The Ten Qualities That Make a Refuge

Keep what you promise, to others and to yourself. Someone whose word holds is someone others can rely on.

Read or listen to something substantial regularly and write down what you got. Organised knowledge is far quicker to call on.

Invest time in people who make you want to be better, and reduce time with those around whom your standards slip.

When corrected, always say "thank you, let me think about it" first, and consider it once you've cooled down.

Take on one shared task nobody wants. People remember that longer than a single outstanding result.

Make time at least weekly to listen to or read the teaching, and talk over what you heard with someone close.

Set a small task you can do even on a bad day and keep the streak. Consistency builds a new self faster than occasional intensity.

Distinguish clearly between what is necessary and what you want because others have it. That distinction helps both the finances and the mind.

Attach mindfulness to one daily routine, then extend it to harder moments — such as while being provoked.

Review the lessons of what has happened from time to time. Wisdom grows from digesting experience, not from accumulating it.