Simple Rules For Behaving Like An Adult

I came across this list of 25 principles of adult behavior recently and should probably print it out and carry it with me wherever I go. Written by the multitalented John Perry Barlow, who passed away a couple weeks ago at the age of 70, this is a basic but brilliant guide (or refresher/reminder) on how to live well.

“I sat down around 2 am on October 3, 1977 and I drew up this list of behavioral goals that I hoped might assist in this process,” he wrote in an email to friends on his 60th birthday. “Now, thirty years later, I can claim some mixed success. Where I’ve failed, I’m still working on it. I give these to you so that you can provide me with encouragement in becoming the person I want to be. And maybe, though they are very personally targeted, they may even be of some little guidance to you.”

Even the order of the principles (e.g. 1. Be patient…5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change…15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that….25. Endure.) was well thought out and deliberate in its structure. Read it (again and again, in fact).

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