Life Manifesto

  1. Whatever you’re currently dreading or enjoying will eventually end. It may end this time tomorrow, this time next week, or this time next month. Furthermore, the Earth as you know it will one day end. Everything you understand to be reality will cease to exist.

  2. The most important thing you can do each day is take care of your body and mind. Take your supplements. Sweat. Do yoga. Meditate. Take walks. Sit less. Stand more. Spend as much time as possible outdoors. Eat mindfully and moderately. Cook. Sleep a minimum of seven hours each night and wake up without an alarm at least once a week. Repeat.

  3. Make your world a thriving one. Surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you and make you feel most alive. Only buy and use products that bring you joy. Spend time in places that nourish you. Purge your world of anyone or anything that depletes your energy and causes you stress.

  4. Be kind to others and yourself. Be generous, especially in expressing gratitude and positivity. There is always time to be kind.

  5. Go exploring in your own backyard and around the world. Plan just enough to be safe and leave the rest to spontaneity. Return to the magical places that recharge you.

  6. Write letters. Make phone calls. Send packages. Buy ridiculously expensive airplane tickets to visit friends and family in far corners of the earth. And when they visit you, join them as they arrive and depart from the airport.

  7. Consume high-quality information. Read voraciously, mostly books. Take classes. Regularly worship at your cathedrals: museums, galleries, theaters, music venues, cinemas, universities. Prioritize attending live performances by people you love and admire. If you wait, chances are these people will die and you will spend the rest of your life regretting it.

  8. Spend the majority of your time doing what makes you feel most alive. Make art. Invent recipes. Play. Laugh. Disconnect from technology as much as possible.

  9. “After all is said and done, you can’t go pleasing everyone, so screw it.” (John Lennon)

Schwartz penned her first Life Manifesto in 2013. She has since revised it twice, most recently in 2024.