15 Rules of Change

Change, be it for better or worse, is inevitable. But if you’re aiming to guide it down a certain path, you need to learn the rules of change.

Many people have tried opposing change, only to learn that lesson the hard way.

You’re consuming this content because a big change is about to happen in your life. This resource will guide you through it!

Here are 15 Rules of Change:

Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading; you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:

1

Change with the environment or die off

It’s not the strongest that survive, but those who are able to change the fastest.

Times are changing and most are slow to adapt. Every change brings opportunity.

Every new idea creates ripples of opportunity not seized by the previous generations, who, in time, become stale.

They lose their hunger and their ability to hunt.

Before they know it, they starve off, making room for those able to navigate the new environment.

The rules of change state that every day, you get to make a choice.

Are you going to find the opportunity in the new or are you going to complain that things are no longer the same as when you found them comfortable?

2

 Changing your interpretation of the past is just as good as changing the past

Your only opportunity is to change the lens through which you look at things.

All the shit that you’ve been through has contributed to the cocktail you are right now.

The hardships and struggles are there to make your TED talk better.

The dirt they threw at you will eventually turn to soil and you’ll grow out of it.

Changing the way you view the past happens to be the most effective way to make peace with it.

It might not make it right or right the wrongs they did to you, but at least it opens up the future for you with the opportunity for a better tomorrow!

3

Change might be hard now, but regret is hard forever

You know the saying:

Change is hard. Staying the same is hard. Choose your hard!

Well, this is basically the adult version of that, because if you really break it apart, you realize you only have two real options in life:

1. Rolling the dice of change and maybe through effort, discipline, and a little bit of luck, you might win at this
2. Remain the same and lose by default

For some of you, the life you’re living right now does not lead to the life you wish to live!

And as long as there’s a gap between desire and reality, you are doomed to be unhappy, unfulfilled, and regretful. 

Looking back on the list, a smart person will realize that you only have one option left.

4

If you want different outputs, change the inputs

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result… You know where we’re going with this, right?

If what you’re throwing at the wall doesn’t stick, maybe change what you’re throwing, learn from the things that fell off, and adjust.

The rules of change state that if you’re making progress, keep at it. If you want faster progress, either do more of what you’re doing or get smarter about it.

Once you realize change is actually a permanent ingredient of the road forward, you will stop thinking about it as something you only have to do when things are going well.

The scale of what you’re changing may differ, but the change is permanently present.

5

You don’t get to complain about changes you can make but haven’t made

Rule number four of change can be quite a bruise to your ego.

You might like your job, but even then, compared to the rest of your team, you don’t like your job because you’re bad at it and people are starting to notice.

Some jobs require a lot of attention to detail and you might be a bigger-picture person. Some jobs require a certain amount of creativity and you’re creative in different ways.

Ask your manager about the gaps in your work, take that feedback on, and make a concerted effort to focus on that.

Ask to shadow the people who are doing well, take a course to brush up on your industry’s advancements, and practice the programs and systems you use every day so that you’ve got them nailed on.

• Some of you are broke because you’re lazy.
• Some of you are fat because you don’t exercise and eat garbage.
• Some of you are not in a relationship because you haven’t taken the time to develop a personality.

You don’t get to complain about your house being dirty if you don’t clean up after yourself.

These words only trigger those who, deep down, know they’ve been hiding behind a self-knit layer of lies.

Everyone’s at fault for what’s happening to you because of you, except for you.

One day, you’ll realize that nobody is coming to save you.

The person you’re waiting to show up and change your life—that person is YOU.

But before you try to cancel us, know that this is actually a massive opportunity for you and you alone.

You’re actually in a much better position than most people because, for you, there’s a linear path to changing your life for the better.

You know what you want to achieve. And even more amazing is that no other party needs to get involved; all these are single-player quests.

Just find enough motivation to start and watch yourself make yourself better.

A person can literally reinvent themselves in under 6 months.

By the time our first batch of students finishes their Reinvent Mastery course, we’ll have scale proof that it’s achievable. And you can quote us on that.

By the way, you might want to get on our notification list so that next time you won’t miss it.

6

The fastest progress comes from changing what you do with what you already have

This rule of change is straightforward: Stop using the exclusive excuse of not having what you need to start.

