Habits: The Beginning

The purpose of Ego Engineering, is to empower a person to modify their Ego to be optimized for their goals in life, whatever they may be. Habits are the foundation of success, and to be successful in anything requires optimizing one’s life to best meet the objectives (and the prerequisites thereof) of meeting one’s goals. A celebrity must condition themselves to have high charisma, an inspiring character, and a high standard of personal aesthetic. A successful lawyer must be well-versed in the interpretation and analysis of the law, conditioned to be morally agnostic, and also have high charisma. Every occupation and lifestyle without exception requires habits to condition one’s success, as success itself is built upon the foundation of habits which are optimized for one’s life.

If you wish to modify only small parts of your character, it will only be a matter of changing existing habits, and the analysis of existing habits so as to ensure they are compatible with and have affinity for the new ones. However, if you are really aiming for a perfect life, where perfection is the fulfillment of a life optimized for your purpose (in other words, fulfillment of your potential), you must start from the very beginning, with a blank slate; that is, you must completely eradicate all existing habits, and only when you are certain of what habits will optimize you for your purpose, begin to built up a new life entirely, a life built on the foundation of habits optimized for your “true self”.

The concept of returning oneself to a “blank slate” for the purposes to living a life optimized for one’s true self is known as the “Ego Death“. The reason for this ominously dramatic-sounding name, is because the Ego itself is no more than the illusory consciousness created by habits and perception. You perceive, and thus you know (assume) to be, you behave, and so you condition. The human Ego is the product of conditioning behavior through habits, and conditioning perception through axioms.

Even if you have no interest in enlightenment or “Oneness”, it should be understood that the annihilation of all existing habits and axioms is necessary for one to radically change their life, because all radical self-change is built upon a degree of modification of habits and axioms so great that it can only be reliably accomplished by building on a fresh foundation. This can only be done by letting go of everything you’ve ever know, done, behaved, and perceived, and starting everything from the very beginning.

Engineered Satisfaction

One of my close friends, a girl I know only from online chat but who I consider to be my sister, is unhappy; she is so lacking in happiness, in fact, that she believes that someone would have to be crazy to believe they could be truly happy. She believes that for someone to find, or even to create lasting happiness– such a goal is impossible to achieve. Yet I believe that finding, or engineering such a happiness is not only possible, but achievable by anyone who wishes to attain it.

So first of all, what is “true happiness”? Is it possible to be happy 24/7? With a big Ego, lots of money and sex, a good social life, and a boundless supply of ingenuity, perhaps. But although I cannot speak for those that have such an infinite amount of happiness as this, it sounds pretty boring to me. The reason why I’m not particularly interested in the Christian concept of “heaven”, is perhaps because eternal happiness does sound pretty dull. To me, the greatest happiness is not in being in a state of incessant bliss, but in being satisfied even when you’re not happy.

The kind of happiness I’m talking about, it’s the feeling of knowing that even when you’re not happy, that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are supposed to do. the feeling of everything being “right”. It’s the kind of feeling you get when you follow your heart. If you stay true to yourself, follow your heart, and do the very best you can in all of your endeavors, the true happiness that comes from complete satisfaction– it  isn’t just a possibility, it’s an inevitability!

A Perfect Day

Achieving perfection via Ego Engineering relies heavily on good habits, and no type of habits are more crucial to perfection than one’s day-to-day routine. While it’s very difficult (if not impossible!) to plan out a perfect future, sticking to a solid, predictable, and highly productive daily routine can provide the framework necessary for you to actualize as much of your potential as possible, which will allow your life to take on a god-like level of meaningfulness, one of the primary objectives of Ego Engineering.

This post will chart out the perfect day, as defined by the traditional 9-5 workday, and permitting a consistant 7 hours of sleep every night, for maximum productivity. In addition, the bulletproof rationale for each facet of the routine will be provided for clarification, and because it’s good to know exactly why the activities and schedule outlined is, at least in theory, perfect. (Knowledge is Power!)

