Part 1 - Introducing The Before Rules: What Are The Before Rules?
The Before Rules: A Simple Guide For Life's Complexities
Part 1 - Master Your Why, Structure Your How, Create Your System, And Achieve Your Outcome - With Just Three Words
The Before Rules In Three Words: Here Before There.
The Before Rules In A Statement: The Before Rules offers a straightforward, structured approach to personal transformation. They begin by recognizing your current reality (‘Here’) and identifying your desired outcome (‘There’). Then, this integrated framework based on scientific research, behavioral science, and evidence-based systems guides you to realizing your potential.
Create Clear, Concise, Consistent Commitments: The Before Rules are always three words, with 'before' as the middle word, i.e., Action Before Outcome.
The Before Rules Have Universal Applicability: You can apply the Before Rules to all areas of your life, such as personal, professional, academic, and aspirational endeavors. Questions Before Answers: Many questions will be presented and answered in this essay, including these frequently thought questions:
Just what are the Before Rules?
How can three simple words improve my life?
What is the difference between a law and a rule as it applies to the Before Rules?
What are practical, everyday examples of the Before Rules?
How do the Before Rules combine extrinsic and intrinsic motivation techniques to maximize impact and effectiveness?
The Before Rules Series
The Before Rules Series: This is the first essay in a five-part Before Rules series. Follow or subscribe to access the other parts of The Before Rules:
Part 1: Master Your Why, Structure Your How, Create Your System, And Achieve Your Outcome - With Just Three Words.
Part 2: The First Secret Simplicity: Extrinsic Framing - Structure | System | Outcome.
Part 3: The Second Secret Simplicity: Intrinsic Framing - Identity | Agency.
Part 4: Creating Consistent Commitments: A Master System For Implementing 3 Commitments, 3 Rules, 3 Minutes.
Part 5: How The Before Rules Benefit You: The Evidence And Science Behind The Before Rules.
What Are The Before Rules?
Just Three Words? The Before Rules are three simple yet transformative words that are your template guiding you towards success. In short, there is an action you must take before your desired outcome can be achieved. The Before Rules structure this process. More Than Three Words: The Before Rules are more than just three-word phrases; they're compact master plans for personal achievement. Envision each Before Rule as a simple yet highly effective three-word strategy that guides you from an unclear ‘before’ to a focused ‘after.’
The First Word - The Beginning: The first word is where you now stand. It is a single-word initiating action. Simple. Consider the phrases Here Before There or Deposit Before Withdrawal. The Second Word - Before, A Connector, And A Catalyst: The word 'Before' symbolizes the process as your conduit, connection, and bridge from where you are to where you want to be. The Third Word - The Destination: The third word is your destination, desired outcome, or goal—for example, Cause Before Effect or Through Before To. As Easy As 1, 2, 3: These three words focus your mind, give direction, and provide a clear path. The Before Rules illuminate the way from who you are to who you wish to become. Short, clean, and straightforward. As Easy As Driving A Car: If you need to go somewhere, get into your car, enter the address into your GPS, turn the key, drive, and arrive at your destination. You don't have to be concerned with elements of the vehicle, such as how shatterproof windshield glass is made, why tires are so resilient that they can drive in sub-zero and over 100-degree temperatures, how batteries keep their charge, how your smartphone connects to your car, how do satellites know where you are, where is the gas tank located to maximize safety, etc. Well-designed Before Rules function similarly: get in, start, and arrive at your destination. Cheat Code? Initially, the Before Rules may appear simply as a life hack, a glib secret, a trade secret, or a hidden backdoor. Some have likened it to a cheat code. Beyond Cheat Codes: The Before Rules are not cheat codes, even though they provide easy access, as a cheat code might; the Before Rules accomplish success, but without the cheating part. In essence, they are commonsense.
Here Before There - What Are A Few Examples Of The Before Rules? This section, Here Before There, is an example of a Before Rule. Below are additional examples, with potential applications in parentheses:
Deposits Before Withdrawals (just like with banks, relationships, education, you get back more than you put in)
Systems Before Goals (a goal is a one-time event in the future, and a system is an everyday indicator of success)
Identity Before Agency (identity is when your beliefs, values, and traits automatically align with your actions)
Decision Before Choice (decide once, then you are not distracted)
Here Before There (mindfulness and self-care are examples)
100% Before 99% (100% commitment is easier than 99% otherwise, you are always looking for the exception)
Through Before To (there are no shortcuts - only time delays; the sooner you begin, the sooner you finish)
Purpose Before Everything (recognize that while purpose is everything, not everything is purpose)
Fire Before Ready (acknowledge that if you wait until you are fully ready, it may be too late)
Important Before Urgent (prioritize efforts towards what matters now and in the future, not just for now)
Obstacle Before Opportunity (an opportunity exists behind every challenge, problem, setback, or obstacle)
Understanding the Distinction: Rules vs. Laws
Before We Go Further - How Are Before Rules Different From Laws? While laws are extrinsic, created and agreed upon by norms, and enforced by society, your Before Rules are created intrinsically by you and solely enforced by you. Rule v. Law: Rule v. Law isn't a famous Supreme Court case. Rule v. Law is the fundamental distinction between rules and laws. Laws govern our actions from the outside - they are created extrinsically. Rules, specifically our Before Rules, are intrinsically designed and allow us to shape our paths and reach our potential. Laws Restrict And Limit: Laws are external constructs designed to maintain societal order, promote conformity, control by eliminating variability, and protect us, often from ourselves. Laws are created and enforced by outside entities.
