Little is required for a good life—only a few tenets to follow, and all shall fall into place. There is little need for elaborate principles and odd philosophies. You must be as kind as you can be, and you must revel in the little things, and in the end, you must learn that most of life is chock-full of little things. There is plenty to celebrate if you are of the mind to celebrate in the first place.
If it is problems you seek, then you must only seek to solve them. No one who is drowning wants someone to point this out. They are well aware. They want someone to jump into the water and drag them out; if jumping is not possible, they must call someone else who can solve this predicament. No one who is drowning once asked: what is happening to me? And so, if you seek problems, and if you come across any, you must solve them or find someone who does. All else is vanity at the expense of other people.
You must do good work. It is the tenet above all. Everything that is done should be done with all your mind, body and soul. A half-hearted effort gives way to an inadequate result, leaving us an incomplete world brimming with gaps and mishaps. To do good work is to give something all you have, regardless of what you stand to gain from the results. Good work demands to be done. Those who do it will find themselves engulfed in happiness despite their reluctance to accept it, despite all their efforts to stay miserable.
Most people are noble and good. If they were not, we would not have a world with such intricacies. If you ever stand at the corner of a street and take it all in—the motion, the taxis, the buses, the stores and the establishments—this great collaboration happening time after time in all cities and towns of the world. Those who jump into the water head-on and those who do good work, knowing all too well or not at all how it makes the world go round, are the inheritors of all good things.
They are the only ones who deserve them.