You might think that the standards set by this post are impossible to meet, but if you can push yourself to read them, I can guarantee you that you will be the most amazingly extraordinary person in the world. This formula requires no money to impliment, and yet it promises such an amazing life in return. At the very least, it’s most definitely worth a try, as being able to manifest your potential as a person depends on it!

1. Get up at 5:00 in the morning

Rationale:

a. The crack of dawn occurs around 5am, so getting up consistantly at this time allows you to feel more rested, because your circadian rhythm (aka “biological clock”) will be in alignment with the natural solar/lunar light patterns.

b. It allows for the proper productivity prerequisites to be accomplished while still allowing time to get ready for your 9 o’clock work shift.

2. Work out while reading a dictionary (5-6am)

a. Do 1 pushup, read a definition. (20 reps)

b. Do 1 situp/crunch, read a definition. (20 reps)

c. Repeat until an hour is complete. You may mix up with other exercises as relevant, using proper judgement to ensure you are as productive with this time as possible.

By the end of this one hour session you should have done 1800 reps, and read 1800 definitions.

To put this into perspective, there are 225,000 definitions in the Webster’s Collegiante Dictionary. At this rate, it would take you 4 months to read the entire dictionary once, and read it 3 times per year.

Rationale:

Numerous studies on learning enhancement show that strenuous physical activity and changes in body temperature (both of which occur via exercise) are the single most effective means of achieving maximum memory retention of the materials read. The reason for this, is that physical activity and extreme temperature changes both activate the fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous system response, and the subsequent adrenaline rush does for you what aderal (which is actually amphetemine) does for ADHD patients:

a. It helps you zero in on what you’re learning

b. Ensure you maintain a steady focus, and

c. Retain everything you’ve read with an extraordinary level of acuity.

Think of all the memories of your past– the memories that stick out most in your mind. What is the one thing they all had in common? Extreme emotions, strenuous activity, big changes in your environment. These are all activators of the sympathetic nervous system, and by leveraging this neural subsystem, you will achieve maximum memory retention, and become very fit, buff, and toned in the process.

3. Read an academic book while jogging on a treadmill (6-7am)

Choose an academic book (preferably from this list of prerequisite reading materials), and read the whole thing in 1 hour, while jogging on a treadmill. Ideally, you should read the entire book in just the span of an hour while jogging.

Rationale:

a. After working out from 5-6am, you will have a spike in adrenaline flow, which will greatly enhance your ability to read and retain large amounts of data in a short time period. Jogging on a treadmill will ensure that this momentum is maintained.

b. While normally jogging for an hour might seem like a lot (especially after that workout session!), reading an academic book will take your mind off the jogging, and time will fly by faster than you think.

c. The steady rhythm of your jogging, combined with your raised blood pressure and high adrenaline levels, will launch you into a state of semi-meditation, allowing for maximum intake and retention of academic materials, especially materials that are foreign to you in their content. This is due to the above environmental factors instilling a biologically-activated hypnotic state (hypnosis is another controversial by highly effective method of the memory retention of academic materials).

4. Take a cold shower (7-7:15am)

Shave in the shower. It’s faster, and you will end up with a cleaner, razor-burn free shave.

Rationale:

a. When you work out, your body opens pores up everywhere to release the toxins caused by stress (in the form of sweat– yes, sweat is toxic!). To ensure that your body is toxin-free and your skin is smooth and acne free, taking a shower after working out is the most opportune moment to ensure maximum bodily cleanliness.

b. By taking a cold shower, the pores will reflexively close back up after words (in response to the change to a cooler temperature), thus ensuring that your cleanliness is maintained.

c. After all of that working out, you will be hot and sweaty. Taking a cold shower will not only save on heating bills (although this is definitely a plus!), but will help to rebalance your body’s equilibrium.

