Three Simple Rules in Life
-
If you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it.
-
If you do not ask, the answer will always be no.
-
If you do not step forward, you'll always be in the same place.
There are days when something in your life isn’t broken, exactly, but it’s also not growing. And when that goes on long enough, you start to mistake stillness for stability.
That’s where this quote finds me. Not in crisis. Just… paused.
The rules are simple. And the first time you read them, you might nod and move on. But then something happens—a restlessness, a moment of clarity, a choice you’ve put off for too long—and suddenly these lines stop feeling like advice and start feeling like a blueprint.
The first one—if you do not go after what you want, you’ll never have it—is almost too obvious to argue. But it’s also the one most people skip. Not because they don’t care, but because they hope that want will be enough on its own. It rarely is. The moment you shift from want to pursuit, even clumsily, the terrain starts to change. People notice. Opportunities respond. It doesn’t always go the way you pictured, but it doesn’t leave you where you were, either.
If you do not ask, the answer will always be no.
This one takes practice. And maybe some unlearning. Asking can feel uncomfortable at first—like you’re handing someone else the power. But more often than not, asking is a signal. It tells the world: I’m engaged. I’m in motion. And motion tends to attract momentum. Not every ask lands the way you hope, but every one clarifies something. You learn where the walls are. And where the openings might be.
And the third rule is the one that catches in my chest: if you do not step forward, you’ll always be in the same place.
Because no matter how much you think, or prepare, or plan—the shift happens in the step. And sometimes it’s small. A phone call. An email. A decision you’ve been circling for weeks that finally becomes action. One step won’t fix everything. But it does something better—it makes more steps possible.
None of these rules are hard to understand. That’s what makes them powerful. They don’t require you to master a system or build a strategy. Just to move. Just to show up differently than you did yesterday.
And when you do, things begin to open. Not magically. But meaningfully.
Doors you hadn’t noticed. Conversations that feel lighter. The quiet sense that you’re not waiting anymore—you’re participating.
They’re simple rules. And they work.