Instead, start with what you have.

Every fool can make money if they have money; the real magic is making money when you don’t have any.

This one skill causes the most powerful shift between the haves and the have-nots because some of the have-nots figure out how to make something instead of receiving it.

Once you become a creator, you can always create and trade your creation for money, food, shelter tools knowledge, etc.

7

Change is actually an exchange: You give something up to get something else

Reframing it this way sheds light on what actually happens when you actually make a change.

Here’s the formula for change: Something exists but does not live up to expectations. You choose to get rid of the present and replace it with something else.

Everything in life follows that formula: From simple things like changing your job, your car, and your clothes to your employees and even to your inner circle and yourself.

Let’s say you have an alcoholic friend who drains you of energy every time you hang out with them.

What are the variables?

The person, the alcohol, and your choice to spend time with them

You can change the friend—you can change the environment you meet up in, so there’s no alcohol—or you can decide to no longer be part of those interactions.

Be careful when choosing a life partner, because they have to match your pace of change.

The most frequent complaint couples’ therapists hear from one side is that the other “has changed”—that  they’re not the same person from the beginning of the relationship…

But if you’ve been paying attention, you know that change is an ongoing process.

Couples don’t break apart because one person changes, but because the other one chooses to remain the same, they drift apart.

Those who fail to understand this rule of change are going to have a rather difficult time ahead.

8

Trust is the first stepping stone towards change

You can not change based on advice you don’t trust.

You might receive the same advice from multiple people but only take it seriously when it comes from a person you truly trust. 

But there’s a catch to it and this is what traps most people: The people you trust the most are usually those in your inner circle. 

The problem with taking advice from them is that they’re interest lies in protecting you so they will always provide advice that shields you from possible pain or struggle. 

Anyone who’s ever done anything notable knows that rewards lie on the other side of pain and struggle.

Your inner circle can only provide you with advice that prioritizes the short term over the long term because they don’t know what you’re actually capable of.

9

Unless new information comes to light, never change the goal. Change the approach instead

It’s not the plan that’s your problem; it’s actually a pretty decent plan; it’s failing to stick to it that’s keeping you from making progress.

Yet most people, when they look at this situation, hurry to change the plan to something else, because making a new plan is always easier than actually doing the work, isn’t it?

This rule of change works both in your personal life and in your professional life.

When you zoom in, things might look chaotic, but if you zoom out, you realize you’re steadily trending upward.

This is the S&P500 in the last 6 months. Ups and downs fluctuate, which is very similar to how you feel and experience life on a day-to-day basis.

 

And this is what it looks like when you look at it from a macro perspective.

 

If the fundamentals haven’t changed and you’re still aligned for the long term, zoom out and get back to work.

You’re actually doing better than you realize.

10

Personal change is more emotional than it is rational

Your brain already knows the answers to almost all the problems you have in your life.

You’re good from a rational perspective. You know the theory.

But when it comes down to making something happen, you don’t know how or what to do.

Everyone knows how to get a six-pack. You walk into a 7-Eleven…

You simply don’t eat junk, and you do various core exercises. Repeat until the desired outcome is achieved. Here’s the thing about this rule of change:

Rationally, everyone’s great.

Every time you meet a fat person, they’re telling you about a new diet they’re on and how the science behind it works. Every time.

Yet you meet them six months later and they’re still fat. They’re still broke, still single, still in debt, and still at the soul-sucking job. They’re still miserable.

It takes years of continuous pursuit to understand that change is emotionally first and rationally second.

Your body prioritizes eating cake and drinking beer because these feel better now than the pain and success you will feel later.

That’s why Carpe Diem and YOLO are part of the culture. Although we don’t think anybody says Yolo anymore…

The way change gets implemented emotionally is by slowly building momentum.

You get yourself the smallest win possible and then you go for the next one.

Although mathematicians will tell you to pay off the highest-interest loan first, the way you actually get out of debt is by paying off the lowest amount of debt you currently have.

Because once you do, you get a feeling of achievement.

You see that you’re actually able to pay off debt.

Once you win emotionally, the rational part starts becoming viable.

11

Changing everything is mostly a net negative

We always hated the expression: “throw the baby out with the bathwater” because… How stupid can one be to throw an actual baby…?!

