Thomas Jefferson’s 10 Maxims for Life

#1 Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination only robs us of positive future outcomes and undermines our self-respect.

#2 Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. Learning to be self-reliant builds both your character and earned self-esteem.

#3 Never spend your money before you have it. Jefferson obviously wrote this before the advent of credit cards, but his words do hold true. A modern adaptation may read never spend money with a credit card that you can’t pay off.

#4 Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap. Many of these items end up being dust collectors or sold in your next garage sale.

#5 Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. Pride is often called out as one of the worst of the seven deadly sins. Why? It can lead us to make damaging and irrevocable decisions that do damage to others and ourselves.

#6 We never repent of having eaten too little…but we are likely to feel pangs of guilt or a stomach ache for eating too much. Excess in any area of our lives is never healthy or rewarding.

#7 Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. Do you HAVE to go to work? Do you HAVE to get on the phone to generate appointments that lead to sales? The answer is no. You choose to do these things. Don’t fall into the trap of saying these ‘have-tos’ that ignore your free agency.

#8 How much pain has cost us the evils which have never happened? The stoic philosopher Seneca said it best- “There are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

#9 Take things always by their smooth handle. We have two choices when it comes to situations and relationships. To grab them by the handle that we cannot hold, or by the handle to which we can keep our grasp. Epictetus said, “Every event has two handles. One by which it can be carried, and one by which it can’t. If your brother does you wrong, don’t grab it by his wronging, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other—that he is your brother, And last, but not least,

#10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred. Some days I need to count to a thousand. Seriously. Delay is our best ally when we are angry or feel provoked. In doing so we avoid flipping that dreaded switch.