One of the most important things that you can do for yourself, your associates, your family and life, is to establish a personal constitution. It starts with understanding whom you are, what you value and what drives you. In this post I would like to share with you some of my personal learnings from my own journey:

1. Act with honesty and integrity. Take a minute to look around you. Your mom told you that you will be judged by the company you keep. She was right. Would you be comfortable with her conclusions by what she saw today for you?
2. Understand what your values really are. What are those things that you would tight rope walk for? Align your choice of corporate affiliation, associates and personal friends with your personal values. They will be imperative for your long term success. Be true to them and do not compromise.
3. Put together a personal SWOT Analysis of yourself. What are you good at? Not so good at? What do you like to do? What do you not like to do? The conclusions from this process will help you with decisions throughout your life.
4. Don’t let your emotions completely control your decisions. While it is important to realize that they will always play a role; try to place a premium on facts, metrics and logic. Delay that poison e-mail response for 24 hours to gain some objectivity.
5. Goals are important. Let yours be stretched but achievable. Have them reinforce your vision and values, both corporate and personal, short and long-term.
6. God only created 24 hours in a day. Set time aside every day (mornings work best for me) to prioritize, both for your short as well as long-term goals and vision.
7. Learn something new every day and make learning a life-time commitment. Continually sharpen your skills. Seek out diverse perspectives and opinions. Challenge yourself to collect information outside of your normal modes and from sources that you may not necessarily agree with. You will be amazed at what you can learn and how it can affect your future.
8. Shut up and listen for a minute. Good listening skills are more important than good speaking skills. It is amazing what you might find out. How many people do you know who like to listen to themselves — and listen thru their mouth?
9. There is no one perfect solution. Be open to trying lots of things and when something doesn’t work, learn from it and move on to another solution. If you are not making mistakes you are not making decisions. Just make sure that they are not fatal so that you can live to fight another day.
10. Challenge “the norm”. Just because it has “always been done this way” before doesn’t mean that it is the best way today (but realize that it may be). Someone else’s definition of “right” may not be your own but it usually is from their personal knowledge filter. Maybe you can help them expand that filter, or you yours.
11. Don’t be afraid to use unfamiliar tools (this can go along with #7 above). Today’s communication technology is exploding. If you want to know what others are doing, thinking and saying, you need to go to where they are. Don’t be a technophobe. Stretch yourself and learn a little along the way.
12. Strangers are but friends that you have not met. When you meet someone new, look them in the eye and offer a firm handshake. Then try to associate them with something distinctive to aid in remembering them as well. Try to help them do the same for you.
13. Stay in contact with friends. Being with real friends and community will help keep you balanced — and you will live healthier longer.
14. Put passion and intensity into your life and work.  You need to be willing to work hard to make success happen. Nothing worthwhile or really good is ever easy.

(My thanks to Mike Brown for his thoughts in Brainzooming that helped serve as inspiration for my own).