When you disregard something in its entirety, you lose more value than you realize and it leaves a vacuum that you don’t know how to feel.

A great example is what our generation has done with religion.

We decided in unison that A Man in the Clouds is a bullsh*t story, so we turned our backs on it.

Now you’re alone, with no sense of purpose, no sense of community, living with anxiety, existential dread, nihilism, and a perpetual feeling of insignificance.

We’re glad it worked out for you.

Young people do the same with traditions, only to eventually grow old and realize just how much good they did for society.

Sure, change with the times, but do so by building new, better traditions, not by removing traditions altogether.

12

If you want people to really hear you, change the way you speak to them

Take a step back and ask yourself: Is your goal to say the thing you want to say? Or is it for them to understand what you need from them?

Your words, your tone, who speaks the words, and what the intent is make all the difference.

People want to hear what they want to hear.

That’s why they stuff like “my truth” because their worldview is fixed, and unless you’re able to navigate that maze, you’ll always be looked at as an outsider who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Once you’re able to do that, do so repeatedly and from different perspectives.

Through building companies, we’ve learned firsthand that an employee needs to hear something at least five times before they comprehend its importance to the company.

13

Be the change you want to see in the world

Gandhi, the OG, made the list because you’re not being the change you want to see in the world and it shows.

Everyone wants things to change.

Nobody wants to change themselves!

 

Ideally, everyone else would change and implement changes that you would benefit from, right? You’d be more than happy to show support.

But that’s not how the world works.

You’ll never be able to help anyone else if you can’t help yourself first.

For as long as you live, remember this quote: A sinking ship can save no one!

• If you want to make your parents proud, start with yourself.
• If you want to contribute to humanity, start with yourself.

Make yourself sustainably rich and then use that wealth to help others.

14

Changing your logo doesn’t change what your company does

In the same way, changing your clothes doesn’t change who you are as a person.

Small changes for a limited time aren’t enough to lead to long-term effects.

They’re a start, but they do not excuse future work.

Just because you didn’t cheat on your partner this weekend doesn’t mean you have a happy marriage, yet some people think like that.

Like a puzzle, you pick up each piece and figure out its place in order to build the life you want.

Like a puzzle master, you look at the box to see what the final picture should be and then proceed to find the structural pieces.

For the end result to work, it’s a holistic approach.

To summarize this rule of change: If all you’re holding is one piece from a 1,000-piece puzzle, you quickly realize that it’s not enough.

15

People will not change unless change is the only option left

People will try to avoid change as much as possible.

They will make up scenarios and justify extreme levels of pain and misery just so they don’t have to change… Why?

Because the pain they feel is familiar, and they’re more scared of the unknown than they are of the devil they know.

Rationally, you know that’s a dumb thing to do, but as we’ve established, humans are emotional-first creatures.

In the same way, most beasts will avoid conflict until they’re cornered and things switch.

At that moment, change happens.

What did we learn from this:

1. Change requires a sense of urgency.
2. Change requires something to be at stake.

And what’s at stake has to be so big that saying no is impossible.

That’s why if a doctor told you to lose 30 pounds in the next 3 months or you’d die, you’d figure out a way to do it because your desire to live is greater than the pain required to generate the change.

Most of you wait until the absolute last minute to implement the change, only to realize that sometimes it’s too late.

Bonus

People will not change unless change is the only option left

If you’re a long-time reader of ours, you know that location is the most important decision you will have to make in your life.

Everything else that will unfold in your life stems from that, but there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

1. Change locations and grow strong.
2. Then acquire the ability to grow strong in any location.

As you continue to change, you become incredibly good at changing.

Your mind and body adapt to every new environment you throw at it and you become a universal being that can thrive in any location.

That’s when you win.

Wherever you go, you feel at home. You are where your feet are.

When you’re in your space with your family and a few essentials, you no longer feel like you need anything else.

You grow to realize that anything you want can be acquired anywhere you go. So your happiness, your fulfillment, is no longer tied to a pursuit.

The hole some of you feel inside right now is no longer there.

You can have anything you want but not everything at once.

The kid in you smiles when you realize you’ve arrived at the life you want.

All of this is attainable.

These are the 15 rules of change. Walk within the lines for a while and you’ll know you’re doing the right things sooner than you think. See you next time!