My Rules – Subaru Vagabond

My Rules: 15. It Is Always Better To Give Things Up

“I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.” – E. F. Schumacher

This rule is pretty obvious for someone living a minimalist lifestyle like my own. I often have to give things up, simply due to lack of space. Sometimes, the most difficult times to do such is when those items have sentimental value or mean something personal. This rule creates the challenge that freeing yourself of these things, even, is better than holding on needlessly. Similarly, it also challenges to “let go” of those people I grow to love and the places that steal my heart.

My Rules: 14. Leave No Trace

“Once destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be purchased at any price.” – Ansel Adams

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.” – Edward Abbey

Any outdoors person is probably familiar with the Leave No Trace principles. “Take only memories, leave only footprints,” is a basic summary. While those principles are an important part of my daily life, I prefer to go beyond Leave No Trace, and apply it beyond the intentions of what the usual principles really ever intended to cover. From simple outdoor ethics to minimalism and constant learning, this rule is a cornerstone of my lifestyle.

My Rules: 13. Never Give Up On A Dream

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau

This is one of my rules that is remarkably simple. Dream. Dream often. Never stop dreaming. Grab onto the dreams you dream and chase them unceasingly. Unwavering and stubbornly. When your dreams seem to run away, you run faster. Never give them up.

My Rules: 12. Embrace the Unknown

“People don’t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.” – Chuck Palahniuk

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

There is this common thing I hear some times about people fearing the unknown. This rule calls to put such fears behind and embrace whatever that unknown is. By embracing it and heading into it with arms open to it, I allow it to unfold in its purest, most beautiful form.

My Rules: 11. Always Maintain an Adventure Mindset

“Funneling the intense energy of insanity and uniting it with the sound coolness of rational decision making creates a potent force in emergency scenarios. Condensing this potency can best be summed up in one simple statement: the clarion call ‘Party On!'” – Cody Lundin

“If you are scared, you will die.” – Richard Van Pham

This is another rule I consider absolutely important for survival. It builds on and provides a base for many of my other rules, and can be expanded in many ways. The essence here can be captured in Cody Lundin’s “Party On!” Other more common takes include keeping a positive attitude, being a survivor (see my rule 8), and similar thinking, all in the face of the terrible, unfortunate things that will continue to happen in whatever it is you are partaking.

My Rules: 10. No Rule is Absolute

“Nature provides exceptions to every rule.” – Margaret Fuller

“FREEDOM!” – ‘William Wallace’

This rule is really at the heart of this entire philosophical and spiritual bullshit that is my rules. All of my rules are useless without this one. In one simple line, it describes the freedom that all of my rules are actually about, while also giving a call to wisdom and a warning of responsibility. Every rule has an exception, and every rule has a time and place to be bent and broken.

My Rules: 9. Always Listen Actively

“Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.” – Alan Alda

“If for a moment you are inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly discover the music and poetry of these magnificent rock piles — a fine lesson; and all Nature’s wildness tells the same story — the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort — each and all are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of Nature’s heart.” – John Muir

This rule might seem obvious, but the challenge would be to take it deeper. Actively listen not only to others in conversation, but to the animals and plants in nature. To the rocks and streams. To the wind and rain, and the sun and the stars. To the spiritual centers of the universe and God. Listening actively is not shutting up, but rather partaking in deep, heartfelt conversation. Responding and seeking to understand and empathize.

My Rules: 8. Always be a Survivor, Never a Victim

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor E Frankl

“Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.” – Robertson Davies

This rule: this rule is my most treasured rule. It is simple, but expands into everything in life. It is such an invasive philosophy that there is really nowhere that it cannot be applied. It makes up a part of my very identity, even. Yet, despite such an invasive role in my life, it is one I still find particularly difficult at times as well.

My Rules: 7. Be Radically Self-Reliant

“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.” – Janis Joplin

I must confess that I stole this philosophy straight out of Burning Man’s 10 principles. I like their wording, and I like the meaning behind it. It also serves as something of an obvious philosophy for me to hold in this vagabond lifestyle of mine, although I really do think that it expands beyond those obvious points as well.

My Rules: 6. Never Stop Changing

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

“If you want to be a new man you have to stay in new places, and do new things, with people who never knew you before. If you go back to the same old ways, what else can you be but the same old person?” – Joe Ambercrombie

How does one expand on the point made by Winston Churchill? This quote alone sums up my Rule #6, “Never Stop Changing.” It’s difficult to even think of what I could possibly add. I’ve spent weeks, now, researching quotes and what people have to say. Turns out, a lot of people have a lot to say about change. Yet Winston Churchill still stands as the one to make one quote summing all of it up.