“You must play by the rules”

You must play by the rules. Everything has rules. You want to play chess then learn the rules. You want to play soccer then learn the rules. You want to play tennis then learn the rules. You want to play life then….hang on a minute…. Who wrote the rules of life? nnWho wrote the rules to your life? Did you?n nWhen you look at your life you begin to realise that most of the time you are living by someone else’s rules. The rules made by your family, the education system, the culture you grew up in. The rules made to ensure you conform and are easy to manage. nnBut when you look around you can see many successful people who don’t conform to your rules. nnThey see a different way. They have accepted that there is more to life than conforming. More to life than accepting what everyone else accepts. They see that it is important to be different. It is important to be true to yourself. It is important to live by your own values.nnYes they get it wrong sometimes. Yes they cause difficulty for others sometimes. Yes they cause others to rethink their position sometimes but they realise that the more they live according to their own principles. The more they live according to their inbuilt values the more chance they have of being successful. nnWhen you conform to other people’s rules you are reducing your opportunities. When you conform to other people’s rules you are reducing your potential. nnTake a look at your life:nnDo the rules, you live your life by, get the best out of you or are they designed to keep you in a box?nDo the rules, you live your life by, help you to become successful or do they reduce your chances? nnWhat do you do now, that your grand mother would have been really embarrassed at doing? nWhat did you do today that 25 years ago would have been frowned upon?nnIf, people like you had stuck to the rules women would still be living a restricted life. If, people like you had stuck to the rules men and women would still be living together in a ‘pretend marriage´ rather than face the facts that their relationship doesn’t work. School children would still be passive and expected to repeat everything the teacher said. Divorced women would still be shunned by society. There would still be a lack of opportunity for the have nots to develop their abilities.nnWhen you look around you can see many successful people who didn’t conform to the rules. nnImagine Dali sticking to the rules. Would you go to see his art? nnImagine if Elvis Presley had stayed within the rules. Where would we be now?nnHenry Ford broke the rules and produced cars on a production line.nnBill Gates broke the rules by believing that every household could have a computer.nnSteve Jobs broke the rules and gave us the Apple.nnMartin Luther King broke the rules and gave us a different way of living.nnJust stop for a minute. Think of someone, either alive or dead, you admire. nnWhat is it about them you like? nnWhen we did this, all the people in our list had tremendous courage. They all stood up for what they believed in. They all broke the accepted rules of the day to give us a better world to live in. nnIn our experience rule bound behaviour stifles growth. Rule bound behaviour stifles the individual. nnAre you a person who plays by the rules or are you living by your values and making the world a better place to live in?nnnGood LucknnGraham and Julienwww.desktop-meditation.comnn