The pieces connect into a single operating loop. Face reality without flinching, then run a process that turns goals into action and action into learning.
Radical open-mindedness keeps the loop honest. Understanding wiring keeps the loop humane. Better decision making keeps the loop effective. Without these, the process collapses into repetition: the same mistakes, dressed in new circumstances.
I found it useful to write principles down, not because writing makes you wise, but because it makes your thinking visible. Visible thinking can be tested. Tested thinking can be improved.
When practiced over years, the loop compounds. You make fewer avoidable mistakes, recover faster from unavoidable ones, and gain the calm that comes from trusting your process more than your impulses. The aim isn’t perfection. It’s steady evolution.