5. Eat breakfast (7:15-7:30am)

Rationale:

a. After working out and taking a shower, your metabolism is spiking to deal with all this extra energy expenditure, and begging for some sustainance to maintain the productivity levels you’ve now forced your body to endure.

b. By eating breakfast now, all the energy that your consume from your meal will be burned off extremely efficiently, and none will be stored.

c. Energy stored as fat is generally filled with unsecreted toxins from stress. Fat filled with toxins from stress is very difficult to burn off (as it is insoluble, and difficult for the body to use, paradoxically due to the toxins it contains), and is one of the leading causes of death, via Cardiovascular disease. It’s important to prevent this by using your energy efficiently.

6. Academic writing (7:30-8:30am)

Spend an hour doing academic writing, preferably an essay on the book that you read from 6-7am. It takes ~15 minutes to do a 2 page blog post, so you should be able to write an 8 page essay within this time frame.

Rationale:

a. Maximum retention and comprehension of materials learned requires the full spectrum of processing and applying materials.

b. The full scope of learning something includes reading, writing, talking, listening, hearing, seeing, feelings, experiencing, doing, and teaching– among many others. While writing is only one of these ways, it is versatile enough to also include reading, feeling, experiencing, and teaching, as these are all elements of academic writing.

c. The more you write, the better of a writer you become, and the more brilliant you become at the reading, writing, and comprehension of academic materialsm, over time.

7. Get ready for work (8:30-8:45am)

Brush your teeth, do your makeup (if you’re a girl), comb your hair, and (if applicable) get into your work uniform. All of this should take no longer than about 10-15 minutes.

8. Go to work (8:45-9:00am)

a. Getting to work shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

b. If you don’t have a car, get one!

c. If you do have a car and it takes longer than that, find a job closer to home, because otherwise you’re killing your gas tank and the environment!

9. Read and finish an academic book while eating lunch

Rationale:

a. By reading an academic book during lunch, you will help keep your mind sharp, thus improving your work performance, allowing you to work more intelligently and efficiently.

b. Completing an additional academic book while eating lunch allows you to make the most effective use of your lunch hour.

c. Any socialization/etc. that would be beneficial to you, doesn’t need to be done during lunch, as it can be done during break.

10. Get home (5:00-5:15pm)

11. Eat a light dinner (5:15-5:30pm)

Rationale:

a. Eating a large dinner is a very bad idea, as after 6pm or so, your body starts winding down to prepare for sleep. Your metabolism is slowing down at this point, meaning that much of the food you eat is not going to energy, but being stored as fat (see Rationale 5c).

b. Eating large amounts of food at this hour forces your digestive system to take over much of your body’s functions to process the unexpected extra resources; this would cause you to feel sluggish, and become extremely unproductive as a result.

c. Large meals take up too much time, and that time is needed to fit the rest of the items of this agenda into the schedule.

12. Social Networking (5:30-7pm)

(If you are going out to eat with friends, you have have from 5:15-7pm for this period).

Rationale:

a. Time with friends, both in-person and online, is a very important part of maintaining your social equilibrium, as well as evaluating each other’s progress in life, so as to provide incentive and accountability for self-improvement.

b. High quality of life require development of friendships, communication, and the making and sharing of memories with friends.

13. Read a fiction novel (7-8pm)

Read an entire fiction novel in the span of an hour, or equivalent amount of poetry, short stories, etc. Use good judgement for the latter categories, to ensure high productivity.

Rationale:

a. While academic materials are best retained with an activated sympathetic nervous system and high metabolism, creative materials are better retained with an activated parasympathetic nervous system, which manages the body’s functions while at rest, and a low metabolism, which helps ensure that the state of homeostasis necessary for creative balance is maintained.

b. By reading creative materials a couple hours before going to bed, you allow your mind enough time to absorb what you’ve read before sleep. This is very important, as the unconscious mind and imagination are most creatively during sleep, as the lack of external stimuli during sleep cycles frees up most of the brain to think creatively.

