The First Disposition: LoveLove is rule one. It’s the thing that ought to inform your life.I think most everyone agrees with the wealthy Stoic philosopher, Seneca, who wrote, “There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with.”Five minutes of Internet surfing would yield a hundred other aphorisms about the supreme importance of love that most would agree with.But what exactly is it?It’s simply this: attraction to other.That’s it.But it’s crucial. By attracting yourself to other, you are pulling yourself out of yourself, as it were. It’s why love is so irrational and magical, yet so manifestly powerful that even logic and philosophy can’t deny its importance.Love is what happens when you put yourself second . . . .behind the object loved. Love, then, walks hand-in-hand with humility. Humility is nothing more than self-forgetfulness. It’s not self-deprecation or declarations of your worthlessness. It’s a disposition that isn’t focused on yourself at all.Once you’re not focused on yourself, the problems that arise from self-centeredness — the grasping greed, inflamed lust, ego-centered ambition — decrease.You are then better positioned to love . . . and to develop the other dispositions discussed below.“In front of love, passionlessness marches.”Evagrius, The PraktikosTemporal Disposition: The NowThe present moment is the only thing you can control. The past is gone, the future might not even arrive, and if it does arrive, it won’t be in the form you anticipate.To live in the present moment is the most common-sensical thing in the world, but it also seems to be the hardest thing in the world, especially in the modern world where everyone seems to be afraid: running from, rushing to, or bracing for . . . something to come.Just stop it. Be in the present moment, softly writing off regrets, calmly refusing to entertain worries about the future. Just addressing the task at hand.If you need to plan responsibly for the future, that’s fine. Just try to think about the future only to the extent it depends on the present moment.Yes, it’ll take practice, but I’m convinced this very difficult disposition is worth all the wisdom in the world if it can be acquired.And if you want a simple disposition hack, try this: cultivate a spirit of thankfulness. The mere mental act of being thankful contents your mind with something else, taking it off you, past regrets, and future schemes. It’s remarkably effective.Also: Cultivate the ability to focus. It’s a key to living in the present moment.It’s also the third disposition.“Only a man who lives not in time but in the present is happy.” Ludwig WittgensteinDisposition During Active Life: ConcentrationMost people associate “active life” with work: life on the job.But here I mean the active part of life in general . . . pretty much anything that isn’t sleeping, meditation, or abject sloth. Work, yes, but also play, whether it’s gardening, golfing, socializing, exercising, reading, etc.Whatever you do, focus on it and only it.I realize that’s pretty routine advice that’s hard for many people to follow, but here are three tips that might help:(1) Tie your focus to humility. Why do you get distracted? Maybe it’s because your ego tells you something else might please you more than the task or person in front of you now. Tell yourself that all you deserve is the current task.(2) Understand the “flow.” There are two types of mental effort: “concentration on the task and the deliberate control of attention.” Daniel Kahneman. When you’re in the flow, the deliberate control of attention occurs without trying, with the result that your mental energy isn’t divided: all of your mental efforts can be spent on the task. Merely by understanding what the flow is and appreciating what’s going on when trying to concentrate will make you better at it.(3) Try to imbue everything, even office life, with a spirit of play. Play, the Jungian analyst Robin Daniels po