The Paradox Of The Before Rules: These rules don't constrict; the Before Rules give you freedom. When you break the law, you are subject to penalties. When you break your rules, you are subject to growth. The Before Rules: The Before Rules are personal guiding principles created and enforced by you to help us accomplish your desired outcomes. Rules Liberate And Free: The Before Rules are antithetical to laws; they are personal frameworks for self-improvement, growth, expression, creativity, success, and autonomy.
The Before Rules And Connections Beyond
Before? In English, the word before can be a preposition, adverb, or conjunction. The Before Rules use the word before as a prepositional phrase, making it actionable and a catalyst because it combines a logical order and a sequence of steps one should follow. Is The Word 'Before' Really A Powerful Catalyst? At first glance, the insertion of the word 'before' between the first and last words initially appears as a convenience. However, the word 'before' is more than that; it is also a connector, a bridge, a link, and a conduit. It is purposefully designed and incorporated to act as a catalyst, facilitating the synergy between the first and last words.
Here Before There: Much like the psychological concept of the future self, each Before Rule was assembled to allow consideration of both where you are and where you desire to be.
Here Without There: For Here Before There to work, you need both halves of the Before Rule: here and there. With that in mind, this is an example of what happens here when you don't have a there.
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. Alice: I don't much care where. The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The 'Before' Word Connects Present And Future: The input and output are intentionally adjacent, connecting what is 'now' and what will 'be.' What Makes The Before Rules So Effective? Imagine any desired outcome, such as a goal, a commitment, a purpose, a resolution, an affirmation, etc., as a platform. The Before Rules are the pillars that uphold and support your platform to achieve your desired result.
Simple Complexity, Far-Reaching Implications: Consider these seemingly basic examples that reveal immense depth and complexity. Five illustrative examples of broad and complex topics that can be distilled and concisely labeled:
The Ten Commandments - "Thou Shalt Not..." The Ten Commandments simplify the complex doctrines of the Catholic religion into ten fundamental laws, often with a negative language frame of reference, i.e., 'not.'
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Five Inputs, Thousands Of Outcomes... Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a five-tier model that effectively condenses the spectrum of human motivations, development, and associated emotional states into a single, understandable structure.
The Periodic Table - Salt and 117 More... The Periodic Table summarizes 118 chemical elements into one chart.
Gray, Because Not Everything Is Black Or White... The three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue can form an endless spectrum of colors simply by mixing them together, even to create shades of gray.
Murphy's Law - Oops, Oh Well... Murphy’s Law is an observation of an actual situation that morphed into folklore. It was intended to be funny, then amusing, and then true. This law can explain the hundreds or thousands of things that can go wrong at any time, including anything in this essay.
The Before Rules - Two Paths, One Outcome
Three Words, Two Paths: The Before Rules harness both conscious and subconscious forces, serving as catalysts to amplify their influence and efficacy.
Exploring Dual Pathways: Structure and Identity: In the next two essays, I will use the Before Rule of Follow Before Lead to illustrate how structure (an extrinsic element) frames your journey, whereas identity (an intrinsic force) fuels your desire.
The Before Rules Series
You Are Here: This page is the basic overview page. It defines the Before Rules. I discuss the operating concept and evidence-based studies. You will learn enough to begin and create your own Before Rules. In the additional sections, I will elaborate on how to hone and craft the Before Rules so they become your Before Rules. Here is an image illustrating some of the available Before Rules.
More On The Before Rules
Not Only Tell, But Show, Too: I have also created an evidence-based and science-based, simple model for designing, implementing, and tracking your Before Rules. It is called… 3 Commitments, 3 Rules, 3 Minutes: In Part 4 of this series, you will learn how to create, control, and implement the Before Rules using the 3 Commitments, 3 Rules, 3 Minutes model. Your Thoughts May Vary: Thought Improvement welcomes your constructive appreciation comments and invites you to share your perspectives, ideas, and suggestions. Together, we can all improve our thoughts. Disclaimers, Disclosures, And Declarations: Of course, we have these conditions <>. This concludes the first essay in the Before Rule series. Follow or subscribe to access the other parts of The Before Rules:
Part 1: Master Your Why, Structure Your How, Create Your System, And Achieve Your Outcome - With Just Three Words.
Part 2: The First Secret Simplicity: Extrinsic Framing - Structure | System | Outcome.
Part 3: The Second Secret Simplicity: Intrinsic Framing - Identity | Agency.
Part 4: Creating Consistent Commitments: A Master System For Implementing 3 Commitments, 3 Rules, 3 Minutes.
Part 5: How The Before Rules Benefit You: The Evidence And Science Behind The Before Rules.