14. Run some errands (8-9pm)

Rationale:

a. At the end of each day, there will always be some errands to do, and this hour gives you the time to take a breather, clean the room, take out the trash, get more groceries, and any other things that you need to get done for that day.

b. This also includes the time for brushing your teeth, and any other hygiene needs.

15. Write a creative essay (9-10pm).

Write a creative essay, ~8 pages long, preferably on the fiction novel you read in #13 (to help ensure full retention of what you’ve read).

Rationale:

a. As explained in Rationale 6b, out of every method of knowledge retention in the learning spectrum, writing is the most versatile and powerful method, so doing a lot of writing  a very good idea!

b. By doing creative writing a couple hours before going to bed, (as implied by 13b) you are giving your brain creative “food for thought”, which your brain will be making full use of during the sleep process, to enhance your ability to read, write, think, and act creatively.

16. Go to sleep! (10pm)

Prerequisites For Success

As I haven’t posted to Ego Engineering for a while, I thought it appropriate to write a post covering the fundamental reasoning behind the Project Matthias project. Project Matthias, a sub-project of Ego Engineering with the aim of creating the perceptively perfect human Ego, is built upon the premise that habits are the ultimately the key to unlocking the potential of the human being. Habits are the foundational prerequisites of success, and without them we are nothing more than animals. Habits allow us to effortlessly living beyond the moment, and are incredibly low maintenance; when properly upkept, habits allow us to consistently do the impossible with minimal effort and often without any actual motivation. By allocating the mundane and repetitive aspects of life to the unconscious state via habits, we are able to focus our attention on the more creative and meaningful things in life, thereby bringing us closer and closer to the ideal, or “perfect” state.

If there’s one thing I hate in life, it’s prerequisites. Ever impatient, I would prefer that everything be accomplished now, that I could just get it over with and witness the end-result; instant-gratification in other words. But for every great thing in life, there are prerequisites; to do anything on par with amazing, an equally amazing level of planning and habit-forming is required to facilitate such things. To make the perfect human being, or even to make the perfect Ego, an immense amount of planning, knowledge acquisition, research, and creativity is required to make it all happen; these efforts are after all fulfilling of the karmic principle.

Be it the creation of an Ego, the parenting of a child, the birthing of a culture, or the revolutionizing of a nation, a proportionate amount of prerequisites are required; these prerequisites must be properly accounted for if success is to be ensured. There are no shortcuts in life, but merely more efficient routes. Finding these routes, charting the maps thereof– this is one of the primary objectives of Ego Engineering; ultimately, we will create a map of the human “Egome”, if you will. By properly charting the most efficient means of living life, in alignment with the path chosen, Ego Engineering will succeed in ensuring everyone will live life to their potential.

Habits: Social Necessities

Social habits are probably the most essential part of Ego Engineering; unfortunately, they are also the most complex– so much in fact that it will require a separate blog to properly clarify all the different key aspects that encompass social perfection. Fortunately for me, this post is just a social habits overview!

Social habits deal not with who you are, but who you are perceived as: your image. For mostly epistemological reasons, the image should not be mixed up with the character– whereas your character is who you perceive yourself to be, your image is who you are as determined by others.

The fact is that no one will truly know who you are as a person; this is quite advantageous, as you can be whoever you want to be in the eyes of others, without having to compromise who you are as a person. The other main advantage is that by presenting yourself as something greater than what you are, you are able to acquire social status beyond what your actual value would permit.

The key to social perfection, as crude as it might sound, is to play the game– in other words, manipulation of people.  Most people play the game, whether they are aware of it or not, but it’s much easier to win the game if you know the rules, the loop-holes, and the best ways to “cheat” (Social Engineering).

Social habits deal primarily with the basics of a good image– in this case referring to things that will cause people to see you in a positive light: how to make yourself look good. There are several simple habits that will assist with improving your image, but all of them require thorough knowledge of the different type of people that you will be dealing with, and leverage the social needs of other people to give you the social advantage.

1. Each morning, spent 10 minutes per day performing an impromptu speech in front of a mirror on an important social issue. As much as possible, pay attention to the way you present yourself: facial expression, body language, and tone.

