Rules for Kyle (by Kyle)

I’ve never been the kind of guy who thrives on rigid rules. I’m not about to do a 30-day carnivore challenge or wake up at 4 a.m. just because some YouTube guru swears by it.

Throughout my childhood, I actually developed a negative association with the word “discipline”, which I’m trying to actively change. To me, it seemed like forcing yourself to do things you didn’t really want to do.

But over time, I’ve realized that discipline doesn’t have to mean drudgery. In fact, self-guided rules and constraints can be incredibly freeing.

So my “rules” are simple, actionable reminders of…
> Things I know I’ll benefit from (but tend to neglect when they’re not front of mind).
> Small ways to stretch my tolerance for discomfort, which is really the training ground for growth.
> Practical nudges that anchor me when my default mode drifts toward ease and avoidance.

💌 I want to think of discipline as being my love letter to the universe. Because the universe doesn’t speak English, after all. By taking specific actions despite your present self, in hope of a better future outcome, you tell the world that this matters to me in a way that’s much more convincing than any string of words that only live in your mind.

1️⃣ Walk for ~1 hour every single morning. Doing this simply sets me up for a day that’s ~1,000X better than when I don’t walk in the morning.

2️⃣ Take the stairs >50% of the time. And I live on the 6th floor, so that’s a decent chunk of walking up stairs. But I think it’s probably good for me, and I don’t feel like it’s “hard” – so I just make a point to take the stairs most of the time.

3️⃣ Start every shower with >30 seconds of cold water. A simple, but effective, way to build distress tolerance. It’s fucking hard to even step into the freezing cold water, but once you do it, you realize it’s really not that bad – and 30 seconds is quick as fuck. I can handle it.

4️⃣ Type every single day. This is my no-pressure way to get myself to write. Something that resembles writing is typically on the other side of typing – but for whatever reason, on those days when I don’t feel like “writing,” I can get myself to “type” much easier. If no good writing comes from it, so be it – the rule is to simply sit down and do it.

5️⃣ Sit still in silence every single day. Same logic as the prior rule, except this time about meditation. The word “meditation” always seemed sort of intimidating to me, and I’ve never been consistent with my “meditation practice.” So instead, my practice is to simply sit still in silence – much less pressure, since I know there’s no way I can get that wrong.

6️⃣ 50/50 split between silence + listening. And it doesn’t matter if that listening is to music or podcasts. But I’ve had a habit of filling every single second of my free time with some sort of listening. But giving myself time to think (or simply be) has been extremely fruitful – so I need to make it a point to do more of that.