 

 

27. Don’t work your shit out on other people

Watch a couple of people have an argument or watch yourself when you are thinking you are angry at someone else.. Is this because of them (really them) or is it an issue you have with a topic or something else.. We tend to get caught up in someone else actions and think its about you/us.. We react at them as its triggered something internally, next thing you know there has been a pointless fucking argument, this can also happen because they are of a similar mindset to you. It can be best to just shut up and work out the answer in your head before you look like a dick.

 

28. Forgiving and truth let yourself free

Forgiving is another way of letting things go, don’t hold onto a negative story, thought or feeling about someone or something that’s not serving you. I.e be a trustee.. When you forgive, it means it will release you of any stress your holding onto, or as I say, an open box in your mind that won't be closed till you close it. The more you hang onto it the more that person or thing is in your life. What would you want to let go of today?

 

29. You never know what might interest you till you get your hands dirty. try new things.

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How will you know if you don’t try it? If you don’t know what you’re looking for you might never find it. How shit would that be.

 

30. Once you open your mouth you tell the world who you are

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