2. Whenever you speak with anyone, be very conscious about the words that you choose, and only speak as much as absolutely necessary. Eloquence is key!

3. Before you say anything, take into consideration how people would react to your words. Remember, it’s better to say nothing at all, than to say something that would cause others to think badly of you.

4. Your physical appearance and fashion decisions reflect who you are as a person, so it’s important to looks and dress in such a way that projects a favorable image.

5. If you are a writer (like myself), then emphasize perfecting the art of journalism. Journalists are experts at connecting with people, so that their readership will want to read their articles; any writer (regardless of the type of writing) should think like a journalist, as this is key to one’s writing being well-received by the target audience.

6. As much as possible, limit your social repertoire to prepared speeches. This might sound like a bad idea (makes you sound fake/robotic), but by becoming an expert at writing in such a way that is powerful and that people around you can really connect with, you can improve your image a lot more effectively than you would with haphazard bullshitting. You’ll soon discover that casual speech isn’t of much use outside small talk.

7. Become a master of small talk– I’ve found this is best done by being a regular user of microblogging services like twitter, as with services like these, you don’t have a choice (status updates limited to 140 characters). While the words in small talk aren’t that important, it gives people (particularly females) the illusion that they are connecting with you; small talk thus primarily serves the purpose of building trust. Small talk usually lasts until people become friends, at which point it becomes largely irrelevant.

8. Social Prerequisites: There are some important possessions that one must have to be “taken seriously”– these are mostly symbols of status, and status is a very important aspect of one’s social image: a career, a car, a cell phone, a girlfriend, an apartment/house, a pet, a college degree, etc. If you wish to project a favorable social image, these are the bare social necessities as far as possessions go.

9. Basic Skills: There are many different social skills that will improve ones image, but these are some of the more basic ones: home economy, communication, writing, Internet, computer, public speech, “game”, interview skills, and even foreplay/sexual competency.

10. Friendship Management: Particularly with the rise of Web 2.0, managing friendships has proven to be one of the most difficult tasks. To ensure that your friendships are valuable, you need to prioritize friendships based on which friends are of greatest value to you, and give those people the greatest amount of attention, both online and in-person.

Editor’s Note:

To clear up a potential misunderstanding- In the beginning of this post, I stated the following: “For mostly epistemological reasons, the image should not be mixed up with the character– whereas your character is who you perceive yourself to be, your image is who you are as determined by others.”

My brother evaluated this statement, and found it to be untrue, noting that the “character” is more commonly used in reference to another person, not in reference to oneself. For example, you might say “Bob is acting out of character”, or “I like people with good character.”

Certainly, when character is used, it is usually talking about someone else. But that does not mean the character *is* what other people perceive it to be. It’s all about perspective; what is “character” to one person might be their “image” to the world, and what the “image” of that person is would be considered that person’s “character” to everyone else.

To clarify: The image that you project will be what other people perceive as your character; conversely, the character people perceive you determines your image.

This can be confusing, as many (perhaps most) people associate their character and their image as being different ways of looking at the same thing; after all, for most people,  you are who you project yourself to be, and what other people think of you is synonymous with who you really are.

However, this is a naive and fallacious way of thinking, because you do not actually know what people think of you, being limited to what they tell you (which may or may not be their real opinion), whether or not you interpret their words correctly, and whether or not their judgement of your character is an accurate one. The answers to all three of these criteria are No, No, and No! One cannot know anything about another’s character with certainty– in fact, the above examples of referring to another person’s character are in fact fallacious (despite being disgustingly widespread), as it’s impossible to known anything with certainty about a person’s character.

Because of this lack of certainty and the high data corruption inherent in communication, I find it’s crucial to distinguish your true self (character), which is determined by your own knowledge about yourself, and the self that you project, where the nature, or “image” of that self is ultimately determined by how it is interpreted by others. Thus you have your “character” (who you *really* are), contrasted with your “image” (who you project yourself to be, as interpreted by others).

Hopefully this helps clear things up, instead of causing further confusion

Habits: Time Necessities

While at Clearfield Job Corps Center (CJCC), I formulated a standard operating procedure (SOP) for running a small business. It was an arduous task, but I learned a lot from it; the most important thing creating an SOP taught me, is that for those that want to be successful in life, time really is money!

Ever since then, whenever I waste time I take into account whatever I think I am worth per hour that day, and realize just how much money I just squandered.

For example, as I am worth $100/hr. currently, I have wasted a whopping $2,500 in just the last week alone. This simply cannot do! To ensure that I don’t waste so much valuable time in the future, an effective Time-management plan must be formulated, just as I did for my SOP @ Job Corps.

Because everyone has different priorities, the true SOP for one’s life must be determined by each person individually; however, this SOP (inspired by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) provides a viably universal roadmap to guide everyone in developing an effective Time-Management plan. Let’s make it count!

It should be noted that because time management is so complex and pervasive, the majority of the Time SOP plan will be explained in-context, and that will not be until the next stage of Project Matthias (which will cover habits more in-depth) has initiated.

Thus, this post will serve as a time-management overview, only covering the basics:

1. Most activities (all except those given special provisions on an exception status) will be allotted a time limit of 10 minutes. My reasoning for this is that the most time-consuming task, taking a shower, can be completed in less than 10 minutes with enough practice.

2. The default “special provision” time limit will be 20 minutes, since an anime episode can be completed in that amount of time. When an exemption is made for leisure activities (such as anime), only one exemption will be given per day.

3. There may up to 3 exemptions made for socially-beneficial activities; such exemption(s) will take up no more than 2 hours per day in combined time spent.

4. Any task with marginal value must be completed in less than 1 minute.

5. All regular events of non-marginal value should be scheduled (via Google Calendar)

Habits: Emotional Necessities

Although emotional discipline is more of a problem for females than males, controlling and properly utilizing one’s emotions is an issue that should be targeted by everyone. Emotional habits assist with channeling one’s excess energy, both positive and negative, into productive means.

I’ve known many people (including myself) who have so much excess emotional energy that they resolve to rid themselves of all of it– for their own good. While this might be an acceptable path, and is by its very nature “reasonable” (emotional is killed off in favor of logic), is imbalanced, and leads to several negative side-effects, such as anti-social behavior, detachment, apathy, dysfunctional families, co-dependency, nihilism, and existentialism tendencies. In my opinion, that’s not a life worth living.

I have bipolar disorder, and so I understand very well what it means to have to cope with excess emotional energy, both positive (mania) and negative (depression), regularly.

These habits not only help control bipolar (effectively curing it, without medication), but also sublimate (e.g. “transfer”) that excess energy into a productive lifestyle– making that otherwise troublesome energy an investment, instead of a liability.

Note: These Habits overlap with the Mental sense, because they heavily rely on mental self-affirmations.

1. As covered in Mental Necessities, “monitor your own filtering system”, in this case to keep track of emotional anomalies. That is, emotions that deviate from what is considered “normal” should be monitored, analyzed, and responded to proactively.

There are two primary attributes of emotional anomalies: intensity and abnormality.

Intensity: Refers to the strength of the given emotion. If the emotions you feel are more intense, the effects of it will have a greater impact on your behavior.

Abnormality: The level of deviation from the norm; that is, the extent to which the emotion felt is an anomaly.

In other words, Abnormality refers to how much of a problem a particularly emotion will cause, and and Intensity refers to the net impact of those problems will have.

To ensure that your emotions are “kept in check”, It’s important that you understand how you feel, and the intensity of those feelings; this knowledge will help you to be able to expect what to feel, and know how to properly react to those feelings before they become a problem. In doing so, you will effectively be turning “abnormality” into “normality”.

2. Create a psychological failsafe:

There are always circumstances that we all must deal with eventually, which are often unexpected, dramatic, and…well, new. It might be something painful and tragic, or it might something exciting and pleasurable.

But either way, some situations cannot be planned for, and there should be a catch-all failsafe that prevents you from doing something…stupid.

It could be that the million dollars you just won is a scam. It’s not worth getting revenge on the person who killed your soul mate by killing them– at least not in the long run.

But when you are pumped with unexpected emotions, you don’t have the self-control to break them down and analyze them as instructed in #1– your instincts are controlling your body at that point– not you!

So you need to create your own instincts, so that “when the time comes”, you can head off primal instincts with your own failsafe instincts. Engrave it in your mind:

“No matter what happens, don’t kill people unless your life depends on it”

Something like that.

This type of habit is a moral code of sorts, and so in that sense overlaps with Social Habits, although that won’t be covered for a while.

3. Proactive empathy: Not everyone has the intuitive ability to feel other people’s emotions– I know I don’t. But regardless of whether you do, it’s always better to consciously make a habit of being empathetic– after all, just as emotions are unreliable, intuition is too. When intuition is cast aside, empathy can be considered the process and skill of sharing, discerning, analyzing, and responding to other’s emotions.

So to acquire reliable empathy, you should make a habit of consciously studying the emotional self (both your emotions and those of others), being open about your emotional self, connecting with others emotionally (by sharing feelings), and most importantly, responding to other’s feelings.

What I’ve found (through a lot of unfortunate experiences) is that you can have “empathy” in the eyes of others, but only if you’re willing to bullshit people into believing that you actually “feel for them” even if you don’t. But this aspect of empathy will be more appropriately covered in Social Necessities.

4. Moderation: If there is too much of any good thing, surely that axiom applies to emotion.

Regardless of whether you enjoy what you are feeling, it’s important that you control those emotions as much as possible, so as to maintain emotional Balance and stability.

This especially applies to people with Bipolar– those who’s lack of emotional stability has led to emotional immaturity. By moderating your emotions, both expressively and mentally, you will gain a greater level of emotional discipline and self-control over time.

By limiting your emotions, you may stifle some of your happiness, but over time, you will gain patience and a sense of security and self-empowerment that leads to a far greater happiness than you could have otherwise attained.

Habits: Mental Necessities

For those that are philosophically driven and open-minded like myself, it’s quite easy to lose sight of reality, and float freely in an idealistic dream world.

There is a great deal of potential in the creativity that comes with “thinking outside the box” (take Ego Engineering for example!), but to properly use it, we need some habits to remind us to come back “down to earth” regularly, so as to not “lose touch” with the “real” world:

Note: These Habits overlap with the Psychological sense, because they are based in the concept of self-affirmations, a method invoked by Self-efficacy.

1. Every day when you wake up in the morning, recite a creed that emphasizes the validity of distinguishing between the your reality and that of Other people. For example:

“I am aware of what I believe and what I know to be right. But at the same time, I recognize that Other people do not agree with my morals, ethics, beliefs, or even my perception of reality. This is a truth I must acknowledge, accept, and live my life according to– and, when appropriate, exploit for my benefit.”

2. When talking with people or reading material on the Internet, maintain a self-enforced moderation in your perception and cognitive bias of any knowledge you are exposed to.

(In other words, don’t be gullible or impulsive with data you receive)

3. Everyone normally has a filtering system for interpreting information taken in, and ensuring that data harmful or useless to oneself is either blocked or “censured out”. It’s important that you monitor your own filtering system, to make sure that your perception is filtered correctly.

Mental illness is the direct result of deficiencies or *bugs* in the data filtering systems of the brain. So if the universe is made of compressed sound, “chemical imbalances” might well be the direct result of proverbial “white noise”.

4. Remind yourself that “You are what you believe in”. For this reason, you should perceive reality according to the reality most suitable for your personal success. Remember that you can’t know anything with absolute certainty, so you’re better off believing what will make you happy (or whatever it is that you want to be!).

(Watch the movie “The Importance of Being Earnest” for a good example of this).

Standard Operating Procedure

While I was in Job Corps, I spent a few weeks working as the manager of the pseudo-company “IT Portal”. My instructor Jay Bindrup, recognizing the lack of proper infrastructure for the company to operate properly, encouraged me to create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to better define the operations of the company, and to serve as a reference point should operations be compromised.

At first I was not enthusiastic about the idea, as I had not created an SOP before, and was still in the dark as to what IT Portal was about in the first place. But eventually I realized that the laziness and informal state of the company made an SOP a crucial matter that needed immediate attendance, and so I worked off what little knowledge that I had to create what was to become a 15+ page long comprehensive SOP of IT Portal company operations– an employment manual of sorts.

It was from this experience that I was first inspired to envision Ego Engineering as a Standard Operating Procedure for life itself.

I had written many posts inferring such an approach, covering topics such as Habits and Priorities, but it was not until IT Portal that I realized the need for a literal “manual” for life– a step-by-step guide to being successful in life, and where you choose what it is that “success” means.

The concept that it’s possible to create a manual that can instruct anyone, regardless of their personality, interests, or goals, on how to be successful in life– just thinking about it is very exciting!

With Ego Engineering, you can become anyone you want to be– just follow the instructions, and before you know it you’re on your path to the dream life that you were so sure was impossible!

I suppose that my initial inspiration for the creating a Standard Operating Procedure was the Core10 framework. But I soon realized that for what I wanted to accomplish, the Core10 was far too abstract. But an SOP on the other hand– with this and a Core10 framework, I could do it!

I’ve said that I will become a god, and that I will become perfect. Perhaps I will, but that’s not the point.

What this is really about: I want you to. I want everyone to. I had an epiphany a while ago, and realized that everyone could become anything they want to, if only they believe. The fact that people are not being everything they can be irks me to no end!

Unfortunately, no one will take my word for it, so I have no choice to become a god– to become perfect, if I am to wake people up to the stagnancy we’ve enslaved ourselves in. To truly inspire people– that is my goal.

If we’d only be a bit more open-minded and exercise a bit more control over our lives, nothing is impossible for those who believe!

Habits: Physical Necessities

Although it would be unhealthy to live without any of the senses, if you must live with only one sense, let that sense be Physical Sense, for without it you would not even be able to survive.

For this reason, the physical sense is the first sense that is elaborated upon in Ego Engineering, and the first priority in regards to actualization of said writing.

In it’s basic form, it refers to the provision of basic needs, including food, water, shelter (including clothing and housing), and ultimately, sex.

With the dawn of civilization, several new physical needs were added, all of which overlap with social needs: hygiene, grooming, and sometimes aesthetics.

While the basic needs do not need to be habitual, the second set, being socially motivated and thus not instinctively or intuitively knowable, must be learned by means a habits.

These social habits, which are to be applied to the physical aspect of Ego Engineering, are arranged in order of priority:

Hygiene:

1. Wake up at 6am every morning, and go to sleep at 10pm every night.

2. Take a shower every day, at the same time each day.

3. Be sure to use soap and shampoo, and scrub everywhere.

4. Brush teeth twice a day: after the morning meal, and after the evening meal.

5. Wash hands after doing anything in the bathroom.

6. Keep your environment (workplace, bedroom, etc.) clean and organized at all times. Don’t let a day go by without cleaning and organizing these areas.

7. Wear each set of clothes, underwear, and socks for no more than a day. Make sure that all clothing is washed before wearing again.

8. Don’t touch your face for any reason.

Grooming:

1. Shave facial hair and comb/brush hair every day at the same time.

2. Style hair appropriately to the day’s occasion; attention to detail.

3. Wear deodorant and, when possible, lotion.

4. Dress in clothes appropriate for your environment; be sure to match.

5. Use mouthwash and wear a balanced cologne whenever going out.

6. Use skin care products to make sure that your skin is soft and blemish-free.